I joined a walking program at work.

[woodsprite]

It started this past Monday. Hubby works with me and joined as well, but he ended up on a different team. It's nice to have a partner, but it's not really competition. Hubby is pretty fit and has been walking 10-12K steps/day since the very first day. He's using a FitBit and I'm using my Spark Activity Tracker. I wore it for a week before to see what my normal steps were per day (somewhere in the 3000 to 3500 range). With the challenge, you have to walk at least 6k/day to earn a red leaf, 8K/day = orange leaf, and 10K/day = gold leaf. So I set my first goal at 6K steps/day for this week (I figured it was almost double my normal activity level is) and I've met it each day! My goal for next week is to walk 7K steps per day.

I'm amazed my knees so far have been feeling pretty good (arthritis and subluxing patella issues). I've taken a few doses of Tylenol, but have been doing pretty well. I'm doing intervals and working in 20-30 min. sessions up to 2.4 mph. I have about 125 lbs to lose. I don't want to stress about weight. I want to concentrate on health, mobility and making healthier choices. I figure if I do that, the weight should self correct to a point. By then, hopefully this exercise habit will have become 2nd nature, then I can deal with diet issues.

I don't know if anyone is doing the SparkPeople and their activity tracker, but if so, and you want to 'meet up' on there my username is woodsprite63.

[enough]

1. Sounds good, woodsprite. That's an interesting approach.

Congratulations on getting started!

[woodsprite]

2. Thank you! It's a start, and I've been consistent for a week!

It doesn't sound like a lot, but it's a first for me.

The first night I took a walk with hubby around our neighborhood. I can honestly say that there is no flat place in our neighborhood at all! All I kept thinking was "I should be enjoying this" but I really wasn't because I was afraid I'd twist my knee going downhill or on a monkey ball, acorn, etc. Truthfully, it felt like really bad medicine to me. I was so not enjoying it.

Soooooo, I'm using a treadmill and a gazelle, and I've been having more fun because I'm also catching up on shows I like. On the gazelle, I use the commercial times as a measure for the intervals/breaks. The treadmill has a timer and a track that lights up per every 16th of a mile, so I use that to time the intervals/breaks.