Power Walking at Work

In an effort to make myself more active and just get a tiny bit more exercise into my daily routine - today I started Power Walking at Work.

I brought in my old tennis shoes to work, and I will permanently leave them under my desk every day. Working at the state, we get two 15-minute breaks a day - and I plan to walk every day during those breaks. I will lace up my tennie-pumps (as my Mom, Sister and I say...) with my nice work dresses, and power walk my booty off around this place. While it's still a little bit chilly outside, I will be inside for the morning break, and go outside for my afternoon break, when the weather permits!

Just now, I walked straight up 5 flights of stairs, as quickly as I could manage. Then on my way back down, I came down one flight at a time, and walked the whole floor before going down another flight on the other end of the hall. This afternoon, I will circle the building a couple of times, which will be good because our whole block sits on a giant hill, so that will provide a bit more of a work out rather than just flat ground.

Hopefully this new routine of power walking will do a couple of things for me...
1. I hope it helps motivate me towards leading a more active and healthy lifestyle again all around
2. Obviously I hope it will help jump start me back into losing weight again!

It's not a lot - but I figure that pairing this new, daily walking routine with Zumba twice a week and cycling whenever I can, I will be on my way to losing that 20 pounds, for the second time...

And this afternoon, I plan on using my RunKeeper app (link takes you to my public profile) on my iPhone to keep track of my walking from here on out. It's a pretty awesome app, and can do a lot of things like: distance, average speed, max speed, calories burned, total elevation, map of where you were, etc... and then it sends all this data online so that it's easier to track. It's the same app Jeff and I use when we cycle, and we love it. You can set each activity (biking, walking, running, etc.) so it knows more accurately how to track you during your work out.

(AFTERNOON EDIT: this new link will take you straight to the "Activity" from this afternoon on my RunKeeper profile. I walked exactly one mile all around downtown and the 3 floors of my parking garage before coming back to my desk.)

Cheesy mirror picture at work - didn't realize it was so blurry...oopsie. :)

Tennis shoes and a dress always looks good right?! ;)