<p>I tried those BeFit programs today and yesterday. Even with some 20 minute short sessions, I’m definitely starting to feel a little sore. Good gosh I am out of shape! I used to be able to run miles a day and then go to basketball practice without any difficulty. And that was only a few years ago! (Ok… wow I guess like 6 years now… eek!)</p>
<p>roman…</p>
<p>The BeFit program that popped up when I went to their YouTube page just now is BRUTALLY demanding from a conditioning standpoint. Doing 30 seconds of a full body exercise like lunges with a twist followed by 30 seconds of high knees is going to get anyone panting like a dog. Those are examples of what A. Cosgrove calls “metabolic conditioning” – using bodyweight or strength exercises as cardio intervals. 20 minutes of that is a lot.</p>
<p>A small change that would help a lot would be to take 30 seconds rest between each of the two exercises in a set. So, do 30 seconds of lunges with a twist (which is an advanced exercise), then 30 seconds of rest, then 30 seconds of high knees. Even that will be really hard. </p>
<p>I find that many internet fitness videos go at an unrealistic pace.</p>
<p>You might even need to turn the lunges into a simple stationary split squat: just stay in one place and go up and down (without stepping forward). That’s probably a better exercise until you have mastered the split squat.</p>
<p>[Ab</a> Power Workout 3: Tone Up | 30 DAY 6 PACK ABS - YouTube](<a href=“Ab Power Workout 3: Tone Up | 30 DAY 6 PACK ABS - YouTube”>Ab Power Workout 3: Tone Up | 30 DAY 6 PACK ABS - YouTube)</p>
<p>Interesteddad, interesting on the jumping.</p>
<p>So? How far can you broad jump now? How far can you hop? :)</p>
<p>I was practising today. I kind of lost a few feet. :)</p>
<p>dstark,
We have the thing to measure blood sugar at home and I have done it pretty regularly in a past, but not most recently. All on my mother’s side and all on my FIL side have died of diabetese and both my H. and my younger Bro already have it while I do not.<br>
So, in regard to your question, “How did you take control of your own blood sugar?” I rely on my personal experience, not on any kind of reading. I do not know if it is applicable to everybody or just to families that have this condition as part of their genetic make up. My answer is WEIGHT CONTROL. My own sugar goes up and down with my weight. Please, keep in mind that I exercise for about 2 hours (±) every day, including vacations, I am also a person who tend to move very fast and have hard time sitting down for long periods. From my personal experience, large amounts of sweets and grossly huge amount of fruit that I consume on a relatively regular basis have absolutely nothing to do with MY blood sugar level. I know that at some point of time I will get a desease, it is inevitable, there is no single person in my mother’s family who does not, it is the fact of our lives and the same goes for my H’s family on his father side. We all tend to accumulate our fat in a belly area, this is an indication. Even if you are overweight, but not so much in your stomach, then your blood sugar is most likely to be at normal level.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP–you are an educated person and should think about this a little.</p>
<p>Just because you cannot SEE your liver does not mean it is not being damaged from having to deal with large amounts of sugar you say you consume.</p>
<p>If you think you are genetically destined to get a disease, why not do everything you can to delay it?</p>
<p>I have a family history of diabetes as well. My father died relatively young - his health problems were discovered over a Christmas holiday when his blood sugar soared to over 400. Needless to say, he was hospitalized. Dad exercised every single day, checked his blood glucose religiously and ate accordingly. He had been a smoker, but had stopped over 20 years before his death. He ultimately died of complications from aggressive prostate cancer and diabetes. I don’t want to die when I’m 65; I have way too much to look forward to! So you can bet I am doing everything possible to delay it.</p>
<p>Hey sabaray! Thanks for starting this thread! :)</p>
<p>Hey NM! I think we all owe thanks to idad for keeping it going! And for providing us with a lot of really great information on exercise and nutrition! I need to hang out here more!</p>
<p>"If you think you are genetically destined to get a disease, why not do everything you can to delay it? "
-I do everything based on my personal experience. My personal experience is telling me to exercise much more than average person and to maintain my weight. It also tells me that sugar consumption has nothing to do with MY blood sugar level, which sometime I have measured very soon AFTER eating and actually having some aweets, and that is a wrong procedure as sugar level is much higher. According to my H’s doc. you have to wait for at least 2 hours and better longer after you eat to measure your sugar.<br>
Again, others might be affected by other factors, for me, exercise and weight are 2 that I have to watch. I am already older than my mother when she died of diabetese, so every year is a bonus, I will make sure to enjoy all my bonuses.</p>
<p>^^ personal experience = magical thinking</p>
<p>MiamiDAP, did your family members exercise 2 hours a day?</p>
<p>My mom has diabetes2. So far, she doesn’t need insulin shots. She is also 100 pounds overweight. My dad has diabetes2. But he just got it. He is 85. It is under control. He lost weight. No insulin shots for him.</p>
<p>I like chocolate. I like sugar. So far, my numbers are good. All my blood numbers are very good. So, I don’t think I ruined myself. And now that my weight is down and I am also exercising at least 2 hours a day, we will see.</p>
<p>I went to bed and woke up today down 29 pounds. I weigh 151 right
now. I am only 4 pounds from a 29 year low. I am not big anywhere. Lol</p>
<p>I did this eating chocolate and sugar, but I did cut juice to almost zero and I am not going to drink much of that grapefruit drink. Maybe,
I will drink it rarely. I don’t drink any sodas except for a martinellis once
every few months. </p>
<p>My soda intake is very low. i don’t eat fast food much. A handful of times a year, and it is In and Out.
I did just learn that a lot of Chinese food served in restaurants has a lot of calories. I guess I am going to cut that. I like salads like
Interesteddad, and I don’t like fattening dressings, or sour cream. I don’t add butter to bread or baked potatoes or much of anything. I don’t add salt to anything.</p>
<p>One of the athletic trainers here in town, in conjunction with a local (not chain) running store, got the idea of holding a run on Saturday (not a race) for healing and fund-raising for the CT community that is suffering after the shooting last week. They offered up 4 6 1/2 mile loops and you can go as far as you want, including 26 miles. It’s called 26 4 26 to represent the 26 children and adults who were killed. He was hoping to get 26 runners or maybe even up to 50. Everyone is asked to donate a dollar a mile that they run and someone anonymously has matched all the donations. Anyway, my daughter and I decided it would be a healing thing to do and get a supported 13 mile run in. The thing is amazing. It is approaching 500 runners and may have to move for staging at the Titans stadium lot! I am so proud of our running community and glad to be able to participate in this.</p>
<p>That is great MomofWildChild.</p>
<p>sewhappy–the problem with adding desserts to your diet is it is in addition to other sugars already present…in fruit, milk, and anything else that tastes sweet. Sugar (generally in the form of high fructose corn syrup) is also added to ketchup, salad dressing, teriyaki sauce, sweet/sour sauce, etc. etc. etc.</p>
<p>It’s hard this time of year when everyone is urging you to sample their special Christmas cookies or whatever…that’s why I don’t have dessert every day during the year. Save it for special occasions (and no DH that’s not every time you eat out!) LOL</p>
Done wrapping presents…heading out to the gym.
I’ll have to go longer on the elliptical today to account for the two little Twix bars that did not make it into my DD’s stocking. Sigh.
<p>“MiamiDAP, did your family members exercise 2 hours a day?”
-no, zero hours.
"So far, my numbers are good. All my blood numbers are very good. " - And the same is applicable to me, except the HDL is way higher than the normal range, so it was showing in “abnormal” column and I also had a bit of the argument with the nurse who said that my BP is low, I told her that it was not for me, 102 was normal for me, considering that swimming lowers it for about 20 points and I got measurement right after I swam.<br>
“My soda intake is very low. i don’t eat fast food much.” - Both zero for me, the taste is pretty disgusting, I rather eat lemons than either of these.
Not big fan of Chinese either.
We go out very few times / year and usually I have sushi. Nothing else taste as good.
The exception is vacation - already looking forward. I am tuffing myself up to the point that I had hard time walking after my food. Everything is soooo yumm. So 2 -3 hours of exercise (or more, depending how you look at ping pong and snorkeling and various little walks here and there)cannot possibly take care of the amount of calories being consumed, but the weight goes down when we are back and I eat my regular food.
Lots of bragging here, what else we have left in our lives? We should enjoy while it lasts and brag about it.</p>
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<p>I’ve had to shelve two of my favorite Asian recipes: General Tsao’s Chicken and Thai Phad Thai. The General Tsao’s starts with a batter of corn starch and egg for deep frying and ends with a huge amount of sugar in the sauce. The Phad Thai is straight carbs with the noodles and also has a lot of sugar in the sauce. On the other hand, straight Asian stir fry dishes are great. Just meat and a ton of veggies. Rather than serve them with rice, I have them over a bed of stir-fried broccoli. </p>
<p>Thanks for reminding me. I do believe a stir fry might have to be on the menu for this week! Maybe Kung Pao Chicken…</p>
<p>Let us know how you make your Kung Pao chicken. That’s one of my favorites.</p>
<p>My problem with Chinese food in restaurants (or Indian, or most other prepared foods actually) is the high salt content. My H is supposed to be limiting his salt intake, and I KNOW a trip through the Indian or Chinese buffet line overtops his salt intake for the day. </p>
<p>Ditto for most prepared meals you buy vacuum packed or frozen. I am a label reader, and often things look good, nutritious, organic, and so forth…but the salt level is unacceptably high.</p>
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<p>Ha. I’ve not tried broad jumping, but I’m afraid it might be measured in inches, not feet.</p>
<p>As for one-leg hopping, the warm-up drill I was doing last year called for hopping on one leg forward and back over an imaginary line. I couldn’t do it. It hurt my knees on the landing and I was falling all over the place. I backed up and just worked on a single leg hop up and down in one place, which is a lot harder than it sounds! That’s when I realized that I would benefit from committing to working on the [single</a> leg squat](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=A2xfz7_od94]single”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=A2xfz7_od94). I should try the one-leg hopping again. I’m probably better at it now.</p>
<p>BTW, while I was getting the URL to that single leg squat video, I came across this short video from the same trainer in Phila. Three quick leg exercises that you can do at home. </p>
<p>[No</a> Bull Training - (Easy) Leg’s - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=7OkRyXtYX_A&NR=1]No”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=7OkRyXtYX_A&NR=1)</p>