Thank you all for your great advice! I do want to lose weight primarily, and with walking. I've been scribbling numbers in a chart, sort of seeing what a 'gentle improvement' might look like, if I walk 5x weekly (monday thru friday) and improving 1 mile every 2 weeks. ((( or is that too easy? ))
This is my idea of going from 1 mile 5x weekly, to 4 miles 5x weekly. Now, I was thinking to incorporate a diet plan to this, rather half-arsed like; each is over a two week period, each week rotating focus on either increasing mileage, or paring back on calories.
Week 1: I push for the extra mile, but I slack on my eating a little (that is, eat what I want, as long as its healthy--my thing is avocados and macadamia nuts!)
Week 2: Is easier physically absorbing the extra mile, but will pare back on the calories, not so much counting, but doing without as much as possible. This way , every other week I work hard either on the diet or the exercise. I was thinking this is a good plan to increase mileage by 1 mile every two weeks, which I think is very realistic. By the time all 16 of these two-week sequences are over, in theory -- 32 weeks later, I'll be walking 4 miles 5x weekly. What do you all think of my chart?
1, 1, 1, 1, 1 = 5 mi
2, 1, 1, 1, 1 = 6 mi
2, 2, 1, 1, 1 = 7 mi
2, 2, 2, 1, 1 = 8 mi
3, 2, 2, 1, 1 = 9 mi
3, 2, 1, 2, 2 = 10 mi
3, 2, 1, 2, 3 = 11 mi
4, 2, 3, 2, 1 = 12 mi
4, 2, 3, 2, 2 = 13 mi
4, 2, 3, 2, 3 = 14 mi
4, 2, 3, 3, 3 = 15 mi
4, 4, 3, 3, 3 = 17 mi
4, 4, 4, 3, 3 = 18 mi
4, 4, 4, 4, 3 = 19 mi
4, 4, 4, 4, 4 = 20 mi
Any time I 'slip up' and retrograde, I just pick up where I am... like if I go back to walking - 0 miles - I'll pick up somewhere in the middle, but I really am not accounting for retrograde behavior. Remember, this is going from an average of say 5 miles per month or less, over a couple of years. So just going out walking 5x weekly in itself is huge! This week so far I've done 5 miles, so I can pick up probably in the 8 mile level, or maybe I ought to be safe , and pair back to 6 miles, taking a day off; tomorrow, and walking 1 mile rest of the week. What do you think? I need to probably start over at 5 mi.