Moving my body, aka exercise... I think it's finally sticking.

Ok, so I think this exercise routine, or non-routine, I have going is finally sticking. I started off small. A 20-30 min walk 3 times a week, and I've gradually increased it. It also helps that I have a deal with a friend. We both have pedometers. We agreed to walk 10,000 steps a day.

Ok, so I've increased my walking to almost daily. I sometimes slip on the weekends and don't get anything near 10,000. I expect that every now and then, and don't get down on myself.

So now I'm walking a minimum of 5 times a week for 50-60 minutes. I walk at a medium pace for 5 mins, then at a brisk pace for 5 minutes, I then alternate between jogging and brisk walking for the next 30 mins. I follow it up with a cool down phase of medium/brisk walking for 10-15 mins. I got the idea from an article called The Couch-to-5k Running Plan. Recently the Zen Habits blog also posted an article called How to Go From Sedentary to Running in Five Steps. It's not nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be. I thought I'd be gasping for air, clutching my throat after each walk. But I'm not. I'm quite surprised. Do I sometimes wake up sore? YEP. Is it worth it? YEP. Overall I'm feeling much better. I do have to push myself, that's for sure. But it seems to be getting easier.

For the last two years I've worked on getting my cholesterol down . I was in the higher end of "normal", it's gotten a lot better. I'm now working on lowering and stabilizing my blood pressure. Hypertension and heart disease runs pretty high in my family. I realized if I want to live past 60, I need to work on it now. No more putting it off.

So that's what I've been up to. Nothing majorly exciting, but kinda life saving. :)