Biggest Winners Journal: Running outside is more rewarding, less repetitive

Amanda Price / guest columnist

Week six

This week started off slow. I gained one pound back from last week and I was not very happy so I kicked up my exercising to try and make up in the next weigh in. I am now running two miles each morning to jump-start my day.

I have found that running outside is more rewarding to me. I think it’s because I don’t like to run inside because of the repetition of it all. If you run outside you can change your course and see things as you are running. For me it helps the time pass. Starting this week I am going to start to increase my distance little by little to get to the 5k mark so when we do the Sound to Narrows it isn’t such a butt-kicker. I think I will meet my goal of under 30 minutes.

This weekend we are taking a family trip to Ocean Shores so I am going to do some beach running. I heard it is good resistance training and not really hard impact on the knees. I guess we’ll see.

I also found an awesome Web site called sparkpeople.com. It is a meal journal Web site and you can track your exercise there, too. All you have to do is type in what you ate and it adds it to your journal with all the nutritional information needed. And then at the end of the day it shows in a pie chart of how your day was. I find it much easier than trying to write everything down and calculate it all at the end of the day. It keeps a running total so you can see if you are within your caloric goal. We didn’t have group nutrition class this week so we don’t have weigh in. Hopefully next week will show some good progress.

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Keep a lookout Amanda Price is participating in the Pierce County Biggest Winners contest. Each week she will write about her weight loss journey and give a tip for readers.

Tip for readers

Change your exercise routine every once and a while to keep your body working. If you are doing the same exercise day in and day out your body gets used to it and you get bored and aren’t excited to go. If you keep things spiced up you will lose more and stay interested in the exercise you are doing.