MWL and Walking

[Jerry Angelo]

I don't want to make this a long post because I really want to emphasize 2 very important things I personally have found doing this the last 11 weeks.

The first thing is by strictly adhering to MWL I felt better very quickly. Much, much better. Even better than when I went cold turkey onto TSS. Energetic, motivated and even antsy are the adjectives that first pop into my mind to describe myself.
I feel so much better that I always feel like doing something which is a complete 180 from most of my adult life.
I feel like moving even a few hours after I go on a long walk. Amazing.

The second thing is that when I walk which is most days of the week, my hunger/ binge eating/ boredom eating / emotional eating gets squashed. Not only can I not eat if I'm out walking but when I get back I don't have an appetite for being 'bad'. This has caused me to remain steady and consistent with my weight loss which in turn is good for my head which in turn is good for me to get motivated and walk... you see, it's like a domino effect.

Just wanted to share.

[Lesliec1]

Nice post! Good reminder for me. Exercise is my weakest area. I think it's because I don't take time to observe how much better I feel when I have exercised enough. How much do you walk?

[Jerry Angelo]

Nice post! Good reminder for me. Exercise is my weakest area. I think it's because I don't take time to observe how much better I feel when I have exercised enough. How much do you walk?

EDIT: My original response is below but in reading it again I noticed while I did answer your question, I rambled on quite a bit, I was trying to point out that while I agree with you that exercising does feel good, you first need to feel better to want to even attempt it.

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Me too, exercise is (hopefully was) my weakest area...

But...

As I described above, small steps in the right direction caused a domino or avalanche effect. 11 weeks ago I finally began adhering to MWL strictly... I immediately began feeling better and wanting to move... I would say it happened within the first week. Getting rid of bread, pasta, nuts and even rice made me feel lighter, energetic and I'll say it again, feel like moving. It also took away the addictive snow ball of having 'just some' of the offending products and ending up eating the whole thing. Since I didn't have to worry about them, I felt better, since I didn't overeat or even eat some, I felt even better, dominoes starting to fall...

So one day I took a walk. 1 lap around the walking trail is 3 miles and I limped to the finish line...
Took a day off and I got these 'strange' thoughts on day 3 lol... I wanted to do it again, so I did... The next day the strange thoughts continued and I did it again. By the end of the second week I had walked around twice for 6 miles! For me that's more than huge... it's amazing. A week or two later I went around 3 times for 9 miles... Now 2 plus months into it I walk once or twice a week for 9 miles and 3 days are usually 5-6 miles. I even got an indoor bike for rainy days, so terrified that I might miss a day because of weather...

So, to sum up... I feel better because I eat better, feeling better makes me want to move, moving makes me feel even better, feeling even better clears my mind, a clear mind makes me make better choices, making better choices makes me eat better... rinse and repeat.

The reason I wrote the post was to hopefully motivate people like myself who may be bogged down by and/or not moving.
Eating and exercise, I've found out are very much codependent... I'm mean, think about eating an entire pizza and then setting out for a 9 mile walk! I would rather sleep... but if you give me a Jeff Novick plate portioned out for a few days my mind will all on it's own want to get up and get busy!

[Vera]

Thank you for your post! I am surprised with all the energy I've started to have since starting the program around three weeks ago. It does make me want to walk. I'm not to the point of running but it's amazing that I do want to walk! Although yesterday after logging in lots of steps and half-hour on elliptical bike I 'rewarded' myself with a whole wheat pita and a cup of rice with salsa (was doing potatoes before). Wrong! This morning a scale showed half pound more... Hopefully it's just the salt from salsa

[Jerry Angelo]

Thank you for your post! I am surprised with all the energy I've started to have since starting the program around three weeks ago. It does make me want to walk.

Doesn't it?!?!? It really is awesome...

I'm not to the point of running but it's amazing that I do want to walk!

I'm not running although I do jog for a minute or two a few times during a walk... still have a long way to go to be a jogger. But I'm in no rush, I would be devastated at this point if I got an injury that would prevent me from walking regularly...

This morning a scale showed half pound more... Hopefully it's just the salt from salsa

Day to day fluctuations will occur and sometimes, like in my case, they're huge... It can swing 5 pounds! That's why I ONLY use my Tuesday morning weigh in as my weight... Same routine, week in and week out. Keeps me sane lol

[Vera]

I still can not convince myself to do one week weight in. I desperately want to see the progress
Why do you think your weight fluctuates so much? Salt? Fruit?

[Jerry Angelo]

I can easily eat 3 or 4 pounds of food a day... add to that the water I drink. If I weigh myself first thing and then after dinner, I will not weigh nearly the same as I did that morning before breakfast. That's why I do my official weigh in every week at the same time on the same scale wearing the same clothing with the same routine.

I don't know if I'm too much of a numbers guy or if I like torturing myself but I do peek intra week, but I really do think it's noise.

[Vera]

Yes, it's the rule number one for every woman: weight is taken first thing in the morning on an empty stomach after going to the bathroom. It gives you the lowest possible number Have you been losing weight consistently overall?

[Jerry Angelo]

Had a lot to lose and lost consistently with TSS... then plateaued for a good 10 months before resuming almost 3 months ago with MWL and losing consistently again, about 2.8 per week... 42 to go...

MWL really was a game changer but I must give a lot of credit to the walking and hence the topic...

[Vera]

It's so wonderful to hear you are doing well. You've done the big part already - figured out what exactly works for you. Let's keep walking! Good luck

[Jerry Angelo]

It's so wonderful to hear you are doing well. You've done the big part already - figured out what exactly works for you. Let's keep walking! Good luck

Thank you very much Vera, I'm wishing you the same!

[DeborahAnn]

LOVE the results from walking, it is just as you say - it helps me control my appetite, keeps me in a good mood, makes me feel accomplished, and just gives me more energy to devote to my way of eating. I only am up to one mile per day, but my main focus at this time is consistency. I tell myself I only have to go for one block, and that gets me out the door. That is the hard part, after all!
So, even though the number of calories burned is not significant, the overall effect from walking is definitely a huge factor in my weight loss.

[Jerry Angelo]

LOVE the results from walking, it is just as you say - it helps me control my appetite, keeps me in a good mood, makes me feel accomplished, and just gives me more energy to devote to my way of eating. I only am up to one mile per day, but my main focus at this time is consistency. I tell myself I only have to go for one block, and that gets me out the door. That is the hard part, after all!
So, even though the number of calories burned is not significant, the overall effect from walking is definitely a huge factor in my weight loss.

That's great!

When I first started TSS I could barely walk around the block. The key is not the distance, it was the fact that I felt like walking at all! I wanted to move, what a great feeling... When you eat well, you want to move more... So I did, once or twice a day, around the block, little by little. Now I walk, bike and even started doing some weights, amazing lol. Little by little...

And it does do wonders for appetite. Sometimes I leave hungry and come back with no desire to eat at all, which is absolutely amazing too lol.

[Jerry Angelo]

I feel I need to update this topic... it should now more accurately read:

MWL and Walking and Stationary Bike.

When I posted the topic, I had only owned my bike for about 10 days... I never thought I would use it as much or get into it but I have. The reason I purchased one was because I wanted a backup to make sure I did not have a good reason or a good excuse not to get out and walk. With the summer beginning and all the heat that comes with it, add to that afternoon thunderstorms, I wanted to be able to get my workout in no matter what.

The premise is still the same, if you eat well you feel like moving more and that's pretty much still the case.

The reason I really am liking the bike nowadays is that I can really test and push myself in a lower impact manner. With walking, I would break out into a jog but it felt a heck of a lot different than walking. Not necessarily painful but definitely felt the higher impact... Pretty much felt afraid I would pull or strain something and then I wouldn't be able to do anything for a while.
With the bike, instead of breaking out into a jog, I just go to a higher level or 2 which increases my effort without the impact on my hips, knees and ankles. It just seems, to me, to be much safer and I feel less likely to end up on the disabled list to use a MLB cliche...

In almost 2 months with the bike I have really come pretty far with my strength and endurance and that has helped my walking. I can walk faster and it feels like less of an effort. I'm quite positive that the bike has helped me achieve this faster than just walking and in a very low impact manner easy on the knees and such. The only thing I had to work out the kinks with were my back and butt getting used to that machine and exercise.

The point of the original post and this one is that it's possible to leave a sedentary life behind from virtually one day to the next.
And it makes sense to do it in conjunction with this wonderful WOE. Eating well makes you feel good and feeling good makes you wanna move and moving makes you feel great and less hungry.

So walk a little a few times a day, a little longer next week and so forth... Try low impact exercises and find something you like but do try it, you will feel so much better for it.

There are so many wonderful people on this board that have shared and inspired me so much that I feel compelled to share my little triumphs to hopefully help inspire others as well, it's the least I can do for my part.