One more pound gone!

Well it's the new year and I am gradually trying to get back into shape. At my worst last year I weighed 204 pounds (first time EVER over 200). I clawed my way back to the mid 190's and stabilized there for a few months. Thanksgiving and Christmas didn't help much with trying to get the weight off. I have been walking fairly regularly for the past 6 months. That has helped me to feel better and get stronger. Now it's time to push through and get more weight off. I weighed in this morning at 193. I'm going to watch what I eat and try to keep exercising. I'm going to the Holy Land in 4 weeks, so I'm trying to get below 190 and maybe to 185 before I go. Stay tuned for updates!

Gradual Progress

I'm encouraged that I have lost 9 pounds over the last two months! I still have a long way to go, but it is good to make progress. I am finally able to wear my wedding band. Previously my hands were too swollen for it to fit. Now I can wear it during the day (and take it off at night because my hands tend to swell some while I sleep). Hopefully I can get back to wearing it 24/7.
I have been walking (with some short spurts of jogging uphill) over the past 2 months. In August I walked 16 times, burned 5,969 calories, and climbed 2,780.6 feet in elevation (according to my handy dandy Runkeeper app on my phone). Since one pound of fat is about 3,500 calories, I burned almost 2 pounds of fat by exercise and probably trimmed the rest of it off by eating more sensibly.
Starting to exercise takes patience. I did have about 10 days where I didn't walk at all and it allowed my muscles to heal up and stop being sore. I still wear a knee brace on my right knee (and probably always will). It just needs a little bit of support, especially if I jog any.
My youngest Yorkshire Terrier, Izzi, has tons of energy. This week I started taking her on the first half of my walk to help her burn off some of her endless energy. She walked 1.73 miles today and still wanted to play later!

Making Progress

Well, I'm making progress! I've been watching what I eat (but not doing anything crazy). The biggest change is that I have started walking a lot. If I walk my entire subdivision it is 3.45 miles. So most days I have been walking all of that. Some days I walk more. today I walked 4.24 miles and burned 495 calories! A long time ago a personal trainer told me that the only way to get rid of fat is to "burn it off with cardio." That means walking, running, or other aerobic exercise. I can feel it in my legs, sometimes my ligaments are sore. I also usually wear a knee brace on my right knee because it is a little weak.
A friend of mine helped me put new tires on my bicycle and tuned it up. I haven't gone riding yet, but hope to start soon. That's another form of exercise that will hopefully be gentle on my knees. I will keep you informed of my progress.
Speaking of progress, I am down to 198 now, which is a loss of 6 pounds! I'm still shooting for a final weight of 170 and want to maintain it. Once I reach that weight I will probably start working on my one mile run. I have always wanted to run one mile in less than 5 minutes. My best time was when I was at Georgia Tech and it was 5:12 (SO close!). I'm making progress!

Little by Little

A couple of weeks ago I went on a much needed vacation. Usually on vacation I eat like a pig and stay away from a scale for a while! But this time I tried to eat in moderation (most of the time). We stayed in Augusta house sitting for my in-laws for 6 days. During that time I decided to start walking. On Monday through Friday that week I walked at least 3 miles each day! Needless to say my muscles were a bit sore. I took off the following Saturday and Sunday. Then on Monday my left knee started hurting. So, I wore a knee brace for a few days and took it easy.
Now that I am back from vacation and my knee seems to be doing better I went walking yesterday (2.76 miles). My goal is not to go fast, but to build up strength & endurance. Today I took my bicycle to a friend's house and we worked on it for 3 hours (putting on new tires, adjusting the cables and tensions, checking the brakes, and cleaning up everything). It has been many, many years since I rode my bike. But now I have bike riding as an option for exercise. That should help my knees and also be enjoyable.
One of the things I realized while walking during vacation is that 3 years from now will be my 40th anniversary for hiking the Appalachian Trail. So I decided that I want to spend the next 3 years getting back into shape. And on April 12, 2020 I will climb Springer Mountain, which is the Southern Terminus of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia. It will be 40 years to the day when I first climbed that mountain on my thru-hike. I also decided that on September 4, 2020 I will climb Mount Katahdin in Baxter State Park, Maine. That will be 40 years to the day of when I completed my thru-hike. I know it is 3 years away, but it is a goal to shoot for!
I also realized that much of the Appalachian Trail can be "day hiked". That means you don't have to carry a backpack with camping gear as long as someone drops you off and picks you up along the way. In order to get ready for the 2020 hikes, I will probably do some day hikes. I did quite a bit of hiking on the Appalachian Trail both before and after my thru-hike. I'm going to go back and reconstruct all of the hikes that I remember. I'm pretty sure I have done all of Georgia in pieces, all of the Smokies, from South of the Nantahala River to Fontana Dam, a week in Virginia, and some other hikes. It's a long shot, but perhaps I could eventually day hike most (or all) of the Trail again in pieces. That would probably take the rest of my life to do!
And a weight check, I'm at 201 right now. I went up a few pounds right after my vacation, but I have already trimmed them back off. I'm making progress little by little!

Time To Start Again!

One of the things I learned on the Appalachian Trail was to never give up! Some days were tough, but I just kept going. It was an important life lesson! For those who read this blog, I have been silent for quite some time. The main reason is because my Dad went into the hospital on Dec 6, 2016 and (other than 9 days at home in March) he was in either a hospital or rehab until June 26, 2017. The good news is that he is finally home and is much improved.
Because of this, I have had terrible eating habits and have put on weight. For the first time ever my weight went over 200 pounds! Last week I started walking again and started trying to eat better. I started at 203 pounds and have lost a grand total of one pound so far. But it is a start. My first mini-goal is to get below 200 pounds (and stay there). But I still want to get back down to a healthy weight of 170. So stay tuned for more updates from time to time. God bless!!

First Injury

So, this morning I thought I would start out easy and go for a walk. I walked 2.1 miles in my neighborhood. Being totally out of shape, it was a work out. Later in the day my left knee felt a little bit weird. All I did was bend down to look at something on the lower shelf at Walmart and I felt it. When I got into the car I could feel it again when I rotated.
Five years ago it was my right knee. This time it's my left knee. So I'm sitting in my bed with my leg propped up and a knee brace on. I took an Ibuprophen. Hopefully it's just a little bit sore. I'll rest it and take it easy the next time!

Getting Back on Track

It's hard to believe that my last post on this blog was almost 4 years ago. A lot has happened since then. A couple of weeks after the last post I hurt my knee. I'm not really sure how it happened, but it hurt too much to run. I rested it for a week and tried to run but it hurt again. I waited two weeks and tried again and it still hurt. I wound up wearing a knee brace for a long time.

In the midst of the knee problems, my Mom decided it was time to move from Arkansas to McDonough Ga. Her house went under contract and I had to help her find a house to buy. I also had to arrange people to replace the flooring on the new house and paint it before she could move in.

Then I had to fly to Arkansas and help her finishing packing (which was a BIG deal). It was difficult for her to move since she had lived in the same house for 35 years. A friend drove the first truck load back to Georgia. I drove the second truck load back to Georgia with my Mom following in her car (with her 4 cats). I got a call on the way that the painting was finished but the flooring guy I lined up bailed on me. He was able to connect me with someone who could finish the job but it was a two day delay. That worked out since technically we had not yet closed on the house! So, we officially closed on a Friday. The floor was finished the next day. And we crammed all of her stuff into the new house.

Needless to say, with all of the chaos and my knee problems my weight loss project was out the window.

My knee eventually healed. A doctor told me that I was probably too old to run on a regular basis (something about being 54 and too much pounding on the knees). Life happened. I got busy and stayed swamped most of the time. The weight loss was something that I was going to get to “sometime”.

Last week my wife and I celebrated our 28^th wedding anniversary with a week long trip to Pigeon Forge, TN just outside of the Smoky Mountains. We rested a lot. We ate a lot. And we had fun. I’m afraid to step on a scale right now because I’m sure I put on more weight. Before the trip I weighed in at 196 pounds.

Now it’s time to start getting back in shape again. Exercising regularly and maintaining a healthy weight is a challenge for a lot of people. I’m certainly not “obese”, but I do have a gut that needs to be trimmed down. And my heart will probably benefit from some regular exercise. I will have to get creative about the kind of exercise to save my knees. I’m thinking bicycling, walking, light weight lifting and perhaps some swimming. And of course I will have to watch what I eat. I’ve done it before, I can do it again!

The last day of our trip we drove through the Smoky Mountains. We stopped by the mountain stream at the Chimney’s picnic area. We stopped at Newfound Gap (over 5,000 feet high) and took in the views. The Appalachian Trail crosses through that area and I walked up the trail for a few minutes. I took a picture of the sign which shows the distance to Mt Katahdin, Maine as 1,972.0 miles! It’s hard to believe that I backpacked that whole distance in 1980! On the way down we saw a herd of elk grazing in a field and a large flock of turkeys in another field. It was great to get back out into nature. Stay tuned for more updates as I am able to post!