Why is Hell nicer than Chicago?

Why is Hell nicer than Chicago?

Yes that's right people. With the -1ºF temperature we had this morning being in Hell would be great. I checked the Norwegian weather bureau and it stated that the temperature in Hell Today was a balmy 37.6ºF compared to the -1ºF it was in downtown Chicago this morning. But even with that sort of temperature we still have to trudge on to do the things we got to do. I actually had to barrow a scarf from Cheryl Today. I guess Today was the perfect day to walk south since there isn't a lot to see until you get a bit further than I care to walk. I made it down to Canal St. and Archer Ave. I could have gone further but the cold was just getting to much.

What a funny draw bridge. Bridge goes up. Bridge goes down.

The scarf I borrowed from Cheryl this morning was frozen by the time I got back to the apartment. Also so was my hat. I didn't bother taking any pictures Today even though the view from the south side of downtown looked great. Except for the raising draw bridge that crosses the canal.

It is funny after being in Panama that they call that channel a canal. Try sending a ship through that canal and it wouldn't make it a mile. But it is still a canal, a man made river as such. Remember the palindrome; A man, a plan, a canal, Panama.

When I was walking in the direct sunshine it was actually quite pleasant. But I was not able to do that for the whole walk. The main part that was getting cold were my knees and hands. I have a feeling it would get this cold many more times. Call it a hunch. Heck Saturday it is suppose to get up to 22ºF.

I heard that the Chinese Premier is suppose to be in town. If he is he should take a trip down Canal St. and see all the Chinese business there. At first I thought the signs were in Chinese for his trip then I realized they are like that all the time.

I wasn't that far at all from the White Sox ball park and I might make that my goal Tomorrow since it is Saturday. Maybe Cheryl will want to walk with me then too.

I did a total of 7.64 miles and I have had good results still with my blood pressure. The weight loss is moving along, thought it is moving like a snails pace in my view. But as long as it is moving downward instead of upward or even remaining the same I am pleased.

Cheryl has asked me to go to lunch Today, So I am going to meet her for lunch. It should be fun.

Stay on Track,

Thomas

Going Off the Deep End

Cheryl is wearing a sleeping bag with arms.

Today it was a bit colder starting out. For which I was glad about. It is better when it is really frozen to walk instead of the “warmer” 32ºF. When it is 20ºF, like it was Today, it makes for the ice to be much harder and less water means less slipping. Remember you cannot slip on ice. You only slip on the water that is on the ice. I found that out yesterday. Near Lake Street on the way to Cheryl's office I took a picture of here all dressed up in her sleeping bag with arms and her “muffins” and flat head hat. She was the first one in the office I think Today.

Transformed into the RAMS.

At the reception desk, the letter of the firm she works for are there it is called MRSA. So named after the man's initial that started the firm. But I “knoticed” that if the numbers were rearranged it could spell MARS. There is a store across the street from there with that same name. And she told me that sometimes people rearrange the letters. So, being from St. Louis, I spelled “RAMS” with them. I thought it looked nice.

Home of the famous gum maker.

So Today I went down Madison to LaSalle then over to Wacker. [Cheryl used to live on Wacker.] Then through my astute powers of navigation I made my way down past WGN and NBC to the AMC Theater and on down to the Navy Pier. Once on the pier I walked all the way down to the end and took a few pictures. It was nice to see the city from the position. While I was on the pier I saw several ships that were docked. I guess they do cruises when there are more people about or when it is warmer. One of the ships, I believe it is called the Odyssey, had different times for cruises. The longest one was a three hour dinner cruise. I was thinking, No No! Don't take the three hour cruise. Remember what happened to Gilligan. Heck the cruise was so bad for the Skipper that he lost his name. I would have to guess for the cruises that are shorter that they just push you off the boat.

Where does this thing go to?

There was a lot of things on the Navy Pier to see including a round elevator. It didn't seem to really go anywhere. Maybe they put people in that while they are waiting for the lines at the Shakespeare Theater. That would make sense. I believe it was at the Chicago Tribune that they had stones from several prominent places in history. I got a picture of one rock from Pearl Harbor. They had them from all sorts of places. I would like to find out more about this.

The people were out good Today. They seemed to need to get from place to place and were in a hurry to get there. My total distance walked was 8.94 miles. This now puts my total percent of goal at more than 7 percent. Only 93 percent to go to reach 1750 miles. So far only 112 miles under my belt. I guess that is why it seems like it is taking so long. But at least I am seeing the numbers move toward my goal daily. That good.

Diet or No Diet

Diet is as important as exercise.

Plus I am really trying to watch what I eat. I am not so much restricting any certain foods to help lose weight. I am however certainly restricting some for over all health. Things such as hydrogenated oils and salt and added sugar are on my restriction list. Another thing it to try to reduce the amount of refined flour I am consuming. Whole grains are fine but this is still a guideline. Having more things like fruit and vegetables is always a good thing.

Home of some very good fitness tools.

I was checking my baseline metabolic rate on line and it says for my height and weight I should be at 2336kcal per day. This is, of course, if you want to keep that weight. My goal is to reach 200 pounds. At least this goal is. I may work more after I reach the “big” one first. But when I get to 200 pounds my metabolic rate to maintain that weight is 1900kcal. So an average of those two would give me around 2118kcal per day. That is still higher then the levels specified on food labels. So my percentages can be very little higher. Like for dinner last night we had baked Italian chicken and some broccoli with cheese sauce and some stuffing and store turkey gravy. We had no calorie lemonade to drink and latter on for dessert I had some strawberries and cherries with low fat whipped cream. I think all together it was about 700 calories. But I do need to use a calories tracker. You can find one at livestrong.com. It is very user friendly and helps you track the food you are eating plus the activity that you are doing for a overall view of what your fitness level is.

I think the better image of my activity and the progress I am trying to make the more likely I am to stick with it and be successful at it. After all isn't that the goal of any fitness program?

Keep on track,

Thomas

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

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.

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.

Amazing! I lost 2 pounds in just 1 week!

Learn how you can too. It may sound amazing but the results speak for themselves. Yes, In just one week I went from 278 pounds to 276 pounds. And you can too! Tired of diet pills and shakes that only leave you hungry? Tired of having to watch what you eat? Want to get that weight off and keep it off? Here is the secret to my fantastic results.

But before I let you in on the True Weight Loss secret, what would you pay to achieve the same amazing results? $300? $500? $1000, for these incredible results?

Less food, more move is the key.

No way! By taking advantage of this limited time offer you can get the secret to the True Weight Loss system for FREE. That's right absolutely no charge whatsoever.

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.

New Years Goal Already Underway

A section of Grant's Trail looking west toward Tesson Ferry Rd.

The temperature was a bit colder than yesterday. According to the stltoday.com the temperature was 25ºF at about 11:00 this morning. The walk sure started out cold though. It seemed even colder to me than the second day I went. I think that was because there was more wind and no snow to insulate us more. But after the first section I was warm enough that it didn't matter than much. That is the main deal it isn't so much how you start but how you finish.

So the number of steps from where I begin at Musick to when I get home must be really close to 8850 steps. Because the past two days I hit that number almost exactly. Soon I am going to go on down to the fitness trail office on Reavis Barracks. That should add almost two more miles to the trip. Eventually I want to go from Musick to the end of Grant's Trail and walk back on Union to home. That should about double my current walking trail. But I may wait until I am back to jogging at that time because that will take a bit of time too.

Future plans include walking to Reavis.

Happy New Year to all. I did see about 12 people out this morning and for as cold as it was that seems pretty good. We will see how it goes over the next few days. Oddly enough our of the 12 I would say 6 were fat men like me. So maybe they are starting the new year out right. The real measure will be if they make it to DEC 31, 2011. I sure hope that I do.

Also on the trail I saw a cardinal. A bright read one. He looked like he was looking for some food. But he had a nice red beak and very red markings for his feathers. I wish I could have taken a picture but it was a nice thing to see for my first walk of the year. GO CARDINALS!

A few stats, I have gotten over 25 miles so far. I am averaging more than 10000 steps per day. My BP was 139/89 which was a bit higher but I was having some trouble with my phone so that could get my pressure going for sure. And my pulse was a good 76. I think this is a good way to begin the New year right. However I did notice at the beginning of the walk my shins were a bit painful but I am thinking that is due to the cold because I don't walk faster than I normally do.The hardest part, of course, to losing weight is the slow long process of actually doing it. The results seem to take forever even after all the effort you have put out. That is one of the main reasons that I want to use this blog as a tool to help me keep going and maybe a source to encourage others to keep going as well. 

Again, Happy 2011 everyone.

Thomas