After going nuts over the summer, I’m hitting the diet and exercise hardcore. I’m two weeks in and this is update #2.
To Step Or Not To Step…
Last year, I walked 6,685,801 steps or about 18,318 per day. As pf 8/14, I’ve walked 4,331,839 or about 19,252 steps per day. Despite my increased number, I’ve been trying to walk less.
Last year when I racked up those big numbers, I was forcing myself to walk everywhere. Compared to biking though, walking takes time. I’m at MMM HQ most weekdays and that’s a 3-mile round-trip from my home. At my pace, that’s about 50 minutes of time. A bike takes about 20 minutes round-trip. Even faster on my ebike.
The main reason I walked was to lose weight, but was it really necessary? Speed walking burns calories, but how about just eating less? I could either:
- Walk everywhere: Consume 90 minutes of very precious time daily.
- Eat less: Consume lettuce.
I chose the latter.
So far, it’s not working well. That’s because I was so active over the summer. Now that the girls are back in school, my walking will calm down.
Week Two
This week, I’m down another 2.2 pounds to bring my total loss to 8.2 pounds. Not bad for two weeks:
And now that the girls are back in school, I’m going to ramp up my exercise. I have some big bike rides planned (across the USA?), so I’m going to be in the saddle a lot. I’ll try to ride 100 miles per week.
Left on my own, it’s easier to stick to a good diet too. Younger Daughter has a list of 2.5 things she’ll eat. Older Daughter is somewhat more adventurous but gets easily bored. On the other hand, I’m happy eating the same thing every day, like this peanut butter tofu:
Mmmmm, peanut butter tofu…
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2.2 lbs a week is good! I did a 1200 calorie a day diet for 8 weeks for a weight loss competition and dropped over 2 lbs a week. I ate lettuce at ever meal to fill up–1-2 heads a day. I went from 185 to 163 in those 8 weeks. I had some of my best sleep during those 8 weeks.
The camping “break” didn’t even hurt you. 🙂
p.s. I have read that weight-loss is 80% diet.
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Camping “break!” Ahhh yeah, there happened to be a really great microbrewery close to our campground. That didn’t go well.
“p.s. I have read that weight-loss is 80% diet.”
Yeah, this is definitely true!
Across the US on your bike? Would you do a supported one? Our friends did a supported C2C (southern Cali to Florida) a few years ago and loved it!
Unsupported with a group of friends. It will probably be a year or two before it happens, but it would be a blast. I’d love to hear about your friends’ experience!
Unsupported CC would be seriously cool!
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Hmm, interesting – I’ve never thought about walking as a waste of time! But I do get the calculation. I find I have to make this compromise often. I bike to work most of the time, and for work errands and assignments, as often as I can but depending on where I need to go, sometimes I just need to take the car. If the assignment is within our small city’s limits, I stick to the bike, but outside of it mostly I will have to take the car because it would just take too much time out of my day. And usually if my assignment is within downtown, I walk. Walking is one of my favorite excuses to listen to a podcast, so I often find reasons to walk for that alone!
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It’s that same problem as with FI. It’s easier to save money than to make more. It’s easier to cut back on calories than to burn them off. You could, of course, elect to run or jog to MMR headquarters, which would cut down on transit time and presumably increasemail calorie burn. However with the decreased total transit time the total calorie burn is the same as walking, would just save you time. Oooorrr…you could cut down on so much beer. For which this comment is likely to get me banned for life.
Hi,
I love your blog, it’s soo inspiring. I can totally relate, my 3 year old lives on cheese sandwiches, yogurts and grapes! ugh…