Mrs. G's Journey to Better Health

My chosen method of exercise is walking. I can do it almost anywhere at almost any time. I have heard of walking referred to as the simplest, easiest, least expensive method of exercise. Least expensive does not mean 100% free. There is no charge to go out and walk around. Walking at the local park is free, but walking at local amusement park is not. Therefore, I will agree, walking can be free but not 100% free. Walking requires I wear shoes. Walking across a bare foot is not for me. Soft grass feels nice but most of the time grass feels like tiny sharp points. It may not be as bad as walking across a floor filled with Legos, but I can't walk on grass for an extended period of time. Walking on a typical street sidewalk is doable, but again, I can not do it for an extended period of time. I need padding otherwise my heal starts to hurt. Walking for me requires having a good pair of shoes. Previously I spoke about knowing if is it time for a new sneakers ? My answer was, yes. Ne...

Wearing the right shoe makes all the difference. The problem is figuring out which shoe is the right one for me. Time to do some research and figure out what my feet need to walk comfortably and safely given who I am. One of the most common thing suggested is to look at a worn out pair of shoes and look at the soles. Pay attention to where the most wear is. This is a pair of my worn out comfortable shoes. The other thing I hear is that I need to know my gait, my pronation. What? REI has a lot of information about that. You can spend time learning all about what each thing means, how it is determined, why each is important and figure out the details of your feet. I did it, a long time ago, and now I have forgotten it. If you do not have time to figure it all out, here is a link to with a simpler questionnaire by Runner's World that will give you a starting point on shoes you should consider trying out. They are questions you can answer, height, weight, and stuff like do you...

No matter what form of exercise you choose, excluding those water related ones, you are going to need shoes. My choice of exercise is walking. It's simple, it's easy, I can do it anywhere. I can do it at home on the treadmill, around the school after I drop the kids off in the morning, around the block whenever they have after school activities. It's my go to exercise. A problem I run into is feeling tired. I don't mean the usually after noon sluggishness. I mean the, my feet hurt, they feel tired. my legs feel tired, I just want to get off my feet kind of tired. In reading around the internet, one thing that often came up was "shoes". Sometime our shoes get worn out and make us unnecessarily tired. Worn out shoes can cause back pain, leg pain, fatigue, etc. How often should I be replacing my shoes? How do I know if it's time to replace my shoes? Below are a few pictures of my current favorite comfy walking shoes.      I'm starting to f...

Chaos running through my head. Emotions are wild and stress levels are higher than normal. As I try to calm down from my panic attack as a result of reading the blood test results from my doctor. There is time to change the future. I can change the future and the time to start is now . But first, deep breath, calm down and walk firmly in the right direction. Yes, I have encountered many wrenches and fallen off the wagon many times along my weight loss journey. I keep kidding myself that I can keep falling as long as I get back up. Reality has caught up to me. I had blood work done and this the letter stating my results.  Not horrific but, very bad and scary for me. I have three relatives with diabetic problems. One could have fixed it, denied it and is now insulin dependent. Another denied it and eventually a minor surgery took her life. I have seen their lives, I do not want to be like them. I will not be them. As I write this entry, I am still in panic mode. I do not w...

It's no easy task to stay under my daily caloric budget. Between running errands, taking the kids to/from school and their other activities, and the inevitable late minute things that always seem to pop up at the most inopportune time, eating on a normalized schedule and healthy is difficult. Earlier this week we had a simple errand to run but a car accident on the freeway make our 30 minute travel time into a 1 hour travel time each way. I had already pushed my lunch time back and it was starting to look like my afternoon snack was also being pushed back. Sitting in traffic and skipping a meal and a snack was not looking favorable. I stopped off with my kids for bite at Wendy's. Not a healthy filling choice. None the less, I stopped at Wendy's. The following day was similar. I had to go out and get some hiking boots for my son. They were on sale so I wanted to get them before they were not available. Same thing, wrenches in the road, and we ended up having "T...

There are a lot of apps out there that can help keep track of calories I consume. My personal choice has been and still is Lose It. I'm not going to claim one app is better than another. But if I must, I will honestly say the best app for weight loss is the one you actually use. Yes, various apps have various features that appeal to one type of person or another, lend themselves for certain activities, lifestyles, visual preferences, etc. But it always comes down to one very important thing. NONE of them actually work if you don't actually use them. For me to actually lose weight I have found I need to actually use my Lose It app. I need to log, log it all, and log it everyday. By logging, I am forced to be honest with myself, I end up making better choices. It gives me time to think before I eat that package of cookies in one sitting. If I really want to eat all those cookies, how am I going to burn them off so as not to gain weight. What do I need to do to loose weigh...

Eating healthier and losing weight does not have to be torture. It is possible to lead a normal life, LOL. Knott's Berry Farm is celebrating Boysenberries. I celebrated too! I went to Knott's this weekend and enjoyed some rides, some treats, and got my walk in too. Pass holders were allowed in the park 1 hour earlier than the rest of the park attendees. I took advantage of this extra hour to get on the more popular rides without having to wait in line for more than 1 to 10 minutes. Once the wait times started to get longer I had to checkout the boysenberry treats. I had 1 lollipop (aka a sucker), 1 stick of licorice (it was rubbery), gummy bears (egh), and then I got a whole pie to take home. I did not eat the whole pie, I only had one slice. It was good and I enjoyed it guilt free because I got my 10,000 steps in. This weekend I also went out to eat with my family to Chili's and this was my plate. Descent portion but I did eat to be stuffed, I ate to not be...