<p>I do think it is normal for the weight loss to slow down. I have had a hard time with exercise the past few days because of the pollen count. Zyrtec doesn’t seem to be working so I’m wondering if perhaps I also have a cold. Who knows. My faithful exercise partner the dog is still greeting each walk with enthusiasm and is now reminding me when he thinks it’s time for a stroll. </p>
<p>Eddie, I know you can do it. You’ve made such great strides already- you and I have to stick together. iDad, what have you been up to recently? And Analyst, that’s great about the 5k. I’m impressed. I think as long as we all get back to healthy eating after our indulgences we’ll all be okay.</p>
<p>March was a bit “wobbly”, I was afraid a nasty flu might totally derail me, but I think I’m back on track. In years past getting sick or twisting an ankle would totally kill my momentum and it might be months (okay, honestly? - years) before I’d start over again. I can trace this current effort back to January of 2009 when I started out walking and have kept it going through a major surgery and now a nasty flu. Bumps in the road happen, I’m just not going to let them be a “buzz kill” any more (if I can borrow a line from my youngest).</p>
<p>Slow steady progress has given me some “nice” results. A little bit leaner, quite a bit stronger. </p>
<p>I continue to work on shifting to a healthier diet, but that will be so much easier once the youngest is out of the house!! Feeding an 18 year old boy brings WAY too many tempting edibles into our house.</p>
<p>Lost the feaster pounds…yay. Appt with personal trainer today…last one ( I don’t want to pay for any more…the first few sessions were a gift). Back hurts…so we better be careful. </p>
<p>Eddie…who needs the Y…just pick up your walking pace. It’s too nice to exercise inside!</p>
<p>Made it to the gym again today! Yay! This past week has been hard since I do have a spring cold with a nasty cough. Rode the recumbent bike for an hour!!! My knee was quite stiff when I got off the bike but absolutely no pain! I am grateful for that. Now I need to track my food. This morning I had 1 egg, 1 veggie breakfast “sausage” patty and a multi-grain light English Muffin. Low in calories and WW points (4). Very satisfying and filling for me. I added an apple for my mid morning snack. Hope I can keep it up!</p>
<p>Eddieodessa- walking is great exercise. I don’t belong to a gym and I am finding my brisk walking with several hills to be enough. Have definitely slimmed out in my legs. I had a bad couple of weeks as well. My allergies were under control with Claritin D but it is now giving me a bad stomachache so I am cutting it out and will see what happens. Today appears to be another bad pollen day but I am going to try to not take anything.
Weighed myself on Monday and I am 20 lbs down since January. I thought I would see some weight gain after last week. The scale was the incentive I needed to keep going.
H is joining me on my walk. For me it is my main form of exercise but for him it is just to keep me company. I have added the hand weights a few mornings a week. Hoping to just firm them up a bit.
My diet is mainly reducing my portion size. I would have had oatmeal today but I made D a breakfast burrito with 2 eggs and 1 slice of bacon that she didn’t eat since she ran out of time. I ate the inside and tossed the tortilla.</p>
<p>NorthMinnesota- I can’t give the credit all to hard work. It helped that I had H1N1 and pneumonia in January. It jump started the weight loss and the walking intially was to get my lungs back to at least the level of not being out of breath walking up and back to my mailbox.</p>
<p>Amen to that. I’ve been tracking my workouts (time versus average heart rate) and my 1.6 mile hilly walk is as strenuous in terms of heart rate as anything I do and probably has the most sustained heartrate because there are no pauses, just some recovery on the downhill stretches.</p>
<p>I walked on Monday because I just couldn’t bring myself to exercise indoors. Took my normal Tuesday off because six days in a row last week had left me just worn out. So, back to five days this week.</p>
<p>iPod workout today.</p>
<p>I hit my goal of 16 pounds of weight loss in the first two months (8 pounds a month), although I didn’t start my exercise program until 2 weeks into it.</p>
<p>So I’m on my own for dinner tonight. For a guy, of course, that’s a free pass to Wendy’s for a fried chicken sandwich, baked potato, and side of chili. Or, may a large Italian sub at the local pizza shop. Or, maybe even that incredible beer batter fish and onion rings I make.</p>
<p>But, no. I’m trying to stay with the program here so I dutifully head to the grocery store to buy a nice piece of haddock to bake and some fresh broccoli to go on the side. I walk into the store, head towards Produce and what is the first thing I see? An End Cap display. Super Size (extra 25%) Pringles ON SALE, five for $4 or something like that. Basically 5000 calories of junk food, practically free. Just calling to me. Like mainline carbs into a vein.</p>
<p>I took a few deep breaths and wheeled my basket right on by. Didn’t even grab a candy bar in the check out line. </p>
<p>Now, you know why you don’t want your husbands anywhere near a grocery store.</p>
<p>This thread is so inspirational. I am heading downstairs to do some weights - walked this AM, but you guys are so disciplined, I had better start upping my game!</p>
<p>Last personal trainer appt earlier today. Not too bad. We’ll see how I feel in tomorrow. She said I had good muscle definition in my arms. Flattery will get you everywhere. </p>
<p>One thing I really DO like at her studio is something called a BOSU ball. Anyone hear of it? It’s shaped like a dome…and it inflates so it has “give”. She had me do my ab exercises after draping my back over it. Wonderful. Really stretches the back and it’s completely stable cause it has a flat bottom. I found it on Amazon and it’s a bit pricey but I"M GETTING IT! I know you can do lots of other things with it too. Very cool.</p>
<p>toneranger, I LOVE the BOSU ball. Can do tons and tons of exercises with it. Can even use it similar to the step used in aerobics classes. Wonderful piece of equipment.</p>
<p>BOSU ball is variation on a stability ball – basically, the top half of a stability ball with a flat bottom. iPod nazi has a whole bunch of BOSU ball exercises on YouTube, if you are looking for ideas.</p>
<p>I just finished my iPod workout. Hot in the house this afternoon, but I completed the whole thing without hitting the pause button once for an extra breather. All the work I did last week combined with Saturday and Tuesday off to recover a bit made a big difference.</p>
<p>Four of the six exercises on the stability ball today. The hardest are the hamstring curl ins. You lie flat on your back on the floor, legs outstretched with your heels on the top of the ball. Then, you lift and hold your butt off the floor while rolling your heels and the ball in towards your butt and extending it back out to straight legs. Always keeping butt up, abs tight, ball stable, supported only by the back of the shoulders and the heels on top of the ball. It’s a bear for 45 seconds. The back of the thighs burn.</p>
<p>When I lift weights, I do it standing on the BOSU ball, with the dome on the floor and my feet balancing on the flat part. The logic of this silliness is that it trains my brain to deal with uneven paths, so as I get older and the bones get worse, there’s less chance that I’ll fall.</p>
<p>interesteddad: I do that also. It’s great for strengthening your core, too, since your tummy needs to stay tight to hold your trunk up.</p>
<p>Good on you, iDad. I think of all junk food manufacturers as Evil Personified and not that different from Philip Morris. It helps me to resist, even if it IS Pringles (I also have a weakness for all things fried potato, even “potato”, as in the case of Pringles.)</p>
<p>Have been on forced hiatus since I pulled my deltoid. I can’t do any push-ups or dumbbells, and even taking off my shirt hurts. I think I wrenched something on ones of those weight machines.</p>
<p>Here ya go. Search for this one on YouTube. I’d break my neck if I tried a couple of these. The one-legged squats look absolutely brutal. These balance exercises are so challenging, but they are so real world in terms of preventing falls and stuff as we get older.</p>
<p>BOSU Ball Leg Workout Yuri Elkaim</p>
<p>VeryHappy:</p>
<p>Yeah, all of these exercises like “plank” and side plank and hamstring curls and pushups with your butt up in the air are so good for the core. If you do 'em right, the only thing holding you up are the abs and the butt muscles. I actually like to do a little relax/contract cycle along with breathing to feel the muscles really engage.</p>
<p>Now, if I’m struggling with any exercise or want to pick up the pace on the exercise bike or keep some form walking uphill, I just think about tightning the abs. I had never really appreciated how a strong core drives the body.</p>
Hmm, I should add the ball to my routine. I like the idea of doing things that will keep my sense of balance intact.
When I broke my leg a couple of years ago, one of my rehab exercises was walking backwards on the treadmill - that was really difficult in the beginning.
<p>If I’m going to pig out on a fried carb fest, I’d rather do with my beer batter fish or my fried chicken or something. I just had to resist the 5000 Pringles calories.</p>
<p>I will already be doing some carb lunches as I have to make official Augusta National ham and cheese on rye sandwiches for the Masters. The secret is mixing the mayo and mustard together, one to one. The only thing I can’t duplicate is the green cellophane wrappers that don’t show on TV if they happen to fall on the ground. Local trick, along with the blue dye in the water of all the ponds.</p>
Flattery will get you everywhere. </p>