Going Places

I picked up a cheap pedometer at ShopKo the other day. Just $8.00 and it keeps track of my steps and shows me how I'm doing on meeting a daily goal.

Remember how I said that the average woman takes 5, 500 steps a day, and that's considered sedentary? And how I thought I probably only walked 2, 000 steps a day?

Well, I wasn't far wrong.

My world is very, very small. I rarely venture out of my home, and when I do, I park near the places I need to go.

I set the goal to take 5, 500 steps. I know that's just "sedentary," but I still thought it would be an improvement for me.

By 2:00 p.m. today I'd only taken about 1,500 steps. I began to worry I wouldn't make my 5, 500 goal. I had to run some errands, so I parked far from the doors. By 9:00 p.m. I was still 1,500 steps short of my goal. So I took my dog and walked around the cul de sac, then walked around again.

Now as I write this, my pedometer sits at 5, 535. Yay! I met my goal! But it did take conscious effort to get there.

I realized, while walking around the neighborhood for the second time, that my pedometer is taking me places. It's a very small thing, tracking my steps, but already it got me out of my chair and out of my house.
I'll keep my goal at 5, 500 for a while, maybe for the rest of February. But then I think I'll see where else my pedometer takes me. Because I'm going places. I can feel it.

Rules To Slim By

Right at this very moment, I'm feeling strong. Booyah! I'm gonna lose weight, gosh darn it!

Here are my rules to slim by:

Leave a couple bites at every meal.
Did you know that following this simple plan can save you 700 calories a week? Enough to stave off the typical two pounds most of us gain each year.

Cook at home one more night each week.
Yes, we eat out way too often. It's my goal to only eat out twice a week and no more.

No eating past 8:00 p.m.
That means no random snacking while sitting on the couch at night. This one will probably be the hardest for me to stick to.

Get a good night's sleep.
I don't have any bad habits that involve the bedroom, like watching TV or taking my laptop to bed, I just don't get to bed early enough. I'm going to work at improving that.

Walk 15 extra minutes every day.
I'm gonna get a pedometer to help me out with this one. According to an article I read, the average woman takes about 5,500 steps a day which is basically sedentary. But whatever our starting point, we should try to increase our steps by 2,000 a day (or about fifteen minutes and 100 calories burned.)

This is going to be hard for me too. If the average woman takes 5,500 steps a day, I probably take, oh, 2,000? I definitely need to increase my movement every day.

If I've planned to exercise, I should do it whether I've missed my optimum time or not.
Last night I did that and I was so proud of myself. I like to exercise in the morning, but it just didn't happen for me. So, at 9:00 last night I finally had some time and I went and did half an hour on my elliptical. It felt awesome to have not let myself down.

By golly, this is gonna me!

Committment Issues

I think I have committment issues.

Take this blog, for instance.

I haven't written in a long time. Why? Probably because I've got nothing good to report. Because I didn't want to come back here and tell ya'll that I'd failed. Again.

I love the new year and all that it offers. I love clean slates and fresh starts. Except where it comes to my weight, I don't like it at all. Not. At. All.

Because I've tried all the stuff and I've failed at all the stuff. Who's to say I won't just fail again?

One thing I can do though, is post to this blog. Chris and I noticed that despite us not writing anything, many people come here regularly. Why? I have no idea. But, if you're coming here, you must be looking for something, right? Comradarie? Association with people going through the same things as you? Friendship? Those things we can do.

So Chris will post each Monday, and I'll post each Thursday ~ and maybe we'll be able to throw in a few extras here and there too. That's a committment we can make.

This doesn't have anything to do with the blog, I just thought it was hysterically funny :)

As for me? Well, you've probably figured it out already. Still fat. Still feeling like a loser.

But I am not a loser. I just haven't found that thing that'll help me turn it around for my health. There, that's a resolution I can make: To change my attitude about my body in 2010. I don't necessarily have to reach a certain weightloss, I just need to learn to love myself more.