Love to Hate (Exercise)

Honda had a great advertising campaign a few years ago - "Love to Hate" Lets all get together and hate smelly diesel engines.

Well I have high cholesterol, and have to watch my blood pressure, I get regular headaches, have no energy, suffer from depression, I am over weight, nearly 50, and never exercise. I hate vegetables, and love chips. Oh, and I've just given up smoking - which I loved even though it was disgusting and foul and I stank and felt (happily) terrible.

So I bought a step counter. I hate my step counter. It measures how much exercise I do with a target of 21 "exercise units" a week. An exercise unit seems to be about 15 - 20 minutes walking or activity.

The thing is - I have set my sites, in my mind's eye, on looking like a 49 and a half year old Clint Eastwood by the summer, so I have a good stone or more to lose and a lot of effort to put in on the physique, but watching fat camp the other day on TV I realised that its going to have to hurt a bit, I'm going to have to feel the burn, make some effort. There seems to be definite pain, or at least mild discomfort, involved if I really want to make any worthwhile progress, not just towards looking completely unlike I do now, but doing what I quite urgently need to do to protect and improve my health.

So, I've just been for a walk, I walked as fast as I could, tried to jog up the steps, wore less layers so I needed to warm up a bit, (I've become a sissy too as I get older; hat, scarf, gloves, hmm looks a bit chiller out there today excuses) and whilst walking I thought about all of this.

And I forgot to take my ******* step counter.

Step Counters

I have recently been diagnosed as having high cholesterol - it runs in my family, my brothers both have it and now my lifetime of eating crisps has finally caught up with me. Apart from trying to cut out some of the foods that contribute to high cholesterol I am trying to exercise more - I like walking but I talk myself out of it quite often.

I've partially got round this by buying a step counter - they used to be called pedometers but I think step counter sounds better. Mine is the Omron X and it actually identifies whether I am ambling or walking at a pace worthy of being considered exercise! It also monitors the amount of exercise I do per week against a recommended figure and counts down so I can see my progress over a four week period.

If you need to exercise more due to blood pressure or cholesterol, you are dieting, or any other reason, and find it difficult to motivate yourself a step counter can be a big help.

I do get a sense of satisfaction in knowing the distance I have walked and see it add up during the week.