Half Way To Somewhere

In August I started a year long goal of walking one million steps, extra steps, above and beyond what I would do in my normal daily routine.

I kept track of my steps on my blog page, One Million Steps, watching the number creep up and up as I trotted in place day after day on the treadmill. In the beginning I focused on the minimum number I needed to reach my goal, about 2800 steps. Gradually it became easier to hit that number and keep going. When the weather was nice I would walk to work, racking up over 4000 steps round trip, well over the daily minimum number I needed to reach my goal.

Today I reached a bit of a milestone, having logged enough steps to take me over 500,000, half way to my goal. I'm incredibly pleased to have reached this milestone, especially because I've done so nearly 6 weeks ahead of schedule.

A few weeks after I started walking, Superfro and I started to make a few little changes in our eating habits. I figured that if I was going to be exercising more for the next year I might as well try to shed some pounds too.

I was concerned that my desire to lose weight would somehow become more important to me than my walking goal. I do have to constantly remind myself that the steps are the goal, the other stuff is just a bonus. But it's a hard won bonus. It takes loads of willpower to make "the right" food choices and occassionally I get pissy and just plain hungry. But I soldier on. I'm putting effort into walking every day, why not take advantage of the increased metabolic rate with a little strategic dieting? Superfro is as equally dedicated to the dieting arts and is a great inspiration, having given up daily candy for dried cranberries.

We're not doing any weird dieting either, just trying to lower our calorie intake and increase our calorie burning. We don't keep any snacks or treats in the house, only healthy snacking options like veggies and yogurt. When we go out to eat, which is a rare treat now, we might indulge in dessert, but not at home. Home is a scared temple, full of sugar-free Jell-o cups, 110 calorie bagels & low fat yogurt.

I'm happy to share that the magical combination of eating fewer calories and burning more calories has actually worked. Superfro and I have been doing weekly weigh-ins on the Wii Fit and since my first weigh-in on September 11th, I've lost about 27 pounds. I know that in the grand scheme of things that it's just a drop in the bucket of what I need to lose before I'm considered "healthy" but seeing some actual results from my hard work makes it easier to work harder.

It stings a little to show these figures. I'm certainly not doing so to brag, in fact it's down right embarrassing. For many, many years now only my doctor knew my actual weight. I never lied about it, I just never talked about it either. I think it's important that people know my actual weight in order to understand where I'm coming from and where I need to go.



My first weigh-in, almost 259 lbs., on 9/11/10.

Today's weigh-in, 27 lbs lighter.

Of course, my BMI is still astronomical, but it's getting better.

So, hooray for me, I reached 500,000 steps and will certainly hit one million before my deadline of August 22nd. I'm not sure what I'll do after that, maybe celebrate with a baker's dozen of decorated sugar cookies and a new sports bra?