Keeping Up

Wow... getting in shape is tough stuff. A few weeks ago I decided to get my bike fixed, which I hadn't ridden in years. I was pretty pumped about using it, with my mind set on riding it to work every single day! Well realistically that lasted only two days. I only live about 1.7 miles from my work and for the most part its flat the whole way there. I did manage to make it all the way to work and back two days in a row. Then came the weekend. As the weekend ended the motivation to get back on my bike lessened. Its now been I think two weeks since I've ridden my bike.

I'm going to start with something a bit less intense than the bike ride to work. I like the idea of incorporating exercise with my commute to work. It seems to be a time saver all around vs having to pay for a gym membership and and then finding the time to go. I have a plan now to walk to a train station where I can then take public transit to work. Its 0.7 miles from my apartment to the station and then another 0.3 to get to work once I get off. So combined walking one way will be 1 mile. So with commute both ways that 2 miles of walking every day! Not to bad.. Now I just need to stick to it! Lets see how I do........

More than just Myself

I've been thinking.. "a dangerous pastime I know." This thing I call Fat Walk America, its not just about me getting healthy. Its not just about the money that I'm going to raise for a good cause. Its about getting healthy. Its about letting obese Americans know that there is a way to get healthy. It doesn't matter where you start. You can sit all day long thinking about where to begin, but unless you begin you will never end up anywhere. The Message of Fat Walk America is about beginning. Its about deciding to make a change and doing it. The change that I suggest to those who want to make a change is simple. Walk!

I know this blog and the Fat Walk America group on Facebook are just getting started. Be assured there are plans for the future to make this into something a bit bigger. Essentially, what I want to do is spread an awareness of obesity in America and do my part to try to end it. Its a simple message but it will take lots of effort to get the message out. I look forward to continuing. I know when I do my walk across america I will affect at least one life, my own, but why not try to chance the lives a few others along the way?

Dirty Trick

A few days ago on the 26th my friend Stephanie, the Chief Financial Officer for Fat Walk America, texted me telling me to meet her at 3:15. She wouldn't tell me what we were going to do she just said it would be fun. This is no new concept for us, she has done this before and I always have fun! So I agreed. I met her at a train station and we rode the Train up to the University of Utah Medical Center. There really isn't anything up there besides the medical center and a golf course which quite lamentably has been turned into a Frisbee golf course. We got out and started walking. I really wondered where we were going. We walked down the hill in an westward direction for a bit and then we headed south. We walked near two or three train stations that we had previously ridden past on our way up the hill on the train. Still Stephanie with a smirk on her face would not give me an information on where we were going or what we were doing. We continued in a southern direction. I figured we were walking to my house, but when we go to my street we didn't turn. We just kept walking.

It just so happens that I live on the same street as East High School where High School Musical was filmed. I had to get a picture. I though of dancing, but I don't dance, so I just stood and posed for the picture. By this point it had been from my guesstimate over a mile. Stephanie still would not give me any information. She kept telling me we needed a coin, but it was just to throw me off cause as I found out a coin had nothing to do with anything the whole evening. Well to shorten the story in case your are bored reading this we ended up in Sugarhouse at the dollar movie theater.

So to summarize we took a train to the movie theater, although it was pretty much the most indirect route possible. The train took us in the exact opposite direction from the theater. It took us about 2 hours to walk to the movie. Luckily her brother met us at the movie and assumed he would give us a ride back to the car. We all know what assuming does, so I won't expound that here. He only took us part way back, we ended up walking about another mile to get back to the cars. But all in all it was an enjoyable evening and we ended up walking about 5 miles total. I hadn't planned on any kind of walk that day, but it was good for me. I'll have to say honestly I was kind perturbed after a mile and she wouldn't tell me where we were going, but we ended up watching Race to Witch Mountain. It made me feel all better.

Eating Healthy - No More Fast Food

Last time I tried this I only made it two days, but I'm going try it again. I want to start eating healthier so the first step for me would be to cut out fast food and eating out in general. I'm not saying that you can't eat out and still make healthy choices. I'm just trying to cut this habit that I have as a first step to starting healthy eating habits. Right now I eat fast food probably about 4 to 5 times per week, possibly more. So its going to be a bit of a change for me. Starting right now until June 7th I will not eat out. This means I will have to do some grocery shopping, which I really haven't done much of if my life. I will have my friend Stephanie be my personal shopping assistant to help me make good choices. I'm not sure how this will pan out. I'm sure I'll go through some heavy withdrawals after a few days. Two weeks really isn't that long, but we'll see how it goes. I'll keep the blog updated with my progress.

12 Mile Walk

When I said I was going on a "short" walk yesterday I think I underestimated exactly how far 12 miles is. I started out by taking a train from 13th south down to Sandy, UT at 100th South. If you are familiar with Utah roads you'll know what I'm talking about. When I got of the train I noticed a small bike path that headed north and decided to take that and see how far it went. I was pretty excited emotionally at this point to find a nice path. The path took me through historic Sandy. Its a pretty neat walk if you ever get the chance. The path didn't last as long as I would have hoped. I'd guess it was about a mile, but I wasn't really keeping track.

Once the bike path ended I headed west over to State Street which I stayed on for the majority of my walk. I had packed my camelbak full of water and brought a couple cereal bars with me just in case, which proved quite valuable. Somehow I chose the hottest day so far at the start of this summer to do my walk. The high yesterday was 90° F, but as I found out the record highest temperature recorded for the same day was 92° back in 2006. A hat would have been nice if I had thought to bring one because my thinning hair doesn't seem to block the sun from my scalp anymore like it used to.

According to google maps the walk should take about 4 hours. After about 2 hour I wasn't nearly halfway finished and I could hear 7-11 calling my name. Luckily state street has a quite copious supply. My first stop was around 56th south I believe. Gatorade never tasted so good. I was feeling a little weak so I ate one of my cereal bars too. I stood out side the store for a few minuets in then started out again. I kept thinking of how nice a pool sounded right about then. Unfortutly I don't know anyone with a pool nor do I have access to one. I did pass by a place that rents spa's which also sounded quite nice. I might have to check that out later.

Around 80th south I reached Midvale, UT. I wasn't even half way through at that point and I could start feeling my feet hurt. It wasn't bad at all and my hopes were still good for now. I felt good. Everything was going great! Its amazing how fast feet can go from a kind of feel good pain that just lets me know I'm doing good to a pain that made me want to hop on a bus. Buses pass frequently on state street and there was nothing stopping me getting on one. I had my bus pass right in back pack. Sometimes the buses would even wait for me thinking I was trying to catch them before they took off. But I just kept walking.

I passed through Murray, UT which was the halfway point and also the home town of American Idol runner up David Archuleta. By halfway I could really feel my feet hurting and I could feel blisters forming. What should have taken two hours according to Google took me about two and half hours. Not too bad, I was making ok time.

The second half of the walk was not too exciting, in fact I would even say that I did not really enjoy it at all. At the time anyway It wasn't too fun. It was hot, I could feel my skin being burned by the sun; sunscreen is on my list of things to bring for the next walk. It felt like I was walking across pine cones that had been crushed up into small pieces. I made another 7-11 stop around 40th south and drank another Gatorade. There was a bus stop there which was very temping but I passed. To get me in a better mental state I did pass Dave's Gas, which I though was kinda funny. Too bad it was closed down. Maybe Dave had such bad gas he couldn't attract any customers?

Well by the end of the walk 5 hours and 20 minuets later, my legs hurt, my feet hurt, and I had a headache. Emotionally I was fed up and sick of walking. I was almost mad at myself for doing it. Why put myself through that last 4 miles of misery? Well today my muscles are sore, my feet still hurt, and I have blisters I can feel move between my toes when I walk. Physically I feel sore, but mentally I feel great. That's the reason I put myself through it. The benefits I will get from walks like these greatly outweigh the pain I go through to get them.

I would have had this post up yesterday, but I was tired I went to bed around 5pm and didn't wake up until 6:30 this morning. Thanks for reading. I hope at least someone will be able to get encouragement about what I'm doing and be able to start making changes to have a more active healthy lifestyle.

Getting Ready for 12 miles

I'm getting ready to leave on a short walk.. well relatively. Last week I walked 4.7 miles over to a friends house. Today I'm attempting something a bit bigger. I'm going to walk 12 miles. I'm going to take a train to the south side of Salt Lake City and then walk back. It should take about 4 hours. I don't expect anything out of the ordinary to happen, but we'll see.


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Stop, Rest, and Assess - Portion Control

If there's anyone out there that knows about overeating its me. But there is one way to help control the amount of food you intake. Just remember three simple words.

Stop:
Eat a bit and take a break. Remember, its not a race.

Rest:
Don't eat anything for a few minutes. Let the food settle. It's way to easy to eat too much and later have your body tell how bad you've been! You know the feeling! It takes a few minutes for the brain to communicate with the rest of your body. Listen, It will tell you when you are satisfied. Remember, you don't have to be full, just eat enough until you are satisfied.

Assess:
After a bit of a rest take a step back and assess the situation. See how you feel. If you are still hungry then have a bit more and repeat the process. If you're satisfied than its time to stop. Again you don't have to be full. I'm sure everyone reading this has felt that lethargic sluggish feeling. That's not what we want. Food should give us energy not slow us down.

So, just remember these 3 words: Stop, Rest, and Assess. If you remember these each time you eat, you will be sure not to eat over sized portions. And as we all know, smaller portions equals less calories.

Who Am I?

Hi. My name is John and I'm obese. I've been overweight my whole life. I did manage to loose around 40 pounds and kept it off for about a year, but never quite managed to keep it up. I'm now 28 years old and want to make some changes in order to get healthy and get my life in shape.

A few months ago I had an idea to walk across the entire USA. I put the idea to rest and considered it to be extreme and unattainable. Well, that simply isn't true. Anything can accomplished if I really want it to. My thinking is that, if I start at one side of the country and walk to the other, by the time I reach the other side I will be in the physical shape that I want to be and I'll be a much healthier individual.

If I'm going to walk across the entire country I should have a purpose in doing so. I don't want my trip to be just about me I want others to be able to benefit from what I'm doing. I want to raise awareness about health and wellness. I'd like to raise money and give to those organizations that do so much for the communities in which we live and those throughout the world. I want to do what I can to make a difference.

This idea is just in the formulation stages right now. I have begun creating several ideas that can be put into action to help achieve this goal: To walk from Sea to Shining Sea in order to create an awareness of some of problems the world faces and to do what is necessary to help solve them.