The Chances

How a 250+ Pound Couch Potato Got Healthy

Monday, March 13, 2006

It took most of the weekend, but my doomsday prediction came true: I was up 2 pounds this morning, 190. Scale be damned: I jogged on the treadmill today!

Yes, you heard me right, jogged. Not the entire time, but still a jog/walk. I was using the treadmill's programmed setting for "jogging 3 miles", but when walking it was 2mph. After the pace I've been walking every day, 2mph is a snail's pace. 2mph is the pace I walked when my daughter was learning how to walk...

The programmed jog settings were a fast walk! So I upped that as well. When the treadmill switched to 2mph, I'd set it to 3.5. When in jogging mode, the treadmill switched to 4mph, but I changed it to 5.

So at 3.5mph walking pace and 5mph jogging pace, I actually went for 35 minutes. That amounted to 284 calories burned, which smokes the 192 or so I was burning with walking alone.

Eventually I want to work my way up to jogging the entire time, and for an hour. We'll see how long it takes to work up to, because this is fine.

And thank goodness for the Sci-Fi Channel. I was able to watch classic Battlestar Galactica while working out. Geek paradise!