My diet and fitness resolutions seem to have recently stalled slightly, and with a looming medical to pass things need to get back on track. I guess that starting a new business project on chocolate is not really the best topic to be involved with when trying to shift a bit of excess flab. But in reality it means that I'll have to limit the tastings, or exercise more, or both.
When I woke up this morning the sun was shining and the ground was white, yes, unexpected snow. What better way to spend Sunday morning than going for a brisk walk in the snow.
Snow is a great endorphin producer, seriously, when there is a white carpet of snow then it seems to have a similar effect to exercise on releasing endorphins and creating that 'high' that makes us all feel soooooo good.
So off to a local reservoir which provides an 8.2 mile walk, yes, the very same reservoir that my 41st birthday target in July is to run around. So the walk will be helpful preparation, know your enemy and all that.
Armed with woolly hat and gloves the racing snake and I set off at a brisk pace. 5.2 miles off road first followed by 3 miles levelled surface. The quicker you walk the warmer you get, so ideal for fat burning today.
The reservoir was busy, with sailing, and capsizing...brrrrrrrr, cyclists, runners and walkers. It's great to see so many people out enjoying the fresh air and "just doing it".
Half way round we met a group of 4 women runners, the same group we'd met not long after we started walking, they were on their 2nd lap, wow! Ankle deep in mud, sleet, cold, windy and they looked as fresh as the first time we saw them. I'm so envious.
Our target was to cover the 8.2 miles in 2 hours or less, however the mud did slow us down a bit, it's hard to power up a hill when you're sliding several inches down again in the mud with every step.
The final 1.5 miles came into sight, and only 19 minutes to go to get inside 2 hours. It was starting to look a bit iffy. The wind sweeping off the reservoir was getting to be hard work, and the sleet stung a bit, but I thought of all the calories I was burning.
Finally the car park came into sight and as I got to the car I stopped my heart rate monitor and saw the mocking time of 2 hours 4 minutes. Bugger.
But, and it's a big but (no, that's spelt 'butt'), the good news was 846 calories burnt, at 50% fat burning potential as my heart rate kept reasonably close to the bottom of my aerobic training zone. The harder you work, so that you are gasping for breath, the closer to your anaerobic zone you get, and the less fat you burn. So remember, if you're gasping for breath you're not burning the flab. If you can talk fairly normally while you're exercising then you're at a good fat burning level.
Before you go racing off to the nearest sports shop or website, you don't need a heart rate monitor. Why not try a pedometer, it's a fabulous piece of kit, and reasonably priced. Health experts recommend that you try to walk 10,000 steps a day for health benefits. That's about 5 miles, unless you've got short stumpy or long giraffe legs.
And yes, 30 trips to and from the chocolate vending machine will count towards your 10,000. A pedometer becomes your very own exercise conscience, it will mock you or congratulate you, it will provide healthy competition, beat the pedometer. For about the price of 3-4 bars of good quality chocolate you can get an exercise best friend and trainer all rolled into one. So buy a pedometer today.
Amazon.com (this search keeps breaking so apologies if it's telling you it can't find 'books') and
Amazon.co.uk have great selections of pedometers, ranging in price from cheap (2 bars of chocolate) to a bit more investment needed (5+ bars of chocolate).
Caution: As with all exercise, if you haven't exercised for some time, or if you have any medical conditions, you should see your physician first for a checkup. Tell them what you are planning to do so they can advise based on any medical history you might have.
