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If you've followed the blog for any amount of time, you know that when we're home, we're very stringent about our workouts. Not working out isn't an option barring major illness that has us physically unable to stand. I have worked out with a migraine, with a cold and when my uterus felt like it weighed 500 lbs in the worst PMS of my life.
For as much as our dedication to exercise has served us in the past, it now only serves to maintain our current weight. When we face the facts, we both essentially work from home. The Mr does go into work two days per week but we noticed when his telework days went from once a week to twice and finally three days per week that his weight loss slowed and then reversed. The difference was when he goes in to work, he has a long walk ahead of him both to and from his car. In total, there was about 1/2 mile walking just to and from the car he was no longer getting. It doesn't seem like much but that's anywhere from 1-2 miles less per week or 4-8 miles per month.
When you get right down to it, doing anywhere from 30-60 minute workouts depending on the day still only qualifies us as sedentary. We spend the majority of the day on our asses, plain and simple and that small slot of time will not undo that. Now I've tried doing "two a days" where I workout twice while I curse my life and attempt to find a calorie range that will now fit the extra calories burned and I gained weight for a month doing that...not going there again.
But what we can do is when the Mr takes his lunch, we can get up and go outside, rain or shine, and do a lap and a half around the neighborhood for 30 minutes which equates to almost two miles. We just started this Tuesday so I won't be able to tell you if it will warrant any results for a couple of weeks but I can tell you that sitting on your butt all day isn't healthy. You've heard all of the studies saying how sitting is the new smoking and all that jazz. I'm not saying that 30 minutes of walking will make all of our weight loss dreams come true in addition to our normal workouts but it's a start.
How long are you active each day including your workouts and any other "normal" activity where you're not sitting on da bum?
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I am proud of how we've mostly kept the weight off for many years now. But it is time to face the fact that we need to really get serious again and this is a great start. Being sedentary hasn't helped us and also getting less sleep than we need. We're tackling both and doing a good job so far and I am proud of us for it!
ReplyDeleteI feel you. When I work at home (like yesterday), I barely move. I think I had just over 900 steps! At the office, I force myself to get up and walk around the building. My house just isn't big enough to keep walking around! Good luck with walking around during lunch - that's a great start!
ReplyDeleteA lunchtime walk sounds like a great idea. I'm on my feet much of each day, walking around my classroom, but that's not like actual exercise. I get about 6000 steps a day from that, but it's not like exercise at all. My vivofit tracks the steps, but the little red "you're sitting on your butt too long" line never goes away.
ReplyDeleteI used to walk on my lunch or planning period and it really did help me lose weigh and relax enough to make facing the rest of my day better. I should get back to that too.
Good for you guys for getting out during the middle of the day to walk. That's good for so many reasons for health and clearing the mind, as well as the extra calorie burn. I've been struggling with this myself because of the crazy schedule I have right now with the 'burbs. I haven't been to the pool in two weeks because I'm constantly driving back and forth. That will be coming to an end soon though, and I plan on dedicating five days a week to the pool with three of those days being an hour and the other two being two hours to start. I find that just doing the one hour isn't enough to do much other than maintain, like you said, so adding a couple additional hours and building from there is going to be the plan. What I'm doing now is a lot of lifting and moving, so it's more strength training than anything. Hardly any cardio at all other than hefting things up the stairs. =o(
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