As seen in PopPhoto Flash Tip of the Day…

Well, I can’t stress enough about the exercise. I’m lucky because I have Sonny, (my black Cocker Spaniel dog) to walk with me so I’m not walking alone. I went to Google Maps and mapped a couple of different routes and it tells you the miles. I bought one of those $5.00 pedometers to wear during the day at work. I walk on my breaks, not very far, and then I walk from one building to the next just for work stuff. I make sure that I get 6,000 steps or 3 miles during the day at work on the pedometer. In the morning I walk at least 2 miles which is 4,000 steps, for a total of 10,000 steps a day. At 10,000 steps you are considered to be a “Physically active” person. 5,000 to 9,000 is an “active” person. Usually I ended up with more because I would park far away at work and walk up the hill. Now that I don’t have a car, I am walking about a mile straight uphill from the bus stop to where I work.

Now the food. Breakfast is my own concoction of Quick Cook Oats in the big round box, brown sugar or reg. sugar and Lite Maple syrup, ¼ cup is 100 calories. I eat a whole cup of oatmeal for breakfast 440 Calories with sugar, syrup, everything. Or 1 bowl of Special K not measured, pretty good size bowl, with milk.

At work I will have a cappuccino 170 calories 2x a week at about 9:00 a.m. or so.

At lunch I eat Lean Gourmet frozen dinner $1.00 each any store you buy them at. 200-300 calories. Or bologna (1slice) mustard-two wheat bread-Lays baked chips

At snack about 2:30 or 3:00 I have 7 vanilla wafers – 140 calories or ¼ cup of raisons 140-170 cal. Or 2- hardboiled eggs 70 cal each.

Whatever I cook for my son, spaghetti, Hamburger helper, etc. usually 350 or so-1-cup, Or 1 bowl of Special K or Frosted Mini Wheat not measured, pretty good size bowl, with milk and then dessert, Hershey bar 230 cal. or a piece of chocolate cake 275 cal. This must be eaten before 7:00 p.m. Nothing after 7:00 p.m. (preferably 6:30).

I don’t look at saturated. fats, carbs, or anything else or it makes me crazy! I just look at calories. Nothing else. I don’t deprive myself of anything, if I want a bowl of ice cream or pizza I will have it. Oh yes, Sunday’s are your day off from dieting, (I still exercise though.) Eat whatever you want (Don’t go crazy but don’t count calories that day, How much can you eat in one day anyway? Not that much to make a difference.) I count Sunday at 1700 cal. When I average my week out. I go for an avg. of 1700 per day. If I go 2200 one day I’ll go 1500 another day, it all seems to work out. If I average 1799 I’m good. 1800 or more avg. I will have to watch it the next week to get it down to 1700 again. this is a great web site to get you calorie count on your foods, CalorieKing. They have a huge database of foods and they even tell you how long you have do certain exercises to burn off the calories! Really simple.

I keep track of it in Excel, just list totals for Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, Snack, Dinner, Dessert. Then total the day. I don’t list each item I eat or anything.. I total it at home at the end of the day or first thing in the morning. I email myself my calories from work email to my gmail account. Then when I get home I have my totals from work. The weekend is easy because I just have to track Saturday, not Sunday. That’s all. Hope this helps.

The exercise has to become a habit. I make sure I get at least 4 days of 30-40 minutes walking. Which is pretty easy really, that is 3 days off! You can take them in a row if you want. I mark the days I walk off on the calendar. I started with an X and now its a ’smiley’ face.

Remember to stretch before and after and walk fast, heel toe, mix it up with long strides, short strides, etc. so you won’t get bored. Listen to music, it goes really fast and I find myself walking faster to the oldies like, “Build me up Buttercup, etc.” It’s really fun and now I look forward to doing it. Sometimes it’s raining in the morning and I can’t walk so I have to watch the weather. I don’t want to use my 3 days in a row if the 4th day looks like rain. Anyway, start slow, 10 minutes. I like to do it in the morning because it gets my metabolism going for the day that way.

Walking 4 or 5 days a week for at least 30 minutes is the minimum exercise I am doing. I also ride my bike on the weekends, 5 miles or so. I walk extra with Sonny at Mutt run, the off-leash dog park, etc. But at least I know I am doing the minimum I need to do and If I don’t ride my bike or do anything else, I don’t have any guilt.

Dieting isn’t easy for me. This is only my third week on 1700 cals. Exercise is easy for me because walking is a weight bearing exercise that helps with Osteoporosis and I really worry about that because of my smoking. Also it helps my heart, no-diabetes, weight control, etc. It also something I love to do because I am outside with nature. The birds are sings, the sun is rising, very little traffic, it is cooler, the air is fresh, it is quiet and peaceful. A great way to start the day.

Get a dog like Sonny that will bug you and whine and jump around until you put on his little harness and get the leash out and say “walk”. If you don’t and tell him no, not today, you have to go to work, then he goes and lays down and pouts and won’t even look at you anymore and makes you feel guilty because you didn’t walk that day. That will do the trick I guarantee it!!!