Kathy: Week 6 One Step at a Time

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Current Weight: 146

Last Week's Weight: 148
Starting Weight: 151

Total Weight Loss: 5 pounds


Today's BMI: 25.86 (still "overweight")

Yay! Two more pounds down the drain! I seem to be losing weight in stair steps, and I'm ok with that. Five pounds in five weeks = healthy weight loss. I've stepped up my exercising this week, and I feel great! 

So what's working well for me this week? I love eating healthy foods! Yesterday my husband and I went to Trader Joe's for the very first time. What can I say? We're a little slow on trends sometimes.

 We had a great time! We found some yummy foods to spice up our same-ol' same-ol' menus, while still staying within our calorie counts and criteria for healthy foods.

Speaking of calorie counts, I'm still eating four 400-calorie meals a day (3 meals plus snacks that total 400 calories). This week I picked up the Real Simple magazine at the grocery store - they have a feature article on 400-calorie meals. If you type "400-calorie meals" into their search window, you get a bunch of recipes.

I have noticed a couple of things about my body this week:

1. My clothes fit better. Yay!

2. I am stronger!! It is amazing to me to see how quickly my muscles have responded to the workouts. Muscles are designed to be active; they are designed to get stronger. Isn't that cool? I'm not a super-buff fitness model, I'm just a middle-aged grandma and school teacher, but my body still loves to get fit. It feels so good!

I've mentioned that my husband and I are taking a yoga class one night a week. Wow! We really really love this class. My balance is improving. My muscles get both stretched and strengthened from the yoga poses. I'm no yoga expert, but throughout the week I remember enough of the instructions to incorporate them into the moves I do throughout the day--sitting with better posture, standing taller, tweaking other exercise moves just a bit to improve my performance. If you've never taken a yoga class before, you might want to check it out! We are taking ours through a community education class, so it only costs about $6.00 per session. I know of a local gym (Nelson's Nautilus) that offers classes, which are available even to nonmembers. I'm sure you can find yoga classes in your area, too!

I also go to the Curves gym 3x a week for a 30-minute workout on their circuit. It's a good workout for me, with friendly women of all ages and fitness levels for companionship.

But aside from these workouts, I try to be more active every day! One of the gizmos that helps me is my little pedometer. I like to know how many steps I've walked every day. Super active people log 10,000 steps a day. Some days I get there, but most days are in the 5,000 step range. If I only have a couple thousand steps on my pedometer at the end of the day, I know I want to get up and move more tomorrow!

Wearing my pedometer reminds me that it's a good thing to take more steps: I don't mind if I don't get the closest parking space, I prefer the stairs to the elevator, etc. One evening last week, I noticed that the pedometer only had 4,000 steps logged, so I headed out for a quick walk. In the spirit of "walking in circles," I checked my pedometer after a few blocks, noticed that I was around 5,000, and headed home--it was getting dark, and I was glad to have logged over 6,000 steps that day, thanks to a 15-minute walk in my neighborhood. 

Are you interested in wearing a pedometer to help motivate your healthy living? I don't know much about brands or types. I bought a good quality, but fairly inexpensive one several years ago, and it still serves me well. I ordered it online from the New Lifestyles website. They sell all kinds of fancier ones, but I bought the basic "SW-401." Along with it--and this is key--I also bought a STRAP to clip it to my waistband. The strap is only $3.00, but it's the reason I still have my $20.00 pedometer. I highly recommend the strap! It's saved me from losing the pedometer many, many times.

(Note to Alex: You'll be glad to know that yesterday afternoon--after sitting for most of the afternoon, doing homework for my university class--I was motivated to move! I went to a nearby track and jogged/walked for 25 minutes! It felt so good. My knees didn't hurt, but I need to work on my cardiovascular capacity--it was hard to breathe enough to keep running.)

I know this is quirky, but I write my steps in my journal every night! Don't ask me why. Sometimes I tally up how may steps I walked in a week (last week: nearly 32,000). Sometimes I compare between the same date last this and this year. But mostly I just like to write them down. Something about keeping a record of my walk through life, maybe?

My little record reminds me that we accomplish our goals to be healthier and happier one day at a time, one step at a time. There's no other way to get from here to there.

If you leave a comment today (I hope you do!) I'd love to hear about what you are doing today for your life goals. I'm sending "atta-girls" and "atta-boys" out to you...we can do it!

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