getting back in shape

I used to have winter as my biggest excuse for such a low fitness level, but now the sun is shining in all its glory and I cannot escape anymore. So for the past ten days I have been clocking one hour of "brisk" walk everyday. I did some googling about how many calories I would burn and what is the best way to go about this exercise business when I remembered about the 10,000 steps a day program that one of my friends had spoken about as a doctor-suggested cure for his back-aches. I found a lot of good material about this program on the net.
to give you some statistics:
The physical activity of adults can be classified into

Under 5000 steps/day ---- "sedentary lifestyle index"
5,000-7,499 steps/day (daily activity excluding sports/exercise)--- "low active."
7,500-9,999 (likely includes some exercise or walking and/or a job that requires more walking) ----"somewhat active."
10,000 steps/day indicates the point that should be used to classify individuals as "active"
More than 12,500 steps/day ---highly active

And so I ordered myself a pedometer and today was the first day I used it.
I so love all the statistics!!
so far: 9683 steps ( I am hoping to touch 10500 by EOD)
8901 aerobic steps for a 76 minute walk :)
479 calories (boy!! )
and 5.5 miles
So that is today's achievement. Hopefully I don't fall out of love with my pedometer and I keep this up and get back in shape in a month's time. Let's see.

happy being vegetarian

Am so happy to be a vegetarian and I am happy that I was born one and just had to hang on there with conscious choice of being one always. I did not have to give up much.
I would have been happier if I was born a vegan but then I wouldn't be able to eat even my favorite breakfast cereal. It is something I am going to start working on- so from today, I plan to atleast reduce the consumption of milk.

The simple act of denying animal products for ethical/ compassionate reasons puts us (me and hubby) in a corner whenever we step out of my house. We cannot go to any and every restaurant and grab a bite- we end up asking a hundred questions to the poor guy who serves us about the content of the food. We cannot go camping and set a grill or go fishing or have a bbq at home. We see each and every food label to check if it contains animal products and yet we do consume bleached sugar and cannot let go of pastries. I don't know how many times my screening has slipped and we have ended up eating gelatin filled curd or used a body lotion with animal fat.

We watched Fast Food Nation yesterday - many of the scenes nearly made me throw up and I kept wondering how people still eat the food they do and especially Fast food . You know that they are adding all sorts of chemicals to get the smell and flavor , then there is a good portion of animal faeces that conveniently gets mixed up in your food and it all comess with such low nutritional value. Why do you want to consume it?
If I make a side dish, keep it frozen for a week and take it out - it tastes like mud -but if you buy frozen entrees and microwave them, they taste just as good as newly made. Why is that and How's that? Why do Mc D's fries taste so good? The answer is so simple and is in fromnt of you-the "Flavor industry" and the Flavorists . We are not ignorant, we all have some information about it or are atleast know that something is wrong here and yet we keep doing the same things over and over again. We know about obesity and under-paid, exploited employees and all about the innocent animals getting chopped in the most inhuman way. Then Why?
well,that's my two pennies worth.