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Well, it’s Thursday, and I just couldn’t bring myself to get up early for a full workout.  Fortunately the weather was cool, and I wasn’t needed at work until 9:00 am, and I needed to visit the bank, so I combined exercise with running errands.

I got to the office early, parked my car, and walked to the bank.  Then I took the long route back to the office.

The result?  I walked for 40 minutes, burned at least 200 calories, got my banking done, and got some exercise.  And that’s the key: if you don’t have time for a formal work-out, then incorporate exercise into your daily routine.

Of course I’m now well below my 500 calorie per day exercise target, so tomorrow it will be time to crank it up a notch.

Today, Wednesday, I managed to get up early and do 25 minutes on the treadmill (2.33 km, 200 calories) and 3 sets of 15 push-ups, and 3 sets of 15 sit-ups.  Unfortunately that totals less than 300 calories for the day, so I’m still short.

I’m not giving up yet; there are still a few days left to do lots of exercise, so the plan continues.

Well, my 3,500 Calorie Exercise Weight Loss Challenge is proving more difficult than I thought. 

Yesterday, Monday, I got up early and did 25 minutes on the treadmill and some push ups and sit-ups to burn about 300 calories.  I worked all day, so by the time I got home at night I had no energy to burn another 200 calories, so I started the week off 200 calories short of my 500 calorie per day goa.

Today, Tuesday, I got up early again, did 25 minutes on the treadmill, plus some weight lifting.  In my 40 minute plus workout I probably burned another 300 calories.  This evening I went for a bike ride, but it was a short one, so that was only good for another 100 calories, meaning 400 on the day, so short another 100 calories.

For the week: short 200 on Monday and 100 on Tuesday, so I’m down 300 calories.  Not good..

My other worry is that getting up early every morning gets harder as the week goes on.  I get to bed as early as I can, but it’s still not easy.  We shall see how the week progresses.

Well, My Weight Loss Plan has been in progress for one week. I weighed myself this morning and I weighed in at 194 pounds; since I started last week at 196 pounds, that means I dropped two pounds in the first week.

That may not sound like much, but I consider it a success. I didn’t starve myself; I didn’t drastically alter my diet, or spend eight hours a day exercising.

I took a few simple steps, as described in My Weight Loss Plan, and had fun doing it.

This week, I plan to leave my diet where it is (healthy foods only, no junk) but I want to try something new: Since I know that a pound of fat is the equivalent of about 3,500 calories, I want to try to burn 3,500 calories through exercise in one week. You can read more about it in the 3,500 Calorie Exercise Weight Loss Challenge.

I started the day with a 2.4km walk/run on my treadmill. It took 25 minutes, and burned 200 calories; I also did some calesthenics (push-ups, sit-ups, and stretching) so I probably burned a total of 300 calories this morning, which means I need to exercise off another 200 tonight to get to my 500 calories per day exercising target. We will see how I do.

Today was a perfect weather day, so my son and I went for a bike ride.  I have a Giant Sedona LX bike, pictured here, which is a “comfort” mountain bike.  It works great on trails and dirt roads, and works on regular roads as well.  I rode for around 38 minutes and covered just over 9 kilometers, so according to my calories burned during exercise chart, I burned just over 300 calories.The point was not the calories burned or the exercise; the point was that it was fun.

Today is Friday; after a week of getting up early for a workout, I decided to take a day off.  That’s a day off from a formal work-out, but not a day off from exercise.  Instead, today I incorporated exercise into my daily routine.

After lunch, instead of heading straight back to the office, I took a walk around the block.  Many blocks, actually.  It was a half hour walk.  Aerobically that might not be as good as a half hour run, but it’s still exercise, and according to my blog post on calories burned during exercise, and my post on calories burned while walking, walking a mile can burn 120 calories, depending on your weight and speed.

I think next week I will try to incorporate more walking into my daily routine.  Perhaps I’ll start by parking the car at the far end of the parking lot and walking.  A lunchtime walk clears the mind, and is a small step in the direction of my weight loss goals.

Today I did my workout again (25 minutes on the treadmill, 1.93 km buring 179 calories) plus 30 push-ups and 20 sit-ups.  I am also focusing more on portion control as an aid to weight loss.

It’s really not that hard.  Last night I didn’t have seconds for supper.  Normally I would, but I felt full, so there was no need to eat food just because it was there.  So I didn’t.

I have found that eating small quantities of food every two hours, instead of three bigger meals a day, keeps me from getting so hungry that I need to eat more to fill up.  That strategy alone should help me lose weight and cut calories.

Today: the same weight loss plan as yesterday.  I got up early and spent 25 minutes on the treadmill (I went 1.88 km and burned 159 calories according to the treadmill).  I then did barbell curls (25 with 20 lbs), tricep curls (25 with 20 lbs), front leg extensions (30 with 25 lbs) and reverse leg extensions (20 with 25 lbs); I did the weights in two sets.

Of course I realize that 25 minutes on a treadmill and lifting a very small amount of weights is not a huge workout; that’s not the point.  My plan is to start slowly; there is no point in getting injured in the first week.  I will gradually build from here.

We all know that exercise alone is not enough for weight loss.  To lose weight you must cut calories and modify your diet.  So this week I am:

• eating every two hours (small meals, of course) to keep my blood sugar levels constant;
• avoiding all junk food (no soft drinks, fast food);
• drinking lots of water; and
• replacing my night time snack with healthy foods: yogurt and cheese.

I will wait until one week has passed before doing a weigh in; more tomorrow.

As described in My Weight Loss Plan, one of the keys to successful weight loss is exercise.  So, today, some exercise.
 

I have exercised before in my life, and one lesson I have learned is this: don’t over-do it.  There is no point in trying to go out and run 10K on day one; you only succeed in injuring yourself, so that you can’t exercise for a month, which defeats the purpose.
 

So I started slowly.  I got up early and got on my Precor 9.33 treadmill.  I set the timer for 20 minutes (which means 25 minutes because there is an automatic 5 minute warm down at the end), and walked at a reasonably slow pace.  In 25 minutes I covered 1.7 km (just over a mile), and burned 153 calories.  Then I did two sets of 15 situps on my work-out ball, and two sets of 15 pushups.
 

I finished with some stretching, and that was it.  Simple, not strenuous, and no injuries, which is the simple way to start an exercise program.

Well, you’ve read my posts about My Weight Loss Plan and the theory behind what I’m trying to do: lose weight.

Enough theory; today it’s time to get started.  I woke up this morning and weighed myself: 196 pounds.  That’s 20 pounds too high, so time to get started.

Starting today no soft drinks, no french fries, no junk food.  Oatmeal for breakfast; salad with chiken for lunch; chicken and broccoli for supper.  I will eat every two hours (snacks of an apple, cheese, and a small quantity of nuts) and drink lots of water.

Let’s see where we are at tomorrow.