A Mile or Two

Losing weight is really hard! Really!

Okay, I admit it, I had joined the ranks of those who resolutely pressed on, making firm decisions in their minds that they were going to lose weight, giving up dessert once a month, walking from their car to work and the grocery store and feeling pleased that they had exercised that day, reading up articles on how to eat right and exercise right and be positive about losing weight. I was all psyched up, for at least 3 years.

Then I went through a phase where I began to make slow changes. I alternated between exercising for a couple of weeks at a time, then eating better for the next couple of weeks, hoping I could find that magic key that would unlock the secret for me to lose weight effortlessly. I would then be able to write a bestseller that every woman would buy. No such luck, though.

Then one day I woke up and decided that today, I was going to make a change. It was my 30th birthday and I was tired of being overweight, of watching the scales and my BMI creep up towards the 200 pound mark (thankfully I never made it that high!). I was tired of trying to find something in my closet that still fit, a skirt that I could button if I held my breath, and an XL blouse that could hide my stomach. I was tired of being out of breath when I walked up a hill or when I bent over to try to tie my shoes. I was tired of looking in the mirror and knowing that the real me, the person I knew deep inside, was not the person I saw reflected there.

The next morning, I began to walk. My patient mother and I woke up every week morning and hit the cement to walk 2 miles. At first, it wasn't easy. While she had a few pounds she wanted to lose, I needed to lose at least 30 pounds to return to a healthy weight and there was a monster hill we had to tackle on our route. My mother effortlessly sailed to the top at a brisk rate while I panted and struggled behind, grumbling and feeling rather irritated that I was so out of shape. Yet we carried on.

Every morning, Monday through Friday, we went walking. It took us about 40 minutes to do the 2 miles at first, but we soon worked up to about 35 minutes a day. I was feeling really good about myself until I went to see my doctor for a routine check up. She asked me the usual questions about my lifestyle and then said, "Do you exercise?" "Yes," I replied, "35 minutes a day five times a week." She affirmed my choice to exercise regularly, then said, "You do know, don't you, that they recommend 60 to 90 minutes a day for weight loss? I'm sure you'll work up to that eventually." I groaned inwardly, not happy about the thought of waking up earlier than I was already. But she got me thinking.

The next week, we set our alarms for 15 minutes early and set out to walk 3 miles a morning. It is the end of our second week now and I'm pleased to report that we are now averaging 16-minute miles and I have started walking 3.5 miles each morning when I'm able to so I can exercise about an hour. My goal is to work up to 15-minute miles so I can be walking 4 miles each morning and I'm confident that we will reach that goal. And that tricky hill? I'm still out of breath when I reach the top, but I'm sailing up it as fast as my mother now!