Exercise and Weight Loss

My experience is that I can't lose weight without exercise. The research shows that you can but it is harder; you can't lose weight with exercise alone and people that exercise are more sucessful at keeping the weight off.

I have made some progress in my exercise in the past 6 months. I have gone from dreading the exercise, to looking forward to my daily walks in nature, yoga and even spin classes. I am not at the point where I get a rush from exercise, but I do enjoy it now. I am not just doing it because I know I have to for my body. I would rather go for a walk than lie on the coach.

From my December Step Up meeting I learned this is a natural process. We move from Beginner- doing it because we have to, to get the benefits, to the Maintainer where we enjoy it. I do feel that it is spiritual now for me, and it feeds my soul. My new mantra, I came up with, is: My body is the temple where my soul lives; the food I eat and the exercise, the offerings. I believe at my core that the exercise honors my soul.

Since this is the snickers diet I will equate my exercise with snickers. I need to walk 52-59 minutes, (depending on my weight 200 and 175) to burn a snickers (280 calories)at a 20 minute mile or moderate pace. In my 45 minute spin class I burn about 2 snickers- 611 calories and yoga/pilates is about 340 calories for 45 minutes at my weight and age.

My plan is to burn .5 to 1 pound of weight per week. Goal burn of 3500 calories with a minimum of 1750 per week. Here's how that works for my goal of 3500:
2 yoga/ pilates classes- 340 calories
2 spin classes- 1222 calories
Swimming once per week 30 minutes- 317 calories
balance 1621 calories- walking 324 minutes per week- that is, on average 46 minutes per day every day or 65 minutes, 5 days a week. When I am focused and motivated I can do that.

I have been getting my walks in this week, but have missed spin and yoga as my daughter has the flu and I can't get to the sportsplex. I will meet my minimum with just walking. This is my busy time of the year with my practice because my clients all need year end review meetings and new clients are motivated to get a financial plan. But I can do it all, and do it well if I stay focused and MOTIVATED. I hope this blog motivates you and that you learn something. It really helps to keep me focused, accountable and motivated. Thank you for reading this.