Forest Home Weekend

Let's see. How to start...

Sunday of this week I weighed myself and it was not great, especially keeping the whole year in mind. I weighed 118.5 kilos. I started the year at 123.2, so there is SOME progress. (It's definitely better than going backwards.) The difference between those two measurements is 4.7 kilos, so multiplying by 2.2 we get 10.34 pounds. That's 1 pound per month. I'm back on high protein/lo carb and expect to get some walking in this weekend at Forest Home. Forest Home is a christian camp in the town of Forest Falls, which is above Redlands. My wife, Marianne, and I are doing KP this weekend at Solana Beach Presbyterian's all-church retreat as we usually do and that will keep us on our feet a bit. There's quite a bit of walking back and forth in the normal course of the retreat. I've never really kept track before so I will be curious to see how much walking we do actually.

I do believe it's time to modify the goal for the year. With all that's going on in life I'm not prepared to lose nearly 40 pounds in under two months. That's ok. I'm in this for the long haul as I hope you are not matter whether your goals concern physical health or something else. I had a physical a couple months ago and everything was in the normal range. My hdl cholesterol (the good kind) was slightly low, but nothing to be concerned about.

I think 15 pounds from here to the end of the year is doable. I've done it before as I'm sure many of you have. I'll be thinking about 15 or 20 over the weekend.

I'm excited about the new president and excited to be going on retreat. "See" you when I get back. Keep walking. Keep moving ahead.

Weight Blip This Week

On Tuesday I weighed in and found I had gained a little. Excuse? Easter! It happens. The key is to not give up because of a bump in the road (or chocolate eggs in my tummy). The weight? 115.6 Kilos, which was up .2 or .44 pounds. Not a lot, but the wrong direction. Finally, to be fair, Easter was not the only culprit. I walked less in the two weeks after the accident, though I did make it to nine miles a couple days ago. I have never stopped walking. I never will as long as I am breathing. Come back and see that I'm still going. Take heart in your own struggle with weight, exercise, or goals.

I am walking. You can walk. Please walk today. No matter what.

Did I Miss Valentine's Day?

Our weather turned uncharacteristically cold again. So Valentine's Day was cold, rainy, and windy and we escaped to the movies. Today was tough for walking. We enjoyed the movie a bunch. I just can't quite remember the name right now. It's the one with the dad explaining the story of his relationship with his daughter's mom and the other relationships that led up to that one. You know, the little girl is the same one from that oddly funny movie about the family that goes across country so she can compete in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant...Hey, that's the name of the other movie. The girl does a really good job but nobody will win an Oscar. It's not that type of movie, but we both cried a little. I was surprised. Ok. So I'm tired, but it was a good day. A good Valentine's Day and we got the paperwork turned in for the National Honor Society so the deadline pressure is over. I think I'll take a walk.

I am walking. You can walk. Please walk today. No matter what.

Start Walking In Paris

Yesterday I had a friendly phone conversation with Lucille Shaw, a financial advisor at Finances for Life. Lucille is a friend from Expressions Unlimited, my home Toastmasters club. Click here to see a photo of her and two other walkers from a recent post. Lucille is on the left.

While I started walking because I know I really, really need to do something about my health while I still have it, Lucille has been working out regularly for a while. She told me that when she was at the University of Illinois, she walked in some pretty nasty weather as a student. This experience turned her off to walking for a while and over the years she has done plenty of exercise in the gym. A few years ago, she and her husband visited Spain, Italy and France and she made reservations at hotels that were within walking distance of the museums and other sites she wanted to see. In Paris and Barcelona Lucille didn't have to fight snow while walking and she found out that she might actually like walking at temperatures above freezing. She even does half-marathons now.

What a fun way to rediscover walking!

You might find walking fun or you might be doing it to get in shape or lose weight or all three. Take that first step at home or in some exotic location, but take that first step. Then take another. And another.

I am walking. (So is Lucille.) You can walk. Please walk today. No matter what.

Change Your Idea And Change You

Last week I was talking with my friend and mentor, Fran Cannon of Cannon Business Institute (formerly Cannon Training & Development), about my resolution to walk and lose weight this year. He encouraged me in my journey and we talked about how he started running in the late 60s. He had run track in high school, but running five miles or more at a time was not part of his universe of ideas. I'm pretty sure he said that he went to work for General Atomic and saw a guy who ran five miles at lunch. After Fran saw him do it, he realized that it was possible. He went on to run with some people from work at lunch time even up to eight miles or so in Torrey Pines and the surrounding areas. He saw some great scenery while running and picked up the "bug". He's in his 60s and still runs on a regular basis.

A few months ago I wouldn't have guessed that I would be walking as much as I am every week or that I would pass through the 200 mile mark in early February, but I did. I changed my idea, my conception of what's doable or possible. I decided that if I'm going to have a chance to live to be 80, let alone 100 or more, I better get started taking better care of myself. I made my New Year's resolution and my idea universe expanded.

I am walking. You can walk. Please walk today. No matter what.

New Year's Resolution In February

We are over ten hours into this 6th day of February, 2008. We can start a New Year's Resolution right now if we choose. Or you can simply call it a resolution or a goal. Maybe you had a New Year's Resolution that you petered out on. Maybe you didn't make any resolutions as I did not do for several years. Whatever your situation, you can start over right now. For me, I'm going to add crunches to my daily walking and I'll add them to my count/history at Lime.com, so you can check my progress. Remember, you can do the same. You can even register using another name. I'm DrNetwork at Lime.com. I've told you mine so it's not anonymous, but you get the idea. You can share your online walking/exercise history or not. If you like, I can add your link to Big Man Walking so other people can be encouraged.

The thing is, you will find it helpful to track your progress whether you do keep track online or not. I definitely find it motivating to look back and see what I've done so far. During the next couple of days I will go through the 200 mile mark since the beginning of 2008! That's a motivating factor for me. So is the weight loss. I haven't lost weight every week, but I have most weeks. I see the numbers and I feel the difference. I feel better. I can see results in black and white and if they don't match up with what's happening physically, I can take action to change that. The very first week I noticed that in spite of my walking, I gained weight. There could be more than one reason, but I believe I got it right when I noticed that maybe I got hungrier and ate more than normal during that first week. During the next few weeks I paid closer attention to how much I was eating and it paid off. I even decided not to worry about it on Super Bowl Sunday and I saw the results on Tuesday on the scale. The lesson is that I had the information and was able to make informed choices that actually made a difference because of that information. If I had not kept track of my progress, I would have been less clear or specific in what steps to take to achieve the desired result.

So, set a resolution or a goal and keep track. It might be big or small, but be specific. Me? I will do 15 crunches every day. You might believe that is too easy or too hard. It's what I choose today. I believe it's within the range of exercise I can do that will NOT result in injury or a condition that could either cause or encourage me to do less. I want to keep on going everyday which means I want to lessen the possibility that I will have a recovery time which would mean less exercise overall. In addition, I personally find injuries a little demotivating. So set a goal or goals and if somehow you're reading Big Man Walking and you're not walking or running or exercising, make that part of your goals.

I am walking. You can walk. Please walk today. No matter what.

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I'm including links and quotes by or related to or about three people who I believe set goals or resolutions at some point in their life. Those goals have had a big impact in their own life and in the lives of other people. Take a peek and remember that clicking on the title of this post will take you to FreeRice.com.

Ziglar.com

If you wait until all the lights are "green" before you leave home, you'll never get started on your trip to the top.

Zig Ziglar


LesPaulOnline.com


" ...we must all own
up that without Les
Paul, generations
of flash little punks
like us would be in
jail or cleaning toilets."

- Keith Richards

(Les Paul)


Joniandfriends.org

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The man who fears is not made perfect in love." — 1 John 4:18

(Joni Eareckson Tada)

Speed Golf

Meeting this morning with John and Peter. We meet just about every Thursday and today Peter, who's a Callaway employee pro, told me about a speed golf game he played. I understand that walking isn't for everybody even though just about everybody can do it. And I know that even if you're not walking miles extra every day, you can walk extra steps every hour. That being said, maybe something like speed golf is your thing. I think Peter is unusual in this game because he's a highly skilled golfer and an o.k. athlete and I hear it's usually a not-so-great golfer who's a better-than-average athlete playing speed golf.

Yesterday he played 37 holes with about a dozen guys before work by hitting the ball and jogging after it on a local executive course. Peter says an executive course has shorter holes that range from 80 to 260 yards. I haven't been a golfer in the past, but this sounds like it could be for me after I drop about 25 pounds. If you're busy and you're a beginner at golf and/or just starting an exercise program, you'll have to be the judge on whether you're ready for this. It sounds like fun to me. Tomorrow these local guys are having their Intergalactic Championship or something like that and they'll be running amok for 18 holes, presumably before work again. We all need exercise. Is this for you?

I am walking. You can walk. Please walk today. No matter what.

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Last night at Reality Changers the speaker mentioned FreeRice.com as a great place to expand your vocabulary as you help people in need, so the word is getting around. Click on the title of this post to visit a speed golf site.

Nine Miles In One Day

Big Man. Walking. Cold Rainy Day. New Daily RECORD. 9.25 miles.

For the most part I waited until the rain subsided. Definitely feels good - a good kind of tired.

Below is a table of the first four weeks of walking in 2008. The numbers are minutes and 20 minutes translates to a mile on Lime.com.


01/01/08 72 53 70 27 40 126 123
01/08/08 100 82 108 101 100 70 142
01/15/08 105 125 111 145 124 67 116
01/22/08 177 73 145 104 108 124 185

The chart starts on Tuesday and ends on Monday. Looks like Wednesday is the most challenging day to get my walking in and that makes sense given my schedule. I volunteer with Reality Changers on Wednesday nights in addition to picking our son up from soccer, so I probably don't walk much after 5 pm. Monday is the most prolific day. Two new records on Mondays and all four Mondays are in triple digits. My weekly totals are 511, 703, 793, and 916, so I have increased my total every week.

Keeping track allows me to see my progress and make comparison as well as gain insights into how or why, just like my realization about Wednesdays. If I choose, I can make sure I get up early Wednesday to get a good start so that I have lots of walking in before I pick up Stuart from soccer. I was able to keep track because I have a pedometer. It's not perfect, but I do think my pedometer is consistent. I have a friend who said he tried using a pedometer once and it was wildly inaccurate and he found that frustrating. My suggestion is to get a different pedometer. You can do it just like I am doing it. Keep reading and tell a friend who can use the encouragement.

I am walking. You can walk. Please walk today. No matter what.

I Walked The Whole Thing!

Several years ago we noticed that a grade school friend of my son's lived waaayy down Unicornio street. I held on to that concept of their house being far away and never really measured it. If the distance to their house was a long way, then the distance all the way to the end of Unicornio MUST be a really long walk and the round trip, by extension, must be in the neighborhood of 4-6 miles, or so I thought. Their house is near the bottom of the hill and the walk is pleasant enough, but the walk back is not as fun uphill. When you add the steep uphill grade past their house, you've got a real walk.

When I started out a few weeks ago I drove to the area near their house and walked to the end of the street and back to the area near my car, proud of myself for overshooting and having to circle back to the Buick. I mentally declared my intention that day to walk from our house to the end of Unicornio and back "a couple months from now". I figured that I could come back every Sunday or so and park a little closer to our house and gradually make the walk longer. I thought I would do the whole walk sometime between late February and early April. Since then I have walked up to 4 miles or so in a single "walk" and my perception of what's possible has changed.

First, I realized that the walk down Unicornio might not be as long as I thought because of several walks I took in the area. I wasn't exactly sure how long it was, but I was confident I could do it. Second, I have done some of my walking up and down hills instead of just walking in relatively flat areas. After walking Mellow about half a mile for his daily constitutional, I decided to drop my jacket off at home along with the dog and went right back out alone in the cool air and bright sunshine. The first part was the easiest as I went from flat to downhill and then it changed pretty quickly to the steep uphill grade and that was taxing. I tend to walk at a pretty steady pace, so the uphill walk really made me work and I remember thinking "I'm not even halfway there yet!" My son was at church and my honey was in Florida. I had no cell phone. My car was at home. I knew as I kept walking that I was creating more work for my body as long as I had not yet reached the end of the street. I want to be clear that I was confident I could do this because of my experience walking over the past weeks. I know some people urge you to really go for it and that does work in many contexts, but knowing what you have been achieving recently or previously is a big help in deciding how big a bite you can chew.

My first priority is minimizing the possibility for injuring my body. That doesn't mean I can take all the risk out of the exercise. I am large and living that way is a risk in itself. The reason I want to minimize the possibility of injury is simple:
I want to keep walking and walking and walking. I don't want to put my body out of commission for a couple days or even a week or more. I'm not saying that my way is the only way. I value the ability to keep going and going and going day after day.

So now you know that this walk was a realistic goal on this day and not completely beyond what I had done previously. My biggest victory besides being able to honestly say that I had done it was the mental challenges I overcame. After I made it past the halfway point I knew that every step was literally bringing me closer to home, closer to my goal. Once I was past the steepest portion, the way home was uphill but at a more gradual pace. Along the way I had peeked at my pedometer and realized that the whole trek was not as long as my most conservative estimate. Upon reaching home I saw the this trip down Unicornio and the little streets to get there was only 2.6 miles! This had been a LONG street in my mind for years. Even starting out weeks ago when I realized my intention was to conquer it, I had no idea that I would do it before the end of January! I slayed the dragon. You can slay your dragons, too. Now I need to find bigger dragons to slay.

I am walking. You can walk. Please walk today. No matter what.

Force Strategies Versus Personal Growth

Earlier this morning I was waiting for my son to finish his shower so I could drive him to church. I knew I had about three minutes so I went to FreeRice.com and played their vocabulary game which is sort of like SAT preparation. You pick (or guess) which answer is correct our of four options. I could describe more, but you can click the link and simply go there and see it and play it within seconds. You score points with correct answers and rice is donated to feed the hungry. Each correct answer is worth 20 grains of rice. My top level was 47 and I ended up on level 41. (You automatically level down when you give a wrong answer.) I won/helped donate 840 grains of rice and over 100 MILLION grains were donated yesterday. One day. That's really good. People are having fun. Learning. Maybe humbling themselves. And hungry people are receiving food. A survival need is being met. Check it out!

When I got back just a bit ago, I read Ian Ayres's editorial, You Bet Your Life, in the Sunday L.A. Times Opinion section. He wrote about people making commitment contracts to keep themselves on track toward their goals. He had $500 on the line every week if he failed to reach his goals and he never had to write a check on his way to losing 25 pounds. Ayres teaches law at Yale University and if he had missed a goal, he would have written a check for $500 that week to a charity chosen by his colleague, Dean Karlan, who teaches economics at Yale. They co-founded stickK.com, which you can visit by clicking on the title of this post. Their method is simply one strategy for reaching a goal, meeting a need.

In my opinion, the reasons for you or I not reaching a goal are part of what personal growth or self-development are about. I believe that dealing with the underlying issues in your life and your unhelpful and unhealthful belief systems is the better way to go in the long run. Forcing yourself to pay money can definitely work in forcing yourself to reach your goals. I'm sure you can find ample evidence on their website or in their writings. I'm suggesting that it's not the only strategy that works. The threat of paying money may force you to take certain actions, but it doesn't necessarily tell you WHY that threat is necessary. Self-development can take away the need for using that strategy. We'll see if FreeRice.com's educate and entertain yourself strategy (what I might call elementary personal growth or self-development) works in the long run. But it's working now and I expect that if you visit FreeRice.com and tell others about it, soon they will be donating 1 BILLION grains of rice per day and maybe, soon after than 100 Billion or even 1 TRILLION.

Now I'm going to go for a walk.

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Visit FreeRice.com and then visit Lime.com and register (use a pseudonym if you like - I'm Dr. Network there AND Leftcoastman here) and keep tracking of your steps and your minutes and your miles.

Almost 3.5 Miles By 9:30 Almost

My dog wanted to go out so we did a mile before 7:30 this morning and then I went to get the paper. A little while after coming back home I found my son was still sleeping and decided to do a couple more miles. I walked the "Big Block", which in my lingo is all the way around about a quarter of our "greater neighborhood". [Ya hadda be there?] For locals it's Xana Way to Alga, then Melrose north to Carrillo Way and back around to Xana in the simplest way possible.

During the descent towards Carrillo Way I noticed that I felt the lactic acid burn in my left calf more than in my right (a first) and I wondered if that might be because I'm right-handed and therefore probably right-footed, too. I also noticed that I was moving pretty fast and some people might consider this pace speed walking. I just knew it was cold and I was moving fast enough to keep warm. Maybe I finally reached the threshold of making my calves do some extra work. Half a mile later while I was coming up the hill I noticed that the lactic acid in my left calf had lessened and both calves felt the same another quarter mile later as the terrain leveled out. I'll ask Christine Burke at Fitness Together about it. When I got back home my pedometer said almost 3.5 miles and it was a little past 9:30 (on Saturday!).

I am walking. You can walk. Please walk today. No matter what.

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I've mentioned before that one of the reasons I like walking and writing about it is that about 99% of us can do it. I found the site of someone who may prove that MORE than 99% of us can do it. Her name is Stacey James and she's a motivational speaker who was paralyzed from the neck down in a diving accident. The motto on her website is "Equipping people to rise above the challenges of life." She's at WalkingVictorious.com.

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Remember FreeRice.com.

Keep walking even a little

Here it is Saturday, but there has been so much going on that I haven't quite walked a mile and it's almost noon. My honey is going to Florida tomorrow early and we spent a little time in one of our couple rituals this morning and I have assignments still to do to help her on her way. She just took our son to get his ankle checked after last night's soccer game and I'm about to take his two buddies to the movies because this outing was put in motion before he and his mother decided that he should get the ankle checked today rather than Monday.

But the dog really needed a walk, so I did get a little one in. I look forward to Monday when Christine will start "forcing" me to come in a couple times a week. When I was at Toastmasters yesterday I shared about walking and found out that at least a couple more people are walking in earnest in the new year. When you tell other people about what you're doing you can find those who are willing to support you in your goals. Conversely, if you don't share they don't know. So...walk. And tell somebody.

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Click on the title of this post to visit my Toastmasters Club blog - Expressions-Unlimited.blogspot.com.

Christine Burke on goals

If you've been reading Big Man Walking, you might remember that my two goals are to lose 50 pounds of fat and gain 10 pounds of muscle by December 31, 2008. My first strategy is walking. An expert promised to help me. At my Toastmasters club today two members covered areas I'm really interested in. One spoke on Nonviolence and I will contact her for a future post. Christine Burke, the other speaker, is owner or part owner of two fitness clubs called Fitness Together. Christine spoke about goals and her example had to do with losing weight. I was definitely paying attention. She has a style of goal setting called S.M.A.R.T. goals and I promise to share more about it after talking with her further. I Googled S.M.A.R.T. goals and what I found sounds very close to what Christine shared earlier today. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely. Do you have goals? Are they S.M.A.R.T.?

Whether or not you have goals, you can still walk starting right now.

Whether or not you have a pedometer, you can still walk starting right now.

Whether or not you have the perfect gear, you can still walk starting right now.

If you're already walking, congratulations! If you're not walking yet, what are you waiting for?


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Click on the title of this post to see Christine and her Program Director, Mike Deibler, in one of her Fitness Together locations. You can also click here - FTNorthCounty.com to visit the site of the Fitness Together where I will see Christine on a regular basis starting Monday. I copied the following information about Christine Burke, Fitness Together owner, from one of her websites.

Christine hates exercise, and feels if she can keep up her fitness program, so can you. Christine weighed around 170 pounds at her heaviest, and her cholesterol level was at 240. Unlike her co-workers, Christine prefers to sit still while reading books, watching movies, and playing with digital photos. Despite this, she now maintains her weight under 135, her blood pressure is 110/70, and her last cholesterol reading was 160. Her athletic achievements include being the Slowest Kid on the Swim Team and accumulating many bruises while competing for the UCLA Fencing Team. Christine has a BSEE and MBA from UCLA, and she actually does enjoy roller blading and boogie boarding. She motivates herself to work out by hanging out with the best personal trainers in San Diego.

40 miles in ten days

Forty miles is a good start to the year. Here is just a little bit of trivia because I have played a fair amount of poker in my four and a half decades on this earth. Forty miles is short for the phrase "forty miles of railroad track" which means you have four tens. You hear the phrase "thirty miles" much more often because you make three tens much more often than four tens, which is a very nice hand. So when it's time to show your hand, you turn it over and say, "Forty miles," and the vast majority of the time you hear "very nice hand" in return. Once in a while when you have "forty miles of railroad track" you might hear, "Nice hand, but it's not a winner," because someone has a hand so "big" that it beats four tens.

When you have walked 40 miles in your first ten days of a resolution or on track to a goal, you have a "very nice hand". Now I'm in the middle of my forties and I have 40 miles, a very nice hand, and I would like 40 more and then maybe, 40 more again. Do you have a very nice hand? Would you like 40 more miles? Get a pedometer from wherever you like and get started. Whether it costs $20 delivered or $200 is up to you. Or you can go down to Target or your favorite sports oriented store and get one there. Just do it or something like that. Now. Today. Join me. Join us. OK?