First Steps – changing from sedentary to “lightly active” lifestyle

As I start my weight loss journey, I’m doing voluminous research on the web to help with my quest. All I wanted was a simple calculator to help me determine how many calories a day I should be eating. Wow! I didn’t think I would have to dive in the acronym pool for something so simple! BMR, BMI, TDEE … hey! I just want to figure out what to put in my mouth, not drown in the alphabet!

Every calculator I went to asked about my daily activity, giving me choices between Sedentary (desk job) to Very Active (bike messengers). Had to admit I am not in the middle, I am completely sedentary. So, unless I was going to change careers and suddenly start delivering messages on my bicycle, I was looking at spending the rest of my life on a 1000 calorie diet. Or …. I could make a less-drastic life change and take steps (literally) to becoming more active.

I know I will never be one of those people who spend most of the day doing heavy, physical activity. At my age (56), it’s a bit late to decide to become a construction worker and being a marthoner never interested me.

But I can start to walk. Not a treadmill, not a gym, just plain walk! And I quite desperately need to do this. I’m a school librarian. My parking spot is on the opposite side of campus from the library. I confess, at the end of last year I was getting winded just walking to my library each morning. Looking back, I now realize that was the ONLY exercise I was getting all day was that solitary walk. Now it’s summer and I haven’t even been getting my “walking to the parking lot” exercise.

So ….. here goes. A walk tonight when the sun sets. Wish me luck!