It's funny, the different answers you get when you ask more than one person their opinion on the same question.  I asked Boss and Coworker what they thought was most important when walking for exercise - distance covered, time spent walking, or average speed.  Boss said he thinks the distance is the most important and Coworker said the average speed, since you can walk a mile really slow and barely raise your heart rate, but if you walk it faster, you get more benefit.  I had always heard that if you spend 20 minutes doing aerobic exercise three times a week, that is really good, which suggests the amount of time spent exercising is the important part.  I still don't know, but I've been tracking all three.

Of course, there is also that other component that's important: consistency.  I'm trying to work on that.  I'm seeing more and more clearly, though, that chronic fatigue is something real, and it's not just me making excuses.  One day, I can feel like if I take one more step I'll just collapse walking across the room, and the next day I almost have a suggestion of a bounce to my step.  There are in-betweens to those extremes, of course, but the switch happens without regard to what I ate, how recently or how much I've exercised, or how much I've slept.  It just seems to happen.  For no good reason.  I'm sure there is one, but I don't know what it is.

Now that I know that, I may need to add an exception to my "always do better than last time" thing I've been trying to do.  Actually, it has applied to my distance.  Unfortunately not my average speed.  But, at the speeds I've been going, I'm able to get my heart rate up to cardio level, and afterwards I feel very, very good.  I relax much better and I get a boost of the right brain chemicals to help combat depression.  I still don't feel energetic; in fact, after walking I could curl up and go to sleep and it would feel like heaven, but it's causing other benefits that are still worth it, and maybe it just takes awhile, and maybe it depends on that consistency thing.

So, up to now (Starting at the end of October), I've made a point to walk just a little further than I did the time before.  I made a pretty big jump today: from 1.8 last time to 2.15.  I know that probably sounds laughable to someone who is in good shape, but I'm still very pleased with my progress.  I'm twice the weight I should be, and I'm carrying around the weight of two healthy-sized people on a frame meant for just one of those people, so that isn't bad at all, I think.  And hopefully it will give me something to shake my head at in a year or so, when I can look back and see where I started.

The thing is, when I have those awful days (and I have them way too often) when just putting one foot in front of the other to get from place to place feels like all the work I can do, I don't go to the gym because I know there is no way I'll better my distance from the time before.  I need to allow myself to just do what I can on those days, with, say, a minimum of 20 or 25 minutes and a cardio-range heart rate, and leave the "always do better than last time" thing for my better days.  Of course, until I also improve my speed, I could be adding more and more time to my walking until I'm there for an hour and a half just to add another tenth of a mile, so I have to draw the line somewhere on that, too.  So, I'm going to walk for 45 minutes each time on my good days, and attempt to increase my speed over time.  I think speed will come with weight loss.  It makes sense to me, anyway, to think that the less I'm carrying, the faster I will go.

Oh yeah, and since I watch TV while I walk, I've been challenging myself a little bit by speeding up by .01 mph during the commercials, for a little extra boost.  It amazes me how much a little .01 increase can boost the heart rate, and then how much easier the previous speed feels when you go back to it.

Anyway.  That's that.

I made a chart I'll be keeping at the bottom of most of my entries, to track my progress: