Hiking Training Plan 3.0: Week One

Week: January 17-23
Miles Hiked (Week): 0
Miles Hiked (January): 0
Miles Hiked, (January Goal): 0
Miles Hiked (Yearly Total): 0
Pounds Lost (Week): 3.2
Pounds Lost (Total):  3.2
Weekly Goal Met: Yes
Nights Camped (Week): 0
Nights Camped (Total): 0
Nights Camped (Backpacking): 0

The first week back at the hiking training plan went pretty well, as I lost 3.2 pounds over the course of the week.* This was in part due to the fact that I had hit my calorie total two of the days last week. In addition, I began my exercise regimen again, which currently is limited to about ten minutes of walking two-three times a week, some limited exercises with dumbbells, and twenty minutes sessions of WiiSit**.



Week two will be much of the same, with only slight incremental changes as I work to getting back in shape to actually hike. It looks like I'll continue getting my exercise indoors, whether I do it in my apartment, the fitness center at my apartment complex, or Woodfield Mall. It looks like it will be far too cold to do anything outside, other than walk to and from my car.

I'm finally feeling pretty much back to normal. Sure, if I walk too fast or too long, I still have some trouble breathing, but it is much better than it was even a week ago, and certainly much better than I was when I left the hospital. I'm still over a month from being ready to hike, but come the middle of March I should be ready. More good weeks like this and I am sure I will be ready.

* In the interest of full disclosure, I've shifted the weigh-in date, and thus the period that constitutes a week in the plan. From now on the weigh in day will be Friday mornings that a usable scale is available.  Therefore the measurement week will go from Friday to Thursday. This is certainly beneficial to my success, because it puts the troublesome weekends at the beginning, rather than the end, of the period. The real reason for the change is that my first real attempt to do a weigh-in after I got back to my normal routine following the pneumonia was a Friday.
**Because I'm too heavy to use it standing up (or rather, I can't get passed the weight limit checks in the game), I use WiiFit while sitting on a bench. Many of the exercises are unusable, or of dubious value. Others, however, still have some exercise value, and is a better alternative than doing nothing. Especially when the weather is awful, as it has been most of this winter.