Current Events > Started walking a few miles at night. Feels good man.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I used to be kinda fat. Like I weighed a lot but I'm kinda tall so while it sounded like a lot of weight it didn't look like that much weight. Over a year or two I lost about 100 pounds just simply by eating less. Instead of two sandwiches I would have one. 4 slices of pizza turned into 2. Etc. I guess it could also technically be called intermittent fasting but I don't know that it was widely called that at the time. But I'll basically only eat from 5/6 PM until bed time.

After I lost that weight I realized I was also totally out of shape but wasn't doing anything about it. I would work and then come home and lay on the couch watching movies or playing games. No joke I bet there were days I walked less than 1500 steps. Probably less than 1000. And this was a lot of days, not just the occasional outlier.

So two nights ago I decided to start doing walks. I live in a small town of about 1400 people. From the bridge that marks the entrance on one end of town to the bridge over the Susquehanna river on the other side of town is like 1.3 miles or so give or take. I'll walk up main street to one end and then over to the second street and walk that to the other side of town and then back to the starting point. It was like 2.6 or 2.7 miles. I was a little winded at the end and my hips hurt a little bit but it was nice. Then yesterday I did two laps so it was like 5.5 miles or something. My hips are killing me today and I have some blisters. Unfortunately there isn't any real elevation gain or anything so I'm going to adjust my future walks to include some areas that do have small hills.

But man does it feel nice to walk. I know walking is not strenuous exercise but it's something. I get my heart rate up a bit and sweat buckets. I'll just throw in my ear buds and put on a spotify playlist and lose track of time. I know I won't even be in "okay shape" after doing this for a while but for such a long time I've been thinking about getting back into the gym and this is a nice start to getting back there.

I might have actually gone a little bit farther last night but it was like 10:15 PM when I finished and it's kind of shady to just be doing laps in town that late at night.

Everybody is watching you on their ring wondering what youre up to

Semi-related too - If you own the pixel buds pro and think the tips they came with aren't great try the Comply ones they sell on the google website for them. I didn't have to make a single adjustment the whole time yesterday.

Don't get the ones from Amazon, they aren't exactly the same. Get them from the Google Buds website.

R1masher posted...

Everybody is watching you on their ring wondering what youre up to

I'm not a paranoid person really but I am.... something and I honestly think a lot about that. There's one small apartment building I pass and they have a camera in one window pointing out to the sidewalk. Every time I pass it I always look directly at it. Not because I try to but because it has a light around the camera part that is out of place and it catches my attention. I think I'm going to start making a funny face whenever I pass it.

I worry about dogs barking too because I worry some random persons dog will start barking causing other dogs to start barking causing people to wake up. I don't know why I worry about dumb shit like this. But the ear buds with noise cancelling help. I don't even hear them now.

I don't want to call it "easy" but you'd be surprised how simple (in theory, but not execution) just the slightest bit of exercise and eating right can get you on a healthy path.

And not even anything crazy like 2 hours of cardio every day.

This is going back almost 15 years now, but I was up over 300 pounds back when my son was born. One of those situations where my wife got pregnant, but I got all the cravings and overeating habits.

Once he was born, I just dedicated myself to better eating habits along with walks on the treadmill 5 times a week. It's a slow process, but it works. Set the treadmill to around 3.5 speed, which is just around brisk walk, and set the incline to 10-12ish, where ever you're comfortable.

30-35 minutes at a time, 5 times a week. That's really it.

I'm around a solid 220ish now. Firmly in "dad bod" zone, but at 45 years old, and the schedule I have, that's probably as good as it's going to get. LOL

I was 6'4" about 360. Now I'm about 255. All of that was just the eating differently. But yeah, I debated getting a treadmill actually but the fresh air is so nice. Eventually I would like to start going to the gym before work each morning. I don't even roll out of bed until 7:45 every morning so I could fit it in.

But good for you. It's so easy to get trapped in the lifestyle of not doing any exercise. I've been there for YEARS. I'm happy to be breaking out of it.