All the Time in the World?

Dearest Rachel –

Daniel has been asking me multiple times throughout the past day whether I’ve heard from the dealership about the status of the work being done on my vehicle. After just a single day of me appropriating his/your car, it would seem that he would like it back. It seems a little weird, given how rarely he leaves the house on his own, but I will admit to understanding the desire to at least have that option available to him.

With that having been said, it looks as though I’m going to just leave his car at home, and return to the days of walking to and from the ‘office’ today. Tuesday aside, it’s been a very long time since I put myself through those paces – and if I really want to prepare myself for some of my upcoming trips, like the “JR pass” one in particular, I’m going to need to practice a little more urban perambulation than I currently do.

The trouble with this plan is that it cuts into the time I might otherwise spend working out at the gym – and I hardly have to remind you about how unmotivated I am as a general rule to begin with. Even at a fairly brisk walk (certainly, faster than I can do when Lars and I are making our way through Harms Woods), it takes the better part of an hour to cross town from home to ‘office.’ Once there, I still have to make the return trip at some point (although, as with my leaving the car at the dealership in the first place, I have a standing offer of transportation from my dad, who I think likes to drive every bit as much as I do), chewing up yet another hour. Compare that to the time spent at the gym, which rarely exceeds even an hour and a half.

That might sound like I’m trading one form of exercise for another, so it ought to be considered a wash; in fact, if I’m walking for two hours, as opposed to ninety minutes, tops, and this is actually better for me. That’s as may be – I won’t deny the advantages of a little fresh air, for instance – but while in the gym, I’m walking uphill at an incline of fifteen degrees, and that makes a huge difference in terms of calories burned. A mile on flat terrain burns a little over a hundred calories at my weight; going up that set incline burns three times as much. Moreover, on a free walk, I fall into a natural pace of just over three miles an hour; on the treadmill, I’m forcing myself to hit speeds of five mph and more, while still maintaining a walking pace rather than a running one. Those two hours on the streets will burn about six hundred calories, while an hour and a half in the gym consumes as much as fifteen hundred.

This wouldn’t be a big deal if I was maintaining a regular caloric deficit, and still losing weight, however slowly. Unfortunately, I’m at the point where the line I’m dancing around, weight-wise, is two-fifteen as opposed to two-ten. It’s not a tremendous setback or anything, but the fact that I’ve gotten further in these efforts than I’m at now is rather discouraging, to say the least. I should be burning more than I am (as well as consuming less, to be sure, but in either case, I wind up hungry after putting in the effort, so that proves to be easier said than done)

So what? you might respond, don’t you have all the time in the world? Why not do both? Well, it’s not as easy as all that, honey. After a certain length of time at whatever exertion I put myself through, I’m tired. If I hit the gym first thing in the morning, once I’m home and washed up afterward, I’m in no mood to put in another hour of walking to get across town. Likewise, even though I walk past the place on my way to and from the house, I’d rather not work up so much of a sweat before showing up at the ‘office’ or returning home from it. In either case, that’s more effort than I think I can bring myself to bear for a single day at this point.

So for now, I’m left with an either/or decision regarding what and how much exercise to do, honey. Since I’m wanting to get into the ‘office’ (and I think Daniel wants his car back), that probably means I’m just going to walk across town, and hope for the best. Maybe, depending on what I weigh in at come next morning, I’ll make more of a point to just put in my time on the treadmill then.

In either case, honey, keep an eye on me, and wish me luck. I’m going to need it.