Color Me Fit: weight loss, fitness, exercise

What, you thought you’d be rid of me so easily? I thought so as well. But it seems I still have a few things to gab about, after all.

I decided to focus on health/fitness goals only. I’m still sticking to my “no counting calories” policy (and hoping that soon will come the day when I don’t look at an apple and immediately worry about how many calories it contains–seriously, it sucks big time). And I don’t need a food journal these days to realize when I’ve been overboard and when I haven’t. So that leaves me with exercise. Believe it or not, I don’t care about exercise for weight loss, I care about exercise because having your ass glued to a chair all day long is boring! No kidding. Besides, I have to move to avoid that lovely blood of mine clotting in my veins, right? I might as well like moving, then, it makes everything easier.

So. What does it have to do with this blog? Simply that: I caved in two weeks ago and bought a new pedometer, with a couple nifty functions such as letting me know what time it is, how many steps I’ve walked, or how many kilometers I’ve walked, too. I had remembered the famous “10,000 steps a day to ensure good health” thingy, and decided that since I go everywhere either on my bike or on my two little feet, why not have fun with that? (I must add that I don’t obsess over a number of steps like I used to on a number of calories, and it’s all good this way.)

To add more fun to it, I signed up for the Eowyn Challenge. Basically, it’s all about selecting a starting point and a destination in the world of The Lord of the Rings, and adding the miles you walk until you ‘reach’ it. I had done it a few years ago, but had kind of fallen behind without a pedometer to track my progress, and then completely lost track. Things are a little different now, if only because I actually have reasons to go out, compared to a couple of years ago. I don’t use the BMI/calories tools on the website, but I appreciate the kilometers-to-miles converter, and how I can log in what I’ve walked every day and it keeps track of it for me. I just find it more interesting and funnier to tell myself that I’m biking along the road from Hobbiton to Rivendell, rather than from home to work. Once I’ll be there, I’ll push further, to Lorien or Gondor, and this will probably keep me busy for a couple of years.

I’m not being ‘perfect’ with food and I’m not dieting. The hell with that. I’ve realized that 10,000 steps a day is actually the bare minimum in my current life–what I walk when I don’t do anything else than going to the campus for a 2-hours class and then buying some groceries. Most of the time, I walk more than 10-11 kms a day. And just for that, I am happy.

- K.

• The Eowyn Challenge main website
• Signup (it’s a little hard to find at first)