Biffster’s WeightJournal.com

WOW! I’m actually doing fairly well at getting my big ol’ body up, out and about! Over the last four days, I’ve gotten in three 20+ minute walking sessions. Sure, that’s not exactly running a marathon. But for me, it’s pretty damned good.

I took the advice of the article about exercise which I posted here yesterday and walked. And I was kinda surprised how easy it was to get out there and go. Tuesday, I went to the local rec center and walked for 1.1 miles. That was very cool, especially since I had my iPod Shuffle with me to distract me from the task at hand. I did 1.1 miles in almost exacty 25 minutes. Slow for most, but fast for me.

For those of you reading this who want to exercise but think that walking isn’t strenuous enough to do you any good, consider this: we have a lot more weight to carry than a normal person does! Say a normal person weights 175 pounds. To make exertion equivalent, that person would have to carry a backpack weighing 150 pounds to equal my weight! When you’re overweight, everything you do causes more exertion on your body. Walking is one of those activities where this is beneficial! Walk, and you will burn calories.

Wednesday and today, I went out for lunch and took a 25-minute walk. I don’t know how far it is, since it’s not a controlled environment (at the rec center, each lap is exactly 1/10th of a mile). But if I had to guess, I’d say it’s a mile. Or very close. My goal is now to walk three times a week for lunch, and to try and get a little time in at the rec center, too (I like exercising there).

There’s an awesome article running at Go Articles regarding exercise. Specifically, the article gives a number of tips for “Getting started with exercise when you really don’t want to.” This article seems to have been written specifically for me. I am so bad at getting started on an exercise routine! As long-time readers here know.

What I’m even worse at is starting, but then stopping immediately afterwards. The article even gives advice for those of us prone to that:

6. Be consistent

With a gentle exercise like walking be consistent and keep it up every day. It’s too easy to let a day off extend into a week and then it’s hard to get going again. If you do end up taking a break just go right back where you were. Don’t try and make up for a day off by doubling your efforts the next day. Also if you do a lot on one day and feel the painful effects of some new activity, still try and do your walk the next day, even if you have to go a bit slower than normal. It helps you turn exercise into a habit.

Exercise into a habit? Sounds absolutely wonderful to me!

Long-time readers here will know that I have gout. But I haven’t had a gout attack for quite a while now. And that gave me a false sense of security. Added to the fact that I don’t like taking medicine anyway, and this led to my decision that I could stop taking anythin. I figured, “hey, I’m eating better, so I don’t need to worry about triggering an outbreak.”

Well, i was wrong. Though I did manage to go about four weeks since I stopped taking my medication. But, over the last weekend, the joints in my right hand started killing me. They were aching miserably. It took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on, actually. I was first thinking, I must have arthritis. I might’ve used that as an excuse, too, but my kidney is sending out distress signals. I’ve had two gout-induced kidney stones, and that’s more than enough for me.

So last night, I told Erin what was going on. And she rightfully told me, “Don’t you dare complain to me!” She’s told me a few times to start taking the meds again, but I told her, “Hey, I’m an adult, I can make my own choices!”

I can, but I can also learn lessons from my mistakes. And that was a big one. [ouchie] So I’m back on my meds, and won’t come off them again.

Now I find this very interesting. Have you ever wondered what causes one’s side to hurt during exercise? I always have. That’s one of the excuses tI use to avoid strenous activity. I hate that “stitch” feeling, and don’t want to do anything that can trigger it. But what causes it?

Fortunately, someone sent AskYahoo that very question. And AskYahoo provided an answer:

The liver “hangs” from the diaphragm by fibrous bands called ligaments. Running exerts a steady downward force on your liver, stretching these ligaments. In addition, when you exhale (usually as your left foot hits the ground), your diaphragm is pushed up. That means your liver falls with gravity as your diaphragm rises, placing considerable strain on those poor ligaments.

They give advice for how to prevent this from happening: take deep, full breaths instead of quick, shallow breaths. This’ll keep one’s diaphragm in the right place at least half of the time.

There’s one less excuse I have for not exercising!

Weight: 325
Difference from last weigh-in: +2

One of the problems with updating this journal as infrequently as I had been is that I can’t relate time frames to weight fluctuations. When updating weekly, it’s easy to see that my behaviour on one week directly led to my weight increase/decrease for that week. But only weighing in every two-four weeks makes this impossible. That leads to me scratching my head, wondering how I could have gained two pounds, since I’ve been pretty good lately.

I’m guessing that, if I were weighing in more often, I’d have seen a spike in my weight about three weeks ago, and then a slow decline since then. But I cannot be sure. I can only guess. This is why I need to weigh in more frequently. Which means updating this journal more frequently.

Fortunately, this ties right into a change that I want to make to this journal. I really want to treat this as combination weblog and journal. I come across websites with really good information about weight loss or nutrition or exercise, but then quickly forget about them. I am going to start keeping a log of these websites here, so I can refer back to them. And maybe this log can help you out, too!

Using this journal as a weblog has the added bonus of making sure I update more often. If I am adding to the log three or four times a week, then there’s no excuse not to weigh in and post a personal entry at least weekly. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!

Ah, someone agrees with something that I’ve said for a long time: if you’re trying to lose weight, don’t skip meals! “According to George Washington University, people who skip meals, especially breakfast, are more likely to overeat later in the day. That’s because when you skip meals, you upset your body’s natural cycle of sleep, wakefulness and hunger.”

I’ve learned from experience that regularly skipping meals can make it even harder to lose weight. For me personally, I end up getting so hungry that I overeat at the next meal. I do much better sticking with either three meals with snacks in between each, or, even better, five to six small meals spread throughout the day. Skipping meals: definitely not a good idea for me.