Cold and Continuing

Follow a well marked path.

Today marks the day of doing just another day in the sub-freezing cold on the path to my goal. This is were the journey begins to get a bit harder because the initial “big” loss of weight has happen now I have to work harder to make the rest of the weight go down. Not that it actually requires anymore work physically it is just that the routine starts to get hard. But the good thing is that when I am dropped off in the morning I have no other option but to walk home to get warm, or to get home period.

My steps were a palindrome Today. I reached 12021 steps, which is the same number forward as it is backwards. Some other stats for Today are the 85.65 miles in total I have done. This total represents 4.89% of my goal of 1750 miles. The six miles I have walked Today is a best daily distance for the program. It seems I take more steps when I am walking on snow. I cannot make as big of strides when I have to watch where I am walking.

I saw four people on Grant's Trail Today. Two woman and they were jogging, but not together, and a man walking his dog.

I have notice some change in my face especially under my chin. I can “pull” my neck muscles out again. I haven't done that in quite a long time. It looks silly but it is what the weight lifters do when they are trying to lift a heavy load. I certainly have a heavy enough load to carry.

Save your money for a goal reached.

It is funny how some of these commercials for weight loss make outrageous claims as to what their products can do. Since I am doing a fitness tracker I have all the numbers to figure out what they are saying in other terms. One that really stands out is the Hydroxy Cut ads. A woman or man comes on an ad and says they lost 42 pounds in 18 weeks. That very well may be true but lets look a little closer at the statement. If that person was to do that only by jogging or walking they would have to cover a distance of 919 miles in about 3.5 months. That comes to 7.3 miles a day. I am doing extreme walking to be sure. The distance that I am covering is well beyond typical. If one covers about a mile walking that is more than sufficient for keeping your body fit and your weight under control.

Looking at the Hydroxy Cut website you see the “fine” print as to what these results actually mean. They make the claims that their active ingredients provided a 12.3 times more reduction in weight loss than using a placebo. However the only control that is mentioned in the “study” is that the two groups were on a reduced calorie diet. It says nothing about the amount of physical activity.

They also make the claim that the studies were a, “12-week third party, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study” yet they do not provide who did the test or a link to review the results of the tests. From normal weight loss guidelines the loss of 1.7 pounds that they represent that happened in the placebo seems to be nothing more than a slight calorie reduction. If not a reduced calories diet it would represent walking over the 12 week period of about 3 miles a WEEK. Not really much of a weight loss plan if you have several tens of pounds to lose like I do and the people they show in their commercials.

Needless to say most over the counter diet solutions are nothing more than a placebo for you to motivate yourself to do exercise and to eat a lower calorie diet. I am not pointing out Hyroxy Cut over any other claim of a so called diet aid. Feel free to look at their website if you want to see their own information.

The bottom line if you want to lose weight you have to do some sort of combination of reducing calories or increasing activity. Short of a gastric bypass or some other medical procedure you have to follow these principles. Then you will be successful in your journey to less of you.