My "secret" to weight loss...

When P and I first moved out to SoCal we were kindly greeted by all kinds of new and interesting restaurants. Being foodies, we partook in said restaurants quite often and my waistline definitely suffered at the hands of my taste buds bacuse of it. Mind you, yes, I like to eat and eat in large quantities and IMHO the volume you take in has a greater impact than solely "what" you are eating. So, my weight spiked a bit at the beginning of our tenure here and I think I was up to around 215lbs (just a bit less than my all time high of around 220lbs back in '99-'00). Then, over the course of the next year or so, my weight began to decline, and currently i'm down to a fairly trim (for me at least) 185lbs. Funny thing is, that is even lower than the weight I used to compete at in Eskrima back when I was working out 4 hours a day...sometimes 5, 6, maybe even 7 days a week! So what gives? I'm older, my metabolism is slower, and I don't "work out" like I used to, so how is that possible? Well, the answer is, in a word, WORK.

To most people, work is a time of inactivity. Many people sit at a desk, in a cubicle, at an office at work for 8 hours a day. That's 8-straight hours of practical in-activity for the average American. On the other hand, for me, work is a very physical experience. I'm on my feet all day hustling, working on cars, trying to make that all mighty paycheck. On top of that, my dealership's shop has 2 floors, of which I work on the 2nd. Getting cars up and down requires driving up a pretty steep ramp. to the upper shop. I have made it a habit that whenever I need to go get or drop off a car, I run up or down that ramp.

My reason for running is twofold. First, since I get paid "flat rate" (meaning I work on straight commission for the cars I work on), the less time it takes me to get cars in and out, theorhetically the more hours I can make in a day. Running allows me to shorten up the time I waste on retrieving and dropping off cars so I have more time to actually "work" on them, hence allowing me to turn more hours in the day (my all time best has been around 20 paid hours of work in a 8 hour work day). My second reason for running...just for the exercise. I don't have the time like I used to to go to the gym and work out for hours a day so I supplement that through work. I figure sprinting up and down the ramp several time a day has to make a difference, and the scale definitely shows that it does.

Lately, I feel like a lot of people have asked me what i've been doing to lose the weight. My response is always to tell them about work and how physical my job is...or rather how physical I make it by running everywhere I go at work. Then I got to wondering just how much running and walking I was actualy doing. I mean, I always sweat my ass off at work (especially those hot days in the summertime) so I know i'm getting some kind of workout, but I never had any kind of actual yard stick for the level of workout I was getting at work. Last time we were in Baltimore, someone mentioned that I should use a pedometer to measure steps, and I thought that was a great idea. However, I wasn't curious enough to actually go out and buy one. Kellogs to the rescue!

So, I'm man enough to admit that I still eat cereal with milk at times....usually as an evening snack, and usually Frosted Flakes (yes, i'm a sugar junkie!). It just so happens that the last box of Frosted Flakes I bought had a "healthy" theme on the back of the packaging. Instead of a toy inside, they provided a pedometer for kids to go out and measure their steps with. Perfect! A free pedometer! It only had one flaw...the goofy Tony the Tiger stickers adorning the front face. Some peeling and adhesive remover and all was well...I could wear that little contraption at work without fear of mockery. So onto my belt it went for a couple of days at work to track my steps. I tracked my steps from the moment I walked into the door at work to the moment I left for the day with it removed for lunch break and I was pretty shocked by the results.

After a couple of days, I averaged out the daily totals and ended up with an average daily step count of 19,500! According to some info I found online, based on the average American's stride, 1 mile equals about 2000 steps. So 19,500 divided by 2000 equals 9.75 miles! Woah. So, if this is accurate, im walking/running around 9.75 miles a day. No wonder i've lost weight! Apparently, the average American only walks around 2000 steps a day...about a mile. Damn. So, Moral of the story is...get out there and walk your asses off! Then you can eat what you want and not feel gilty about it! Then again, I NEVER feel guilty after a good meal....no matter what my weight is at the time...