Reaching Another Goal

Several months ago I determined that by the time it was nice outside I would be able to walk with my husband. He likes to walk a lot during the summer and historically back pain is something that prevented me from ever going with him.

We are an interesting pair, because we have very little in common.... besides food. ;-) Our dating life consisted of us eating together... a lot.... and food that tasted very good. So since I have been dieting, it isn't as fun for us to have lunch or dinner together when I can't eat much or choose not to.

So I decided to work towards replacing our time together that used to be spent eating walking together. I started walking about 12 minutes in the morning on the treadmill, and completing the rest of the 40 minutes on the recumbent bike (arms and legs). Each day I started to add two minutes. Yesterday morning I hit 38 minutes on the treadmill! ANd I increased my speed over that time from 2.6 to 3.4 MPH. I told myself that if I could get to 40, I would try walking outside.

Since it was Bart's day off today, I decided to try it a day early. And we had two wonderful 25 minute walks today.

I love statistics so I keep track of everything. I have a spreadsheet that keeps track of how fast I go, how far I go, what my heart-rate is, etc. And I want to increase just a little bit every day. Tomorrow I am going to go the full 40 on the treadmill and add 5 minutes on the recumbent bike, increasing my YMCA workout to 45 minutes for the first time ever. And then I hope to add an after supper walk every night.

If I can keep increasing just a tiny bit each day, it will keep me motivated. So that's my plan. And of course, I'll document it and make myself little charts and diagrams and graphs. And in some sick way, it will keep me going.

If you're lucky, maybe i'll post some of my graphs here. ;-)