Treadmill

OK, I bought a treadmill.

I took a look at the options (treadmill, The Mall, gym) and decided that, for me, a treadmill was the best choice. While my wife was gently nudging me towards The Mall as the lowest cost option, it was also the option with the most downsides.

• Strenuous workout. OK, if the workout is going to be strenuous (and based on my experience at my father-in-law's house last week it may very well be) I am going to be hot and sweaty. Do I want to wander around West Edmonton Mall with sweat pouring off me? No. Am I going to look suspicious? Yes. Am I going to feel extremely self-conscious and thus sabotage my workout? Probably. The only viable alternatives are the treadmill or the gym.
• Elapsed Time. If I am leaving the house I am adding time to the workout. Ten to fifteen minutes to get there and ten to fifteen minutes to get back. This can add twenty to thirty minutes of time to any workout effort. The best alternative is the treadmill with both the gym and West Edmonton Mall coming in second place.
• Privacy. I am not a very public person. Everything I do is very private. I don't sing in public. I don't draw attention to myself. I am very much an introvert. In the area of walking I can walk in public because people are not shoulder to shoulder with me looking at what I am doing. In this case the gym is the least comfortable solution due to my own insecurities.
• Increased Performance. What if I decide that running is actually what I want to do. Both the treadmill and the gym provide options for me to increase the tempo of my workout without looking out of place. West Edmonton Mall? Imagine a fat man running through the mall with sweat pouring off his head. I'd arrest him.
• Winter clothes. In the middle of winter I would be going to the mall in my winter coat. Where do I put the coat while I am doing my walk? A $3.50 locker? Wear it? While the mall works for summer days when the weather is not perfect, the idea of walking around the mall with a 10 pund winter coat is just not an acceptable approach.

For my personal use the treadmill made more sense with the Gym in second place. If we refer to cost than a Gym membership for the six winter months ($350 - $700) would pay for the treadmill in 2 - 4 years. The more "features" we want in a gym the faster the payback. For example, a dedicated locker or even towel service adds quickly to the cost and makes the treadmill pay for itself much faster.

 

So, there we go, my reasons for a treadmil..

... or a Gym

So, a treadmill is the way to go. Or is it? What about a gym? You know, those sweaty rooms where testosterone laden men are hitting punching bags.

It appears that gyms have changed since I was a kid. Gyms are now "fitness centres" and those testosterone laden men are now being replaced by women in yoga pants. Base on some recommendations I thought I would Che k out a number of options.

Grant Macewan. A local university has opened up their fitness centre to students, staff and the general public. The facilities seem to contain what I am looking for, a treadmill, and they have a variety of options available and they are relatively close to work.

City of Edmonton Recreation Centres. City owned facilities provide a varied level of support for what I want. Some smaller centres contain few options available for what I want while other facilities seem more than adequate. The nearest facility is very small with the odds of the correct machine being available when I want it available akin to being struck by lightning.

Gold's Gym. I am quite leery of Gold's Gym, at least the one closest to my house, because of the numerous complaints I have heard about their business practices, both online and in person. And to be honest, their web site sucks. (Once again, the local branch not the main web site.)

World Health Club. Much better reviews and the locations seem well equipped. There is even one on the direct route to work. They appear to be the one to beat.

Spin Fitness. Small locations open 24 hours a day. Located one block from where I work. Costs less than a gym or rec centre. Not only that, I can get the first month for only $8.95.

West Edmonton Mall. Yeah, I know, it's not a gym or a rec centre but it is big and would allow me to get a good walk in when it was snowing outside. But what about all of the electronics in the car? Wouldn't they freeze in the car?

Lot's of option, but with winter swiftly approaching there is a need to come up with an answer soon.

Treadmills

I have to face it, the weather is going to turn bad and I am going to need to find someplace to do my walking. There are a number of choices:

• Take a walking tour of the floor at work 20 times a day
• Wander through the parkade in the building from the bottom level to the top level 7 times a day
• Go to West Edmonton Mall and walk from one end to the other, and back, twice.
• Walk through the barely shovelled sidewalks and gamble that I am going to be able to make the neighbourhood circle without twisting an ankle.

I don't particularly like any of those options. Oh, some work on certain days while some work better on others, but there is no "perfect" solution. Or is there?

What about a treadmill? I can stay at home, nice and warm, and walk to my hearts content. There are some things that I do need to take into account, however:

• As I am still over 300 pounds I need a treadmill that can handle my weight. This eliminates many of the less expensive treadmills as they are designed for skinny waifs who don't need to lose weight.
• I have a rather wide walk. Wide hips, chunky thighs rubbing together, whatever the cause I need a wider tread to walk on. It used to be that 18" was the standard. That's way too small. 20"? Better. So now I have eliminated another swath of treadmills.
• I plan on using this on a daily basis (up to an hour per day) and I fully expect other people in the house to use it as well. That means a more powerful motor to handle the higher usage pattern and the fact that I am still over 300 pounds. 3 CHP (Continuous Horse Power) or higher is what I am targetting.

So there we go. I think a treadmill will work, but I'm not sure. I know that walking outside won't work for me in winter, but I'm not sure that I can find a treadmill that I want either. (A treadmill that won't cost a fortune.) Let's see what's out there.

Stress

I never really knew how much stress was affecting until just recently.

Up until about two or three weeks ago I was living a stressful but not stressful life. Yes, I had the stress of Diabetes and weight loss, but I was coping with it and everything else seemed a little inconsequential. Then things started to pile up at work and the stress started multiplying. Earlier this week I could almost feel the stress in my body grabbing on to anything it could. The tremendous weight loss this month? Weight gain the past few days. I have been drinking the same amount of water, but it definitely hasn't been leaving my system!

This has been affecting me in other ways. I recently pulled a muscle in my back, one of the only injuries I have had since I started walking more. I was short on steps and decided to go for a longer walk on Wednesday, right before dinner. I came back, had some scrambled eggs and then watched a couple of shows with the family. (Bones and Castle). When I got up I felt a twinge in my back. I went to the washroom and when I turned to leave ... BAM.

My back felt like the Hulk was trying to squeeze the last drops out of an orange. Two Robax later and after a full night of sleep my back is still bothering me. To be honest, I blame it on the stress of the past few days. I need to get bak my zen state of peacefulness that I had last week.

I need to get back to the good stress: counting calories and wondering if it is going to be too cold for my nightly walk.

Too Much Weight Too Fast

So, I'm thinking that I may be hitting the "water loss" stage of the overall weight loss experience.  Normally the water loss stage, where your body purges itself of excess water, occurs early on in the overall weight loss program.  I'm not sure that I experienced that weight loss back in August.  When I started to lose weight I started losing weight at almost the precise number expected from my calorie deficit.

Then I plateaued which I explained as being a defective weigh scale due to batteries.

Then I plummeted in terms of weight loss.  As of this writing it has been over 11 pounds in 8 days.

11 pounds.

To be honest I am almost scared of the wight loss.  I'm almost thinking that it is too fast, but what is causing it?  I am still drinking 8+ cups of water a day.  I am walking over 8000 steps a day.  I am eating a 2000 calorie a day diet (up in the past few weeks to be honest).

I know that a number of people are kind of peeved with me right now in that they would love 11 pounds in 8 days, but I'm trying to make sure that I am not screwing up my metabolism.  I'm trying to make sure that my weight loss is stable, repeatable and foremost, safe.

Let's see if this continues.

Eating Out

One of the most difficult things when dieting, whether you are avoiding carbohydrates, salt, sugar, or whatever, is the ability to determine what is in the dish that you just ordered.  How much cheese is in that cheese burger?  How much salt is in that chilli?  Cajun chicken?

There are so many variables as to what to is in a dish that it is sometimes a crap shoot as to what nutrients are in a dish.  Should you go with just a salad?  But what about the salad dressing?  Grilled chicken?  Seems safe, but what about the rest of the plate?  What can you do?

Well, if you have a mobile device with you scan the internet for nutrition information.  Many chains have nutritional information published or someone has gone through the effort to determine the nutrients.  If you can't find it, the odds are that you can find the individual components of the dish and add those up to create the dish.  Yes, it is a lot of work, but sometimes you can't do anything else.

This isn't to say that you can't eat out.  I've done it dozens of times since I started my diet and have been fairly successful in finding the menu item already identified and nutritionally broken down somewhere on the Internet.  Sometimes, however, I have had to wing it and live with the consequences.

One bad choice does not completely kill your diet. It might be a hiccup.  It might actually turn out to be a good choice.  The important thing to remember is that the end goal requires a marathon effort and a single meal out of the 3000 meals that I will be eating to reach my goal will not have that adverse an impact on the total effort.  Whether I eat 1,000,000 calories or 1,000,400 calories will not make that big a difference, particularly if you are exercising at the same time.

You don't need to avoid eating out, you need to be smart about it.

You do have a choice.

 Status for October 5th

• Weight - 326.2 lbs
• Blood Sugar - 6.0 mmol/L

A Walking Demon

Holy crap am I walking a lot.

When I started wearing the FitBit I was kind of happy that I was hitting between 2500 and 3000 steps a day.  Considering what I was probably doing early (too scary to think about) I was positivly a walking demon.

Then I talked to my doctor.  She wanted me to increase my steps by 500 a week until I hit 10,000 steps.  Was she nuts?  I mean, seriously, how do I fit that many steps into my day?  I was busy.  I had meals to eat, television shows to watch, reports to write, etc.  I just didn't have the time to add 500 steps per week.

Or so I thought.

I discovered that walking from my house to the end of the "neighbourhood" and return (yes, I needed to get back to the house) was a 2K walk.  So I started walking.  Considering that this was probably the longest trek that I had been on in years, surpassing the uninterrupted walking that I did at DisneyWorld.  I did it.  I was in pain.  My shins hurt and I was panting like a dog in heat.  It was not a pretty site.  I did this a few times and hurt every time.  I wasn't panting as much but I was successful.  That was when I bought the new walking shoes.  (See previous entry)

I've added the walking at work.  I've changed my lunch pattern to walk to Grant Macewan at lunch time (2.2 K) and a 2K neighbourhood walk at night.  My internal target was to do 7000 steps a day, an increase of 4000 steps per day in 4 weeks (1000 per week instead of 500).  One day I was a little short.  I was only at 2200 steps and it was late at night.  I went to Plan B:  the 3.5K neighbourhood walk.

5000 steps later and I felt pretty good.  In fact, my min/km was actually lower than a normal 2K walk.  I was enjoying this.  I liked walking.  Wow.

My average daily steps are now 8300 steps, up from 2750 only four short weeks ago.  An average of 10,000 steps is not out of the realm of possibility within the next few weeks.  I am stoked to hit it.  

Batteries

You may not think that batteries are important for weight loss, but in my world they are.  I know, I'm confused as well, but let me explain.

Ever week, on Saturday morning I wake up, go to the bathroom and then meet the monster of the day:  the weigh scale.  Since starting my weight loss drive I have been dreading/anticipating the moment that I step on the sale and view my progress.  I dread it because I am scared that I will see little to no progress.  I anticipate it because I want to see the progress I have made.  Imagine what happens to your self esteem and commitment if you don't see any progress for one or two weeks or even longer.  That was the problem that I faced.  

No progress. 

None.

Even worse, it appeared as if I had actually gained half a pound.  I was eating only 2000 calories a day, over 1000 calroeis below TDEE.  I should have lost four pounds.  I was depressed.  I was feeling that all of my effort was going to waste.  I was confused as to why the numbers on the weigh scale were flickering.  Flickering?  What the heck?  Yes, I have a weigh scale which is digital.  A weigh scale that requires batteries.

Batteries.

I went downstairs, get some fresh batteries, installed them in the weigh scale and BAM, instant weight loss.  I was happy.  I was relieved.  I was amazed at how such a simple thing, replacing the batteries in the weigh scale, could have such a huge impact on my self esteem.  Remember, check the batteries if you have a digital weigh scale.  It is so important.

 Status for September 28th

• Weight - 331.5 lbs
• Blood Sugar - 6.0 mmol/L

Compression Stockings

Oh, did I mention that I am wearing compression stockings?  I guess I forgot that part, didn't I?

You see, when I went to visit my doctor at the end of July, it wasn't because I was going for a regular visit, it was because I had injured my shin at the beginning of July and it wasn't healing properly.  Heck, when I went to the doctor she thought that I might have Necrotizing fasciitis.  The wound was, well messy is a good word with a bunch of dead flesh and all sorts of other interesting things.  I also learned a new term:  surgical debridement.  Anyway, this led to the blood test which led to the diabetes diagnosis.

It also led to something called a "lower limb assessment" where they check your legs to see good the circulation is as well as the level of water retention in the legs.  At this point the person doing my testing decided that I needed compression stockings at the 20 - 30 mmHg level.  In addition, due to the diabetes diagnosis I needed the "open toe" variety.  Unfortunately, due to the combination of items the only open toed stockings at the 20 - 40 mmHg level are in one style and one colour:  Crispa.

They really look like stockings, not socks.  I try to convince myself they are socks, but it doesn't work.  So, ever since I'd had the compression stockings I have been wearing pants when I go out, no matter how warm it is.

However, there is a bright side.  My calf on my right leg has shrunk over an inch in size.  My left?  About half an inch.  As a result the compression stockings are almost too big for me to wear as I was just into the Xtra large size stockings.  My feet are also better.  So, with all of this information and the continued shrinkage of the rest of me, when I need to go back to get new stockings (early December) I will be asking for closed toed in a smaller size.  This also allows me to pick different colors!!  Maybe even sports socks.

Seriously, that's the most important piece for me right now, fitting in.

 Status for September 21st

• Weight - 331 lbs
• Blood Sugar - 6.0 mmol/L

Shoes

Maybe it's just me, but I never really thought that much about my shoes while I was doing my walking.  I had purchased a pair of "hiking shoes" and those were what I wore on a daily basis.  They were comfortable.

And then I started reading articles about walking and how important it was to buy a good pair of walking shoes if I was going to do some serious walking.  10,000 steps a day?  To me that is serious walking so I thought I would do some more investigating.  And more.  And more.  Until it finally got to the point where I now have a personal goal to compete in a 5K walk next year.

Yeah, that came out of the blue didn't it.

Well, now that I have this goal I guess I better get serious about walking.  In order to get serious it looked like I was going to need some new shoes.  I did my research, discovered that everyone liked different things because different shoes offered different capabilities.  I picked out my top two or three and then went shopping at the Running Room?  Why the Running Room?  Well, to be honest, I liked their approach to running / walking and I liked the way they supported the communities they were in.  They had a single focus and they wanted to be as good as they could doing what they love.

So, I walked in the door, went to the walking shoes, found my top pick and said "I'd like to try on these."  No go.  They didn't have my size.  Pick number two?  Right size, but too narrow.  Pick three?  Larger size, but too narrow.  Feeling a little frustrated and ready to go on to the next Running Room store to see if they had what I wanted, the girl (anyone my daughters age is called a girl, no offence intended, just my old age kicking in) brought out a pair of New Balance M840V2 shoes.  Who new that shoes had such fancy names?

Well, I tried on the shoes and I fell in love.  The shoes weigh about the same as my naked iPad and they were so comfortable.  They were wide (apparently my feet really are like flippers) and my toes felt very comfortable in these lightweight monstrosities.  Needless to say, I paid for them and walked out the door, promising myself that I would test them that very night.

And I did.  And I was still in love.  They were very comfortable on my 2K walk and I got to experience the feeling of wind on my toes as a small breeze came up.  After finishing the 2K walk in one of my best times this year (OK, it was only the third or fourth time I had walked this route in my life so it's not hard to set a record) my legs did not feel cramped nor was I suffering from any shin splints.

New shoes for walking?  Priceless

 Status for September 14th

• Weight - 333 lbs
• Blood Sugar - 6.0 mmol/L