Weighty Wednesday -- You DON'T Have to Run

Last week, I kept reading newspaper articles, magazine articles, and Internet articles that encouraged people to run.

Basically, they were saying that once you get your weight to a certain place and your health to a certain place the next step is to start jogging.

WRONG!

I can testify--TESTIFY, I tell you!--that you do NOT have to jog to lose weight or get in shape.

To reiterate: I'm a 51-year old woman who lost 50 pounds. I'm wearing a size four jean--in fact, wore my daughter's jeans yesterday and had 'baggy butt' halfway through the day. I need to buy better jeans! And I did this through Weight Watchers and WALKING. I could flex my arm muscles and you'd be surprised to see muscle definition--deltoids and biceps--we won't get into the triceps and 'bat wings' today. Though I will mention the bat wings are smaller than they used to be.

If you don't want to jog/run to get in shape, you don't have to.

But remember just because you aren't jogging, it doesn't mean you don't have to sweat or breath hard.

You do. . . if you want the benefits of walking without risking injury with jogging.

1. Have you ever wheezed and can't catch your breath while walking?  
2. Have you ever suffered a groin muscle pull while walking?
3. Have you ever hurt your joints while walking?
4. Have you ever gotten shin splints while walking?
5. Have you ever rolled your ankle because you didn't pay attention what you walked on?

Well, okay, I'll confess, I've done all of the above while walking, BUT it didn't put me out of commission for weeks of recovery. To recover, all I had to do was slow my pace down for a day or two and then I could amp it up again.

Besides every single one of those 'Have you--?" issues were flare-ups from previous injuries.

1. I have allergy-induced asthma. When the pollen/mold count is high, I wheeze.
2. When I tried jogging a few years ago, I pulled a groin muscle. When I was walking two-a-days for about 10 miles a day, I irritated it. I dropped back to one walk-a-day for a week and it fixed itself.
3. Actually, it helped the bursitis in my knee due to old skiing issues when I used straight skis in the 1980's. It was all they had back then. The curved skis are totally better, shift your weight, cut across the mountain. Easy-peasy. Far fewer knee injuries.
4. Shin splints happened when I pushed my stride and pace too much--old aerobics injury.
5. This happened, but I shook it off and could walk the two miles home. If I had been jogging, I might have done greater damage.

The one thing jogging will do that walking can't do--is help you finish quicker. Four miles walking, jogging or running is still four miles. It just takes a little longer to walk it.

The benefits from walking are fewer soft tissue and joint injuries than from jogging or running. I couldn't run a half marathon this way, but I don't want to. I don't necessarily want to be in as much condition as I was when I was in my 20's or 30's . . . we won't talk about my 40's that was when I was fat and didn't care!

I'm good with being healthy, active and fairly fit, simply through walking.

But you do have to sweat and breath hard to gain the full benefits.

Guess what I'm going to do once the sun comes up . . . yep, WALKIES!

Later, Peeps!

Weighty Wednesday -- WallyWorld or Bust!

*original title: Vacation Strategies* BORING! I prefer the new title, don't you?

I had another wonderful weigh-in, as I'm maintaining my current weight quite nicely, but there are always challenges to deal with.

The one monster that I've been fighting over the last few weeks happens to be the mongo-sized jar of Nutella that I stupidly bought at one of those wholesale warehouse stores. My little trick of taping the jar closed hasn't worked quite as well as it usually does. But the good news is that the jar is almost empty and will NOT be replaced anytime soon.

*sorry, kidlet, but momma likes her new size and can't afford the temptation!*

Another challenge many of us will be facing this summer is *duh-duh-duh* VACATION. Or you might have already dealt with it and have moved on because I'm late to the party. Oh, well. Better late than never, right?

I'll hop right into this topic, since I'm busy editing and I can feel the Sword of Damocles hanging over my head, ready to drop when the hair breaks.

There are three ways to look at weight loss when you vacation:

1) you don't give a rat's patootie about all the months and months of hard work you've done, because you deserve the party! WooHoo!!

2) you don't want to be a party pooper, but you also spent good money on the all-inclusive cruise/ resort/ Disney dining plan/ (insert whatever here) and want to enjoy yourself without doing too much damage.

3) forget having any kind of fun. You are focused with your eye on the prize and plan to pack your measuring cups, food scale, pedometer, exercise equipment, and points calculator.

**If there is nothing else you do when preparing for vacation, you need to at least think about how you will tackle food challenges, because they will ALWAYS be there.**

Personally, I don't have any use for plan #1--planning to gain weight.

I know how long it took to lose the weight and as much as I would want to go Girls Gone Wild, I don't think I could let it happen. The problem with this attitude is the chance that you won't want to regain control over your food when you return to the reality of you dull day-to-day life. The damage will have been done. Do you want to face the scale when you get back when you have this devil may care attitude?

I wouldn't.

I'm going to skip #2 for now and go directly to #3--staying the course and losing weight.

This is a wonderful plan, but don't you think it's a little in your face? Kind of like smokers who quit smoking and then they're worse than any non-smoker ever was about criticizing smokers?? Did that even make sense?  It's early and I over slept and my coffee is too hot to drink. Sorry, but that's my only excuse.

My only suggestion is don't be so focused that you lose the fun out of vacation, whether you are with your family or friends or your significant other. Enjoy yourself, but don't go overboard with the whack-a-doodle attitude. Instead of working out in the hotel gym, walk the beach with your bestie, learn to surf, or climb Diamondhead, or do the crazy fast walk in DisneyWorld to beat the crowd to Space Mountain. Find other ways to get your exercise.

If you've been doing this losing weight for any length of time you will probably have a good idea of portions. If you don't, then review your portion sizes by using your hand as a reference. Unless you have Sasquatch-sized paws on a tiny little body, then you have bigger problems to deal with.

Which brings us back to plan #2--staying the same weight

I'll warn you right now that even if you plan to stay the same weight, you might gain a little bit, but don't worry about that gain because it will come off quickly.

This is usually my plan. It revolves around making good choices most of the time and if you make a poor choice then you DON'T HAVE TO CLEAN YOUR PLATE!  Last year, my hubby told me that even though we on the Disney Dining Plan and everything was paid for up front. He told me that I shouldn't feel like I needed to eat everything on my plate. This was a HUGE relief, by just saying this it took away the guilt of throwing food away. It happens. I'm not going to eat it later like I would at home.

Here are a few vacation tips--and yes, many of these will sound VERY, VERY familiar!:
--smaller portions
--eat slowly
--drink lots of water
--enjoy an alcoholic beverage or two, but get a romantic walk later
--enjoy the fruits and vegetables of the local area
--limit your protein intake
--stay away from fried anything on a stick--you can sample from someone else's stick
--share desserts/snacks
--try a new exercise experience
--hike a mountain or even a molehill
--bike down a Hawaiian volcano

In my opinion, the key to maintaining or only having a slight gain in your weight is to thoughtfully enjoy your vacation.

Hang loose, Peeps!