Interval Walking

It's been three weeks into the challenge and I've lost only a pound and a half. Not too bad. Not great either. At least I've managed to not gain along the way.

While I had started with twice daily work outs, I stopped that after I was burned out in a few days. Now I just walk and have been trying this rather intense walking work out from Prevention.com. Basically, the interval cycles between 30-seconds of intense walking followed by a minute of brisk walking.

It's pretty effective in amping up calorie burn. However, it's not as fun as walking to the beat of some fun familiar music. Plus it is very difficult to maintain the intensity, especially over a period of half an hour!

So I think I'll have to check whether I burn more calories on the Prevention interval or the cardioboost interval. Next entry will be on that.

MBT vs. Sketchers Shape-Ups

I couldn't decide which one to get. The MBT was specifically made to address pain on the lower back and joints while the Sketchers Shape-Ups was made to increase the effectiveness of fitness walking.

So I got both and tried them on for a day. The MBT I wore for approximately 8 hours at work and while shopping afterward. I like how it seems to propel me forward as I walk, makes me stand taller just to keep blanced and generally, relieved lower back pressure. At the end of the day, I also felt the existence of muscles in the inner thigh area which never existed before! After 8 hours, I was tired on my feet though. The website does suggest gradually increasing the length of wear until one is used to it.

The Sketchers, because they were made for fitness walking, I took to the street instead of my favorite running/walking shoes, Brooks Adrenaline. My route usually takes me 40 minutes to complete by the way. Well, I must say, just like MBT, it propelled me forward, making me feel like I was walking faster, taking quicker steps. My heart rate monitor backed up how I felt by showing I burned more calories than I usually did walking the same distance. I also felt my butt muscles working more as I walked. The Sketchers' propelling motion was not as definitive as MBT though, after all, Sketchers Shape-Ups is more cushion-y and the shape of the sole is less steep too.

The Sketchers Shape-Ups would have been my only choice because of the comfort. It has a wider toe box and softer footbed. However, its styles are all very sporty/casual (even the Mary Janes which I got looks like rubber shoes!) None would be appropriate for work.

So it seems that the best recourse would be to keep both -- the MBT to wear to work and the Sketchers to wear on my daily walks.

I just hope that they both live up to their claim of lessening lower back pressure. Sketchers Shape-Ups cost $99 and the MBT was on sale for $130 (65% off the original price!).

If they do what they claim, they will both be work every penny.

Too Much and Too Little Too Soon

I was exhausted, hungry and sleepy. This was two days into the challenge. I'd been refraining from eating any carbs, having been advised to follow an Atkins-like diet. I was working out twice a day. In the morning I'd walk 40 minutes then I'd do another 40 minutes of aerobics in the afternoon. I knew I could not go on if I continued on this path of working out so much without properly nourishing myself. So on the 3rd day, I gave in. I had chicken and pork adobo with a quarter cup of white rice for dinner. I also decided to take it easy on the 4th day, just taking a 20-30 minute walk broken into two segments that included a hill climb each segment. The end of that day, I was energetic again.

So today, the fifth day, I did an hour-long yoga for weight loss after a 15 minute-walk that included an uphill climb for a warm-up. I was surprised to see that while I was doing yoga, my heart rate was within the weight-loss zone. According to my heart rate monitor, I burned 400 calories just on the hour-long yoga session. Wow!

I've been considering doing yoga and now pilates instead of resistance training. I wonder how those two will shape by body.

At this point though, I feel my back has gained strength as well as my abs. My legs are starting to feel less jello-ey too. I feel like time is winding back almost a decade! . Yeeha!

Into... Fitness

Lately I've been all INTO -- into the zone, into the groove, into fitness, into healthy eating.

So let me start with fitness.

I'm close to being obese. I checked by BMI today. Not because I was curious or really interested in losing weight but because my colleagues and I have a contest among ourselves. We are on a 10-week weight-loss challenge. So we all had to weigh in and I thought I ought to check my BMI.

I had a feeling I was actually obese already. So it was quite a relief to find out I'm not... yet... but very close!

In the past few months, since the start of 2010 actually, my body has been shouting OBESE! My lower back has been hurting and I've developed GERD. Grrr...

So a week ago, I decided to start walking again in hopes of getting my weight down just to kick the back ache and the GERD off of me. This challenge at work is extra incentive. And I didn't realize what a competitive bunch we were. Anyway, I didn't start this blog to talk about them. I wanted to share a nugget of discovery from my walking workouts.

I've been walking with this interval training cd called Cardioboost. Its BPM range from 118 to 138 and run for approximately 40 minutes. I've burned over 300 calories in about 50 minutes of walking with this. This afternoon, I put on Leslie Sansone's Weight Loss Walk DVD and burned 450 calories in 40 minutes! Yowza! Need I say Leslie's system is awesome?

So let's see how the next 9 weeks go and if I lose my 20 pounds. By the way, losing 20 pounds will NOT move me from the OVERWEIGHT zone. Still, that would be AWESOME!