My First Fitness Journal

     The following is an excerpt from my first fitness journal, dated Feb. 6, 2007. I started following The G I Diet and walking on my treadmill for 30 minutes per day. Ultimately, the program that I started  on Feb. 4, 2007 resulted in a weight loss of 95 pounds, and a huge increase in physical, mental and emotional health. This is how it all began.

  I have now stuck to my exercise schedule for 3 days. I have a stack of magazines with different "success stories" about folks who exercised and ate better and lost weight and improved their lives. I read a different one each day while walking on the treadmill. There are different strength-building routines in the magazines too, using different types of props, so I try a different one each day, or just do my old standby free-weights routine. I might settle on a different routine for each day of the week, or something.

  On Sunday I used the upper-body free weights routine I used to use, and then the floor routine I used to use. It’s a long time ago, nearly 20 years I guess, since I got my first exercise bike and we got our first set of free weights. I used to read the success stories in Shape magazine, and I was shocked that people (they must be rich people, surely, with nothing better to do) actually had that much time to devote to exercise – over an hour a day! Twenty years ago, only a dedicated fitness magazine would suggest something so outrageous! Other magazines offered 20-minute shape-ups, or even 10-minute ones. Well, when I really got into it, I was riding my exbike for half an hour and working with weights for 30-45 min., plus whatever time was needed to move from one activity to another and stretching before and after, and a shower – closing in on 2 hours a day.

  The popular magazines that I am reading now, like People and Good Housekeeping, in their success stories are quoting at least half an hour of cardio per day, plus resistance training 3 or more times per week, and most promote some other type of activity (like a sport) as well. The “new” approach to dieting is to NOT diet temporarily, but to improve one’s eating habits for the long term. There are still many different “diets” but there is less emphasis on the one-week fad and more emphasis on being aware of what and how you eat every day.

  I need to move onto the GI Plan slowly, because I have a lot of bad habits to break. I don’t want to just jump right into a whole new style of eating and all new foods, all at once. I’ve been there, done that, and got the t-shirt – and a lot of unused “diet foods” too! First I need to get used to eating breakfast, lunch and dinner, with 3 planned snacks, instead of starving all day and eating nonstop all evening. So far, I have been having one thin slice of homemade bread and one thin slice of ham for breakfast. Today and yesterday I had one thin slice of homemade bread and some salmon & olives with lo-fat mayo for lunch. No morning snack; I was too busy. Must remedy that in future, but for now just to have eaten twice before 2 p.m. is pretty good!

  Yesterday I cooked a chicken in the big crock pot with onions, celery and sweet potatoes. We ate half for supper yesterday, and will eat the rest tomorrow. This afternoon we need to deliver the newsletter from LAST week to Woodlands and Warren, and then go to Stonewall for a Legion meeting, so will eat at Sing Fei or one of the other Chinese places in town. Too challenging to try to do the GI thing there so soon, so I’ll call it a holiday from my “diet”!

  Sunday was an all-meat supper – fondue shrimp and steak – but the sauces likely had a fair amount of sugar. Also, had ice cream for dessert.

  I need to back away from some favourite foods:  coffee and popcorn will be the hardest. Then there’s Costco cookies, but we only have them for a few days once a month. And ice cream, but ditto we don’t have it very often. I think I can replace beer with no-alcohol beer like O’Dhouls, if that’s permitted. Or red wine. Or just leave it out. However, I would need to take some tea bags and/or my own water with me to the Legion as there’s just coffee and de-alcoholized beer and alcohol and pop to drink.

  As for coffee, I have cut back to ONE cup per day, first thing in the morning, and then I dump the rest and wash the pot. The rest of the day I have tea. Most of the time it is decaf, but if I feel myself fading, I have Constant Comment or another tea with caffeine.