Dinglefoot's Walking Home From Work Diary

dinglefoot

Hi, I thought I might start a walking to work diary on here.
On a working day I normally get the bus to either my parent's house (£1.20) or home (£3.70). So at the moment I'm probably spending around £400 a year on travelling home from work.
We're trying to save money to get married, but it's so difficult when you only just get enough money each month to pay all the bills etc. so it's going to be a case of really trying to cut down in as many areas as we can. I have lots of clothes that I probably haven't worn in ages so I can probably make a little bit of money by ebaying those.

I feel like I'm getting a little bit fat round the middle, but can't afford to join a gym, so I thought maybe I could kill two birds with one stone and and start trying to walk more. I tried to start doing this more the other month, but then snowy weather took hold and every time I walked home I felt like I'd had botox by the time I got in because my face was so cold, tight and numb from the cold and my ears were extremely painful. I also get tempted to just hop on a bus because I'm constantly tired, especially after work finishes. But maybe, just maybe, if I got more exercise I'd feel less tired.

So I figured, if I write about it on here then it gives me more of a push to walk home and I can document how much money I'm saving...and hopefully I won't spend it on other things! Hopefully this will give me more change to put in my pot for the sealed pot challenge and leave me with more money left in the bank at the end of the month.

dinglefoot

This evening I felt very tired and had a headache. But I made myself walk home and I've downloaded an app that gives me stats about distance, average speed and calories burned etc which will give me more motivation.
So I have saved £1.20 today. Yay!

salesaddict

Hello

That's a good idea. I wish you luck with keeping it up long term and saving that £400. I'm thinking about doing this but only once the weather is warmer. I can't bear the Gym but I love to walk. The trouble is I would have to walk along very busy dirty roads from my house to the station. Do you have a nice area to walk in?

geri1965_2

I walk to work & back in winter, from October - March. It's 2.2 miles each way and takes me about 45 minutes.

How far is your walk?

I find a decent pair of walking shoes to be worth the investment, and an MP3 player to listen to music on, to relieve the boredom. I also find that I get quite hot so prefer a coat that doesn't make me sweat too much.

dinglefoot

salesaddict wrote: »

Hello

That's a good idea. I wish you luck with keeping it up long term and saving that £400. I'm thinking about doing this but only once the weather is warmer. I can't bear the Gym but I love to walk. The trouble is I would have to walk along very busy dirty roads from my house to the station. Do you have a nice area to walk in?

Thank you If I walk home to my parent's house it takes about 20 minutes and I get my OH to pick me up from there as diesel is cheaper that bus fares, it'd probably take me well over an hour to walk home.
I've thought about a gym, but the idea of running on the spot with nothing interesting doesn't really appeal to me when you can walk/run outside and have slightly different scenery to look at all day.
Unfortunately I don't have a nice area to walk in. Sometimes by the time I get back to my parent's house my nose feels painful from breathing in the fumes from the main road, but perhaps that's my imagination
I'm definitely looking forward to having warmer weather to walk in. I don't really like walking around with my heavy winter coat on, yet I still need it in this current weather.

geri1965 wrote: »

I walk to work & back in winter, from October - March. It's 2.2 miles each way and takes me about 45 minutes.

How far is your walk?

I find a decent pair of walking shoes to be worth the investment, and an MP3 player to listen to music on, to relieve the boredom. I also find that I get quite hot so prefer a coat that doesn't make me sweat too much.

Do you find it fine walking to and from work every day? I don't know if I'm just lazy or tired I feel tired all the time lately, but I think there's health issues going on with that...possibly the low iron levels that showed up in my blood test the other week?
It's about 1.25 miles I think. I bought a pair of trainers last year that I find quite good for walking in. They've got good arch support and they have a slightly rocking sort of sole to them which means your legs work harder and get toned from it.
I agree that music is definitely the key to not being bored, in fact listening to music kind of gives me motivation to walk home because it's something I really enjoy but I don't really get the chance to listen to music once I get home.

Fire_Fox

Well done you! That will really help towards your target of 10,000 steps each day, will your phone measure steps too? You might find recording that motivating. An hour's walk is about three miles/ 5K, you could work towards doing all of that some days if you do start adding in jogging, could get to half an hour eventually (10 minute mile/ six miles per hour). There are some great 0-5k podcasts out there.

Iron levels will definitely affect your energy, as do numerous other nutrients. Being active can help with energy levels once you get the iron sorted.

flissh

Low iron will def make you feel tired. Are you taking supplements to boost your iron levels?

Keep at it. As you get fitter it will get easier. Why not take the bus on some days and walk on others, and try to reduce the bus days slowly.

coldstreamalways

If you take iron supplements, don't forget to make sure you have enough vit C as it helps with iron absorption. You sound like you've got your head screwed on. I'm supposed to get on/off the tube at Piccadilly and have a 20min walk to work but I've found myself getting off at Victoria and having a 5min walk. Once things get back to normal (dog sitting at present) I will be keeping up with your thread to inspire myself!

dinglefoot

I'm busy this evening, so just popping in briefly
Thank you for all your comments, it's great motivation I'm not taking any supplements at the moment, but think I may well need to! I'm vegetarian, so I need to try to work out how to balance my nutrients better...and being female doesn't help with iron levels either!
I was a lot quicker today. Yesterday it took me 21 minutes 22 seconds and today it took me 14 minutes 46 seconds. Hooray!
It doesn't count steps I don't think, but it shows you the route you walked and shows how fast you were along the route which is quite interesting

Saved £2.40 so far by doing this

dinglefoot

I walked a bit further this evening, double the distance that I walk to my parent's house, as I walked to my Nan's house instead.
The bus to there costs about £2.30 I think.
So so far this week I've probably walked 5 miles more than I usually would, and saved £4.70

Fire_Fox

Start with the official healthy eating guidelines and then improve on those, there is a version for vegetarians. Also great advice on vegetarian and vegan charity/ society websites.
http://www.vegsoc.org/health/
http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Vegetarianhealth/Pages/Vegetarianmealguide.aspx

Eat wholefoods and limit processed stuff, some veggies can get into eating 'fake meat' - actually many veggie burgers and whatnot are mostly cheap starchy processed carbs, they are not a substitute for meat or fish nutritionally. Or they replace meat with mushrooms or aubergine, healthy and with texture but not a sub for meat or fish - better subs are a mix of cheese, eggs, nuts and seeds.

Plant iron is not as well absorbed as haem iron so you may need more. With iron food combining is important, not just vitamin C (supports absorption) but also calcium and tea/ coffee (inhibit absorption). You may need a supplement if your GP recommends it. Also ask your GP about a marine algae extract supplement for long chain omega-3s, you will struggle getting enough/ the right balance with omega-6s to be healthy from seeds and seed oils (short chain, low conversion so need loads).
http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-000119000000000000000-w.html
http://www.opti3omega.com/

Unless you have a very heavy cycle it's not simply being female that is the problem, you aren't losing anything like the blood volume you'd lose from donating blood and a healthy body copes with that fine. It's more likely what you are eating or what you are absorbing. Sometimes a heavy cycle can be a sign of hormone imbalances which again can link to nutrient deficiencies or imbalances.