Multitasking

One of the common excuses for exercising is, "I don't have time." Let's put aside the fact that if people don't exercise, they could end up with even less time life-wise. I can understand the dilemma though, especially for writers who are on deadline -- especially those who have day jobs and children on top of everything else. I don't have a full-time outside job anymore and don't have kiddos, but my days are still jam packed. Therefore, I am a great fan of multitasking. When I exercise, I'm almost always doing something else at the same time. I get the exercise in without the silly guilt of time away from other tasks. Some examples:

~ When I ride the recumbent bike or walk on the treadmill, I read at the same time. This could be magazines I subscribe to, a book I'm reading, or manuscript pages.

~ When I do aerobics, I watch something on DVD or on the TiVo. This definitely makes aerobics more fun, and they go by more quickly. Lately, I've been doing step aerobics while watching episodes of the first season of True Blood. Someday I'll look like Sookie (aka Anna Paquin) in a pair of shorts. :)

~ When I go walking around the neighborhood, I listen to a podcast (usually PotterCast -- for Harry Potter fans) or a writing conference workshop. I did this tonight for 50 minutes before it got dark.
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I mentioned yesterday that I wanted to read an article or part of a book about healthier living each day. While at the grocery store today, I bought an issue of Fitness magazine, an issue of WeightWatchers magazine, and a book called Walk Off Weight put out by Prevention magazine. Just on the opening page "From the Editors," they cited a University of Virginia study in which women who walked for shorter time periods but faster three times a week in combination with two longer, moderate-paced walks each week lost five times more abdominal weight than those who walked at a moderate speed five times a week. There were also benefits in decreasing waistlines, smaller thighs, and the loss of body fat and weight. Hmm, guess what I'm going to try. :)

Today's progress:

Oops, forgot to weigh again. I blame the lack of brain function when I get up in the mornings. I just wrote "Weigh before breakfast!" on the dry erase board on the front of the fridge.

Calorie intake: 1,334.5 -- Learned that one of my favorite lunch items, a Chick fil A sandwich with cheese has 512.5 calories! Good thing the rest of my day was pretty low-cal. Also tried the zero-calorie Coke Zero. Ugh. Not a fan. Hate the taste of aspartame. That's why I don't like diet drinks.

Exercise: 50 minutes walking (165.5 calories burned)

Steps: 10,225 -- About 6,000 of these steps came during my walk tonight. But the other 4,000+ steps burned some calories, just don't know how many. I just read online that 10,000 steps a day could possibly burn 300-400 calories, but that depends on the terrain -- whether you're hiking up hills or just walking around the house.