In a previous post, I mentioned that I've taken to walks during the day with a load on my back that lifted my metabolism. This week, it dawned on me that my example may have inspired other people to follow my lead. Over the last few months, I have noticed several people out in the hallways in places far from their offices who don't seem to be going anywhere in particular, and it shows. During that same time interval, several people drew my attention to the fact that it has borne fruit for me, and so perhaps these people decided it could bear fruit for them too. Even Nordictrac is on this bandwagon, as several advertisements of late claim you can "walk off the weight". Apparently you can and we are. Also, even my strange dietary behaviors inspired others, as one told me today to my face.
Starting in September, the State of Nevada initiated a campaign to walk 150 miles for the state's 150th anniversary. That's not tough to do in 30 days, but they promised additional albeit as yet unspecified rewards for the top 150 performers, and so I decided to see just how much I could actually do. In order to accomplish this, I strap a backpack full of outdated textbooks on my back weighing 25lbs and walk just shy of a mile in 15 minutes, going up and down stairs and back and forth in the hallways. Only a few weeks passed before I saw the first other person doing the same thing on break. She crossed my path far too often to be random, and eventually it evinced the fact that she was walking a circuit. Then, people from other departments joined suit, including a few from my own. Yesterday at the department office, I saw a woman from astronomy who looked dressed to be outside, and she told me she was out walking, inspired by my example. All in all, there are at least six of us, and I have students interested in the same thing, these people having seen how much I have transformed in the last two months.
Many people have noticed that it made a huge difference. The first person to notice was the Dean's secretary who asked me what I'd done to lose so much weight. Then a geology professor, then some students, and then a young lady who refused to date me because I wasn't fit enough all joined the throng. Back during the summer, I was working out eight hours per week. Now, when you add up the walks during break, the walk I take during lunch, and the hour I spend after I get home each night walking up the hill with a similar load, and I spent twenty hours per week exercising. I am now in better physical shape than I ever have been. Although I have been skinnier, I have better endurance, more energy, more strength, more conditioning, and a better physique that now turns heads when we go out since I can actually tuck in my shirt without looking like I'm pregnant like so many men we see. One of the geology professors was interested in walking to lose weight but opined she didn't have time when another professor reminded her that I make time and suggested that she join me for my walks.
They say that health begins by taking small steps and then by taking as many of them as you can. The biggest difference is to actually get moving. Keep going as fast as you can for as long as you can, and eventually your body will raise your metabolic rate. When I sleep, I burn 80kcal/hour; now I'm conditioned to burn 100-120 kcal/hour when I'm awake in case my body has to do something. The regular trips amount to stoking the fire to be ready, and my body burns more so that it is ready to go if I ask it to. Despite all of the other people out there trying to encourage you to change, despite the FLOTUS' program "Let's Move", we don't really see changes in the nation. However, I see changes in my own sphere of influence. You see, Dieter Uchtdorf admonished us to lift where we stand, and so I'm doing what I can to inspire others around me to better their lives. The Dean's secretary isn't willing to do it, and some people may not have time or energy after work to do as much as I, but the point is to get going. Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and if you do a little each day, it builds up to great harvest.
We have no idea what others may see and take as their own inspiration. A geography professor told me today that I inspired her with my vegetable grazing during the day. For many years, professors have mocked me, including the dean, for eating what amounts to an unassembled salad during the day. However, this professor today told me that she tried it for a week and found that it not only kept her full during the day but also gave her more energy. She showed me her bowl which had strawberries and spinach leaves and carrot slices and told me how much she enjoyed doing this. I still have to cut chocolate out of my diet, but if this professor can get abs for the first time in her life at 50, if I cut out chocolate, maybe I can too. We are now enough in number that we inspire one another. People followed my lead, and we are all more fit now because we got moving.
I still don't have a six pack, and I'm still not top shelf in the looks department. However, I feel better. I wasn't really working out to make women swoon anyway. Some people work out to impress others, but I'm the type who works out in order to achieve another kind of goal. I did this because I want to be available and useful to God if He asks me to do something that seems beyond my reach. You see, the more you do, the more you know you can do, and so my fitness regimen helped me overcome the psychological barriers that prevent people from the endurance tests of life. Sometimes I struggle to get out of bed, and there are days when my legs burn from the exertion level when I burn 5000 kcal or more in a day. However, I like walking up stairs without being out of breath and being able to run without my shins hurting and having to buy pants with a smaller waist on Black Friday because the ones I bought last year are too big this year. When I started moving, I had no idea that I would inspire others to follow my lead, but I have seen others join, and I bet they will one day be able to say similar things about their own health, endurance, and conditioning. If I had known all I had to do to get back into shape was to walk around as fast as I could while wearing a backpack, I would have started this years ago (and probably not done it as many hours per day), but I am fit enough even though I'm not supersexy to qualify for military fitness standards, and that's quite an accomplishment.
If you do today what others won't, tomorrow you'll be able to do what others can't. --unknown
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