I haven't ran for years, now just started yesterday...

[mskillen]

So for some reason I chose a date at random, July 1 that I will exercise every single day except on saturday and sunday for a whole month and ideally for the rest of my life. Basically a lifestyle change for me since I really want to lose 20 lbs. I'm a female, 28 years old, 5'5'' and 140 pounds right now so I'm not incredibly overweight but I want to go back to weighing 130 and ideally 120 if that's even possible.

I understand if I jog everyday, I might end up gaining more muscle and not really lose "weight" but I guess as long as it's not fat and I have a toned body that's fine. Still, if I can get down to about 130 that's fine for me as long as it's mostly muscle and not fat.

My diet has changed as well and I no longer eat fast food, avoid alcoholic beverages,avoid high fat high sugar desserts, I avoid refined sugar, and I eat more fruits and vegetables. I've been making fresh squeezed orange juice instead of buying it from the store.

I have to give myself some allowances otherwise I couldn't keep my diet and exercise lifestyle so I allow myself a cup of coffee everyday with a tablespoon of cane sugar, once a week I will drink a Dr. Pepper 12 oz only because for some strange reason I really love Dr. Pepper and I can't ever stop drinking it forever, I just want to drink it in slight moderation. Amazingly those are the only vices I crave really.

So my workout this month started with me power-walking. Because I haven't had a consistent exercise routine in years, I wanted to start out easy so I decided to power-walk this trail I fell in love with next to a river. The trail distance if I did roundtrip is rather short only around 3.2miles but I figure that's a nice distance to start out with.

So I did powerwalks for the first two weeks until this week I decided I'm ready to incorporate running/jogging to my routine.

Let me just tell you as I guess is predicted, I couldn't jog longer than 1 minute without getting winded and out of breath. So what I've been doing is just jogging for 1 minute and power-walking for 1 minute and then jogging for another minute and then walking another minute, and doing it consistently and so far Ive been feeling the soreness all throughout my body which feels good since I know I'm giving my body a better workout now. I've also incorporated a 10 minute situp crunch routine before and after my jogging/power-walking workout.

I plan to do this 5 days a week for the next few weeks and like I said ideally forever as long as I'm healthy.

Do you guys think I might be able to achieve my goal and lose at least 10 pounds? Is there anything you think I might be doing wrong or anything you think I might be doing correctly?

I'm not the richest person and I don't have a family, I'm single right now but I can't afford my own personal trainer so any advice from people who have lost weight would be appreciated.

Also I'm in the market for getting a better pair of running shoes because apparently, when you have old everyday sneakers like mine, the bottoms of my feet are getting sore and my back hurts a bit, I know it's from my shoes.

 

[Jrahien]

You're making fantastic changes! Your diet is looking good and the once-per-week craving is perfectly fine to allow yourself.

The crunches before and after running, though, honestly won't do a whole lot. (Remember what they say about how working the abs doesn't help that much to make them show.) It's not bad to do them. There are just better exercises that you could do instead to work your core better. (ie: plank)

The running, however, looks awesome! The intervals are a great start, and as you continue with them, you'll naturally find yourself able to do more and go longer. There's no reason why you won't reach your goal of losing 10lb. Don't worry if it's a slow process, though. It's better off that way anyway. (And if you ever DO hit a plateau, just find a factor with your routine that you can change or modify.)

As for shoes, remember this. There's a correlation with high shoe prices and high rate of injury. Expensive shoes tend to have unnecessary amounts of heel support, and with too much support, your feet and legs end up becoming weaker since they don't need to work as hard, and so they tend to get hurt. Just find a cheap-ish, neutral-support shoe, and if those still hurt your feet, then maybe consider some off-the-shelf arches.

 

[mskillen]

I'm not sure if there's an editing function on these boards so I'll reply to my own thread adding stuff I forgot to comment on.

I notice when I do this trail everyday, I see others of course jogging and running what appears to be infinite period of time whereas I can't even jog longer than one minute. I know it shouldn't bother me because I imagine these people have been jogging longer than I have to get to the point they are at but it sometimes gives me low confidence and I feel like my body will never get to the point those people are at. I would like to someday jog for infinite period of time like those people do on a daily basis but I don't know how long that's going to take. I really hope I can focus my mind on my own goals rather than looking at fitter more athletic moving people everyday pass me up on the trails. I guess this is more of a mentality thing for me.

Also I've been intentionally avoiding the weigher until yesterday because curiosity did me in. I jumped on the weigher and I found out I only lost maybe 2 lbs. I don't know why but after all that work I've been doing since July 1, I kinda hoped it would have been maybe 5 pounds, but again that's why I decided to go from power-walking to jogging, I figure maybe that challenging my body might take my goals even further....

The truth is, I might want to avoid the weigher for another two weeks.... it also tends to mentally give me low confidence when the results aren't as extreme as I would like them to be.

 

[Jrahien]

Yeah, don't worry. Generally, the slower the weight loss is, the easier it is to keep it off after. And for sure, it can be hard, motivationally, to keep going sometimes when comparing yourself to others, but don't let it deter you. Keep your goal in mind and know that you're making your way toward it. And no one who's worth it is judging you.

 

[mskillen]

You're making fantastic changes! Your diet is looking good and the once-per-week craving is perfectly fine to allow yourself.

The crunches before and after running, though, honestly won't do a whole lot. (Remember what they say about how working the abs doesn't help that much to make them show.) It's not bad to do them. There are just better exercises that you could do instead to work your core better. (ie: plank)

The running, however, looks awesome! The intervals are a great start, and as you continue with them, you'll naturally find yourself able to do more and go longer. There's no reason why you won't reach your goal of losing 10lb. Don't worry if it's a slow process, though. It's better off that way anyway. (And if you ever DO hit a plateau, just find a factor with your routine that you can change or modify.)

As for shoes, remember this. There's a correlation with high shoe prices and high rate of injury. Expensive shoes tend to have unnecessary amounts of heel support, and with too much support, your feet and legs end up becoming weaker since they don't need to work as hard, and so they tend to get hurt. Just find a cheap-ish, neutral-support shoe, and if those still hurt your feet, then maybe consider some off-the-shelf arches.

Thank you for your support and confidence booster!

Thanks for the advice on shoes! Again, I didn't want to make a HUGE investment price-wise on running shoes because I don't have the money. But the most expensive shoes don't always equal the best shoes for a person. I've been using adidas original samoa as a walking/jogging shoe and they work fine, except I've had them since 2005 and they are worn out now and now that I use them everyday for running they are almost falling apart literally so I know it's time to get new shoes.

I would like a medium priced beginner running shoe that last at least a year, that support my arches a little better so that my feet don't hurt as much, and obviously as light weight as a medium-range priced shoe can get. They don't have to be the most cushioned shoe on the market, my feet should adjust to the running(hopefully)

I find that with less distractions my cardio routine is easier to manage and luckily this month everything has been pretty good so far. It's funny you mention planking, I downloaded an "ab exercise" app on my iphone so I've been following this woman with difference ab workouts. She has me do planking at the end of my ab routine. I can only plank for 30 seconds and that's really pushing it! by the end of the 30 seconds I'm down on the floor thinking wow she makes it look so easy in the video that lady planking all straight for who knows how long! But like I said, I'm really brand new at planking too only doing it a few times so I imagine it's very difficult at first. It reminds me of a push up except you aren't going up or down and your arms are of course positioned differently when you're planking. Push-Ups are a different story, one that ends with I can barely do the "manly" pushups, I can probably do more of the "girly" pushups though. Anyway I'll just stick to cardio exercise for right now and I'll worry about more strength exercises in August. I want to focus on one thing at a time so it gradually becomes more routine and my body gains more endurance.

I have noticed dramatic body changes(positive changes mind you) this month:

ONE most important thing: I used to suffer from insomnia for years not being able to sleep at night so I wouldn't be able to fall asleep until 4AM. Now, I fall asleep at like 11PM! I'm more tired at night and I get better rest and I feel so much better when I wake up. Also, I noticed my body has more energy now and I don't even need coffee to wake me up. I'm still experimenting on whether I should eat breakfast before I jog or after I do my jogging. I tend to jog between the hours of 8AM-10AM everyday because it gets hot really fast in southern california in July and I can't stand jogging over 80 degrees Fahrenheit. I also don't do evening jogging. Lately, only in case of emergency if I have to change my schedule for whatever reason just to get that exercise in for the day but I noticed that my body enjoys exercise in the mornings since later in the evening I'm tired ready to sleep.