If you haven’t heard, this isn’t the first time I’ve attempted to track a weight loss program online.  For a year (August 2006 through August 2007) I did an almost-daily video blog with constant updates on my diet and how things were going.  I started then at 242 pounds, got down to 212, then back up to 235.  When I ended the vlog, I breathed a big sigh of relief and relaxed everything, including my eating habits. In the year and a half since, I’ve gained another 35 pounds.

The problem with yo-yo dieters such as myself is that when we gain the weight back, we also lose muscle.  When I have since tried to diet without exercise, it turns out my body was losing muscle tissue, leaving me feeling weak all the time while not losing any weight at all.  (I’m cribbing largely here from You: On a Diet, and you can rest assured that Dr. Oz knows a lot more about this than I do.)

So what is the solution?  It turns out there are a few key things that we should be doing:

Stretching/Flexibility exercise: 5 minutes a day

  • Women’s Health Magazine has some good tutorials on stretching. Move 1 is my favorite because it helps release all the tension in my back.

Cardio: 20 minutes, three times a week at 80% of your maximum heart rate

  • Figure out 80% of your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. For example, I’m 26, so 220 - 26 = 194. 194 * .8 = 155.2, so I should be doing twenty minutes of cardio three times a week at about 155 beats per minute.  If you don’t use the gym or prefer not to hold onto the censors while you’re on the treadmill or elliptical machine, I recommend the Sportline Solo Heart Monitor watch, which I’ve had for over a year but plan to use a lot as I start doing more walks outside.

Resistance training: 30 minutes a week

  • This is definitely more than I would have thought to do, but broken down into 10-minute segments, it doesn’t seem like that much.

Walking: 10,000 steps throughout the day with at least 30 minutes of continuous walking

  • If you don’t have a pedometer to count your steps, check out this one (it’s only three bucks).  Another option is a little more work, but it’s good if you can get 10,000 steps into your workout.  The average female step length is 2.2 feet, which means that we get about 2,400 steps per mile.  Four miles will get you to 9,600, and if you’ve made it that far, you’re probably good to go with factoring the other 400 steps into your daily routine.  For example, it takes me 100 steps just to take the trash out.  If you don’t know how far your walks are taking you, use Google Maps to recreate your route.

my walking route around downtown Phoenix


So, all told that doesn’t seem like a ton of exercise, and definitely doable.  I think I’m going to try to start doing two miles of walking a day and then up it by a quarter of a mile every couple days until I’m doing four miles religiously.

Here goes nothing!