A nice day for a walk

I resumed my lunch-time walks again today. Four laps on the track is a mile, so I spent about 20 minutes at lunch and walked my mile. It was beautiful out, and it's just so nice to get away from my desk for a little breath of fresh air. I think I might need new sneakers soon, though. I have some gel inserts, but they still don't feel all that comfortable. And I know it's important to have proper footwear for walking!

It seems like every day there is something that gets in the way of my plans to cut back. I ususally buy light bread, with just 40 calories per slice. The store was out of my usual brand that I get for $1.59, or $1.09 when they have it on clearance (which is normally when I buy it). Other brands were $2.79 or something totally ridiculous, so I bought some regular wheat bread for $2 minus a 55 cent coupon. It's yummy! But each slice is the same number of calories as 2 slices of my light bread. So, theoretically, I should just have a 1/2 sandwich each time. It makes sense, but I haven't been doing it.

Walking, walking

After some lousy weather that got in the way of my walking, I've been able to go the past two days. Yesterday I "hit the track" in between jobs. It was my last day at the 2nd job, at least until next year, so that won't get in the way of my walks anymore either. I had about 45 minutes to spare, so it was nice to take that walk and clear my head during that time.

Today I went out at lunch time. It was just a gorgeous day! Birds chirping, freshly mowed yards, and all that good stuff.

I haven't really been losing pounds in the past few weeks, since I started this up again. I don't know why! I've cut way back on the sweets, except for the last few days (since Easter). I'm trying to ignore the fact that the scale isn't budging, and focusing instead on how I must be replacing fat with muscle since I began my exercising. I mean, c'mon...SOMETHING good must be happening! I do find that the walks give me energy, so that's positive. I finally updated my weight tracker on the sidebar, but unfortunately it's up from where I was last time I tracked it. I didn't reset everything when I started up again. I just left the info like it had been so that I could have that positive reinforcement. But, when I logged on today, it told me it had been 80+ days, and I had to update it. So I did, but it went up a few pounds. Boo hoo!

National Start! Walking Day

Today was the American Heart Association's National Start! Walking Day. I didn't "start" today, but I continued my progress lately of walking about a mile a day. Sometimes I go at lunch at work, and ironically today, even though they had an event to promote the Start! Walking Day at work, I couldn't go because I had a doctor's appointment. I would have liked to. They probably had some type of incentive for people that showed up too.

Oh well, I didn't need any incentive. I just made sure to go when I got home from work. Me and 4 dogs! We live on back roads without many neighbors, so I don't need to put them on a leash or anything. They stayed with me part of the time, but then took off into the woods after a rabbit. Yesterday, it was deer they were chasing. That was comical. I saw the tails of the deer as they jumped a fence up ahead and went bounding off into the woods. The dogs gave chase, barking and yipping. Well, about 5 minutes later, here come the deer back across the road further ahead of me. A few minutes later, here come the dogs! Of course, they never did catch up.

I'd love to hear if you started walking today...

What will I look like?

I survived the auction yesterday without buying ANY food from the concession stand. I brought a sandwich and fruit salad and diet cokes, and that's all I ate for lunch. I had an apple later in the day that I'd brought too. I didn't end up going for a walk during the auction, but I did a lot of back & forth walking between the two sales that were in progress. My feet and legs ached by the end of the day, so hopefully the walking back & forth was enough to do me some good!

Here's a neat tool for motivation. It's the Weight Loss Simulator tool by Prevention, so you can see what you'll look like after weight loss. http://www.prevention.com/mvm/main.html Try it! It's pretty neat. Of course, if you're like me, you can just look at pictures of yourself from several years back and see exactly what you'll look like after weight loss...except the face has a much younger appearance in those pictures! LOL

Going once, going twice, sold!

We are heading to an auction today at one of the local high schools. They have an annual FFA auction, where you just never know what you'll find. There is usually a ton of farm equipment and vehicles, and then just a bunch of you-never-know-what. I would actually rather not go, since I know if we go, we'll spend SOME money, but it's like an annual tradition.

While I head outside to chore this morning, I'll have to think about how to handle the eating part of the day. Usually, I just buy from the cook shack that they have set up - hamburgs, hotdogs, chili, chips, snacks, etc. I think I might try to bring some stuff today instead - sandwiches and fruit salad and drink are all I can really come up with in my head right now. We don't have a lot of other grab-n-go food, since that's usually not a wise diet choice. I may give it more thought though. If I run out of time to pack stuff, there is a McDonalds down the street. I LOVE their grilled chicken ranch salad more so than any hamburger that I've ever gotten at McD's. So, I have that as one option. There is also a grocery store just a mile or so away. I could always go there for other healthier choices. Just saying that gave me a brainstorm. I do sometimes get bored at the auction, even though they generally have 2 auctioneers set up at once in different areas. I could always go for my walk to either the grocery store or McDs. It's supposed to be a beautiful day, so I just might do that!