Weight Watcher's Diaries Part Nine
By Carol Daelemans

Cardio, cardio, cardio!

My trainer, Todd, has been telling me forever that the simplest key to weight loss is "cardio, cardio, cardio." If we would all just get out there and move more (and eat less, of course) we could lose the weight we complain about but don't do enough to loose. Last year, before I added Weight Watchers and the "eat less" part of the equation to my efforts I had actually started to move more. My best friend was recovering from surgery and her doctors had told her to get out and walk. My doctor had told me (yet again) that I was fat and needed to lose weight. I already knew that getting out and walking was going to help so we started together. This way on the days when she thought she was too tired to walk I would make her and she would push me out the door when I didn't want to go. It turns out that walking with a friend is good for you, "heart and soul."

We got together nearly every evening to walk any where from 2-6 miles. We walked in heat, darkness and even rain. This was not just exercise it was therapy. Everyday we had a chance to get out of the house, get away from the family and just vent. As wonderful as the best family out there is, I am willing to bet that the mother would like to get a few things off her chest before going back inside to be "Super Mom." Where would any woman be without the support of her girlfriends, whether the girlfriends are sisters who truly know our whole life stories, school friends we grew up with, or women we meet later in life who become our sisters with ease? My girlfriend/motion motivator and I met when we were both well along the path of motherhood, marriage and career choices. She is a full time career woman as well as a full time mom (Is there such a thing as a "part time mom"?).

We soon discovered the therapeutic aspects of walking together were at least as important as the actual walking. Our walks gave us a full hour that was our very own. We were not wives, we were not mothers, we could call each other by our given names and vent about the successes and failures of our other jobs in life. I don't know what either one of us would do without this break. No one can say, "Hey, no walking for you. You need to stay home and do the laundry." This was for our health so that we had more years of washing ahead of us. Plus, you can put a load into wash and change it when you get back. Her kids are old enough to stay home on their own and to help baby-sit mine while we went out walking. Since we walked around the neighborhood, we wouldn't be far if they found a way to burn the house down or kill each other. If she ever moves away from me, I don't know what I would do. I am sure I could get another woman to walk with me but who would let me burden them with all of my problems while I listened to hers as well? Let's just not think about that now!

The walking last year was good for the soul, but was it good for my health as well? In some ways it was. I was losing inches around my middle but I had not dropped an ounce of weight. Well-meaning people kept telling me that I looked thinner but my mirror was not among them. I sure did not feel thinner. Those pesky, nagging doctors were not cheering me on either. Since the scale told them I was the same weight, they really didn't give two hoots if I thought I might need to add a belt to my wardrobe.

With winter came the temporary end to walking. I am sorry but I am a fair-weather walker. I cannot be enticed to go out there in the snow and brave the wind chills and walk, especially since all the walking up until then had produced dubious results. As spring arrived, my girlfriend and I got back out there. A certain amount of cabin fever helped spur us on. Soon we found that, while we had kept up with each other over winter, we had a lot to say to each other. We got to walking faster and farther. Our speed walking was taking off. On out last trip out we went the farthest yet. Since all of our kids were at sleepovers or visits with friends we decided to walk as much and as far as we wanted, no need to stay in the neighborhood. We headed to the local park and added some hiking to the equation. When we got back to our house for a much-deserved light beer, we had been out only 15 minutes longer than usual but had gone 8 miles!

The results from my cardio this season have been much more satisfying than the results I got last fall. Since I added, "eat less" to "move more," I lost 4 1/2 pounds in the first week of full-time walking! I don't expect to keep up this pace, but it sure would be nice to continue to see physical results as well as therapeutic results from all this walking.