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

More Than One Million Steps!

Interstate 44 is at the north end of Grant's Trail in Kirkwood.

Well that alone should be good enough for Today but I also walked all the way to the end of Grant's Trail. I also walked 12.5 miles Today too. That is 283 miles since December 28^th, 2010. Thew one million steps is from all of last year though. So it is from a much longer period of time. I was also surprised to find out that it got colder as the day went on. It was about 26ºF when I started and it was down to 12ºF when I got back home. I thought it was getting colder but I thought it was from the wind chill and not real temperature.

The number of steps I have taken since I began walking again is 567,066. So that is more than a half million in about six weeks. So at this rate I should reach my goal of 1750 miles in November. That has moved up due to the fact that I am walking more than my original goal. I think once I reach the goal I might go back to the 4 miles per day to maintain my weight.

My Starting place is Musick and Gravois.

My total distance Today was 12.5 miles and I think that is the longest I have gone in a long time with out a break somewhere a long the line. I am also feeling better and think I can see some differences in my waist. But it is so big it is going to take a long time. I know when I come in after a long walk like this I want to go in the bathroom and look in the mirror and see it ALL GONE. But it doesn't work that way.

But it sure feels good using the livestrong website for the food tracking and activity tracker. It helps a lot with keeping your totals on your food and calories on track. I know I have mentioned it before but if you have not used it yet or even looked at it it has so much good information that you cannot help but to gain some sort of useful information from it. And donate blood.

9109 Watson Rd, Home of Almon Chiropractic Therapy?

Grant's Trail passes near my niece's new office I am sure it is in the 9109 Watson Rd Building near Applebee's. It looks mighty fancy to me. I think she said she is going to name it Almon Chiropractic Center or Clinic I would name is Almon Chiropractic Therapy so the initials can be ACT. Then she could answer the phone, “Hello, ACT Center. What acting up with you?” Plus I think the name sounds better too.

She still needs Missouri car tags. Oklahoma is OK, Missouri is awesome!

Anyway, I hit 260 pounds Today. So that is more than 10 percent of my weight goal. WHAT? All that work and only 10 percent. I must be one fat tub of lard. Oh yes, I am. Back on track. That is really good news since I was going to stop Today if I wasn't any lighter. [not really] That is 30 pounds since the end of December. I am after all trying to reach a 30 percent goal so I am already one third there. To be honest the 30 percent is just a starting point. Then at that time I have to decide what I am going to do. Either working on weight training or more jogging. After I get under 250 pounds I might start jogging again. I might wait until 240 pounds. I am just concerned about my knees and the extra weight. SO far I have not had any noticeable issue with my feet or knees. However, my back hurts a bit but that has got to be from the 60 to 70 pounds of extra fat I am carrying.

To the United Center and Beyond.

Home of the Bulls and Blackhawks

Today was a bit cold but not too bad. I think Tomorrow will be much colder. I am not looking forward to that. But I will bundle up when I go. As long as I keep walking I stay warm enough. I walked down to the United Center Today and that was about 2 miles from the apartment. On the way I also passed the Bill Goat Grill and Tavern and the Mexican Consulate. The United Center is pretty much out all by itself. Nothing really that significant around it. I guess that is good so they can get people in and out. The bus goes right by it but the “L” is a few blocks away.

Heading north of the Border.

I walked by the Mexican Consulate Today because I saw yesterday that there was some new story on a shooting or something in Wisconsin and they showed a picture of the building so I thought since I was in the neighborhood I would take a look at it.

Cheryl was running late this morning so she didn't being make much of a lunch. She just got a package or Ramon noodles. Not the best thing to eat. They are loaded with sodium so they are not good for a person with high blood pressure. So I told her that I would bring her lunch Today. So after my walk I came back and baked some fish and broccoli and corn and took that with me in my backpack and made her a more healthy and filling lunch. I checked the calories on livestrong.com and it was around 400 calories including the gelatin dessert.

Still there this morning.

I am very please with my blood pressure. The systolic has been under the recommended level for the last four times I have checked and the diastolic has been under most of the time too. My average blood pressure for January is at 132.5/86. It is not where it needs to be yet but at least it is moving in the right direction. That brings me to 131 miles with an average of 12,509 steps per day I walk and 7.5 percent of my total of goal of 1750 miles.

This place really scrambles to keep eggs rolling.

Cheryl works in a food district where trucks are coming in and out on the street all day. The one that is outside the window where Cheryl's works is an egg wholesale distributor. Also, we pass under the “L” on the way to her work at Lake Street.

According to the fitness tracker I made I should have used enough calories to lose six pounds now. I hope that is true. Sadly there are 74 pounds still to go. It sure is a lot more fun gaining weight than losing it. But I need to get it done. {Make it so.} I am hoping by April I am having to buy some new clothes. And able to wear some of my old ones that I like but do not wear due to my size.

View toward downtown from Lake Street where the "L" passes overhead.

The sidewalks were pretty clean Today. I think there is suppose to be snow tonight. I am not sure. I know it it gets too cold it will not snow. I hope so. If it gets much colder I might have to do my walking on the "L" where it is warm.

That is the fun for Today; 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