DAY 4
Dog walk 45 min.
Ok, so one thing about maintaining a healthy, active lifestyle or a dieting regimen is that "LIFE" will get in the way. I can't do my lunch run because I have a Dr. Appt. this afternoon and I'm using my lunch time to do that. I'm really busy this morning for work so I couldn't squeeze a run in after the dog walk because I needed to get back in time to eat, shower, etc...and jump into my work. Being healthy also means keeping your job so that you can afford the good choices. I could have gotten up earlier to do a run or bike ride this morning but it was raining earlier and honestly I just didn't want to run in the rain. I hate the rain, it's depressing. My other choice is to hit the gym later this evening while my wife is at band practice. She sings on a worship team for our church and they have practice this evening. I think that's what I'll do but late evening workouts are tough for me because I'm usually "done" with the day by then. My body and my brain turn off by then. I'll have to push through the mental block of that.
Let me explain how I met June on the first day of August. Physical activity doesn't need to be complicated. Something as simple as a daily brisk walk can help you live a healthier life. Walking in the morning for me is great because it loosens me up, shakes off the rust and gets my heart pumping. You get to meet people too or encourage other people like the 50+ people we passed last Saturday that were on their 9th training mile for the upcoming Anthem Marathon. I've been walking my dog along this one route for a couple of years now and I've seen many people come and go for whatever reason. This week I noticed a newbie to the route. My dog is a magnet for conversation so "June" (I don't know her real name yet so I'm calling her June) passed Sasha and I walking in the opposite direction and asked "is that a wolf"? Lots of people ask that and of course she's not a wolf. Huskies actually do not have wolf in them. I told her no then she asked about the heat as people always do and again I helped her understand that "yes she's a northern breed dog but she's lived in VA all her life and has lived with the heat just like me." We know no different and then there is the "blowing of the coat" every spring and she has her own pool to lounge in. Hanyway...we chatted again this morning and I asked how far she walks...She walks about 2 miles every day and went on to explain that she can't walk too fast because of her Dr.'s orders. She has plaque build up in her veins (points to her neck). She's afraid to have surgery because the Doc told her he couldn't guarantee that during surgery some plaque might not get into her blood stream and get to her brain causing an Aneurism...she's chosen better eating and walking versus surgery. Good job JUNE!!!
Look even if you're not a runner you can get up and put one foot in front of the other. It ain't hard. There are all kinds of healthy reasons to start walking. Here's a few that I came across on the American Heart Associations website: http://www.startwalkingnow.org/whystart_benefits_walking.jsp
There was some other studies published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (published last month in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology) that suggested that runners had a much lower risk of developing high blood pressure and a host of other things than their sedentary counterparts BUT walkers were doing even better. They reduced their chances by 9% and runners only by 4.5%. Now, you also have to understand that you can't just step outside and do just that. These "walkers" had to match precisely the same energy expenditure of runners. My bet is that if you want to expend the same energy of a 4 mile run you are going to have to walk about one and a half times as far and it's gonna take you twice as long. At least that's what Paul T. Williams, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories said in the article I read today. (http://lifehacker.com/how-walking-is-almost-just-as-healthy-as-running-510444109z).
So if it's stopped raining in your neighborhood this evening get out and go for a walk.
Tomorrow I'm going to talk a bit about my current eating plan. Trying not to talk too much about I ate this, I ate that because that seems a little boring. I had a some back and forth though with someone on FB last night about weight watchers so it might be helpful to talk about my "diet". Anyway, here's what I had for dinner last night thanks to my Father-in-Law's handy work with beef cows. My wife and I were going to split the steak in half but then I realized that eating even half would be a lot of points so I at 4oz (a stack cards basically) of steak and loaded up on veggies and some broccoli. MMM, MMMM Good. I was full too and I only went over my points by 2 and never had my 8pm craving.
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