Here comes confession time. I have gained 20 pounds in the last few months. *cheeks blushing, head shaking side to side* Excuses aside, my health needs to be kicked in gear once again. Here's some interesting things I found on Psychology Today:
The government has long espoused moderate daily exercise—of the evening-walk or take-the-stairs variety—but that may not do much to budge the needle on the scale. A 150-pound person burns only 150 calories on a half-hour walk, the equivalent of two apples. It's good for the heart, less so for the gut.I don't like where this is headed.
"Radical changes are necessary," says Deirdre Barrett, a psychologist at Harvard Medical School and author of Waistland. "People don't lose weight by choosing the small fries or taking a little walk every other day." Barrett suggests taking a cue from the members of the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR), a group of more than 5,000 successful weight-losers who have shed an average of 66 pounds and kept it off 5.5 years. They had one thing in common: vigorous exercise for at least an hour most days of the week. She estimates they burn an extra 2,800 calories a week.
Did you catch that? Vigorous exercise for at least an hour most days of the week. I didn't think this was going in the direction I was hoping, which involved more Heroes watching and blog writing. Well, alrighty then. I want to be motivated. I want to be healthy. I want that for my friends as well. So let's get to it, shall we?
