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.

June 29, 2010

Waist: 38 inches
Weight: 180.6 lbs
BMI: 30.83

Breakfast: large hard-boiled egg
14 minute walk
Snack: Eating Right Oats & Chocolate bar
Lunch: Eating Right Roasted Turkey
Snack: light kettle corn popcorn, venti dark cherry mocha frappucino
24 minutes on the Wii Fit
Dinner: 2 1/2 breadsticks, Sprite, minestrone soup, capellini pomodoro, Andes mint
Dessert: Ben & Jerry's Banana Split ice cream

Well, this morning’s walk was just AWFUL! Both of my calves started to hurt about 2 minutes in. I stopped at minutes 5 and 8 to stretch and massage them. At 10 minutes the top of my right foot started to hurt, and by minute 12 my left ankle was hurting enough I was limping. I don’t know if I’m over doing the walking (which it shouldn’t be an issue: I started walking 2-3 times a day last September with no problems) or if it’s the shoes. I’m stuck with these shoes for the rest of the day, but I think I’ll bring in my old walking shoes and see if that helps. Bonus, though: no shin splint pain.

Welcome back!

It’s been a long time since I brought my walking shoes to work. I started my whole “healthy kick” last summer when my company had a health fair where I learned that my health was very poor: high cholesterol, high BMI and my body fat percentage was high. Being young, I wanted to change that. I started walking on my breaks at work and quit smoking cold-turkey. I lost almost 15 pounds and dropped 2 pants sizes.

I stopped walking on my breaks when work got busy and I felt guilty leaving my desk to walk instead of helping my team with their urgent problems. By the time our busy season was done, I had lost my motivation and gained back most of my weight.

I’m not sure what’s sparked my interest again; maybe it’s the summer weather or the memories of being proud of myself for losing the weight. Or maybe I just want to feel some sort of “ha ha” moment that I’m doing better in almost every aspect of my life than my ex-husband is doing in his. I’m trying not to be bitter or “holier-than-thou,” but as a single parent, it’s hard to feel like I’m doing the right things all the time and that I’m actually moving ahead in life. I’m very independent and I want to be able to prove to myself and to the world that I can take care of myself and my daughter all by myself.

I picked up smoking again, and I’m sure one of these days I’ll quit again. Honestly, I enjoy it. I smoke about 7-8 cigarettes a day, less on the weekends when I’m spending more time with my daughter and my family. But I’m sure that as I walk more and lose more weight, I’ll smoke less and less.

I’m not sure I’m going to post weekly pictures. Maybe monthly? I haven’t decided. Now that I’ve had a major (7 months) setback, I’m a bit embarrassed that I don’t look much different than when I started last September.

So here’s to my health! And yours, too! If there’s anyone else out there struggling to lose weight and/or have a more healthy life, I’d love to hear from you! And, of course, comments and encouragement are always welcome! I’ve got my Champion Stride Fitness Athletic shoes, KT Tape* for my shin splints, and my MapMyRide** app on my iPhone. Let me know if you’ve found something that you have to have when you’re walking/exercising.

Time to go walk!

End-of-day Recap:
Breakfast: 1 large hard-boiled egg.
10 minute walk
Morning snack: Eating Right* Oats & Peanut Butter bar
Lunch: Eating Right Sweet & Sour Chicken
16 minute walk
Afternoon snack: Yoplait Light* Pineapple Upside-Down Cake yogurt.
22 minutes on the Wii Fit
Dinner: whole grain pasta shells with meatballs and Alfredo sauce, green grapes, light soy milk.
Dessert: Happy Corn (puffed corn)

My morning walk just plain stunk. Either I didn’t apply my KT Tape properly, or I’ve got the worst case of shin splints ever. The only way to walk without hurting was to put the ball of my foot down first, then my heel. I cut my walk short due to the pain and the fact that I had to use the ladies room. I’m hoping my next walk (hopefully at lunch) will be easier.

I didn’t get to walk at lunch, but I did walk during my second break. It went a lot better than my first walk, but I was slower than I used to be last fall. And my calves were killing me; not sure if that’s due to being out of shape, having been at Disneyland most of Saturday, getting used to my new shoes, or all of the above. But I did finish my normal route. Feels like victory to me.

I plan on using my Wii Fit for a bit tonight to stretch my muscles. And I hope I remember to weigh myself in the morning so that I can set a 30-day weight-loss goal (nothing crazy, probably 5 pounds to start).
 
-Disclosure-
*I was not provided Champion shoes, KT Tape, Eating Right products or Yoplait yogurt for free. However, if the folks at these companies would like to send me some products, that’d be all right by me.
**I was not provided the MapMyRide app for free – well, ok, I got it for free on the AppStore, but that’s because EVERYONE can get it for free.

Day 11 - September 7, 2009

I have no official plans for today except going to lunch with my boyfriend and my daughter. We might go to Disneyland later, we might not; it's Labor Day, so it's bound to be crowded.

I downloaded an app for my iPhone that shows me the best options for "good for you" food nearby. So if I'm at a restaurant, it'll show me what I should get and how many calories/fat/carbs it has. I'm not quite sure it's totally accurate: it says that the healthiest thing at 7-Eleven is a jelly donut... maybe they just mean out of the 7-Eleven branded food, cuz I'm pretty sure the bananas at the checkout counter are healthier than the donuts...I hope.

I also want to go to a store to see if I can find wrist/ankle weights to wear when I'm walking; up the challenge a bit since I seem to be plateau-ing on my time/speed (no running, since my knees aren't able to handle it).

1:30 PM Minestrone soup & whole wheat linguini with meat sauce

5:45 PM Otter Pop

8:00 PM 3 small slices of sausage and olive pizza

11:00 PM 2 scoops of mango sorbet

The only exercise I did today was setting up and taking down my daughter's bounce house. However, I did get wrist weights (1lb each) today, so I'm looking forward to using them on my walks this week.

Day 5 - September 1, 2009

Did not do Yoga this morning; today is the first day my company will not allow smoking on company premises. Since I usually smoke during my break and lunch, I'm going to walk around the building instead. If I walk both breaks and part of my lunch, I should get at least 30 minutes or more. Last night I smoked what I hope will be my last cigarette. Since I can't smoke at work, I'm going to try going back to my e-cigarette in the car and at night. It'll make it much easier to exercise, and of course, make me healthier.

I still have a little bit of knee tenderness this morning, and my lower back is sore if I don't sit nice and straight. I'm actually looking forward to my walks at work today; I have an app on my iPhone called iMapMyRide that will track how long, fast and far I've walked. I'm hoping to post the results on here. And some extra motivation: my cousin is motivated by my determination, and her motivation motivates me to work out each day! It's awesome how infectious the desire to exercise can be! Now, if only I can keep this motivation going; it's only been 5 days.

On the drive to work, I noticed that the front of my right thigh is a bit sore, more noticeably when I moved my foot from the gas pedal to the brake. My left thigh is also sore. And while I'm enjoying the benefits my skin is getting from drinking all this water, I'm visiting the ladies room a lot more often. Just about every 1 1/2 hours I have to "go." Kind of annoying, and I'm hoping that will go away eventually.

9:00 AM "Kirkland Signature" weight loss shake for breakfast

12:53 PM Remainder of Chipotle leftovers

7:00 PM Garlic Chicken Pasta with carrots, corn and broccoli

In General: 90 oz of water

The problem with ecigarettes is they need power. I think the heat affected the battery on mine today; I only got to use it twice before it died on me. So, at 10:20 PM, I'm using 2mg Nicorette to keep this craving at bay; I'm used to having 2 cigarettes right after I tuck my daughter in bed.

Walked three times at work today. I've been using the iMapMyRide app on my iPhone; seems to work well. Now I just need to create a playlist on my iTunes so I can keep up the right pace. Take a look at the map below to see an example of where I walk.