I have been enjoying the discipline of writing daily on my thoughts and issues around walking and weight loss. Summer weather has just begun seriously and this automatically requires me to adjust to cooler options.

A local women’s gym has a two week trial offer that I’ve taken up – and I’ve just returned feeling tired from my first circuit. I feel sure that if it wasn’t for the 3 short walks I did this morning I would have been less tired.

About twenty years a go I did a social ballroom dancing class. One evening my instructor was trying to understand why I was finding certain steps hard even though normally I could do them. During the discussion I mentioned that I had been to an aerobics class before coming to dance. He was amazed at my ignorance!

Apparently I wasn’t easy to convince. He called on another teacher to confirm the lunacy of trying to learn tricky dance steps with tired leg muscles.  No wonder my feet weren’t doing what they were supposed to do! I did not realize that muscles could get tired and perform less well.

Those who genuinely dislike exercise tend to lack basic common sense when it comes to how exercise or the lack of it, impacts on their health and well being.

That was me. Then through walking and now some running for weight loss, I have learned to appreciate the intricate support system that is my body. Walking to lose weight is such a small price to pay for the gift of vitality.

Walking to lose weight becomes the open doorway to more fuel in your tank.

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This video below is fun for me because when I first started Walking to Lose Weight blog I wrote a post about avoiding excuses for not walking and included a video with the same topic and from memory the same doctor talking about walking for weight loss in the rain. In the first video he was holding an umbrella! Walking to lose weight is a lifestyle because of the dedication you demonstrate when overcoming the ‘issues’ that you can choose to let get in the way, or choose to look for answers or solutions to resolving the obstacle.

The first step is to make an attitude change if for some reason the ease of starting walking has led you to believe that you will never have to change your mind or food habits, make decisions supporting your new hobby and try doing it differently occasionally.

Walking in the rain or going to the gym, using a treadmill at home, walking early morning in the  local mall…These are some examples of solutions for weather problems that I use all the time!

Think of it this way-I am an active person (or becoming an active person) so I will do what an active person would do under these circumstances. An active person feels better for exercising so prioritizes it, an active person sees benefits for herself and others (children, partner, other walkers) from her activity, so feels good about doing it. An active person finds way to make walking, exercise, running more than a means to an end, because there is no end. Old age is not about sitting back and relaxing! Use the extra wisdom you’ve gained from those years and enjoy living.

However tiredness is a potential problem that can be resolved with trial and error. How much tiredness is from muscles and joints getting a workout for the first time ever perhaps? How much is from physical exhaustion? When you increase your level of exertion such as I did from the beginning of this month it has an effect on your tiredness during and at the end of the day.

Take a lesson from athletes and take care of yourself with proper treatment of injuries or concerns. There is a vast array of creams and potions for strains and blisters etc. so use self care first unless you have done something serious where professional help is necessary.

For hints and tips for how I stay above the real world issues that could prevent staying focused on walking to lose weight join my free mailing list for insight and advice from my ebook.

The point is to do as much with what you’ve got until the time you can develop higher fitness levels or have reached your personal limit. Stretch those boundaries to determine just how far you can go.

Keep on with the walking even if at lower intensity until any physical ailment resolves itself. If you are really tired then sleep-an early night or cat nap worked well for me when long work days added stress to the list of issues. Walking aids depression sufferers so it may actually be the ‘fix’ needed.

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Summer is the only time I enjoy using a gym. It is a fantastic back up for when I don’t feel cool enough to vigorously exercise. The best walking for weight loss in summer is my favourite DVD in the air conditioning at home.

Some tips for walking to lose weight when the weather is hot or humid:

Hydrate carefully. Too much is not a good thing either but do make sure you’re sipping small amounts regularly. If you do vigorous exercise in the heat try the old trick of weighing yourself before and after, replacing the difference in your weight with its equivalent in water.

Avoid the heat of midday for exercising outside. Use sunscreen. Wear a hat and cover up in light weight clothing appropriate for exercise.

Even when exercising in air conditioning, if the temperature or humidity generally is high, your body temperature will go up more quickly than it would in winter. This is because your body is already working harder to keep your median temperature low.

It may be that the same amount of exercise you always do is actually more tiring at this time of year.

It is important to get your heated body back to normal as quickly as possible if you have done too much. Use a towel or washer wrung out in iced water on the top of the head. Repeat until a lower or normal temperature is achieved. Or tip a bottle of water over your head.

Dehydration means thicker blood, which requires the heart to work harder to push it around your body. Keep the water up!

Try some strengthening exercises to insure against injury if you’ve just sat through winter and spring. Walking is the best way to start back into exercise without over doing it but even then some parts of your body may need some special attention.

E.g.

ankles-use a step to stretch the tendons by standing with your toes on the step and allowing your heels to go back over and down below the step a few inches. Hold for 10. Repeat 10 times. Stand normally then rise onto your toes for a count of 10. Repeat.

toes- pick up marbles or other small objects with your bare toes to strengthen them.

calves -stretches will alleviate tightness.

thighs- these muscles can be strengthened by lifting the knee towards the chest while standing. In the meantime try walking up steep steps slowly.

Walking to lose weight in summer is cool!

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Sometimes when coming across an article or blog which really fits within my own walking to lose weight attitude to successful weight loss it becomes a great opportunity to improve what I’m doing. I like the idea behind this research: find out what is successful (or not) for a lot of people (over 22,000). Even with the normal biases from self-responding survey results this is impressive because we can think about what a large number of people have found effective and ineffective in weight control.

Most of what appears in my blog is based on my personal weight issues and success or failures. This stems from decades of frustration with an incomplete approach for what is a lifestyle choice rather than a one-off treatment.

My issues, in hindsight and summary form, have been:

poor eating habits
no exercise habit
situational eating.

What I want now is to use all that I now know to create an easy, healthy lifestyle where weight is not an issue, and my life is active because I want it to be.

Back to some of the findings from the Consumer Reports survey. I agree from personal experience with their findings that you need to get back up each time you “fail”,  it takes more than one go to lose weight. For the other keys to weight loss, and this may relate back to the first point, that more than one effort to lose weight is necessary, there are levels at which certain “rules” apply. Some of the stricter requirements are too “heavy” for beginner losers who are not mentally prepared for the discipline and positive attitude required for continued success.

Dieting and Exercise are Both Necessary: I agree with this. It produces a quicker and more attractive result.

However for those with low current exercise levels particularly through illness, long term or disability from overweight, weight loss can start from increasing movement without adjusting diet at first. It is better to moderate what you eat, get into walking and move through any difficulties you encounter initially, and then add stricter calorie monitoring. Calorie intake needs adjustment as your body weight decreases also because a lighter load uses less calories to move around. At the same time muscle maintenance uses more calories than fat so this lower calorie usage may not be as important if only a little weight needs to be lost in the first place. This is part of why you have to be prepared to fail and start over if you can’t take on all the necessary changes at once i.e. making time for exercise, doing it, shopping differently, preparing food instead of eating take away, solving problems as they arise, etc.

Self-Monitor:

I prefer keeping track of my exercise program e.g. pedometer or minutes/distance etc., and to keep noticing how clothes fit better etc. than to constantly weigh myself…except when I’m on target (i.e. I am the weight/size I want) when regular weight checks remind me if I start to stray.

Today after hopping on my Wii Fit to check my weight it confirmed what I had suspected: weight gain of 0.7 kgs! Of course I knew that I had been allowing myself some additional treats over Easter and doing less distance in my walking, consequently I’m not disappointed but I’m not happy. I now need to get back into my regular routine of counting steps and make good choices. And the scales help focus that intention.

But again if I’m in the beginning stages weight measurement can be misleading or de-motivating, when the results aren’t what you want or expected to see.

Use new information to revise some aspects of your weight loss program if it seems like a good idea.

My decision: I’m quitting my gym and using the various tools and walking to lose weight routines I’ve already put in place, to bolster my program.

Why? The gym has been my fall back position. Whenever I feel frustration I want to charge in to the gym and do some dynamite exercise to quickly lose inches. It has been useful but I wonder if my other resources are enough. There are other options to gym-style resources or walking dvds at home and through casual attendance at other exercise classes.

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Stars Who Are Walking to Lose Weight

This article has great walking for weight loss tips and makes a lie of my recent post saying walking to lose weight would never be a favoured celebrity sport.

During the course of writing the Walking to Lose Weight blog some questions arise with more frequency and generally are incorporated as part of posts rather than as specific answers to a question. Today though some questions will be considered and answered directly.

What numbers are appropriate when walking on a treadmill?

W..ell! It depends. Subsequent to my previous suggestions for ramping up the interest or results for treadmill walking it is revealed that there are many fans for using the treadmill for weight loss and adding in increases to your program to avoid boredom. Generally gym treadmills are considered the most accurate and flexible, with walking dvds and other accessories best for at home use, although there are many fans for home treadmills.

Ideal speeds etc. depend very much on your experience, height, weight, age…in other words very much up to you. For instance, in kilometres/hour speeds of 5.5 to 5.9 (around 3.5 to 4 miles/hour) are considered beneficial without over stressing the system. You may want to start on a warm up speed, gradually increase to this or higher level and do short spurts of running or other interval type training e.g. increasing the gradient for 2 minutes. At 5 foot 2 inches I run at around 7.6 km/hr (4.7 m/h) but a taller or fitter person would run faster. Shorter steps done faster is generally the best way to increase speed. Experiment with the gradient levels until you know what suits you. Remember that how you feel on the day will affect your capacity-so a tired body, or one that has sore back of the legs from hill walking may not be up to as high a level of gradient today as yesterday.

When starting walking the numbers on the dashboard can be confusing. A basic understanding of the meaning of the treadmill display information is helpful. In particular note that calorie burning information requires at a minimum input of weight information for any chance of accuracy.

Is walking in a shopping mall really an option?

Skeptics abound apparently about the feasibility of walking seriously in shopping complexes and achieving a decent walking to lose weight workout. Perhaps we can point out what is not a walking to lose weight mall experience. It is not strolling down aisles stopping every few feet to look at a price, or pushing and leaning on a shopping cart, or pulling two children reluctantly behind you with frequent stops, or sitting whenever possible- if you have to wait when walking to lose weight then stand!

Your local shops may not be ideal for this exercise. If not, look for venues which are: undercover markets which are large and regularly laid out; one or two level malls with inside/outside and underground levels work well. Air conditioning is a major incentive when walking outside isn’t an option because of the weather.

Many communities have mall walking clubs which generally operate before the centres open for shopping, sometimes with set routes. The main purpose of the group may not suit you as some are aimed at the elderly and frail for instance, and consequently would be slower but many are weight loss or fitness oriented. This doesn’t have to be your main option but it is a great backup.

Once you realise the attractiveness of walking in a well lit, comfortable, flat environment look around your local area to see other options you haven’t considered previously.

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New Year’s Resolutions

I just love this blog post about gym membership and New Year’s Resolutions! which also applies to walking to lose weight. I have been a gym member for a number of years and switched gyms a year ago. I am non-regular in my attendance as I use its services to supplement my walking and activity program. When I feel the need (as I do now) to increase my weight loss, I start attending more frequently…

I have decided I am ready, having achieved a good steady program of regular walking and 10000 steps a day, to make it more fun by adding in variety. So the gym is going to see more of me for the next, I don’t know, six weeks. This blog describes the horror of regular gym users when the post Christmas crowd descends on the gym to temporarily clutter the environment. I have found that this also happens throughout the year but I suspect she’s right about the New Year’s resolutions as well. I did it that way many times before I became disillusioned with the excited approach. Now I try for the joyful approach! Enthusiasm helps you get started and keep going initially but for the long term, remember to practice determination with joy.

How To Be Resolute!

This blog post is amusingly true and the suggestion of getting started now is a good one. It requires a lot of things to make fitness or weight loss happen if you’re starting from scratch or not far off. A burst of enthusiasm is not going to do it on its own. Get started the right way! Set yourself up for success!

Be very certain of the reason for your weight loss or exercise effort. Pay attention to how you are seeing what you are doing. Are you dreading the activity? Do you want instant results? Are you prepared to be happy with short term success i.e. reduce a dress size ot two for a special event and then put it back on?

If you have thought beyond the weight loss result – to the desire to maintain or continue reducing- then you will require a long term approach. If you are only focussed on a specific result e.g. to pass a fitness test or look good in a wedding photo, and can go flat out over several weeks, you will probably succeed and then put back on even more than you took off, after the event.

Either way, see yourself as successful (generally) when you want to achieve something. You are prepared to do what is necessary and make it fun, doable and effective. Believe that this is possible and know that at times the memory of your positive belief is the only thing which will keep you going.

In other words you keep on coming back, to the gym, because you know even though it isn’t obvious right now, it does what is expected of it. Find those activities, events and options which are attractive to you because you already have a predisposition to do them. Join a workout group if you like group activities. Get a trainer if you like individual attention, not if you prefer to hide at the back of the class.

You can, however, develop, given the time, knowledge of the gym, the trainers, the classes and different pieces of equipment which will help you orchestrate a fulfilling program. For long term success, remember that this is a relationship. Take the time to get to know it. Let the gym be what it is. Put up with the typical idiosynchracies of this type of exercise program.

Most of all, be resolute! Be very, very resolute!

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