Fall For Fitness

My company is launching a fitness challenge - Fall For Fitness. Over the next 12 weeks employees across the states will join teams and compete for most weight lost, most steps walked and most exercise minutes.

I created a team, the Lake Center Loser Corps, to get people from my building to encourage each other and compete against all the other teams in this challenge. The website we're using will have a calorie tracker and allow us to enter our daily activity. Every 2 weeks is a round; round 1 starts on Monday, September 13th and ends Sunday, September 26th.

My goal for this challenge is to walk more (yay free pedometer from the company!), exercise every night after my daughter goes to bed (well, except Sunday night cuz that's just insane after Bible study ends at 10:00 PM), and lose 1-2 pounds per week. If I keep it up (which I should, since I'm the team leader), I should lose 12 pounds (if I lose 1 lb/week) to 24 pounds (2 lbs/week), giving me the chance to lose up to almost 50% of the amount I need to lose to be at my recommended weight.

So my real goals are to lose 2-4 pounds, exercise 360 minutes and walk 70,000 steps per round. That sounds sooo big! But breaking it down by day, that's 1/4 lb, 30 minutes of exercise (taking out Sundays) and 5000 steps.

My average # of steps this week has been around 5500 - 6000, so that shouldn't be too hard to do. 30 minutes of exercise hasn't happened every day, but I'll do my best to either force myself to do it each night or add extra time on some days to make up for the days I can't. If I do this, plus watch what I eat, which I've been doing (cereal with non-fat milk each morning, Eating Right lunches and mostly-healthy dinners at home), then I should have no problem losing .25 pounds a day. Thank goodness for my Wii, with the Wii Fit Plus, Dance Dance Revolution, and Sports Resort software to keep me from getting too bored with my workout routine. Plus, I use the Wii Fit Plus software to weigh myself each day, so tracking that will be a breeze, and motivation to step up my game if I stop losing weight or gain.

So, here goes. I look forward to updating here with my progress; I probably won't do it daily, but update weekly and include my team's progress and standing in the competition each round.

July 1, 2010

Waist: 38 inches
Weight: 179.7 lbs
BMI: 30.67

10 minutes on the Wii Fit
Breakfast: 1 large hard-boiled egg
14 minute walk
Lunch: Eating Right Orange Glazed Chicken
Snack: ice cream drumstick
14 minute walk
Snack: Yoplait Light Boston Creme Pie yogurt
Dinner: green tea, Philadelphia rolls, edamame, mochi

My morning walk went very well! My average speed was 3mph and my shins only started to hurt at minute 10! I'm still using my old walking shoes and of course my iPhone with my special workout mix. I hope I can get my afternoon walk in and a bit of Wii Fit tonight. Feeling good today!

My afternoon walk went very well; my mph was a bit higher. And no pain anywhere!

No Wii Fit tonight; had sushi with my mom and my daughter in Irvine because my dad had a board meeting at our house.

June 30, 2010

Waist: 38 inches
Weight: 180.8 lbs
BMI: 30.86

10 minutes on the Wii Fit
Breakfast: large hard-boiled egg
15 minute walk
Snack: Oats & Peanut Butter bar
Lunch: Chicken with Basil Cream Sauce



I got up earlier than usual today. Was able to do my daily body test on the Wii Fit as well as some yoga and balance games. Hopefully adding this to my walks at work will help with the weight loss.

My morning walk wasn't half bad! It still took me over 15 minutes to walk my route, but I'll get back up to normal speed (3 - 3.5 mph) eventually. I traded out my Champion Stride Fitness Athletic shoes for my older plain-old walking shoes. I felt NO calf or ankle pain. I did have some shin splint pain, but I probably just need to work on my KT Tape placement. I heard on KNX1070 this morning that some doctors are saying that the "toning shoes" can be dangerous as you have to re-learn how to walk in them, and that some consumers are experiencing pain and feel that they don't have enough ankle support. For myself, I'll try them again, but maybe only use them once-in-a-while.

Though I know better, I'm not in the mood to walk this afternoon. I'm angry and hurt and confused by things I'm feeling and thinking. I'm ok, just frustrated and overwhelmed with everything going on in my life. And I'm not in the mood to walk. I feel like driving to Cherry On Top and getting the biggest cup of the most fattening things they've got over there and just eating at my desk for the next hour and ten minutes of work. I feel like screaming, I feel like crying, I feel like hitting something or someone. I feel ugly and fat and I don't want to do anything about it but complain. I want to scream, "MY LIFE TOTALLY SUCKS!!" and have people agree with me, offer to fix it and make it better. I want to be one of those whiny people who make it onto talk shows and are given free this and free that to fix their life even though they're no worse off than I am, if not better off than I am. I want to smoke a whole pack of cigarettes and go driving until I run out of gas. I want it to be next Tuesday already so that I can actually make plans and not feel like my life is just waiting for the next green light.

Weeeee!

A few weeks ago I bought myself a Wii with my tax refund and some gift cards I had. And I was very disappointed to find that every gaming/toy store I called in a 10-mile radius from my house was out of Wii Fit kits. Don't get me wrong, I love playing the different sports games that came with the Wii, but even though my arm got sore playing Table Tennis, I don't think it counts as a workout.

Well, I finally got a Wii Fit! A friend of mine had purchased it about a year ago and never opened it! I got it for a sweet deal of only $50!

I know I'm overweight, as the Wii Fit so gently told me, but I'm very glad to be able to weigh myself each morning in the comfort of my own bedroom, and work out each evening, as it's been hard to tear myself away from my cubicle, even though I'm supposed to take two little breaks each day. And I like how I can see a graph of my BMI, weight and usage anytime I like.

I'm very excited to add this new equipment to my workout portfolio.