<p>Idad - How does Mrs. Idad feel about your new interest in getting healthy? Is she working on it, also? </p>
<p>My hubby goes to the YMCA with me, and eats all of the same foods at home, etc. However, he has a hard time because of all of the food at work with customer meetings, etc.</p>
<p>exercised but cheated big time on dinner. H and D left for a last minute trip to Disneyland and instead of eating at home I picked up a chili colorado burrito. My reasoning was I would have half tonight and half tomorrow. Ate the whole thing and half the fresh chips they put in the bag.Blaming it on that time of the month.</p>
<p>Well, better to cheat and have exercised…</p>
<p>I think Mrs. I-Dad is happy that I’m watching calories and cooking lighter and trying to help keep “fat food” out of our kitchen.</p>
<p>I’m eating birthday cake at my house, but calorie-wise according to livestrong site I’m still well within the numbers for losing weight.</p>
<p>mom60:</p>
<p>That’s not that horrible. There are lots worse dinners than a burrito.</p>
<p>mathmom:</p>
<p>I was surprised to see that cake wasn’t really all that horrible as far as high calorie treats go. Some things are deceptive. Like a plain Dunkin Donuts bagel and a huge Dunkin Donuts sugar glazed coffee roll are both the same: 370 calories. Not much nutritional value, but I could wolf down either of those options for lunch and be a happy camper.</p>
<p>Now, Pringles are a different story. I held a cannister in my hand at the grocery store last night. 150 calories for 16 chips. And I know I would eat 16 and 16 more and 16 more after that. Pretty soon you are talking about real calories. I put them back on the shelf.</p>
<p>I’ve been tracking calories at livestrong for a few days. I’ve been right at the “losing 2 pounds a week” level counting zero exercise. I have no idea how many more calories I burn exercising. Every list I see is wildly different.</p>
<p>I felt the love last night. Went out with girlfriends who had not seen me since I started getting healthy. They were complimenting me and making me feel pretty. </p>
<p>And, guess what? I was not in a “Womens Size”. Not in any size that had an “X” beside the number. Felt super good.</p>
<p>eddie, fantastic. I wish you were my neighbor so we could exercise together. And i-dad, if I was going to eat a bad food it wouldn’t be Pringles! Good job on putting those back on the shelf. </p>
<p>My weakness is definitely carbs. I just cannot even go in any type of place that sells bakery items. I just can’t say no. When I go to the grocery I have to avoid the “fresh donut” area- that was always my weak place.</p>
<p>eddie…that’s fantastic. I remember when I lost weight many years ago. I got so many different comments…most of them real nice. But some would ask if everything was all right with my health!</p>
<p>I actually feel OK after my training session yesterday…although didn’t feel that great DURING it. This lady really pushes…I guess that’s OK. Lots of aerobic stuff in the session…hope I burned calories!</p>
<p>For those who miss carbs, need a fix, and have a Wegmans nearby, I DO have a suggestion. I mentioned them before but they sound like a sugar cereal, so I’ll try again. Wegs does handmade corn/rice “thingies”…pops them right out of a machine on-site and encourages tastings. Well, they don’t taste like much, but they’re the size of a small tortilla, crunchy, and only 16 CALORIES each. I like em with a small bit of all-fruit jam, or pb or hummus. Great for snacks. Nothing nasty in them (unlike Pringles!). They’re called…CO CO POPS (lol). Just discovered them and have to keep them away from DH or they’re gone in a day!</p>
<p>Have been lurking and not doing well but have exercised for an hour two days in a row! Yay! My knee is still swollen from my Oct. surgery but feels ok on the bike and treadmill. Tried the elliptical today since everyone said it would be good for me but only lasted 8 minutes as it HURT my knee. What’s up with that???</p>
<p>mousegray,
“Quote:
I am doing nothing, just had piece of cake, was not even good tasting, still finished. However, 10 miles yesterday + gym and planning to do the same today.<br>
MiamiDAP, you make it sound like you sit around eating fruit, chocolate, cake, sipping cognac but 10 miles is NOT doing nothing! I assumed you meant walking 10 miles.”</p>
<p>By nothing I meant nothing special, sorry for confusion. No, I do not have time to walk 10 miles, I rollerbladed 6.5 and walked with my H. 3.5. However, yesterday and today is too hot, over 70. So, gym is for sure, but the rest I am not so sure. I did my rollerblading yesterday (was about 75) and got totally wiped by heat, could not do anything else. But, yes, I eat constantly and it is mostly fruits, chocolate and lots of honey and a little bit something else in between. I do sit a lot, at work and at home, unfortunately, so exersice is essential and I choose activities that I truly enjoy. Weight is going down, surprizingly so, I do not understand, but it makes me happy.
Best wishes to everyone preparing his/her body for summer fun!</p>
<p>Minnesota:</p>
<p>I sure don’t want to give physical therapy advice on rehabbing from knee surgery. Generally speaking, the exercise bike will be easier on the knee than either the treadmill or the ellipitical because the knee is no supporting your entire body weight. So you can get the flexibility motion that the therapists want without putting as much weight on the knee during exercise. What you need at what stage of rehab is a question for the docs.</p>
<p>For example, after my wife’s broken wrist surgery, they wanted her to do flexibility exercises with light weights to regain the range of motion so she was doing a lot o wrist curls with 2 pound weights, and squeezing hand exercisers, and stuff. They didn’t want her lifting heavy stuff at all early on.</p>
<p>As I understand it, the big issue with knee rehab is also restoring flexibility. I’m just guessing that the bike is probably ideal. Six months after surgery, I doubt they would limit you on any of those machines, although there are some knee issues that are always going to be chronically a problem with the pounding of running.</p>
<p>You might ask if your gym has any Schwinn Airdynes. It’s a standard piece of gym equipment. An exercise bike with arm motion similar to an elliptical. It will work your entire body, hard.</p>
<hr>
<p>BTW, an hour a day on any of these machines is a LOT for a newbie exerciser. I sure couldn’t have done it starting out. You must be doing pretty darn well!</p>
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<p>Rollerblading is intense aerobic exercise, probably one of the best workouts you can do. It’s got legs, arms, core, coordination, balance.</p>
<p>Just be sure to wear the wrist protection! I watched my wife go through a broken wrist with surgery to get a plate installed last year. That should be avoided at ALL costs.</p>
<p>The surgeon did five of them in our small town from the same icy morning. People slipped on the ice, put their hand out to break the fall (it’s just instinct) and, boom, broken wrist.</p>
<p>idad…I am an out-of-shape, overweight 50’s plus mom who walks but doesn’t do much else. The bike and treadmill (at a slow 3.5 mph pace) is good for me to do. I sweat but keep my heart rate at about 65-75%. I am hoping to stay the same amount of time but increase speed and not have my heart rate jump too high! I do lift light weights or use the machines but not consistently at all. My goal is to be able to walk as quickly and as far as my friends without slowing them done and still be able to breathe! That won’t happen unless I drop the weight (which will also be better for my knee!)! We’ll see! And yes, I do need to see the surgeon soon as this old knee is still quite swollen. I hate getting old!</p>
<p>One of the things I’ve been doing is religiously going to the gym Tuesday night, Friday night, and Sunday afternoon. If I can’t make it one day, I move it to another day – but I do make it three times a week, 50 weeks out of the year.</p>
<p>NorthMinn…I’ve had knee problems so I’ll share what I know…although everyone is different. When my knee pain was acute, I hated the eliptical, even though the PT guys said I should do it. Made my knee hurt! So I stuck with the bike. </p>
<p>Now, after a couple of years of yoga, my knee is OK (although I have to watch it…running makes it go back it time!). Anyway, over this dreadful winter, I was forced to use the gym machines to get exercise. I did 10 on the bike (at high resistance fast pace), 10-15 on the treadmill (close to 4mph). And 10-15 on the eliptical. Then some core exercises and stretching. It took me quite a while to work up to that on the eliptical. It is the hardest of the three IMO - really gets your blood moving! I go backwards and it doesn’t aggravate my knee. You might try that…but start slow. I did only 5 minutes to start and then built up over time. Good luck!</p>
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<p>Hell, I’m just trying to walk to the mailbox and back without getting winded! I hear ya. I doubt there was anyone here in worse cardiovascular fitness than I was. I was a 35+ year smoker, overweight, and completely sedentary.</p>
<p>I have been told by a number of people while shopping for an exercise machine that ellipticals really aren’t very good for newbies. They are tough. My wife, who is a regular gym rat, says she hates the ellipticals. I don’t know why.</p>
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<p>Check out some intervals on the bike or the treadmill. Start out after you are warmed up – say the second five minutes on the bike or treadmill. Go 10 or 15 seconds fast and then the rest of the minute (50 or 45 seconds) back at a slow pace. Repeat on the minute for five minutes. My standard 25 minutes on the bike is:</p>
<p>5 minutes warm up
5 minutes intervals
5 minutes easy recovery
5 minutes intervals
5 minutes easy cool down</p>
<p>What happens is that the intervals spike your heartrate but the recovery periods let us recover, bring the heartrate down, etc. As you get more fit, you can either extend the length of the “go hard” versus “easy” intervals or “go harder” during the short bursts. There are a million combinations.</p>
<p>It makes the whole thing much less boring and makes the workout much more effective. By raising the intensity, your metabolism (calorie burning) is increased for as much as 16 hours after the workout. That has huge weight loss implications. The spikes in breathing and heartrate during the “go hard” intervals are what ultimately improves our fitness and breathing capacity. It’s great for us couch potatoes because it gives us a bite at the intensity apple even before we can hop on a treadmill or bike and go hard for minutes at a time.</p>
<p>Of course, I could keel over tomorrow, but I’ve not seen any problem with spiking my heart rate up. 65% - 75% is sort of my steady state walking or exercise bike heartrate now, but it spikes to mid 80% or even 90% during intervals on the bike pedalling as hard as I can pedal or during a few exercises in my workout. It can’t stay there for long because that only happens at all out anaerobic effort and I’m panting like a dog. That’s when I have to hit the pause button for an extra minute or two to recover. One of the measures of fitness is how quickly your heartrate falls after a burst like that. I’ve seen a big improvement in just six weeks.</p>
<p>Hey idad, you sound like you’re doing just great. </p>
<p>One warning about intervals though…and it’s related to the knee! I tried these last winter on the treadmill. For me, I really felt I needed to run to pick up my intensity since I was walking (with arms swinging!) at 4 mph. So I tried running in 1-2 minute bursts. 5-6 mph. Felt great. Until my knee started yelling at me - big time. So, maybe that race walking stuff would work but I felt like I was walking as fast as I could! </p>
<p>Anyway, it’s much easier to do those intervals on a bike. H and I do them when we’re out together on the trails. We bust for a few minutes…flying like the wind…and then slow down to normal (still fast) pace. Hills do the same thing. Can’t wait to go out this weekend…sunny and EIGHTY DEGREES. Cool. </p>
<p>These posts are a nice break from doing my taxes…ack. Took them over from my accountant this year. WHY?</p>
<p>I need to get back on track. Didn’t go to the Y all week. Think I will take a 2 mile walk this morning. It’s a beautiful, sunny day.</p>
<p>I’m on track for my hardest exercise week so far. Today’s week-ending iPod workout will make six days in a row for me. Probably one too many as I was really feeling it last night.</p>
<p>I did my 1.6 mile hilly walk yesterday. Down hill from my house, back up to the top of the next hill and then steeply downhill to the river. The second and fourth quarter miles start up short hills steep enough that they are uncomfortable to walk down, then continue up long grades for the rest of the quarter mile. I did it six minutes faster than Sunday, but I probably started too fast as the hill up from the river to start the return leg kicked my butt. I marched up it at the same pace. I used the short-step technique, but the hill is so steep it requires almost high-stepping to keep a pace up. I had to stop for a one-minute recovery at the top (heart rate=92%, with a quarter mile uphill grade to go). </p>
<p>The hills are brutal carrying the extra equivalent weight of a bag of fertilizer with me. I guess the way to make them a little easier is to keep walking them!</p>
<p>I like this mix of iPod circuits, bike intervals, and hill walking. All three are very different kinds of exercise and I feel like I’ve worked every muscle group in my body by the end of the week.</p>