Re:Walk (Score 1)

This is the best advice I have seen in this thread so far. The reason I say this, is that it is what worked (is working) for me. Well, that is to say that it is one part of what is working for me.

"Let me 'splain" (apologies to Mr Ricardo):

I am a 44 year old Geek Fer A Livin'. When I was a much, much younger man, I was never concerned about my age, my weight, my length or any other measurement. Now that I am getting older, wider, and a hefty percentage of my SPAM has me starting to worry that...(different thread for that I guess) - anyway, my son is 11 and I was routinely embarrassed when we would be out and about for the day and my stamina, trick knee, unreliable ankles and a plethora of other euphemisms for old, fat and out of shape, would keep me from keeping up with my 4th grader, then 5th grader, and now that he is entering middle school, and getting old enough to really participate in some of the fun activities that I did when I was young, I find that I am too damned fat, old, and out of shape (did I mention that I smoke?)to keep up!

Well, I had enough. I decided that I needed to start "getting in shape". I simply don't have time in my schedule to allow for regular Tai Chi classes. I love the concept, but in practice I just spend the money and never attend the classes because the rest of my life conspires against it. I bought my wife and I both nice bikes to ride with our son, but again...time, weather, etc. I can't ride a bike to work, I carry my laptop, and about 30 lbs of tools and whatnot back and forth, as well as being out in the field most of the day working on Mr and Mrs Cleaver's computer.

So this is what has worked for me. First, give up on weight as the benchmark for success. Weight is only part of the equation and will follow along of it's own accord if everything else is in line. The key is metabolism. The only way to keep your metabolism up is to eat right and exercise. However, the debate that raged on above between the weight trainer and bicyclist, is just another Coke vs Pepsi (RC!) debate ... wait ... more like Fedora vs Ubuntu (BSD!) debate.. regardless of which camp you're in, you are both right and both wrong, and who cares? In the end it's a cola drink, it's not windows and it IS exercise!

Walking is a great start. Walking and stretching. I bought a good book about stretching because if I am going to exercise, the last thing I want to do is injure myself and lose six weeks of progress, and lose my enthusiasm to try again for fear of re-injury. And I can stretch in my own house without an audience.

Now my son and I walk for between half and hour and an hour every Mon, Wed, and Fri, whether we want to or not. We throw in the odd Tue, Thurs, or weekend day if we feel like it. We walk briskly, on the way out and march back like we are late for something. It gives us time together, happens on no set schedule as regards time of day, and if we miss a day nobody dies. If the kid has better things to do, I take a cell phone and call my brother, my best friend from high school, or one or another of a few old coworkers that I see less often now that I am self employed.

Add to that the fact that I have started eating five or six times a day instead of once. I drink water regularly as well. And there you have a recipe for a very low impact, high metabolism lifestyle with not really a ton of effort. The eating and water are actually fun. They say that your body freaks out because it thinks it's starving if it only gets fed once a day. So it starts going into emergency fat storage mode. Eating a small relatively healthy snack every two to three hours and drinking a large glass of water at the same intervals (I alternate, so I am horking something down almost once an hour)keeps the body relaxed about where its next meal is coming from so it quits storing fat. The next thing is to keep in mind is that muscled people lose weight in their damned sleep! (f*%$ers!) Muscle burns calories, fat doesn't. Walking regularly (If You Miss A Day [or two, or three] Nobody Dies!), then you build muscle. Therefore you start burning fat just sitting there, and if your body isn't helpfully keeping you from starving by making tons more fat as fast as it can, (because you are eating more often - smaller portions of course, but every two to three hours! and drinking more water), then you start to gain momentum, and before you know it, more aggressive techniques aren't so lofty seeming anymore.

I started all this in preparation for stopping smoking. Since I am quitting as a first step to getting in better shape, I decided that gaining sixty pounds in the process was a little silly. All I wanted to do was raise my metabolism, raise my energy level, and (just maybe) not gain a metric ton when I quit.

I start my quitting next week, (wish me luck, this one has to be the last one), but started my metabolism care routine early, to already be in that mode, and I accidentally lost somewhere between 8-13 lbs. Since I am not doing this to lose weight I never weighed myself before I started, but have been hovering between 205 and 210 for the last eight or so years. I weighed myself when I went in to talk to my doctor about Chantix, and was at 200! Last weekend I weighed myself and was down to 197 - under 200 for the first time since I topped out at 240 when my wife was pregnant (I was quitting smoking then too, and gained TWICE as much as my wife did during the pregnancy!)

• So Stretch.
• Walk.
• Eat.
• Drink (water).

You'll be surprised how much better you feel and how your weight will do the right thing just like you are.