Bringing back the 10000 step challenge!
While I have been ill I have been thinking about the best way to build a program that helps me build consistency into my daily routine and I keep coming back to walking as it is really easy to do, can be done anywhere and will not negatively impact my many injuries or be too hard while I am recovering from the virus I had last week! Added to that it is a really great way to start the day and requires no effort to get ready to go unlike cycling! Added to that I am really not fit enough to use Zwift a lot at the moment after 2 months of doing nothing it is a no-brainer.
My idea is to wake up at 6 am and walk for 1 hour first thing every morning, maybe walking later at weekends to get a lie in. I am thinking that for the rest of October I walk my old route around town then in November I add the weight vest to increase the training load and then from December onwards I walk a much hillier route to increase the load again.
I am also going to start doing the 10000 Step Challenge again to make myself way more active as I have been so in-active recently that I have only been doing around 800 steps a day which is terrible.
Starting next week I plan to try and do 2 Zwift sessions after work to try and get fitter on the bike too as my attempts last week were pitiful to say the least although I was coming down with something so that would explain a bit of it!
I did a weigh in this morning and I am up to 108.7kgs so I urgently need to get the weight gain in check and try and get below 100kgs by the end of the year if possible.
More importantly than losing the weight I want to feel more healthy and less stressed while I am not riding the bike which I have been getting while I have been injured! For the past month I have also been feeling really lethargic too which may well be due to the lack of movement that I have been doing recently.
I know from the walking I did last year that building the habit of walking first thing I will feel way more energised both physically and mentally and after a few weeks it becomes a habit and really benefits my life in many positive ways.
My thinking is that once I start riding the BMX again next year I can add the sessions on top of the walking instead of replacing it like I did last time then I can keep improving my fitness and reducing weight going forwards. Continuing to walk every day should also avoid me piling on the weight again like I have over the past year where my weight increased from 103kgs in November last year to its current levels of 109 kgs now!
Along with the increasing activity I want to try the Carnivore diet which is supposed to be really effective for burning fat and not feeling hungry so I want to try it at least! For the past month I have been moving towards this diet and I will start 100% Carnivore from next week until November as a test! I am hoping that by combining the diet with the increased activity I can drop a bunch of weight and more importantly lose a bunch of body fat and build up a good base fitness ready to start training hard when I can get back on the BMX.