These Shoes Were Made For Walking

February 18 was the starting point for a somewhat change of lifestyle for me.  As I told you in my previous post I have decided I needed to do something for me.  While it could be considered a selfish act on my part in the long run it will benefit my whole family.

Research has shown there is a direct link between a person's cognitive functions and exercise along with nutrition.   There is an alarming rise in dementia as well as Alzheimer's.   It has been determined good nutrition, hydration and physical exercise can help to prevent the onset of these conditions.

So for me it was a "no brainer" ( no pun intended ) that now was a good time to get started with a daily program and lifestyle change.  To be quite honest I thought it would be harder to maintain it as a daily routine but I've found it to be quite the contrary.

Daily nutrition is logged using the Fitness Pal app on my phone.  It is to log my daily caloric intake.  It is super easy to look up different foods to help make choices.   My first day or two I had a mental thing going on thinking I would truly starve but to be honest after the first couple of days I found I was eating so much of the right kind of foods that I was full and had to make myself have a couple of snacks so I could get my needed calories for the day.

Breakfast has never really been my thing but I've been told over and over again how important breakfast really is.  Come to find out a person's metabolism slows down while sleeping and in order to "jump start" your metabolism, in the mornings a person should have something to eat within about 45 minutes of waking up especially if you are going to exercise in the mornings.  Otherwise your metabolism will slow even more because there is no energy source for the body to pull from.

Daily exercise is logged on my Jawbone Up band.  It logs each step I make.  My goal each day is 10,000 steps.

I've become very selfish with my walks.  Unless something extremely important overrides my walk I start every day with a moderate pace walk to jumpstart my day.  I try to leave my cell phone home so I have time to clear my head, relax and listen to the sounds of nature around me.  It's amazing how many different sounds you hear if you don't have you music playing or talking/texting on a phone.

Since starting my daily logging I have lost 7.5 lbs..  I'm very pleased with that number.  I do have a ways to go but slow and steady wins the race.

I retired my first pair of shoes on March 25.  I can't believe the amount of ground I've covered.  For the half  month of February, I took 85,199 step which translates to 37 miles and for March 1-25  I took....drum roll.....346,811 steps or walked 154.4 miles.  Grand total for so far is 7.5 lbs., 432,010 steps or 191.4 miles.  I honestly can't believe it!

I'm more committed with each step I take to keep going.