I don't know how many people I have spoken to that have either made New Year New Me resolutions or said "I'm going to lose 10 pounds" or something vague along those lines. These people always go the same route it seems. They will go all in and make their lives miserable by trying to be a hero and running too hard, lifting too hard, or drastically overhauling their diet all in one go as if they were on that show The Biggest Loser. Almost without exception, these people always fail and not only return to their old habits that got them in trouble in the first place, often they end up in a worse state than before.
I have long believed in the power of simply moving more than you used to and slowly cutting things out of your life that you already know are bad for you like constant snacking on potato chips, getting a "value meal" at McDonalds, and drinking sodas.
People that try to go too hard, too fast, almost always crash and burn.
I think that everyone that doesn't require a mobility scooter though, is capable of simply going for a walk for a while.
Ever heard of "mall walkers?" Well, they used to be annoying but seeing as how so few people actually go to malls now anyway - I never do - I can kind of relate to why they would do this.
You get together with a friend, have some chats and all you do is walk for an extended period of time. This creates very little stress on your body and breathing, and therefore is something that you are not going to dread doing the next time the opportunity arises. The same cannot be said for running, lifting, or basically any sport that you actually are not in good enough shape for.
Remember my friend that is exceptionally overweight and got bypass surgery? Well me and my group of at least somewhat fitness-oriented friends have been working together to keep the guy motivated to do more than just have surgery. We want him to get healthy. He is massively overweight but is keen to do simple things like go for walks, which is exactly what I did with him yesterday.
This was just a casual stroll on one of the many pathways we have in our city and while it wasn't exactly wonderful weather, it was good enough that we walked for an hour and I let him set the pace. I'm not trying to make him feel bad about his state, but I do want him to be comfortable to the point where the next time I ask him to do this that he doesn't dread it. We certainly were not setting and land-speed records on this walk and he was huffing and puffing a bit and I told him to slow down, which we did. There was zero looking down on him going on, on my part.
I don't have his stats from the day, these are mine. I have been encouraging him to get a Garmin watch or some kind of heart rate monitor smartwatch so that he can track his own stuff since I find it to be a really motivating thing. Perhaps me and the pals will pool our money together and make it a gift for him. Perhaps that will help to guilt him into not giving up while at the same time keeping him safe from cardiac arrest.
As you can see there was almost zero strain on my heart during this hour but yet I still managed to burn nearly 250 calories. When we dig a bit deeper into the stats we can see a lot more.
You can see that we did over 4000 steps in an hour and let me assure you, we were moving VERY slowly. For me, nearly half of my calories were calories I would have burned anyway, and I would be really interested in knowing what he burned. It was almost certainly a lot more than I did since this dude is probably around 200 lbs heavier than I am.
The thing is, at the end of this, neither one of us were covered in sweat, hating what we just did, or dreading ever doing it again. It was easy, even for my 400 lb friend who recently had bypass surgery.
I spoke with him about diet during the walk and kept giving him kudos for taking the steps necessary to get his health sorted out. This is very much a work in progress but we are all working as a team to hopefully improve our friend's life.
I am presenting this information here because I want anyone out there with a weight problem to realize that you don't actually do crazy amounts of exercise in order to improve or maintain health.
What you DO need to do is make small and manageable changes that are easy enough that you are not going to pull back in fear from the notion of doing them again. Especially when starting out on a fitness regimen, is is of vital importance to not overdo it.
Walking IS exercise and thanks to my fancy-pants watch, I know have proof of it.
Every little bit counts!