Exercise: More on my Blood Type Diet

I am not the athletic type.  Sure, I love to ride my skateboard, bike around town, and walk to Disneyland from the parking structure as opposed to take the tram, but that was about the extent of my physical activity.  Now, I have added Runyon Canyon into the mix.

Runyon at night

Last year, I had a stretch where I was going early in the mornings before work and it was really working.  I think I had lost about 15 lbs but I still wasn't eating right and after Suzi stopped working early-mornings, it was easy to stop justifying the trip up there.  Now, Suzi goes more that I do and I go to try to play catch-up.

This is still the extent of my entire exercise.  I go up the "hard side" and down the paved road about 50% of the time and that usually takes about 40 minutes.  But the other 50% of the time, I am doing what Suzi and I call the "figure-eight."  This is the full 75 minute routine and we rarely stop for more than 10 seconds to catch our breaths.  If it's cool enough, we will jog/run in the flat portions but for the most part, we casually walk it -- and believe me, for the full 75 minute tour, it's smarter to do it that way.

We try to bring plenty of water for the both of us as well as water for the dogs if they come along.  Parking is usually a task but we have our spots to check which 99.9% of the time work out in our favor.  We start from the Hollywood side and work our way up to Mulholland, back around the "Scream 3" house and down the paved road.  Then it's back up the "stairs" path to the bench up top and back down the paved road.

This taxing but beautiful walk is one of the key factors to my recent weight-loss plan and along with eating right, seems to be working out swimmingly.  As of today, I have reached my <220 goal landing softly at 217.6 this morning and still shrinking.  I cannot tell you how life-changing this diet has been.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, the fact that it's working is motivation-enough to keep going.

A view of Runyon during the day.

Give Runyon a try, if you haven't already.  There's parking up top for you valley-kids off of Mulholland (about 1 mile east of Laurel Canyon) or down below on Franklin in Hollywood.  And give the "hard side" a try.  It's really really rewarding when you reach the top!