1067 Days to go!
I’ll be using this post to update my fitness progress each Monday until we depart on the hike. Thanks to Steve for leading me to the website “myfitnesspal.com” which has been a great help in allowing me to track my calorie intake and exercise.
My personal goals for the years and months leading up to the hike are:
April 2013- April 2014 Weight loss!, Learn to play the Banjo, and lots of sleeping.
April 2014- April 2015 Maintain weight, spontaneously self-combust, and expand physical fitness.
April 2015- April 2016 Accumulate gear, turn to life of crime, and do numerous training hikes.
Starting weight: 289 lbs
Goal: 225 lbs at start of Hike. Self-amputate a limb or two if goal weight not met.
Week 1:
10 Miles Walked.
36 Miles on Stationary Bike
Weight: 288 (-1 lb thus far)
Week 2:
14.6 Miles Walked. (24.6 total thus far)
50 Miles on Bike (86 thus far)
Weight: 285 (-4 lbs thus far)
Week 3:
15.5 Miles Walked (40.1 total thus far)
61 Miles on Bike (147 thus far)
Weight: 281 (-8 Lbs thus far)
Week 4:
19.3 Miles Walked (59.4 total thus far)
82 Miles on Bike (229 miles thus far)
Weight: 279 (-10 lbs thus far)
Highlight – I successfully continued my attempts to lose weight each week and to increase my walking and biking mileages each week. I also have completed AT Trail-related book #6 and have started reading #7.
Lowlight – I developed my first blister (and subsequent open wound) while walking, a fact that my son pointed out when he gagged at the sight of my bloody sock one evening after I came in from my walk and removed my shoes. So, I know that one of the four pairs of shoes has indeed blessed me with a blister. One problem. I can’t remember which pair I was wearing that evening. I am now conducting CSI-worthy blood splatter analysis on each pair of shoes so that I can uncover the guilty pair. (Another exciting evening in the idiot household)
Also….
When I walk around town, I always have my water bottle gripped in my left hand, and my Ipod gripped in the palm of my right hand. I could put the Ipod in my pocket, but I am real finicky when walking and need to be able to fast forward through songs I am not in the mood to hear at that moment. In our town, it is customary for walkers and passing vehicles to acknowledge each other through a friendly wave as you pass each other. For the past week, I would be shuffling along, would see an oncoming vehicle, and would raise a finger of my Ipod-gripping right hand in a friendly wave as the vehicle passed me. Not until late in the week did I realize that my Ipod-grip used four of the five fingers, thereby only leaving the MIDDLE finger able to be raised and displayed for my passing neighbors. Yes, I have been trotting around town for most of a month, FLIPPING OFF virtually every vehicle that is coming my way…… and smiling as I do so……………..
That’s me, the fat Canada-Jacket wearing Santa Claus shuffling around town flipping off everyone within eyesight of me.
Exercising Song of the Week that no one under the age of 45 will remember…
“Every 1’s a Winner” – Hot Chocolate (1978)
(video below)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQsg6XXGxXQ
Happy Hiking everyone! 🙂
Haha. That hand gesture might come in useful. Then again ….
They’d probably give me a trail name of “Birdman” or something like that 🙂
You’re right… Honestly don’t know that song. lol
Ya know… they sell wrist bands and/or arm bands that have pockets in them to hold your Ipod. I have one for my wrist… because, I too, forward to the next song when I don’t wanna listen to the selected music during my exercising. Or…. continue flipping off the town folk. That works too. 🙂
The wife will tell ya that I subconsciously WANT to flip off everyone in town…………… 🙂
PS. BTW… Congrats on the weight loss progress. 🙂
I’m shooting for 2 pounds a week, which will have me hitting the trail at a cool, sleek weight of 7 lbs by April of 2016……….. allowing for the occasional holiday binge-fests of eating between now and then………….. I’ll weigh just slightly less than what my newborn grandson weighs now. 🙂