I had company on my walk yesterday on Washington Blvd.; Janie was nice enough to join me.
She had mentioned the other day that Washington Blvd. is one of her favorite streets in Indianapolis because of the older, stately houses and their large, well-maintained yards. And I would agree. They just don't build houses like these anymore -- and no, those so-called McMansions aren't in the same league. Sure, they're big. And they have some rather imposing features. But while they're nicely built, compared to the vinyl villages that are springing up like dandelions in the spring, there isn't the obvious craftsmanship that there is with "nicer" and even "standard" houses built in the first half of the 20th century.
Yesterday's walk went from just south of Kessler (5900 block) to 49th St.. We then walked over a block and went back up Pennsylvania, cut over to Delaware, and then over to Kessler before turning back on Washington. I don't know the exact distance we covered, but I do know that we walked for an hour, on the nose. Since we weren't walking especially quickly, I'm guessing that we covered three miles.
Three miles is a pretty good distance, especially considering that I had cut the grass an hour or so before that. By the time we got back to the car, my knee was a bit sore and I was quite hungry. I was reasonably good, though -- for dinner, I had a quarter-pound burger with cheese and no bun, corn on the cob, and half of a Little Debbie Nutty Bar...about 600 calories.
Yes, I do give in to junk food occasionally, but as long as I balance it with healthier food and beverage choices, it won't hurt me. Calorie intake is the most basic element to weight loss and maintenance. As Jillian Michaels, from The Biggest Loser, would say...calories in, calories out. As long as my overall meals' calorie counts aren't in excess of what I burn through exercise, along with mere existence, I won't gain weight. If my daily intake is 1800 calories, and I do an hour walk a day at 3-3.5 mph, I'll lose weight at a reasonable pace. And if I don't feel "deprived" -- which is how I do feel when I try to cut out sweets entirely -- I won't go overboard when I do indulge in treats.
Another friend that's been quite helpful: Splenda. I can now drink Kool-Aid, thanks to Splenda's Quick Pack envelopes. Add one envelope to one package of unsweetened Kool-Aid mix, and you can make two quarts of Kool-Aid...without any added calories. With a cup of sugar, you add 80 calories per 8 oz. serving.
I'm already contemplating my next neighborhood walk. Since yesterday's walk covered just a few streets in a rather large neighborhood, I will probably need 2, maybe even 3, more walks to cover all of Meridian Kessler. I do like variety, though, so the next walk will probably be somewhere other than MK. But I'll surely return before the end of the summer.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Warfleigh
My apologies for not keeping up with posting to this blog. I'm still walking…I promise!
My most recent jaunt was to Warfleigh, a neighborhood just west of Broad Ripple. That walk, which I took this past Tuesday, was 3 miles and included just about every street in the neighborhood as I went up and down the streets until I had walked for an hour.
I've always liked that neighborhood because of its mix of upscale and more modest (but still very nice) houses, and because of the variety of styles that residents use in landscaping their yards. There were quite a few stone retaining walls separating the yards from the sidewalks below – one of my most favorite features, and sometimes I wish I had the kind of yard to do that. And, of course, plenty of perennials, all well-chosen and nicely taken care of. Unlike the yards in Geist, which were pretty obviously done by professional landscapers, these landscapes are largely designed and maintained by the homeowners themselves. And there's a sense that the people who live in this neighborhood are just as proud of their gardens as they are of their houses…and that they truly enjoy what they have.
On the days I don't get out and walk, chances are it's because I've done plenty of work in my own yard, with my own gardens. Gardening is a great way to get exercise; it burns calories, builds muscle, and is an aerobically efficient way to stay in shape.
Unfortunately, it can also be a good way to get out into those elements that contribute to allergies. I've just gotten over a week and a half of coughing, hacking, sneezing, and sniffling. And because I felt downright miserable after each hour of walking, I've stayed close to home during this time. Now that I'm feeling better, though, I'll resume my regimen of excursions to Indianapolis's more scenic neighborhoods, followed by blogs describing them.
As for my weight, I've lost three pounds since I started this blog. While I'm a little behind the pace I had hoped to set, now that allergy season seems to be behind me, I should be able to pick things up relatively quickly.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Road trip: Prairie Duneland Trail, Portage
Owing to finals week and a trip out of town, I've been a bit lax about posting details of my walking excursions. But I'm online now....
Last week, I visited my mom in NW Indiana...which has plenty of variety in terms of neighborhoods and walking areas. Even though I haven't lived up there for any appreciable length of time since I left for college, I've had some chances to do some good walks in the area and would love to look further into some very enjoyable and educational excursions up that way.
One place in particular that I like -- where I took a 3.5 mile walk last Tuesday -- is the Prairie Duneland Trail, which runs SW-NE from Hobart to Chesterton, a distance of just over 10 miles. I've ridden my bike the entire length of the trail, and there are some especially interesting sights toward the trail's eastern end, which isn't nearly as populated an area. But since I was on foot this time, I limited my journey to a stretch running from Swanson Rd. to Airport Rd. in Portage. This stretch has a mix of prairie grassland and parks/subdivisions, and not surprisingly also has a fair amount of foot and bicycle traffic, particularly on weekends.
Further to its credit, the Prairie Duneland trail has several informational signs -- each of which provides a few interesting details about the area's topography, vegetation, and land uses over the years. Several hundred years ago, the area was covered in swamps -- and even further back in time, it was part of Lake Michigan. After the lake receded and after the swamps were drained, settlers came into the area and established farms. Today, a few old barns remain here and there, and there are large-ish expanses of prairie grassland. But much of this area has been taken over by subdivisions. It seems as if every time I visit this trail, there are at least one or two new subdivisions that I hadn't seen the last time.
Subdivisions or no, this is a great walk for the simple reason that there's a lot to see. And the Prairie Duneland Trail is a wonderful example of a rails-to-trails project that connects individuals and small groups, as well as entire communities. There are plans to connect the Prairie Duneland Trail to the Oak Savannah Trail to the west, which runs from Hobart west to Griffith, and also to the Calumet Trail, which runs near the lake to the east. It would then be theoretically possible to walk, jog, or bicycle from the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to Griffith -- a stretch of 25-30 miles.
Last week, I visited my mom in NW Indiana...which has plenty of variety in terms of neighborhoods and walking areas. Even though I haven't lived up there for any appreciable length of time since I left for college, I've had some chances to do some good walks in the area and would love to look further into some very enjoyable and educational excursions up that way.
One place in particular that I like -- where I took a 3.5 mile walk last Tuesday -- is the Prairie Duneland Trail, which runs SW-NE from Hobart to Chesterton, a distance of just over 10 miles. I've ridden my bike the entire length of the trail, and there are some especially interesting sights toward the trail's eastern end, which isn't nearly as populated an area. But since I was on foot this time, I limited my journey to a stretch running from Swanson Rd. to Airport Rd. in Portage. This stretch has a mix of prairie grassland and parks/subdivisions, and not surprisingly also has a fair amount of foot and bicycle traffic, particularly on weekends.
Further to its credit, the Prairie Duneland trail has several informational signs -- each of which provides a few interesting details about the area's topography, vegetation, and land uses over the years. Several hundred years ago, the area was covered in swamps -- and even further back in time, it was part of Lake Michigan. After the lake receded and after the swamps were drained, settlers came into the area and established farms. Today, a few old barns remain here and there, and there are large-ish expanses of prairie grassland. But much of this area has been taken over by subdivisions. It seems as if every time I visit this trail, there are at least one or two new subdivisions that I hadn't seen the last time.
Subdivisions or no, this is a great walk for the simple reason that there's a lot to see. And the Prairie Duneland Trail is a wonderful example of a rails-to-trails project that connects individuals and small groups, as well as entire communities. There are plans to connect the Prairie Duneland Trail to the Oak Savannah Trail to the west, which runs from Hobart west to Griffith, and also to the Calumet Trail, which runs near the lake to the east. It would then be theoretically possible to walk, jog, or bicycle from the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to Griffith -- a stretch of 25-30 miles.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Geist: Admirals Pointe, Admirals Sound
Since I knew it was going to rain today, I did my walk yesterday instead. Since an errand took me in that direction anyway, I walked in a subdivision next to the Geist Resevoir. I chose this subdivision at random...though I did notice that it had both sidewalks and some hills.
Of course, a view of the water's always nice, too....
Yesterday's walk was 3 miles -- at the lower end of my range, but the hills made up for whatever I might have "missed" by not walking further. It was a bit windy, as well, so I also had that kind of resistance to work with. Not surprisingly, I was pretty tired once I got back to the car.
Actually, I'm pretty tired now, since today was spent putting down mulch and beginning to calculate final course grades for my students. But I did promise myself I would record each of my neighborhood walks here.
As for this particular area, it was indeed a subdivision rather than a neighborhood. Generally, I'd like to stick with older areas that are considered "neighborhoods" as opposed to the newer "subdivisions"...but I do want to mix things up on occasion with these walks. And where better for that than Geist?
Geist is considered one of the more "exclusive" areas of Indianapolis/Lawrence/Fishers. Yes, there are some gorgeous houses and even prettier views of the water. And yes, there were plenty of trucks belonging to landscaping companies and other maintenance-oriented businesses in the neighborhood; these folks have plenty of money to hire someone to do both major and minor home-related tasks. But somehow, Geist didn't seem especially "exclusive" to me on this particular day. There were people walking their dogs, playing with their kids, and walking or jogging for exercise. Just like they would anywhere else....
Actually, my mind was more on lunch than on my surroundings. I ended up eating a bowl of Campbell's Beef with Country Vegetables, one of my favorite lower-calorie, lowfat soups. Besides being tasty, it's quite filling -- essential for an afternoon of grading. One of my downfalls in the past has been huge, high-calorie, high-fat meals, in the name of "energy" that I needed to tackle responding to student writing. In my grad school days, it wasn't uncommon for me to eat a Quarter Pounder with Cheese value meal from McDonalds because I "needed it to get through those papers". And if I were to be interrupted for more than an hour, I "needed" to eat something else because I had "lost the stamina" that I felt I had to have to "get through those papers". You can see where I'm going with this (and, of course, where my weight went with this)....
One of my old finals week traditions was to make a double recipe of beef stroganoff. Extra steak...extra mushrooms...extra sour cream. It certainly got me through the week...but I now shudder to think of just how many calories I was taking in with each meal. As for this semester's finals week, I'm going to cook a little ribeye pork roast in the crock pot. Low in calories and very low in fat. But not at all low in taste, not with the spice rub that I'm going to put on it. That pork roast, along with some rosemary potato wedges, will hit the spot...without blowing my diet.
Best of all, I really won't feel like I'm depriving myself of anything. Herbs and spices are easy...and actually fun...to cook with.
Of course, a view of the water's always nice, too....
Yesterday's walk was 3 miles -- at the lower end of my range, but the hills made up for whatever I might have "missed" by not walking further. It was a bit windy, as well, so I also had that kind of resistance to work with. Not surprisingly, I was pretty tired once I got back to the car.
Actually, I'm pretty tired now, since today was spent putting down mulch and beginning to calculate final course grades for my students. But I did promise myself I would record each of my neighborhood walks here.
As for this particular area, it was indeed a subdivision rather than a neighborhood. Generally, I'd like to stick with older areas that are considered "neighborhoods" as opposed to the newer "subdivisions"...but I do want to mix things up on occasion with these walks. And where better for that than Geist?
Geist is considered one of the more "exclusive" areas of Indianapolis/Lawrence/Fishers. Yes, there are some gorgeous houses and even prettier views of the water. And yes, there were plenty of trucks belonging to landscaping companies and other maintenance-oriented businesses in the neighborhood; these folks have plenty of money to hire someone to do both major and minor home-related tasks. But somehow, Geist didn't seem especially "exclusive" to me on this particular day. There were people walking their dogs, playing with their kids, and walking or jogging for exercise. Just like they would anywhere else....
Actually, my mind was more on lunch than on my surroundings. I ended up eating a bowl of Campbell's Beef with Country Vegetables, one of my favorite lower-calorie, lowfat soups. Besides being tasty, it's quite filling -- essential for an afternoon of grading. One of my downfalls in the past has been huge, high-calorie, high-fat meals, in the name of "energy" that I needed to tackle responding to student writing. In my grad school days, it wasn't uncommon for me to eat a Quarter Pounder with Cheese value meal from McDonalds because I "needed it to get through those papers". And if I were to be interrupted for more than an hour, I "needed" to eat something else because I had "lost the stamina" that I felt I had to have to "get through those papers". You can see where I'm going with this (and, of course, where my weight went with this)....
One of my old finals week traditions was to make a double recipe of beef stroganoff. Extra steak...extra mushrooms...extra sour cream. It certainly got me through the week...but I now shudder to think of just how many calories I was taking in with each meal. As for this semester's finals week, I'm going to cook a little ribeye pork roast in the crock pot. Low in calories and very low in fat. But not at all low in taste, not with the spice rub that I'm going to put on it. That pork roast, along with some rosemary potato wedges, will hit the spot...without blowing my diet.
Best of all, I really won't feel like I'm depriving myself of anything. Herbs and spices are easy...and actually fun...to cook with.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Central Canal Towpath
This afternoon's walk took me 4.5 miles round-trip along the Central Canal Towpath, from Broad Ripple to the edge of Butler's campus. Spring has definitely sprung, as I saw three baby geese with their parents, all in hot pursuit of...a turtle.
The Towpath has always been one of my favorite walks to take here in Indy. There's lots of scenery, with ducks and geese, trees, cute little houses, and not much in the way of traffic -- vehicles, people, or dogs. While there are a few stoplights at fairly busy intersections between College and Meridian, the overall atmosphere more than makes up for it.
The canal itself has a really interesting history. It was dug in the 1830s, and was meant to transport goods between Peru and Martinsville. Anyone looking at the canal today would surely wonder how the heck anything beyond a small, Huck Finn style raft could navigate the canal. Obviously, the canal didn't amount to much beyond the sort-of scenic waterway it is today -- less than 10 miles of it ever got dug. So says the informational sign posted at Westfield Blvd. and Illinois St.
As for my actual walk, it felt really good to get things started. I've been walking 2-3 miles a day, almost every day, for the past few weeks -- after a winter that saw me doing relatively little. Now it's time to step things up a bit, and try to get back to the 4-5 miles a day I had been doing a few years ago. The difference this time will be that I approach my diet/exercise a bit more realistically.
Sure, I was at a normal weight then...for the first time since I was 9 or 10. But I was miserable -- obsessed with food, and thoroughly panicked every time I couldn't fit at least a 3 mile walk into my schedule. So not surprisingly, when I met Janie and discovered that she liked all the goodies that I had banned from my kitchen, it didn't take long for me to relent, in the spirit of communal cooking and eating. In the space of a little less than two years, I gained nearly 70 pounds. I was getting closer to the weight I had been before starting that hyper-regimented diet/exercise program that had helped me lose over 100 pounds over a period of 10 months in 2000-2001 (and keep off the weight for a few years after that).
This time around, though, I do let myself snack on occasion...while eating low-fat, reduced-calorie meals and keeping my daily calorie count at or near 1800. And I don't have an absolute fit when I can't walk the way I'd like. Since January 2006, I've lost 55 of those pounds that I had gained. Now it's time to get rid of the last 15, plus another 5, to equal 20. I've given myself until the end of August to do this -- much more manageable than the two months it's taken me on previous occasions to lose 20 pounds.
A sensible diet and daily walks -- including these 3-5 mile excursions into different Indianapolis neighborhoods -- will help immensely. And what did I eat for my "sensible" dinner this evening? A chicken breast and some sugar snap peas.
I'd say I'm off to a good start....
The Towpath has always been one of my favorite walks to take here in Indy. There's lots of scenery, with ducks and geese, trees, cute little houses, and not much in the way of traffic -- vehicles, people, or dogs. While there are a few stoplights at fairly busy intersections between College and Meridian, the overall atmosphere more than makes up for it.
The canal itself has a really interesting history. It was dug in the 1830s, and was meant to transport goods between Peru and Martinsville. Anyone looking at the canal today would surely wonder how the heck anything beyond a small, Huck Finn style raft could navigate the canal. Obviously, the canal didn't amount to much beyond the sort-of scenic waterway it is today -- less than 10 miles of it ever got dug. So says the informational sign posted at Westfield Blvd. and Illinois St.
As for my actual walk, it felt really good to get things started. I've been walking 2-3 miles a day, almost every day, for the past few weeks -- after a winter that saw me doing relatively little. Now it's time to step things up a bit, and try to get back to the 4-5 miles a day I had been doing a few years ago. The difference this time will be that I approach my diet/exercise a bit more realistically.
Sure, I was at a normal weight then...for the first time since I was 9 or 10. But I was miserable -- obsessed with food, and thoroughly panicked every time I couldn't fit at least a 3 mile walk into my schedule. So not surprisingly, when I met Janie and discovered that she liked all the goodies that I had banned from my kitchen, it didn't take long for me to relent, in the spirit of communal cooking and eating. In the space of a little less than two years, I gained nearly 70 pounds. I was getting closer to the weight I had been before starting that hyper-regimented diet/exercise program that had helped me lose over 100 pounds over a period of 10 months in 2000-2001 (and keep off the weight for a few years after that).
This time around, though, I do let myself snack on occasion...while eating low-fat, reduced-calorie meals and keeping my daily calorie count at or near 1800. And I don't have an absolute fit when I can't walk the way I'd like. Since January 2006, I've lost 55 of those pounds that I had gained. Now it's time to get rid of the last 15, plus another 5, to equal 20. I've given myself until the end of August to do this -- much more manageable than the two months it's taken me on previous occasions to lose 20 pounds.
A sensible diet and daily walks -- including these 3-5 mile excursions into different Indianapolis neighborhoods -- will help immensely. And what did I eat for my "sensible" dinner this evening? A chicken breast and some sugar snap peas.
I'd say I'm off to a good start....
Monday, April 28, 2008
Welcome to Losing the Last 20....
During one of my walks last week, I wondered...yet again...why I can't seem to break a certain magic number in my seemingly neverending quest to reach my so-called goal weight. For me, this is the upper end of what's considered "normal" for my height and body type. This is a weight that, except for a period of a few years (2000-2004) of hyper-vigilant calorie counting and exercise reminiscent of The Biggest Loser, I haven't seen since my sophomore year of high school.
This particular day marked four months and four days since I had lost any weight, aside from the down strokes of the 5-pound yo-yo I'd been on throughout the winter and into the early spring. My partner had claimed that our scale is actually 10-15 pounds heavy...but I knew better. And alas, so did my clothes that would have fit, had I really weighed 10-15 pounds less.
Then it occurred to me...I could blog about my adventures, just like I blog about other things, like teaching and my occasional escapades in gardening. Doing a blog would be a great way to keep my diet and exercise efforts honest, and it would give me a chance to do some of the writing that I don't do nearly often enough in the process.
Since I'm getting awfully tired of walking the same few places day in and day out, I'm going to use this blog as an opportunity to get to know my hometown of Indianapolis a bit better. By the way, the governor of Indiana has launched another phase of his INShape Indiana program: Ready, Set, Walk! So my jaunts through various walking-friendly neighborhoods in and around Indianapolis should dovetail very nicely with this initiative.
Here's what I figure I'll do. Every three days, I'll do a 3-4 mile walk in a different neighborhood within a 10-mile radius of home (walking in and around my own neighborhood on the other days). Even with this restriction -- owing primarily to record-high gas prices -- I've still got a lot of options. Meridian Kessler. Old Northside. Geist. Rocky Ripple. Downtown Carmel. Lesser-known locales in between. As long as the neighborhood is reasonably safe, walkable, and has plenty of cool houses, gardens, trees, shops, and other things to look at, I'll go just about anywhere in that 10-mile radius. And after my walk, I'll post a description of what I saw, along with my calories eaten and calories burned counts, mileage and pace, some recipes, and some gardening tips. When I have a chance, I'll post a picture...though I won't take pics of either people or visible addresses on houses. I do understand the privacy thing!
And of course, I'll keep you -- and myself -- posted on how much weight I've lost. I hope to reach that magic 20-pound weight loss by late August, when the fall semester starts at Purdue (where I teach in the Professional Writing Program).
Between now and then, this blog will follow my efforts, adventures, and (hopefully not too many) missteps as I work to lose that proverbial "last 20 pounds" that seems to trip up so many of us. And if I should get to that 20-pound milestone before the end of the summer, I'll still keep up my schedule. Another 3-5, or even 7-10, pounds wouldn't hurt -- remember, I'm shooting for the upper end of the "normal" range.
Where will I go first, you ask. I'm asking myself the same thing, as I take a break from grading final projects during the first day of finals week. For some reason, the stretch of the Central Canal Towpath from Broad Ripple to Rocky Ripple and Butler is calling out to me. That's as good a place as any....
This particular day marked four months and four days since I had lost any weight, aside from the down strokes of the 5-pound yo-yo I'd been on throughout the winter and into the early spring. My partner had claimed that our scale is actually 10-15 pounds heavy...but I knew better. And alas, so did my clothes that would have fit, had I really weighed 10-15 pounds less.
Then it occurred to me...I could blog about my adventures, just like I blog about other things, like teaching and my occasional escapades in gardening. Doing a blog would be a great way to keep my diet and exercise efforts honest, and it would give me a chance to do some of the writing that I don't do nearly often enough in the process.
Since I'm getting awfully tired of walking the same few places day in and day out, I'm going to use this blog as an opportunity to get to know my hometown of Indianapolis a bit better. By the way, the governor of Indiana has launched another phase of his INShape Indiana program: Ready, Set, Walk! So my jaunts through various walking-friendly neighborhoods in and around Indianapolis should dovetail very nicely with this initiative.
Here's what I figure I'll do. Every three days, I'll do a 3-4 mile walk in a different neighborhood within a 10-mile radius of home (walking in and around my own neighborhood on the other days). Even with this restriction -- owing primarily to record-high gas prices -- I've still got a lot of options. Meridian Kessler. Old Northside. Geist. Rocky Ripple. Downtown Carmel. Lesser-known locales in between. As long as the neighborhood is reasonably safe, walkable, and has plenty of cool houses, gardens, trees, shops, and other things to look at, I'll go just about anywhere in that 10-mile radius. And after my walk, I'll post a description of what I saw, along with my calories eaten and calories burned counts, mileage and pace, some recipes, and some gardening tips. When I have a chance, I'll post a picture...though I won't take pics of either people or visible addresses on houses. I do understand the privacy thing!
And of course, I'll keep you -- and myself -- posted on how much weight I've lost. I hope to reach that magic 20-pound weight loss by late August, when the fall semester starts at Purdue (where I teach in the Professional Writing Program).
Between now and then, this blog will follow my efforts, adventures, and (hopefully not too many) missteps as I work to lose that proverbial "last 20 pounds" that seems to trip up so many of us. And if I should get to that 20-pound milestone before the end of the summer, I'll still keep up my schedule. Another 3-5, or even 7-10, pounds wouldn't hurt -- remember, I'm shooting for the upper end of the "normal" range.
Where will I go first, you ask. I'm asking myself the same thing, as I take a break from grading final projects during the first day of finals week. For some reason, the stretch of the Central Canal Towpath from Broad Ripple to Rocky Ripple and Butler is calling out to me. That's as good a place as any....
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