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Weight Loss Exercise

Kidney March Experience

Well last weekend my long awaited Kidney March took place and I was as, you could expect, nervous about the prospect of walking 100 kilometers in 3 days. I have to say that it had a profound effect on me.

We started with an early morning after a late night of packing for ourselves and our kids. Actually the one thing that made us a bit crazy is that our daughter, the one with kidney disease, was in the hospital until Thursday afternoon but looked to be fine for the weekend. So the walk was a go after a drive, a bus trip, and the opening ceremonies in Millarville where the walk started.

Getting Started on Kidney March

dorky Bill and MichelleThere were 170 people on the walk and as we started everything went well but about halfway through the first day my wife started having trouble with her hips and in the end she pulled out after about 25 kilometers on the first day. As luck would have it the rain started falling after that and I walked the final 10 kilometers with a lady and her daughter and one other person because as we all know misery loves company. By the end of the 8 hours on the road I was exhausted after walking 34 kilometers on hard road and barely ate and showered and fell asleep. No blisters though!

On day 2, the Saturday the rain was pouring down on us all day and I started and ended the day with soggy running shoes. The thing that I felt really kept us going was the motivation of the Kidney March Crew, they were like cheerleaders to all the walkers. Also the medical staff making sure that we were all feeling good and not so cold or blistered.

The other thing that the Kidney March Crew did was to make sure that we were well fed and hydrated every three or so kilometers. On a dark rainy day this really matters. My wife made it around 25 kilometers this day as well with problems with her stomach this time. I made it to the end but even though I was very wet and a bit cold and hungry but I sure felt better than I did after the first day. I ended up walking for about 9 hours on the Saturday but I had more energy and felt way better after a shower.

One of the greatest things ever on the second day of the Kidney March was that a tent was setup in the campground with heaters pumping in. This allowed everyone to dry shoes and jackets so that we would be much warmer in the evening and dry shoes to walk in on Sunday morning.

Sunday morning we woke up to sun and dry shoes. I can not tell you just how great it was to have my feet by warm and shoes shaped to my feet. The last day of Kidney March is the shortest as the end has a celebration at Calgary Olympic Park at 3:00 so everyone needs to have good pace to make it there on time.

There were still hills to climb on the Sunday just like the preceding two days but my wife started with a blistering walking pace that we were able to keep up unitl lunchtime. On this day, just to change things up again, my wife had some terrible ankle pain and had to have her foot wrapped and we slowed down a bit but still finished the 28 kilometers in about 7 hours or so and in time for the ending closing ceremonies.

How I Feel Now About Kidney March

I think I had the start of a couple blisters by the end but I was very fortunate to have no real blisters or leg pain that so many others had. I believe part of that is due to the fact that I have been wearing the same running shoes for a few months so they fit me great now

This Kidney March experience was for me one of the greatest experiences of my life. I was able to raise over $2200 for Kidney research thanks to so many people that donated. Also I got closer to my limits, I walked for about 24 hours over three days so I had a real chance to see how my body and mind reacted to the pain of the walking and the time on the road. I got down on myself at times, and I was very excited at other times and could feel this in my body.

Mostly though last weekend I will always remember the people I met. I heard a lot of stories from people that had been given Kidneys by others as well as people that were supporting friends or living themselves with Kidney Disease so now the experience that my family is going through does not feel so lonely. I really feel like a part of a community and this will keep me invested in the ideals of the Kidney March that I fully expect that I will walk again next year.


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Weight Loss Exercise

How to lose 20 pounds in a month



For many people knowing how to lose 20 pounds in a month would be a dream. Put that dream right in front of you because I am saying that there are ways that you can lose 20 pounds in a month.

To get started on any weight loss goal is easy but you need a strategy and tactics in place to know how to lose 20 pounds in a month. Your strategy towards any goal is the broad strokes, the big concepts that are important. Here is your weight loss strategy

Increase your resting metabolism
Reduce your calorie intake
Quickly burn calories during cardio and weight workouts

Now that you have a strategy to lose 20 pounds in a month so now you need the tactics that will make it a reality. You need radical changes to lose 5 pounds a week.

How to lose 20 pounds in a month

How to lose 20 Pounds in a Month

Your tactics are the individual things that will make your dream work out for you.

How to lose 20 pounds – Eating Tactics

Plan your eating the day before – If you plan your eating the night before then you are not going to have to worry about getting into a struggle of eating these crappy foods and instead will know what you are going to eat when.

Eat 5 or 6 small meals a day – This is going to help you to raise your metabolism. When you eat often you are sending a message to your body that you are not going to starve and that you will always have enough to eat.

Have leftovers a lot to make it easier to eat good food – If you make giant helpings of meals then you will have lots of leftovers to choose from. One of the problems that I always hear from people is that they are worried that if they have to eat really often then they will spend their whole life preparing meals. this is just not at all the case.

Eat meals that are small – One thing that drives me crazy is how we allow our bodies to waste food. It is hard to find a steak smaller than 8 ounces in a restaurant but did you know that your body has almost no way for digesting and using more than 4 ounces of that steak?

Eat lots of fiber – Fiber will increase metabolism and make you healthier by cleaning out toxins.

Drink lots of water – Who cares what the so called experts say. Water makes your metabolsim faster and makes you feel great

How to lose 20 pounds – Exercise Tactics

Exercise twice a day – One 20 minutes workout in the morning and another one in the evening.

Do weights once every second day – Getting muscle will help your body burn more fat. The muscle takes a lot of calories to maintain while fat takes nearly none.

Split your cardio workouts between high and low intensity – High intensity to burn a lot of carbs off and low intensity to finish of the fat hanging around

Cardio is 20 minutes of hard cardio – Hard cardio is defined as keeping your heartrate up around 80% of your max. This will raise your metabolism for a long time 12 – 24 hours.

Walking or casual exercise can be an hour long – This is a great way to burn fat as you can exercise low impact by walking for an hour.

Weights should be basic exercises – Basic exercises are things like squats, bench presses, lunges, military presses. These exercises work a lot of muscle groups at once.

Healing between workouts is most important – Now that you are working out it is a good idea to get a lot of rest and sleep so that your body can recover. Your body only recovers when you are sleeping or at least resting.

There are no guarantees of course that you will lose 20 pounds in a month but just look at this plan of attack. Is this different than you are doing now? Are these new lifestyle changes possible for you? It is all up to you to see what radical changes that you can make in your life and what they will lead to. Good luck in your quest and at the very least you now know how to lose 20 pounds in a month.

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