End of Week One, On to Week Two...

Well...

Much as I enormously dislike getting up earlier than I absolutely HAVE to, I did drag myself out of bed and into sweat pants, shirt and sneakers by 6:30 each morning this past week, hitting the pavement for a 30-40 mins. walk.

And especially for John who commented on my previous post--YES, I walked in the rain... and it wasn't so bad!

The bad news was that I may have overdone things a little with a Pilates class I was doing at night, and by Friday morning, I had major back pain.

But, I pushed through it, and am feeling better--looking forward to another week of walking, and increasing speed a little too.

Diet-wise, I was pretty much eating what I wanted, so I don't expect much in terms of good news on the scale, but we'll see.

I think I still find myself sitting WAY too much though... so I'm working on--besides walking--trying to be more active overall, this week.  

Here goes...!

A Challenge and an Experiment... Feel Free to Join Me

It arrived, unsolicited, in my email this week... a challenge.

To "Walk Your Butt Off."

Just what I need... seriously.  And not just my butt, but thighs, love handles, arm-flags, the list goes on...

After numerous diets and exercise plans that have and haven't worked, weight lost, gained, lost and gained again... something's got to give.

The catalyst in all of this is a news report that was circulating ad nauseum about a year ago, which pointed out that a sedentary lifestyle is just as bad for your health as smoking.

That was a bit of an eye-opener, since sedentary aptly describes my weekday-working hours; sitting in front of my computers.  Literally hours can go by before I've gotten up even to get a glass of water, or a cup of tea.

So, when I saw the title of the book, and the aforementioned challenge, I thought, "Yes!  Walking is the one form of exercise that is free, and I have always enjoyed doing (except when it's pouring outside)."

Bursitis keeps me from running, and though I love to swim, the hours at the pool can be a bit unfriendly to my schedule.  So... walking is IT!

According to this book: "Walk Your Butt Off! Go from Sedentary to Slim in 12 Weeks with This Breakthrough Walking Plan" by authors: Butler, Sarah Lorge, Bonci, Leslie, Stanten, Michelle--if I stick with this program of walking for at least 30 minutes each time, and at least 5 days-per-week, I WILL be in much better health, whether or not I lose weight.

Since I'm looking at this as a challenge, I decided to blog about my journey.

Tomorrow is day one...  but first, some more ice cream. ;-)