The VA has a program to help with weight loss. Well, 2 actually. The first is called the MOVE program. You meet with a counselor once a month to talk about weight loss, eating right, exercise, etc. They also have group meetings, but I'm not into singing Kumbayah or holding hands with strangers, so I opted not to do that. The 2nd program is called TeleMOVE. You still meet with the couselor, but you also have more contact with them than in the MOVE program. See that thing to the left? It's called a Health Buddy. Some doctors use it to monitor their diabetes or heart patients, but it can also be used for weight loss. It comes with a pedometer (that I accidentally washed in the laundry the other day - crap) and a scale that's been calibrated to the one they have at their office. You plug the scale into the Health Buddy and once a week you report your weight to the counselor at the VA.
The Health Buddy also monitors your feelings and your pain. It asks you a series of questions each day, and you answer honestly. When I answered that pain sometimes gets in the way of exercising, my counselor called me to make sure I was ok. I am, I'm just having some back pain that's getting pretty bad. I'm going to the doctor about it, don't worry.
So, all of this has got me thinking about how much exercise I actually do. When I still had my pedometer (I'm getting a new one at my next appointment), I became acutely more aware of how many steps I was taking. I started out at around 3000+ steps a day, but managed to work up to 6000+ steps a day (thank God I have good walking tennis shoes). While that's a lot of steps, it's not enough. I need to do MORE.
On my drive home from work, I saw a park with some trails that looked fairly promising (especially since so many other people were walking/running them). So, I'm going to take my track pants to work and change into them before I leave for the day so I can take a brisk walk before I get home. This will only work on days I get off early enough to do so - Monday and Wednesday are out, since I don't get off until 5, but Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday are good. As much as I'm not excited for the heat (I live in Texas and it's the beginning of summer for us... 80-90 degree weather every day, joy), I am excited for the feeling I'm going to get at the exercise endorphins and I can't wait for my jeans to start falling off again. I've been entirely too lazy and that stops NOW!
What steps are you taking towards your weight loss goal?
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