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.

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

Cold Day and Low Turn Out.

After Sunday is was a bit hard to get back into the swing of walking again. But I made it fine. There were fewer people this time than in anytime I have seen since I began going to Reavis BRKS RD last week. There were only eight people Today and one of them I saw after I made my turn to go on up Reavis toward home. As a policy I don't count people I see walking on the road unless they are dressed as if they are doing exercise.

I think the reason that it was a bit harder Today walking and getting in the grove was because I had ate more than I had Sunday than I had most of the past two weeks. I made waffles for Cheryl and I then my Mom made us a nice dinner from Macaroni Grill. Then I went to Emily's birthday party and had chili and sour cream and cheese plus cake. However I did take the icing off the cake so that was a few calories I saved. Then late night I made some stew from the noodles of the meal from dinner. So that was quite a bit more food than I have ate calorie wise in a long time.

Happy sixth birthday, Emily.

But with Today's walk I used up almost 900 calories so that should take care of a lot of the food I ate Sunday. Plus I didn't walk Sunday so I think that has something to do with me not getting off to a good start Today too.

Along Grant's Trail, Gravois Creek is getting more and more frozen. I haven't ever seen it totally solid but a couple of weeks ago when we had the snow was still out it seemed a lot more frozen that it does now even though the temperature has been colder.

Some of the milestones I have reached Today include 10,861 calories used, almost 68 miles, My trend for my blood pressure is moving the systolic lower and my pulse has been getting lower too. That means my pulse is getting stronger.

Sad to say the death of my scale. It was a very old on to begin with but yesterday I got on it and it said I was at 240 pounds. I was so tempted to accept that but that wouldn't make me any thinner. So I looked at the “zero” and it was off and I tried to reset it and it wouldn't reset any more and since then my weight has been way off. In my favor but as I said a broke scale doesn't help me reach my mark. That is what a mirror is for.

Body Mass Index 

Another indicator of good weight is your body mass index. That is a guideline for the amount of fat your body should have according to your height. The standards range from less than 18.5 to 18.6 to 24.9 is normal, 25 to 29.9 is over weight. A body mass index of 30 or more is obese by medical definition. These guidelines come from the Department of Health and Humans Services website. The website also indicates the increase risk of other health problems that come along with the extra weight. I am sure many people already know that heart disease and type II diabetes and high blood pressure are three of the major additional conditions to be concerned about.

For me the on line scale says that my BMI is 37.7. This is 7.8 over just being overweight. The HHS BMI index is really strict and requires a lot of work to get within range if you are a person that is out of shape like me. For me to get within the normal range on the index I need to have my weight down to 170 pounds. That is 100 pounds from where I am Today. To be just in the normal range I would have to be about 155 pounds. That is a weight I have not been at since I was in high school.

Find out what your Body Mass Index is from the HHS.

My current goal is to reach 200 pounds with this current fitness plan. If I reach that goal then my BMI will be at 27.9 and mid-range of the overweight standard. But don't be discouraged, the websites says, "The good news is even a small weight loss (between 5 and 10 percent of your current weight) will help lower your risk of developing those diseases."

I am currently near 4% of my goal which is on the way to reaching a 30% reduction from my starting weight. The 5% to 10% standard is from 14.5 to 19 pounds to see improved health benefits. These numbers that I amusing and from the HHS website do not compare exactly but they are still guidelines. With my percentage I am looking at the total amount of weight I want to lose. The HHS numbers are difference in starting weight to goal weight.If I reach the 200 pound goal that would be a 31% reduction in my total weight. Far above the range of where the health benefits improve.

Body Mass Index Tool

Today’s Special Guest and Real Progress

Cheryl decided to walk with me Today in the cold.

Today with us we have a special guest all the way from Chicago, Cheryl Ninemire. Cheryl comes down to visit every now and then since we are dating and this time she got to join me on the walk this morning in the 14ºF. She got in about 2:15am this morning too so we didn't take a lot of sleep time before we got up to walk. Since it was so cold I wore an extra sweatshirt. I didn't wear long johns yet but if the temperature keeps this low for long I am going to have to get some.

Cheryl decided to come on the walk with me. Since it was so cold I gave her a fleece shirt to wear. She said by the time we had got to about 3 miles that she was really getting hot. That is what working out in the cold will do for you.

Walking down Grant's Trail this morning, Cheryl took this.

Some highlights from the walk include the distance at 11,140 steps which comes to 5.57 miles. I have totaled 62 miles so far in the past 12 days and I am at 270 pounds. Also the walk includes about 100 to 110 feet in elevation change over the course. Most of this is off Grant's Trail. That is an extra cardio workout. Like I was telling Cheryl, It may be good for the heart but I still got to get home.

The best news is the tangible results I have to reports. As many of us have in our closets, I have shirts that are just a bit too small for me. Somehow they shrank. Well I tried a few on and they are growing! Seems that about six or more shirts have magically grew bigger over the past couple of weeks. There are still a few that are tight but I can at least fir into them. It is like getting some new clothes. At least that is what Cheryl said.

Like magic, this shirt has grown since I last tried it on.

I am going to take Sunday off and spend it with Cheryl but Monday I will have some new milestones to look forward to like with total calories used and percentage pounds lost. I hope to have more good news then.

Fast and Simple

Today will be short and sweet. I have things to do, my girlfriend is coming to town and I need to clean up a bit.

With that said I did 5.56 mile which comes to 11295 steps. That puts me over 100,000 steps since I began and averaging more than 10,000 steps per day, not counting Sunday. This also means I have walked 54.45 miles and that is 3 percent of my goal of 1750 miles. Also my weight is at 270 so that is at 3 percent as well from where I began. It looks like I am right on track.

I saw 11 people out on the trail Today. It was snowing a little bit and the temperature was 37ºF. I am beginning to see some regular faces, not too mention dog feces, on the trail, I am sure as I continue I will get to recognized a lot more people. Especially after it warms up a bit.

Some good advise even if your not running.

I just hope by April I can be down by about 30 pounds. That would be really good. I have this idea in the back of my mind for doing a “run” here in St. Louis. I am not sure where and when but I might ask my brother since he does them.

Plus, my girlfriend suggested that if I am able to do it, I might want to do the Chicago half marathon. Well I think I still have a while to go before I will sign up for that. But it is nice to see the slow and steady improvement.