Up Til Now

My weight loss has already been about 10 pounds. I started at the end of November by joining a local gym. My commitment to myself at that time was to go a minimum of three times a week just to start getting in the habit of MOVING. Since I enjoy hiking I wanted to have a workout that would be a good preparation for that. So I mainly do work on the treadmill. Starting out I did a brisk walk with the incline was 0 for a minimum of 20 minutes. Now I'll vary the incline with a very brisk walk for 40-45 minutes. Since most of the treadmills have those heart rate monitors that work, I'll use that as a guide to try and make sure my HR is up in the range where my workout is effective. I have been going to the gym since I joined in November a minimum of 3-4 times a week, even during the holiday season.

The second component that I have started concentrating on is what I eat. At first, when I joined the gym, I did not want to worry about changing the foods I love. I knew that as I started getting into a routine at the gym that I would naturally start looking for ways to limit or change some of those foods that I was eating too much of each week. Although I have already been slowing changing over to meals lower in fat, I have actually begun a food journal this last week. The form I use was printed off of the WebMD website. It allows you to list your servings and the calories. I added another column though for Fat Grams. What I found is I really hate writing down the number 28 for the fat grams in my sausage and biscuit! And that is for one. Last year I would regularly have two on most mornings. For the past 6 or 8 weeks that was the first thing I changed out regarding my breakfast. Now, it's a bowl of oatmeal with a banana. Total fat grams? About 3. I am allowing myself 1 sausage biscuit along with my oatmeal each week. What I have found just using the food journal is that if I am aware of what I am eating then I have no problem with a reasonable amount of calories each day and the fat gram count is in the lower range. What can sabotage it real easy though is TOO MUCH of the foods that we think we love and can't do without.

Now - time for me to print some more forms.