No More Mr. Fat Guy!

Did 2 hours and 15 minutes of walking today. Plus, I chased one of the kid goats who got out of the pasture and into the yard for about twenty minutes, which was not fun. But one day he’ll be my supper, so it all evens out. Speaking of supper, I didn’t do too well on that front. Stopped at Hardees. They’re having a Buy One Thickburger Get One Free campaign, so I got two of their third pound mushroom burgers. And fries. And a Pepsi. I know, I know…

Well, today didn’t get off to a great start.  I was going to blow off heading for town to walk, but I talked myself out of it and got in the truck.  Went to the gym, popped my earplugs in to listen to George Noory, and took the first few steps.  And before I knew it, an hour was gone.  By this time they’d turned the radio up again, and so I left.  Sorta felt like a quitter, since I usually walk at least two hours a day, but then, that’s the nice thing about walking two hours a day - even when you only do half your normal workout, you still walked for an hour, and that’s a pretty good walk.  Then about 8 pm it had cooled off quite a bit, so when my friend John went out for a walk on the back roads, I went with him.  Got another hour in, and some good conversation.  So I made my quota after all.

Gotta work part time tomorrow.  Not sure if I’ll have time to walk or not.  Tune in to find out!

I didn’t sleep much on Saturday night; probably only about 3 hours all together. Then I worked all day Sunday. When I got home I was beat, and went right to bed. Woke up around 5:15 this morning, and by 5:45 I was out on the back roads taking a long walk, enjoying the lack of a blaring radio, and listening to George Noory. Did 90 minutes. Later on I’ll head into town and do some more walking at the gym, and I’ll have an official weight to post tonight.

Cron’s right - bodies and scales sure do fluctuate. I decided that for the blog I’ll use the readings from the scale at the gym since I’ll be there at least five days a week to walk. It reads about 5 pounds higher than my scale at home. Yesterday the gym scale said 284.2 and today it reads a pound higher. Now, since I walked 2 hours yesterday, and didn’t eat all that much, I think it’s highly unlikely that I gained a pound these past 24 hours. It’s just the normal range of fluctuations. I’m not really too worried about what the scales say right now, anyway. I’m just recording the data for those who are following along at home, and to track my long term progress. I know that if I keep walking and eating right the pounds will eventually drop off.

I just got home from the gym as a matter of fact. I’d planned on walking 2 hours today, but I felt so good that I went a half hour over, for a total of 2.5 hours. A lot of people wonder how I can walk that long without getting bored. They can’t imagine doing it themselves. Well, I love walking to start with, so that helps. I’ve always enjoyed it, even if I haven’t always done it as much as I should have. But there’s no way I could walk a couple hours a day on my own. I can go an hour with no problem, and could do it every day. But much longer than an hour and the boredom factor becomes a significant obstacle.

That’s why I bought the mp3 player a while back. They’re getting cheaper all the time; mine holds 24 hours of talk and I paid about $35 for it from Amazon. If you want to get into some real heavy duty fitness walking I strongly suggest you pick one up. They’re a lot lighter and more manageable than a CD player. Anyway, as regular readers know, I generally listen to George Noory and his Coast to Coast AM talk show on my mp3. But there for a while he started having a lot of guests and discussions that I just had no interest in. That’s part of the reason I slacked off on walking, along with my heel problems. So really, if you think about it, it’s George Noory’s fault I’m still fat. Nah, just kidding there! Anyway, it had been a long time since I walked, or listened to George, or even checked the website to see who the guests have been lately. And then, out of the blue, a very good friend who lives in Los Angeles sent me a package in the mail. It was a brand new copy of Noory’s book. She knows how much I love the program, and out of the kindness of her heart decided to do that for me. It was really sweet and generous of her, and I still can’t get over it. And it reminded me how much I love listening to Coast to Coast AM. And it played a big part in getting me back to walking again. So thanks again, Melissa!

I got in two full hours of serious walking today. Went to the gym around 3 in the afternoon. I walked moderately for 20 minutes, then took a 5 minute break. Then I walked for 40, very briskly, and took another break. Then 45 more minutes at a brisk pace, another break, and then a final 15 minutes of leisurely walking. I feel great. I’m disappointed in the gym, though. When I joined several months ago, one of the main reasons I joined was because they didn’t play the radio very loudly. That policy has apparently changed in the interim. I’ve really got to turn the volume up high on my mp3 player to hear George Noory. Oh well. It’s unpleasant, but it’s too hot to walk outside, and there are worse things in the world to put up with.

The show I listened to today was with John Robbins. You may be familiar with his story. He was the heir to the Baskin-Robbins ice cream chain, but walked away from it all and began crusading for a healthier America. He’s written some books. I think his most famous is called Diet For A New America, but I could be wrong, and don’t feel like looking it up right now. He’s got a fairly new one out, which is what he was promoting on George Noory, called Healthy At 100. (My book will be called Unhealthy At 300.) Here’s his website.

I’m still at my friend’s house, but I should be home sometime Tuesday. I’m on a terrible sleep schedule-going to be around 10am and getting up around 5pm. I’ve really got to figure out how to get back to the standard circadian rhythms and be a normal human being again.

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I’m spending a week or so with some friends, as of yesterday.  I was busy traveling and settling in, so I didn’t post for a day or so.  I’m at about 280 right now.  It’s headed the wrong way, which I knew it would when I quit walking.  Most of my weight loss has come from two things-walking, and quitting soda pop.  And lately I’ve replaced a lot of the sugar and calories I was getting from Pepsi with iced tea.  I’ve been drinking two or three quarts of that a day, for a total of 500-750 calories a day just from sugar.  Not quite as much as I was getting from 6-7 Pepsi’s a day, but still plenty.  Still smoking, too.  I really need to do something about the sugar, caffeine and nicotine intake.

So, since yesterday, I’ve been nicotine free–no cigarettes, no gum, no patches.  It’s easier when I’m around other people to go without.  I’ve also been without tea, except for one glass to prevent getting a headache from caffeine withdrawal.    And my body is certainly noticing the difference.  It’s bad enough when I cut out either caffeine or nicotine.  But doing both at once is double the fun.  On top of the cigarette and and sugar cravings, I can hardly function due to lack of energy.  It’s very strange-I sit here trying to read, and not only am I overcome by the desire to lay down, I also can’t stop yawning or nodding off.  But when I give in and lay down, I can’t sleep, even though I can’t stop yawning.  So I try to read in bed, and keep nodding off and yawning uncontrollably.  It’s very strange.  I’ve been through it before, and it lasts a couple days.   I knew what to expect, and so did the friends I’m staying with, so I just brought a bunch of books and I’m either in the reading chair or in bed for the most part.   And I do somehow manage to make a little progress in different books.  It would be really great if I could kick all three–caffeine, nicotine, and sweet drinks–for good.  But I’m not going to worry about that right now.  I’m just going to try to drift off to a good night’s sleep by listening to George Noory.

That’s the official weight for this week. I just got back from a 90 minute walk, and earlier I cleaned out the goat barn and scrubbed down the milk barn. That’s the most physical work I’ve done in months.

I may have to find something else to listen to while I walk, as the weirdo guest quotient on the Coast to Coast AM show seems to be at an all time high lately. George Noory is still going to be my first choice, but I need a back up to make sure I’ve got something interesting to listen to every day.  Music doesn’t interest me, at least not while I’m walking. I’m thinking of going with either the Diane Rehm show from NPR, which is free, or the Bob and Tom morning show, which I’ll have to pay for. Any other talk show podcast suggestions are welcome, as long as they don’t involve religion or politics.

One more pound and I’ll have lost 20 since January 1. Four more pounds and I’ll be 30 below my all time high of 303.

Today I listened to the last of the Coast To Coast AM shows that I had on my mp3 player, so I downloaded some more. Each show is technically 4 hours, but for the downloads they cut out the top of the hour news broadcasts along with all the commercials, which means that each hour is only about 36 minutes. And I don’t download the first hour of the show, as it’s usually just George Noory discussing news stories. I have a 512mb mp3 player, and I can get 36 of these segments on it at one time, for a total of 12 shows. Anyway, I was looking at the recent shows to see which ones I want to download. I skip a lot of them, as they don’t interest me. Like the show from March 4:

Psychic Amelia Kinkade discussed her in-depth experiences communicating with animals. The ability to receive information from animals, she noted, is a learned skill rather than a gift. Kinkade said she is actually able to merge her consciousness with animals.

Big deal. I can do the same thing with pizzas.

To see what condition my condition was in. Well, it’s still huge. But its hugeness is decreasing a little at a time. And I’m still fighting the good fight–I just got back from a two hour walk. I simply cannot believe the great weather we’re having. When it’s 68 degrees at two o’clock, with a clear blue sky, how can I not go out and walk for a couple hours? Maybe Mother Nature wants me to lose 100 pounds? Or, if you’re a New Age type, maybe this beautiful weather is Gaia the Earth Goddess’s way of saying “either lose some weight or get off me, ya great fat oaf!!!”

For the record, I don’t believe God is a female. I mean, c’mon–if God were a woman, we’d all be lookin’ up her dress! And ya can’t have that–I see England, I see France, I see Ishtar’s underpants! And if God really is a woman, may she strike me down with PMS. Besides, she started it when she called me a great fat oaf.

Anyway, two hours of walking (thanks to George Noory for the company), and I’m feeling great. Check back again tomorrow to see if I stick with it. Or if I’m in bed with PMS.

Got up today and the scale said 278. Around noon I went out and took care of the goats and birds and dogs, and then came back in and had lunch. Two “all natural” chicken sausages, and a salad. Around 2:30 I headed out for my walk, and took my George Noory mp3s with me. I took my usual route, which takes an hour and 20 minutes. But I added some trips down side roads for a total of two hours walking. And, boy do I feel good. Tired, but in a good way. I was actually gone for 2 hours and ten minutes, but I had to take a ten minute break. I’ve got these inserts for my shoes that someone gave me a year or so ago. I think they’ve got magnets in them or something, and they’re supposed to help your feet. One side has a bunch of raised dimples, and one side is flat. I’ve been using the flat side up, and I thought I’d try the dimpled side and see how that felt. I probably shouldn’t have picked a two hour walk to do that. After 90 minutes, it felt like my feet were on fire. I stopped at a bridge and reversed them, and sat there for ten minutes with my shoes and socks off to cool down my feet.

Man, I hope this weather keeps up. I hate having to drive to Fayetteville to walk when the weather’s bad, and so I just end up not walking at all. And it’s so much nicer walking outside, taking a long loop, rather than going around a track in the gym that’s 1/18 of a mile over and over and over.

Yeah!

It was really nice today here in the Tennessee Valley. When I went out walking I wore shorts for the first time in weeks. I thought, hey, while I’m exercising, why not give the soccer moms and farm wives a thrill? I can’t help it–I’m a giver. It’s just the way I am.

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