A Picture Perfect Walk

I’m taking a day off from walking and feeling extremely guilty about it, so I’m hoping this post will help me justify my laziness. Today we’re all going to take my walk, by the pictures.

Depending on the time of year I either guzzle down the water or barely take a sip. But regardless most walks usually start with a trip to the water fountain. I’m starting this particular walk in the Ansari Business Building. This is probably where 95% of my walks have started, but once I move to Cain Hall that will change. As you’ll see shortly we can start almost anywhere on the path.

On this particular day I exited Ansari on the second floor and went down into Hilliard Plaza (also known as the lower quad, because ya know, I went down to get there).

And now the first climb, the stairway to heaven as I call it. It leads up to the College of Education and Cain Hall (heaven refers to going up, not the COE or Cain). On a typical walk I run up climbs and walk everything else.

Don’t worry we’re going the right way.

And now the hardest part of the walk: the ramp to Lombardi.

Around Lombardi we go and down next to the Joe Crowley Student Union. From here we can see the Legacy Hall Clock Tower, a constant companion (although sometimes off an hour).

And up the Lawlor Stairs we go!

The single most asked question that is ever asked of me while I walk is “Where is the ticket office?” Unfortunately this door is no where close.

But lets forget about the crazies on campus and continue on to the West Stadium Parking Garage.

We’ll enter on the second floor. Paige takes these stairs two at a time… showoff.

Ok time to get out of the sun.

Oops.

Up we go to the 5th floor.

I must say I’ve never seen a single stair all by itself… still haven’t

Anyway, back down to the second floor and out of the garage.

Around to the Rose Garden.

Heading back to Lombardi. No tennis players today.

Back down past the JCSU to the Brian J. Whalen Parking Garage.

Up to the fourth floor here.

I think we’re good.

Lets check up on Cordy. This was a Saturday so shes gets to stay in the shade.

Out of the garage and up to the COE.

Back down to Hilliard.

Behind Mona Mack Social Sciences and up the stairs to Getchell.

Ah the JTSU, we hardly knew ye.

And more pretty flowers.

Did I mention this is a histroric walk?

The quad rocks!

Around Orvis and down to the Agriculture Building.

Along the Great Wall of Evans.

And up to Morril Hall.

Over the moat.

I love this fountain.

Back through the quad.

My former home.

Ansari again (be careful in the wind tunnel).

We’re done!

Next post: a walking update.

Walking Off the Weight

Three years ago I decided that I wanted to lose weight, and being the lazy person that I am, I naturally picked the type of exercise that I believe to be custom made for lazy people: walking. At the time, all I was doing was tutoring, and it was summer time so even though I had a ton of sessions, there wasn’t enough demand to fill up my entire day. So seeing as I was on campus for odd hours everyday, I figured the university was a great place for my walks. One day I started walking and used the stairways as my guide. Before I knew it I had taken a nice 50 minute walk and was exhausted because of the amount of stairs I had climbed. The next day I did my walk twice and was pleasantly exhausted after each lap. My memory of my weight around this time is very vague but I seem to recall being around 307 when I did my first walk. By the end of the summer I was down to somewhere around 280, and well on my way. Then the next semester started…

For the next two years my weight fluctuated between 280 and 295. When school was in I didn’t give any thought to exercise and during the next summer I had an 8-5 programming job that kept me indoors at a desk. Then finally, two summers after I took my first walk, I again decided that I needed to lose weight. I knew walking worked so I did a little bit of that, but also wanted to try new things. I bought a weight bench and started lifting every other day. At the end of that summer I was again down to around 280. Then the next semester started…

This time I knew that if I didn’t change things, I was going to let school once again ruin my routine. So I did the best thing I could think of to keep myself on track; I told Paige the story you just read. I told her I wanted to lose weight and all about my walks. My intention with telling her everything was that I knew I didn’t want to disappoint her; if she knew, I would try harder. But as Paige usually does, she got involved and actively helped me. She set goals for me and checked up on my progress. Most importantly, she encouraged me everyday. I made a lot of progress that semester but didn’t meet my goal. When Thanksgiving and Christmas came around I even went completely backwards. I again finished around 280, but this time I learned a lot about the food I eat and how much walking I could physically do.

Skipping ahead to now, I used that knowledge and Paige’s continued support to achieve things I never could have dreamed of. The last goal she set for me was to be at 235 on June 16th, 2008. That’s tomorrow, and also her birthday! Today I weigh 230.5 so I’ve now lost a total of 76.5 lbs. Thus far during the summer I have walked 3 hours everyday and I hope to continue doing so. My walk is now an hour long and even more exhausting than when I started.

I’ve also decided to finally start eating better. I try to eat anywhere between 4-6 times a day. I get a lot of fiber, but unfortunately not enough fat, protein or water. I’m still working on the whole eating thing. I know I need to eat more in general. The only times I’ve “ate out” since the summer started are twice at Mr. Pickle and once at Port of Subs. I’ve also almost completely eliminated empty calories and cut my sugar intake in half.

Paige has already set my next goal for me. 220 by August 14th. Unfortunately I feel no different than how I remember feeling 3 years ago, and I certainly don’t look any different to myself. My overall goal is to be healthy, so I don’t have a goal weight per say. I let Paige handle the hard stuff.

My other goal for the summer is to fill the cracks in my heels. I’ve had cracked heels for as long as I can remember, and much like my weight story, I’ve tried filling them off and on for years. So far this summer, I have used foot cream everyday, and am seeing a big improvement!

To celebrate reaching my goal I’m adding a new page to this blog. Now, if you are so inclined, you can track my walks and weight. I’ll try to update the page as often as I can but I’ll be sure to do it every weekend when I check my weight on Sunday.

Thanks to everyone who has encouraged me along the way. It’s nice to hear that others can see a difference even though I can’t. Most especially thank you Paige. I wouldn’t be where I am without you. Happy Birthday!

Next week: My best friend!