After several false starts to lose weight over the years, Rick (LOGHOUSE) tipped the scale at 289 pounds. A weight loss challenge (and exercise buddy) at work motivated him to walk every single day for more than a year. He's now 40 pounds lighter and three pants sizes smaller thanks to daily walks. Find out how walking helped Rick lose weight, gain energy and overcome chronic back pain.
How did walking help you reach your goals? Just walking through the grocery store or from my car to my desk at work hurt my back. I had to do something about my weight and discomfort, so headed up a "weight loss challenge" at work, which runs quarterly and has two-person teams. I teamed up with a guy who immediately got me walking every day at lunch (something we've done every day since for more than a year). I've since added treadmill and outdoor walking at home and have done some occasional light jogging and even tried out some interval training. What other exercises do you do besides walking? I recently restarted my once "moderately" successful weight training program. I'm going in a different direction this time, using the TNT program from Men's Health. I've opted for this as an easy way to change things up and keep things interesting. I also started doing the 100 Pushups Challenge a while back, which helped me progress from only 13 pushups to 44 during my last exhaustion test. My last workout had 160 pushups in 5 sets (not bad, eh?). How do you keep your walks fun and interesting? I change my routes frequently. Our lunch time walks at work keep evolving and roam all over the industrial park I work in. Using MapMyRun.com, we've mapped out about 10 routes that range from 1.6 to 2 miles in length. Two-mile walks are a challenge in our half-hour lunch time, but we can do it if we really hustle. During bad weather or in the winter, I walk inside our factory (seven laps is just over 2 miles). At home, I walk all over. Since I live in a rural area, all the walk routes I take here are more than three miles. My MP3 player helps LOADS, too. It's loaded with live recordings of my favorite acoustic music to keep me motivated while I walk. Continued › |







Member Comments
One hour each walk...and I loved it.
I also loved the 70 pounds I lost in those 8 months!!!!!
In January, I suffered a stress fracture in my left foot...while on the walking track.
Thinking it would be a quick 6 weeks, to heal, and maybe let the weather improve, I wasnt to worried. The ortho said it was a clean break, no surgery required.
But here it is nearly 3 months later, and still no walking for me.
2 follow ups with the ortho, and I have discovered my foot isnt healing as quickly as it should and I am vitamin d deficient!!
So, my walking is on hold, until all this goes away and I heal.
As soon as I do, thats the first thing I am gonna do is gradually reintroduce myself to the walking track and get back to my daily walks...I had hoped to be running by now.
It was my overall goal, to get to where I could run, and start some steep hill walking, maybe even a little climbing...my goals are on hold, but not ever too far out of reach, I loved the blog.
Reminded me of my love of walking. - 4/2/2013 9:19:27 AM
Congrats !
Keep up the good job - 2/17/2013 10:30:13 PM
Just started the walking meditattion from this Spark article http://www.sparkp
eople.com/res
ource/wellnes
s_articles.asp?id=894 which works well for my solo walks and keeps me far more grounded! - 1/12/2013 7:02:33 PM
- 1/12/2013 11:09:44 AM