People are Getting on my Trail.

Yesterday there was a record number of people on the trail during my walk with 51. Today there were 37 people. This of course doesn't count the dogs and babies which have no say in the matter. One of the funniest ones was a woman that brought her bike with her to the Tesson parking area and just rode her bike to Gravois. That was only a two mile bike ride. I guess it is better than nothing at all but it seems really minor to me. I walked 10.63 miles and I thought I should have gone further.

There seems to be an issue with the livestrong.com website. I have tried several times to get on it to

track my walking and food but the pages keep going blank. I wonder if it will be fixed soon. That is a bit inconvenient.

The ducks were out Today, so were the people.

I saw some ducks in the creek near Grant's Trail near the headend at The Lodge end of the trail. They were all swimming together in their little ducky formation and quacking just as ducks tend to do. It will be interesting to see what sort of facility that is going to be built there and how that will relate to the park and fitness. I should look into what is available at the Clydesdale Park. But I think just walking up the hill is about enough activity for anyone.

It is very quiet in here in the morning.

I went to Grant's National Park for my turn around point. I was joust going to Gravois but I had to use their bathroom. When I was in there I sneezed. I guess it was a bit loud and the Park Ranger stuck his head in the bathroom to see what was going on.

I think I am going to get a scale that works Today. That will help measure my actual weight without having to guess. However, when I was up visiting Cheryl one time we went to Zannie's comedy club and the guy there was selling t-shirts that benefit dog rescues and I got one, The thing is the only size they had was large so I had to got that. I wore that shirt Today. Of course I am fat in it but I can at least wear it somewhat without it being over stretched.

According to my fitness tracker I have walked 331 miles and I am at almost 19 percent of my goal to walk 1750 miles. Just think, almost 20 percent done. Looking back it looks so easy, but looking forward it looks really hard.

I also had a large number of hits on my blog yesterday. I want to say thank you for reading and I hope that you will be returning to see me become successful on my journey to a better me. I couldn't do it without you. Well I could and I am.

Keep on track,

Thomas

Happy Darwin Day

Happy Birthday Charles.

Tomorrow represents the 202^nd anniversary of the birth of naturalist Charles Darwin. Regardless of a persons views on his work concerning natural selection, he certainly is a person that has influenced the world from his life's work. So go out and hug an ape.

Today is going to be another short day as I have got to get ready to go to Collinsville, IL and do some work. Plus Tonight Cheryl is going to be here so I want to be ready for her arrival.

Today was a very short walk. It is funny because it is as long as when I first started out back in December but now it is less than half of the distance that I cover. I weighted myself again Today and it seems like I might be at 256 pounds. That is twelve percent of my body weight that I have lost now and my blood pressure continues to stay in the “green” levels.

I find it so hard to deal with the long slow process of losing the weight. I mean the actual walking and watching food consumption is really hard. Plus when I look in the mirror and see how far I have yet to go to look the way I want to it seem like and unending path. I guess in a way it is.

That is the main reason I began this process of keeping a blog and recording my fitness numbers so I can have clear and tangible proof that I am actually moving toward my goal. How many of us have worked to lose weight and then after reaching a goal slack off and do not even realize that the weight lost comes back? It is that easy to gain weight. You don't have to do anything at all.

I know some people that can eat all they want, it seems, and are still skinny as a rail. That used to be me when I was in high school and college. But I think I was pretty active back then too. I did a lot of walking and was pretty active. Back then you had to go to an arcade and stand up while you played video games. Not these in home couch potato ones they have now. However I guess the manufactures are changing that too.

Highlights, I am at 307 miles which is enough distance to reach where Cheryl lives in Chicago. That also brings me to 17.5 percent of my goal of 1750 miles. This months average blood pressure is 125/77. Not too bad for a fat man, I say.

Keep on track,

Thomas

Warmest Day, Started Late

These are the first two people I saw Today.

Today was the warmest day of the year so far for me to walk. This morning the temperature was an unbelievably warm 36ºF. I saw more people on Grant's Trail than I have ever before but there could be several reasons for that. One, Today is Saturday and more people are off so they have the opportunity to walk in the morning. Two, being as warm as it is more people may have been willing to come out to brave the “cold” weather. I saw one woman, jogging with a man, she was wrapped up with more clothing on than I ever have been. Plus it looked like she had no clue as to what she was about to do.

The third reason may have been I started an hour later then I normally do so maybe I just miss all these people because I am already done with that section of the trail. I doubt it. The footprints in the snow from the past few days doesn't bear that out. So with all that said there were 29 people on the trail Today and five dogs.

Tomorrow I am going to Chicago and will be spending a few days there. I am not going to be doing any fitness running but I may have some to add to the fitness tracker since everyone walks everywhere downtown. Just to get outside the building is almost a half mile. I wonder how the construction is going. I will show a few pictures of that as well.

Walking on the trail may be a good way to pass the time.

Also while in Chicago I will complete a few mile stones. The first one will be my first 100 miles. That will also lead to completion of six percent of my goal. I will also reach more than 200.000 steps total. Actually I may even do that before I leave since I am so close.

Another thing is since I am riding on Amtrak that I may see how many steps I can take on the train walking back and forth. That way I can have a work out ready to go when I sync up on Sunday.

As the Trail Clears

The trail is starting to clear off in spots. Should be good by Monday.

Today was the warmest day all week. It was a balmy 28ºF when I started the walk. With the sun being out yesterday more of the trail got cleared off from the greenhouse effect. Plus the number of footprints on the trail now has really increased. I have a feeling that the trail will be clear by this weekend. We only had four people on the Grant's Trail Today.

I was glad to see the warmer temperature. I didn't have to wear as many layers Today. If the morning temperature ever gets up to the 40ºF I might actually just wear my shorts and t-shirt. What does the “t” in t-shirt mean anyway?

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Not sure much grilling is done in Jan.

I got my first contact for a website review: http://www.become.com/ This one is a new shopping website that I haven't heard of before so I was surprised how nice it looked. It seems to be well organized with the categories listed on the left. They wanted me to look at three items and the first one is here: http://home-and-garden.become.com/bronze-burner-gas-grill. The grills look nice but a bit out of my price range. Price range is dependent on features and range, [get it range], from $300 to over $2000 in price.

Also this site: http://pets.become.com/polka-dot-dishes. If you have a thing for poka dotted dishes this is a good place to get your set.

I didn't find purple, so I made it.

And finally: http://food-and-drink.become.com/rubber-wine-stoppers. This is a great place to find useful and unique cork stoppers and other items for the wine connoisseur. 

Fancy wine stoppers

Another good thing is that they have free shipping for most of these places. I like that. But it requires a minimum purchase to get it. But the shipping information is easy to find and the shopping is easy to do on line. I would assume you could have it ship to another address if you wanted to send it as a gift too. Take a lot. You might be pleasantly surprised like I was. 

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Well back to fun, I did 11,904 steps Today. I thought I would be over 12,000 since I walked through the parking lot at Union and Reavis BRKS. But that did put me over. But just walking around the house will get that extra number of steps to total over 6 miles. Plus I have some errands to do Today So I should easily beat that.

Cheryl and I near Buckingham Fountain last July.

On my Nike + tracker I finished with Rio and I am starting Sydney, AUS. When I finished Rio it said that I was number 14 on their leader board for my time through the city. No too shabby I think. It would be funny if one of the cities that they have on here is St. Louis. I wonder what path they would do for it. Plus I am going to be in Chicago for a few days visiting Cheryl so I will have the Lake Shore Trail to walk on next week. I am sure I will be near the Buckingham Fountain several times too. I wonder if the water will be on at that time? I am anxious to see how well I do on that. I will be sure to take some pictures from there so you can see what I see too.

I am happy to say that my blood pressure is slowly moving lower not to where I want it yet but at least it is going the right direction. My pulse is staying strong and moving down too. Since my scale is broke I don't know what my weight is. But when I go up to Chicago and visit Cheryl she will let me use hers, so I should get a more accurate reading. [Darn it]

The big highlight for Today is reaching 91.6 miles and that brings me to 5.23% of my goal of 1750 miles. I also feel my muscle getting tighter around my arms and legs. This morning my left shin was hurting a little bit but by the time I am writing this it feels fine now. I think part of it is just having to keep warm.

Well thanks to everyone that is reading again, I appreciate your support.

Thomas

Colder Than Hell.

Weather from Hell.

Yes that's right. Today was colder than Hell, Norway in St. Louis. According to Meteorologisk Institutt of Norway it is -3ºC which converts to 26.6ºF. That is a balmy 16.6ºF warmer than our 10ºF this morning. So you can say with full confidence that it is colder then Hell Today without any fear of strange looks from anyone.

Not many on the trail, but footprints show their evidence.

I did walk the entire path Today but I put on some additional layers before I began. I had on four layers on my torso and four layers on my legs as well and two pair of socks. This is good because it was the coldest day so far to walk. This combine with the snow on Grant's Trail made for a challenging walk. But even with these factors, I was warm after about a mile of walking. After I got off Grant's Trail there were some snow flurries. So the last half mile I had a few flakes blowing in my face.

It is quite good to have this day over with. I would be interested to find out what the forecast is for the next few weeks. I sure wouldn't want to see the temperature drop much more. But the price you pay for warmer weather is storms. So there is that trade off. I am certainly not thrilled about walking in the rain; or any sort of precipitation.

Blowing snow covers covers tracks on Grant's Trail.

Today saw an increase of people. I was quite surprised by this. The trail has been used as is evidenced by the footprints on the trail. I guess some people are keeping to the diet and fitness goals despite the weather. There was a total of five people Today.

I was reading yesterday about the benefits of walking verses jogging. The bottom line seems to be that if you are going the same distance that there is no real benefit to weight loss. Of course there are some factors that can change that such as if you are going up and down hills and if you are wearing ankle weights and things of that sort but the main thing is to have a plan that you can do safely and stick to it.

While getting muscle tone and even bigger muscles sounds like a great plan. In my current state I need to focus on my heart and lung health first and getting the weight down. For that the plan is diet and exercise. But even more important and the most difficult is consistency. The best plan in the world is useless if you do not apply it in a consistent plan. Granted my plan is a bit more then what it typical but I have a lot of fat to lose and it isn't going to go away by wishing it away. Though I wish it would.

My blood pressure has been moving slowly down over the past two weeks which is my main goal.

Getting the blood pressure down helps reduce risk of stoke, heart disease, type II diabetes and other health concerns. Losing the weight just makes me look better. But I can't have one without the other.

According to stltoday.com the forecast for the next few days should be getting warmer. Today could be the coldest day for about a week. January 20 and 21 look to be very cold. But with that being more than a week out that can easily change. But for most of the next week it looks to be in the lower 30º for the highs. I can live with that.

With that in mind I wish everyone the best of luck on their goals and keep on trudging on.

Thomas

Snow Day, Lone Way

This is the snow covered Grant's trail Today. The area in blue are my tracks.

Today due to the snow I had to do a different course for my walking. This is from my house down to Grant's trail then turn around at the halfway point and come on back. This really had a lot more hill walking than normal because I had to walk down the hills from the house to the trail then on the way back I went up Union Rd which has a big hill from the trail to Reavis BRKS Rd. Then of course the hill back to the house so that was quite a bit more hill climbing than normal all together about 200 feet climbing up and down.

Two cold birds this morning.

The trail had some indications of people having been on it. Mostly from the foot prints in the snow. There were some kids playing near the trail in the snow with sleds but that was just having fun on a snow day. I really don't think that it was necessary to have a snow day because the roads were clear and the snow is dry and packs well. But the big news was failure to see anyone else on the trail. So Today is the first day I was the only one on the trail.

Since I had to modify my walking plan Today I had to guess where to turn around and come back but I did pretty well. I an more likely to go further then cut it short if I am to guess on my own. I was close my steps Today were 11, 610 so that was withing a quarter miles of the same distance. I did see many birds on the trail Today and got a few pictures of them. However one of a Cardinal that I wanted to take failed due to me holding the camera upside down and pressing the wrong button on the camera phone.

A cardinal

Not much new fitness wise to report other than progress is still being made. I am over 4% or my distance goal of 1750 now. Of course when you are more than 80 pounds over weight it takes a while to get that gone. It would be nice if I could get it down as fast as my buddy Rob Fahn who has lost a lot of weight at his doctors urging. I just knew I had too. I was having some odd feelings in my body that I decided were indications of being too fat. Not that I really needed any other indication than my clothes and mirror. With Today's walk I am at 73.69 miles for my journey.

Not endorsed by Mayo

I did shovel the drive way this morning too. According to the Mayo Clinic that is a good aerobic exercise too. But it only took about 20 minuets to do. By the time I got back home the wind had blown a couple of drifts back onto the driveway. I will have to try some of my clothes on again to see if any more have mysteriously grown lately.

I did a new style of the cover.

With the snow shoveling in mind and having done my snowy walk Today I must say, in the words of James Brown, “I feel good.”

Keep on the trail,

Thomas