First Blog Entry

Well, I have been going to the gym on and off for two months, but we recently quit our membership and just bought a machine. I have a Gold's Gym Crosswalk 650 treadmill, and I am pleased to say that it works quite well and is smooth. Here is the same model that I bought from Wal*Mart: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=7789785

The only thing I wish it had was a way to put in weight and height for a more accurate calorie count, but other than that it's pretty good.

I am going to start out my journal by logging in the exercises I do everyday. I will be logging in the time it took, the distance and calories burned (even though I am fairly certain it's not correct).

Later when I become more ambitious, I will keep a food log. Right now I am working on one thing at a time, and right now it's just exercising regularly. I am not going to really weigh myself for a few months because in the beginning you don't always lose weight, because you burn fat, but gain muscle. I don't want to be discouraged by the scale, so that will be skipped for a few months. I did however weigh myself yesterday to get a good idea what I weigh now. I am currently 294 pounds, though I honestly don't feel it.

Also, while I might try to reach a certain weight goal, I am certainly not using that as the basis of my success. Losing belly fat and being healthy is the most important thing. I might still weigh more than someone my size because of my breast size. I have lost sixty pounds before, but my cup size never changed, so obviously that is the last place for my fat to burn. I will make more calculations on that at a later time.

My favorite way to walk for 30 minutes is to do stretches first. Then I get on the treadmill and walk 2 mph for 2 minutes, then 2.5 mph for the rest of the song, then I walk 3 mph for a whole song. The next song I walk 2 mph for 2 minutes (this actually seems to help reduce pain when I am walking), 2.5 mph for the rest of the song, then 3 mph the next song, repeat.

So, right now I am concentrating on just getting in the habit of exercising at least 30 minutes a day. Here is my progress so far, starting Sunday.

May 10

This was the first time I tried out my treadmill. It worked great. I exercised 30 minutes exactly, but did not keep track of my distance and calories. I know that I did go over a mile and burn over 100 calories though.


May 11

I started around 4:30 pm so I unfortunately had some interruptions (Korey, I'm blaming you), so the first part isn't accurate...I didn't look where I was at when the phone rang.

first session:
8:30 minutes. It was actually longer, but that's what the clock said when I last saw it.

second session:
23:34 minutes
103 calories
1.03 miles

I felt pretty good yesterday, and actually felt that maybe I could speed things up in the next few days. My stamina has been building up, and I am actually a lot healthier than I have ever been.

Later I will be entering a blog about motivation, since that seems to be the most important thing to help a person stay on track.

Thanks to all my friends that supporting me. =)