Making Goals, Reaching Goals

Will I get an acoustic guitar kit?

I decided on this last walk that other than all the good reasons that I am walking that it might be good to set smaller more tangible goals as well along the way. What I was thinking is that maybe every successful month I stick to the plan I reward myself with something special. While I haven't taken the time to work out all the details yet I think the first reward I want to get is a guitar. I have been wanting one for quite awhile and think that this would be a suitable accomplishment to get one. Nothing fancy just a six string acoustic one would be fine. Something like you can get at Target or used at a pawn shop.

Or will it be an electric guitar?

I figure that would be a good plan. I will work on what steps on levels I should reach for any reward. I think reaching 250 pounds should be at least the first one. That would be 40 pounds from when I began. The main issue with losing weight is that it is hard to see the results yourself. That is one reason why I am using the BP tracker to help me see what progress I am making. Tomorrow I will reach the second pound of calories used up. I am currently at 6914 so just 86 more steps to break 7000 which is equal to the second pound of work done.

I tried to take a picture of the Trailnet office but for some reason it didn't take. Of course I was using gloves so I might not have hit the button right. It is hard to operate the camera phone with gloves on. But I did get a picture of the KMOV transmitter. Plus I took a picture of a little seating area near the Trailnet. It is near the office. I think they might use that for educational programs. Another thing I saw on the walk Today was several cardinals and blue jays. They must be getting ready for Spring training.

KMOV transmitter in South County.

I saw 18 people on the trail Today. In two groups I saw 10 people so without a group there were 8 people. Still the trail users are skewing toward older men. I rarely see anyone under 30 on the trail. Maybe later in the day is when they run or walk. I don't count the St. Louis County Parks employees I see on the trail. I figure they are working so they don't have a choice to be there. I have been seeing a county truck about every other day. They always have been near Clydesdale Park on the trail when I have seen them.

That reminds me. If and or when I begin going further on the trail I will be going past the Clydesdale at Grant's Farm. They are really cool to see. They are well taken care off too. I am not sure if they are out at this time of year but they sure are in the spring, summer and fall.

Take care and keep on truckin'.

Thomas

Cold Day, More People

Trail intersection at Gravois Rd. Near Grant's farm.

Today was a bit cold. On the first part of Grant's Trail there were not that many people. It didn't seem like many people were out until after 9:00am. But totally I saw eighteen people on the trail. This includes two little toddles that were in strollers so I wasn't sure if I was going to count them or not. I decided to in the end. So based upon that there was sixteen since the kids were just sitting for the ride.

The walk was a long one I am going to Reavis now. It doesn't seem to add that much more time. But I like having the additional distance. Plus I get to avoid the hill I was going up on Union. But it is good to have that option when I need it. The walk in Grant's Trail is so much more serene than when I am walking on the road. A swear most of the people driving are on their phones.

I decided that I like walking in the cold. I am hot normally so the cold helps me keep cool when I am sweating as I walk. I have sweated everyday through my shirts everyday no matter the temperature. Plus the cold means that I am using up more calories to keep myself warm. I think it was 29ºF this morning while I was on the trail.

Find a trail near you.

My blood pressure was 129/85 after the walk. That is pretty good. With this BP monitor reading high. It makes me feel like I am really making a positive change in my heart health. After all that is what it is really about. Well that plus losing all this weight.

Update on some of my stats: BP average; 136/86, pulse; 76.33, steps per day; 10787, miles per day 5.4, calories per day; 863kcal. I hope everyone is keeping up the work. I would love to put some of your stories here if you would want to share them with others. Or if you have a blog too I could put a link to your blog.

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Do you hate having to watch what you eat? Having to consider the fat and calories of everything you put in your mouth? Well too bad. That is how it works. You have to eat better and modify your bad eating habits, what ever they happen to be, for good ones. Do you think German chocolate cake makes for a good breakfast food? Maybe if your an Olympic athlete training for long distance running but for most of us try a bowl of cereal or oatmeal.

Do you think a candy bar once or twice a week is “OK” for you? It is OK if you are walking the calories off. For example a bag of plain M&Ms has 236.16 kcal. To work that off you need to walk about a mile and a half extra from your normal routine. If you eat a more healthy Snickers bar you have 273.03 kcal. This requires about two and a quarter miles to burn up that amount of energy. So how much is that candy bar worth? If you have a goal of getting your weight down it is “weigh” to much.

Will you walk 2.25 miles to burn this?

Calorie Counts

My line of reasoning goes something like this. If I eat a candy bar after I walk four miles I just wiped out the effectiveness of half the work I just did. Granted the four or five miles is more than I have been doing in the past when I was still eating candy bars and higher calorie foods but now that I am focused on getting the results I need I see no reason to add to the struggle of my goal. 

Beer Calories

A beer belly is built.

For anyone that drinks a beer the results are the same. A Bud Light has 110 calories so if you were to consume one you would need to walk more than a half mile just to work off the calories? If you have a six pack of Bud Light you are looking at more than four miles to work off those calories. Miller Lite is 96 calories and so with that one you have a slight advantage but the results for a six pack comes to just over3.5 miles to burn up those calories. Of course those are the more popular light beers if you drink any others it will only increase the distance plus shots and drinks will similarly increase your distance to burn those calories.

So the secret to my Amazing weight loss is simply this. Eat less and move more. Use up the number of calories that you want to lose. Granted this is not a one to one correlation because there is the baseline metabolic rate to consider and the additional benefits you get due to the work of your body becoming more active. Your bodies increased heart rate, the increase in respiration and the digestion processes and the healing of muscles that are damaged during such increase in activity also add to the over all burning of calories by the body.

This is Grant's home at Grant's Farm. The fence in front was made from the barrels of Civil War guns.

With that said, There were only nine people on Grant's Trail Today. I hope that people have not already gave up on only the third day of the year. It was a bit colder but that is fine. The only day I didn't go out was Sunday. But Today I went ahead and walked to the Grant's trail and Reavis intersection. It didn't take much more time and it did add about another mile so I think I might go ahead and keep doing that. I hope everyone is doing well that is following this blog. It has been good to see so many people reading it so far. It has been useful to me as well to make me keep focused on my goal. So for that I thank all of you that have took the time to read my journey.

I also began tracking a new statistic on my walks; miles per hour. This is done by recording the time I start and stop. I convert that into minutes and then divide my distance by that and then multiply that to produce a miles per hour total. So far I am averaging about 3.5 miles per hour.

The Storm Approaches.

"Jizo" is a graffiti on the railroad bridge near Grant's trail.

Day four arrives and Happy New Years Eve to all. Did the Grant's trail route again Today and was happy to see more people out. I counted 22 people on the trail this time. I am sure Tomorrow there will be more even if the weather is bad being that it is the first day of the New year. The weather was a bit wet but nothing bad. Of course latter Today we had some bad storms. The tornado alarms went off but the news here on TV seem rather aware of that. I hope they are more cognizant if there is a nuclear attack and the sirens sound.

Anyway. The walk was good and I took some picture along the trail and the path I took to add to the blog. I figure a picture is always a nice thing to look at when reading the daily roll. In the past 4 days I have walked about 21.5 miles and my blood pressure and pulse seem to be doing well. I find out yesterday that the portable monitor that I have been using reads a bit high about 10 to 15 points I would say. Which is good because if I am within on that monitor my heart rate must really be doing good.

Today is a milestone. I reached the point that I used enough calories walking to burn up one pound of fat. Too bad I can't select which pound? Wouldn't that be funny? So I guess at 1 pound for four days I could look at 45 weeks to reach my goal. That isn't too bad I guess. Too bad I can have a routine like boot camp. I remember some fat guys when we started out looking like a totally different person after two months. One guy had to have his uniforms changed three times before we got done he lost that much weight.

Keep on pushing forward.
Thomas