Category: A live fit journey

Yesterday, I was drafting an ambitious plan:
Morning, walk. Mid day weight training. Afternoon, swimming.

And this morning, I started to walk. I made a first round in the forest near by. Around 10km. And during this round, I was asking myself: why would I register at the gym? Gym means indoor, boring steady cardio. Yes there are classes and the possibility to do weight training, but I’m also just starting this journey.
And while having an ambitious plan may lead to quick results, it can also lead to just giving up. Walking is an outdoor activity. On the other side, a walk can be paused anytime, the nature be contemplated. Feeling the wind, the Sun or just smelling the pin tree around. And the forest being near by the city, a pause along the way in a near by shop, for a fresh drink, is always an option.
And this is exactly what I did. It was really cool as it didn’t felt like exercising. Joyful! At the end, walked 17km, 22k steps, 95% of the time in the forest. In a lazy 4.5h time. Doesn’t matter how slow this is. The journey at has started.

Seems my watch is counting the total calories expenditure: metabolism (2009 kcal) and exercise (1’966 kcal). Can’t believe I could have ever burn 3’900 kcal as the watch is mentioning. Indeed, on days where I wouldn’t exercise, it will by set 2’009 kcal by default, for a 24h time period. Sounds low, given the fact that I’m overweight.
Beside that, made a second walk later, to buy groceries. Just 1.7km. But no more transport. A mind switch.

The food intake wasn’t that glorious, not that bad neither: Caesar salad, 2x lentils salad, 2 cold coffee, fish, fruits, 1 bred with emmental, and a small cheese fondue. A Swiss wonder. All in a 4h window. Not hungry now. Cool, may start intermittent fasting. It seems to be the only diet (or lifestyle for some) that doesn’t burn muscles, just fat. A lot of scientific publication mention that it is healthy to eat in a confined time period, and to stay out of any food the rest of the day. For example, not eating during 20h, and eating normally in a 4h time period. Research have shows that intermittent fasting have extends the life expectancy in mice, but also, humans.

Bought few vitamins: drinkable B12, Multivitamins, Omega 3 and Resveratrol. There is quite a literature about the latter. Research showed that such anti-oxidants can slow down the aging process. Living longer yes, but also better. It does that by slowing down the natural shortening of the tolomeres, or even, reverse it. Literature mention often Resveratrol, Curcumin, Q10, PQ, Metformin, etc. as the anti-oxidants the most helping for that.

At the end of the walk, my knees and legs were a bit tired. All went back to normal few hours later, and I’m looking forward for the next walk tomorrow.
With time, I will probably diversify the workout. Weight training would be great. Swimming too. It will come naturally. When my body will say “I can do it!, the brain “We got time to do it!” and maybe the heart “Time to get sexier!” To some extends obviously.

The scale haven’t get it that I did a workout today. I will look at it once a week, but curiosity may make it more often.

I want also to scan the food intake. My target is 1’800 kcal/day.
I was dreaming today burning the amount of kcal I will burn while walking.
Doing so, and if my metabolism really consume 2009 kcal a day, then that is 8’000 kcal every 3.5 days. As 7’000 kcal represent 1 kg of fat, it means a weight lose of about 2kg/week, 8kg a month. That would be really cool.

I heard last day a doc saying on YouTube: no matter if you eat only salad, if you consume 1 kcal more than what you need, you will still gain fat. While quality matter (vegetarian seems a must in many documentaries such as in “What the health”), the calories intake still matter.
On this aspect, it can be useful to monitor the daily kcal intake. Many apps allows doing that, just by scanning the bar code on the food package.
Then its just about defining a target, and choosing the food that will match the target. Some app even connect to the smart watch and add up the calories expenditure made during a workout, to the calories consumed by the metabolism, providing the net difference with the calories coming from the food. At the end, if there is a deficit, dividing 7’000kcal by this deficit will give an estimation of how many days it will take to burn 1kg.
I guess there is a lot that can be done with 1’800 kcal. The salad today was refreshing and tasty. Coffee and tea concluded the day.