From July to October, I made the effort to get my body back in order by burning a lot of calories.  In 12 weeks, I was able to run effectively a 10k run, which is 6.2 miles, in a little over an hour.  Now I continue to run about 3-4 miles, at least 3 times a week.

When I started out, I simply wanted to tone up a bit and lose some body fat.  Running is so effective when it comes to burning calories, and it got to the point where 4 miles was something that I looked forward to doing.  It sounds tiring, and it wasn’t easy when I began.  But your body is a machine, which will adjust to any exercise you want to engage in.  So after the first couple of weeks, I noticed my conditioning was improving quickly.  Sometimes I would run outside, but I run on a treadmill 90% of the time.

Burning 3,500 calories is the equivalent of losing 1 pound of weight.  If you divide that 3.500 by 7 days, then you have 500 calories a day to burn, in order to lose 1 pound a week.  You could run around 2-3 miles for about 30 minutes (going at least 5 mph) and burn those 500 calories a day.  Most of my workout days are 4 to 5 miles or more, which for me ranges from 800-1000 calories burned.  But in addition to the calories burned, you have to eat sensibly.  The worst thing in the world is burn the 500 calories, then go home and eat a couple of candy bars and a soda.  Eating that junk food (within 10 minutes probably) can be 600 calories…more calories than what you worked so hard to burn!!!

Focus and consistency is key.  If there was a day that I had missed working out (for whatever reason), I made sure I made it up in some way.  Working out is all MENTAL!  Once you make it a habit to add your workout to your daily routine, it will be just that…a habit just like anything else.  Don’t think of working out as a struggle or something you’re forcing yourself to do.  After a few weeks, you’ll WANT to hit the gym and stay on your schedule!  I would be upset if I missed a day of working out!  Your body feels so energized that you almost don’t want to lose that momentum.  So once you keep your focus and maintain your schedule, it will be easy to keep at it.

My next goal is to keep the cardio going, but also to focus more on portion control  I’ll admit, I still have those days where I just want to get my EAT on!  lol…So my future posts will soon be in a Weekly Series format of my workout summary and my portion control efforts.

Be healthy yall!!!  Your temple will thank you for it!!!  peace.