Saturday, June 11, 2016

KANKAKEE RIVER STATE PARK BIKE HIKE TRAIL

There are not too many effective ways of avoiding rush hour traffic on a Friday afternoon in Chicago. Yesterday I found one way to do it. After finishing my last appointment on in Mahomet, Illinois, I was headed home. On the way home I stopped at Kankakee River State Park and found a trail which followed the path of the Kankakee River. I parked my car. I walked 5 miles in a northwesterly direction and simply turned around and retraced my steps and walked 5 miles back to the car. By the time I arrived home, I missed most of the Chicago Friday afternoon traffic.

I snapped this photo right before I turned around and headed back to the car

Considering that the official start of summer is still more than 10 days away, the temperature of 93° seemed a bit on the warm side when I started my ten mile hike. However, the 'wind chill' made it seem like 97°!

Your Food Diary For:

BREAKFAST	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
Clover Valley - 100% Whole Wheat Bread	240	44	2	16	440	4
Quaker - Grits - Instant - Original, 3 packet	300	66	0	6	930	0
Nice! - Creamy Peanut Butter, 2 Tbsp	180	8	15	7	130	3
Smucker's - Concord Grape - Jelly, 2 Tbsp	100	26	0	0	10	24
	820	144	17	29	1,510	31
L U N C H
Subway - Footlong Steak Cheese, 1 footlong	760	96	20	52	2,060	16
Sage - Red Delicious Apple, 2 medium apple	190	50	1	1	4	38
	950	146	21	53	2,064	54
D I N N E R
Organic baby spinach	40	6	0	4	130	0
Asparagus	23	3	0	3	510	0
Tomatoes - Cherry Tomatoes	24	0	0	0	0	3
Imitation Crab Stick	90	15	0	7	350	2
Breaded Pork Chops	315	11	21	20	62	1
	492	35	21	34	1,052	6
S N A C K S
Crunchy Oats N Honey, 3 bars	285	44	9	6	240	18
Chips Ahoy - Chunky Chocolate Chip	240	30	12	3	165	18
Keebler - Elfudge, 1 cookie	85	13	4	1	50	6
Dark Chocolate Cherry Cashew	180	22	9	4	20	14
	790	108	34	14	475	56

Totals	3,052	433	92	130	5,101	147
Your Daily Goal	4,535	567	151	227	2,300	170
Remaining	1,483	133	58	97	-2,800	23
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
	*You've earned 2,605 extra calories from exercise today

Your Exercise Diary for:

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
Walking	133	1,927
Walking	75	765
MFP iOS calorie adjustment	N/A	-87


Daily Total / Goal	209 / 30	2,605 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	1065 / 210	13,570 / 4,130

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S A T U R D A Y W E I G H I N

231.9 pounds

I am now down ten pounds from my recent high point on May 7th when I was on the 'dl' (disabled list) from the hernia. From my initial starting point of 309 lbs on December 24th, 2014, I am down 77.1 pounds. Just this past week I successfully shed 3.3 pounds. IT WAS EASY! All I had to do was keep my daily caloric intake to about 3000, and walk more than 70 miles! (Ok, I lied, it was not easy) The 'easier' way would have been to cut down on my calories far below 3000 per day. You know what? This is more or less 'working' for me - so I will stick to it...

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Saturday, September 12, 2015

10,000 STEPS

I have been a 'fitbitter' for just over one week. I know that I am joining a community of hundreds of thousands of people who are each day logging and counting their steps. Before I made my purchase, even I was aware that the fitbit is a device that encourages its users to make 10,000 steps per day. I was curious where this number came from....

I found this article on the fitbit blog dated June 22, 2010

The Magic of 10,000 steps

When you join Fitbit, the default goal we set for each member is the magical number of 10,000 steps a day (you can also choose to customize your goal). And while this may not be the first time you’ve heard that goal, it might be more meaningful, and motivating, to understand its origins.

The Japanese first started using the 10,000 steps a day number, as part of a marketing campaign! (to help sell pedometers). Since that initial campaign however, medical authorities around the world have agreed that 10,000 is a healthy number to aim for. The American Heart Association uses the 10,000 steps metric as a guideline to follow for improving health and decreasing risk of heart disease, the number one killer of men and women in America.

10,000 steps a day is a rough equivalent to the Surgeon General’s recommendation to accumulate 30 minutes of activity most days of the week. It should be enough to reduce your risk for disease and help you lead a longer, healthier life. The benefits are many: lower BMI, reduced waist size, increased energy, and less risk for Type II diabetes and heart disease. In fact, a recent study of the 10,000 steps a day method reported conclusive health benefits.

10,000 steps daily is approximately 5 miles. Unless you have a very active lifestyle or profession, you probably don’t reach 10,000 steps on a given day without putting some effort into your activity. This could be a lifestyle change such as walking to work, or the addition of an exercise routine to your day.

Another reason to do it? For most people, it’s convenient, free and simple to do with just a little change to your daily routine. Working towards a 10,000 step a day goal? Good for you! Get motivated with one of our Fitbit groups, like 5k-6k steps a day. Already mastered 10,000? Maybe Active Maintainers is for you.

After reading this I was wondering was ACTIVE MAINTAINERS was all about. It is an online group of 'overachieving' people with fitbit. Naturally, I joined.... This is what the leaderboard looked like this morning, September 12th.

Steps in September

Mike K. - 582,197 steps#1
Jennifer K. - 526,615 steps#2
Debbie A. - 492,026 steps#3
Tracy E. - 211,113 steps#122
Chris E. - 210,583 steps#123
You - 210,492 steps#124
Alma R. - 210,107 steps#125Tracey V. - 209,941 steps
#126

This group has nearly 200,000 members.... so my standing of #124 is fairly respectable. I do not think that this will ever be a group where I will be number 1.

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226.6 lbs

I weigh 226.6 lbs.

I gained 0.8 lbs this week

I have lost 82.4 lbs in 262 days. Today begins Day 263.

I will always be at the beginning of a journey that never ends.

I weigh 226.8 (262 days ago I weighed 309 lbs)

I have lost 26.6% of my weight since Dec 24.

I have a BMI, body mass index of 30.31

I had a 42.0 BMI on Dec 24 just 234 days ago (Class III obesity)

I have 4 words of RATIONALIZATION for myself today: IT MUST BE MUSCLE

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 FRIDAY MENU

breakfast oatmeal, bacon, poached eggs 590 calories
lunch almonds, bacon, apples, dark choice cashew bars 1270 calories
dinner Mariano's huge spinach salad 750 calories
SNACK mango, cacao goji, Quaker Rice Cakes 1030 calories

total calories consumed 3641 calories

calories burned

Northfield YMCA PRECOR 100i elliptical machine
(maximum session length limited to 60 minutes)
session 1 elliptical 60 min, 5 min cooldown, level 20, 1095 cal
session 2 elliptical 60 min, 5 min cooldown, level 20, 1108 cal

TOTAL CALORIES BURNED 2203 calories

Friday net calories 1438 calories
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