I'd like to propose that our next fitness challenge be based on "minutes/hours" since folks like to do different types of work outs. Thoughts?

--- On Tue, 3/17/09, Dan Duncan <cigardan1@...> wrote:

From: Dan Duncan <cigardan1@...>
Subject: [pounds4pounds] What do you do when your clothes are tight, and the stairs are a challenge?
To: pounds4pounds@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2009, 11:28 AM

Hey Everyone,

Hope all is well, sorry for the quietness of the group. Laura and I are now happily relocated to Olathe, Kansas and all is well. We love our new house, love the new jobs (Laura got a new position within her existing company), and I LOVE the weather. We have already had some thunderstorms and I giggled like a schoolgirl.

Over the last few weeks, I had started noticing that my clothes were getting alot tighter, and the stairs seemed more difficult than they used to be. All of a sudden I realzed that 4+ months had gone by, I had completely fallen off the healthy wagon and had not been eating right, nor exercising regularly. It is amazing to me how easy it is to fall back into the old patterns. I crawled on the scale and was horrified to see that I had put on most of the weight that I lost last year. The final kicker was when I decided to go for a walk today. I was quite surprised to find out that a 13 minute brisk walk kicked my butt.... MAN, was that crazy. Back in September and october we were walking 1+ hours at a time, and though a little sweat would form it was nothing like I experienced today, Huffing and Puffing, you would think I was trying to run up to the top of Mount Everest.

So to answer my original question, what do you do when your clothes are tight, and the stairs are a challenge AND, a 13 minute walk kicks your butt? Well, you move forward. There is no point worrying about yesterday or the day before, I can only focus on today and what is happening tomorrow. Back on the healthy train for me. Eating right and daily exercise, it is no longer optional.

I have heard rumors of another walking challenge coming up, perhaps end of April or beginning of May, so keep an eye out for that. Hope everyone else was able to keep walking through the holidays. I will check back in a couple days to let you know how things are going.

Dan