BrandyRelaxing's Journal, 20 February 2011

I love doing the walk away the pounds workouts. Training to participate in a 5k sounds like an awsome thing to be working towards. I may have to look around in my area and see if there are any here in the fall. keep up the good work :) 

That's awesome Brandy!! Not that you asked, but I would recommend you creating a training schedule for yourself so that you will at least have checkpoints each month to shoot for. I don't really know how the DVDs work but I do know that walking outside vs. walking on a treadmill or walking in place are quite different, so as you progress, make sure to incorporate those things. I always keep at least 1 day in between runs...when I was still up arond 300 lbs & doing it 6 days a week, I found my body to be pretty sore quite often & that's only ok initially. Eventually I started alternating with elliptical & just relieving my body of the impact every other day made a world of difference. Keep up the great work girl! 

That's great advice! I've heard it is different walking on pavement than other surfaces. The "walking" DVDs are essentially walking in place, leg lifts, side steps etc. Just constantly moving, and moving at a faster & faster pace as the DVDs get more miles. I figured it was a good first step, because I know that right now I hit the 1 mile mark on the Treadmill and I'm done... where I found the DVDs pushed me to go on when I would have stopped on the treadmill. I don't know when I would be ready to try running, I'm just hoping to build up enough stamina that I could briskly walk it and I'll work from there. The time limit for the 5K is 1hour 10mins, so as long as I have the endurance and don't walk at the speed of a snail, I should be able to do it... I think! lol 

Sounds neat! How often are you doing it? And it is definitely a good first step to help build your endurance. I'm not suggesting you run, just that running isn't much more impact to the body than walking, so you may find you still need that break if you're waking up achy every day. When I weighed about 300 lbs, I didn't think I was ready to try running either, though I had been walking regularly for almost 2 months. I told myself after losing another 20 lbs or so I might give it a try, but then one day at the gym I saw a woman not much smaller than me jogging on the treadmill. It wasn't an olympic sprint or anything, but she was doing it, & if she could, maybe I could too! So I tried it out for 30-second increments with about 5 min walking between for 30-40 minutes every time I did cardio & that's how I started. Each week or so I increased my jogging intervals by 30 seconds & here I am. My husband is just under 400 lbs & he has managed a few 30-second intervals on the treadmill himself! If you want to do it, you can. :D 

You're absolutely inspiring! That sounds like a great idea... I think being active every day (or 6/7 days a week) is a good way to work up to just being healthier. I may just try the 30 second sprint next time I'm working out on the treadmill. I'm doing a DVD each day... however probably only 3 days a week more than just the 1 mile one (that is about 15 minutes of good cardio). I'm just working up to some real daily exercise... having not worked out in ... well... a couple of years, I want to make sure I don't kill myself and then end up with an injury or something.  

Go you! It's great that you are committed and are stepping up your game. Good luck with the 5k!