Exercise

Alright, they say you need to exercise to lose weight. On October 6th of 2008 I had 3 surgeries on my left foot so that I would be able to walk. I had a bad heel spur removed, a tendon cut and 1/2 a bone removed from a toe so that I would be able to exercise. I didn't anticipate that recovery would be as bad as it was! So now, a year and a half later, I no longer limp and am walking again. I have been going slow so as not to put my body into shock and keel over! I have been using the treadmill at work and walking on it during my break. It is only 5 minutes before my calf muscles lock up but I am doing it! Well today I was able to add after my 5 min walk on break to a 10 min one at lunch. I also have the treadmill set at an incline of 6 or 8 so I won't get shin splints. I have raised my walking speed from 1.8 to 2.5 now so that is getting better too.. Now I know I am not doing enough exercise yet, but I am working up to it and am very proud of myself! I know that exercising relieves stress, makes you sweat, and raises your metabolism. The 2 things I need to do is relieve stress and raise my metabolism. A lot of people also don't realize that muscle burns a whole lot more calories than fat does so turning fat into muscle makes more fat go away! I also found out if you exercise right before you eat, you won't want to eat as much because the workout you just did let you know what eating does to your body if you eat more calories than you burn... I am finding with just the little exercise I am doing has me where I don't want to sit as much and that I want to move more. This is where they say you have more energy if you exercise.

I have been writing down what I eat every day and thinking of how it tastes and what it is doing to my body. Mentally I am evaluating how much I eat now and how much I will be eating after surgery. I have come to understand that I place way too much importance on what I eat for taste than for nutrition. I have gotten cravings for sweets or just more food and asked myself, 'do you really want to eat that and have more to exercise off?' So........ that helps keeping me from adding to the problem and then I get up from where I am at and do something and then the urge passes. But I do have to tell you, they sure do have a lot of food on TV!!!

A few days later...

Okay, so I have quit eating the yummy stuff. I like the Greek yogurt and the string cheese is good too! I have been working up my walking slowly. I haven't moved in way too long so I don't want to kill myself before the surgery. I have been putting the treadmill on a high incline so I won't get shin splints. My calves are still cramping up but I have gotten up to a whole 6 minutes straight walking and I have been doing it at a fast pace too! I am finding that I want to eat when I am not even hungry to just do it. I am still trying to figure out why. I am not bored but I guess a lot of it is just habit. I know this will be hard but I can do it and be stronger for it. I have quit smoking and drugs so what is eating except that I can't just stay away from it. There were donuts brought in at work, the soft sweet crispy creme ones and I didn't even have one! So it is a day by day thing but every time I pass up temptation, I tell myself how good I am! My will power is not the greatest so I will be hurting but then nothing worth doing is easy. I just tell myself how much I hate wearing the clothes I do, or just look in the mirror and see my ugly fat and that is enough to keep me going. I don't want to feel embarrassed anymore going out in public! Here is to me and my first days getting started.