One Foot At A Time

Even before you start dieting, you can start this, and best of all, it's free, or nearly so. This amazing weight loss device is called walking. Now, if you must, you can send me $19.95 and there is no shipping or handling fees involved. Before you start, I recommend weighing yourself so that you have a point in time to measure from. A word of caution, do not become addicted to the scale, once a week is enough. Your weight will go up and done from day to day and hour to hour and that can be demoralizing. I recommend that you weigh yourself in the morning after your first trip to the restroom.

Start with once around the block, track, or mall if that's all you can manage but it's a start. Very quickly you will find yourself walking three, four, five or more times around your walking area without being overly winded. You might notice that your feet and ankles hurt. This is partly due to the fact that they haven't had this much continuous flexing in years and it may be your shoes. Go buy a good pair of walking shoes, they don't have to be state of the art but good. You should be able to find them for the price of two 18 packs of your favorite malted beverage. When you return from your walk, drink water, not beer or a sugary soda. Once you are walking on a regular basis, you might want to invest in a good pedometer, once again, not expensive. I use an Omron Model HJ-7201TC which I like because you can put it in your pocket and not on your belt or wrist. You can leave it in your pocket all day and see just how far you walk in a day. This model comes with a computer program and a download link so that you can keep track of your walking totals and progress. It even calculates how many calories and fat you have burned as you walk. The pedometer is a very good motivational crutch. Let's face it, we are fat and need all of the help that we can get. You can buy good pedometers at your local sporting goods store or through Amazon.com, that's were I got mine. It will quickly become your little buddy. Eventually, you will want to build up to 10,000 steps a day if possible and the pedometer will help you get there. Don't try to get there all at once, unless you walk a great deal in your daily activities or you may become too sore and want to quit. This is about winning and not quitting. We all walked a great deal as children, as we aged, we just simply became lazy and forgot how. When you go to work or the mall or the food store, don't necessarily look for the closest parking space. Find one a little farther out and enjoy the extra few steps while telling yourself that you are doing something good for yourself. Pretty soon you will be finding excuses to walk instead of drive. Walking gives you time to be at peace with yourself and contemplate your day, or navel, or what ever interests you. It is your personal time. Enjoy it.