<p>iDad, thanks for the tips. I think I’ll try adding a little more weight for the 3 pt rows. Maybe for the shoulder presses too. I do my middle set of those the way you recommended, btw, with one arm up, holding a weight still while the other arm does reps and then switching sides.</p>
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<p>That’s one of Alwyn Cosgrove’s tricks from New Rules of Lifting for Abs. He loves stuff with unbalance loads where you not only get the benefit from lifting the weight, but at the same time your core is having to work like crazy to keep everything stable and square. It’s not an easy challenge to keep a weight at the end of an outstretched arm stabilized.</p>
<p>I do the same thing for dumbbell bench press, more often than not. </p>
<p>A variation of the shoulder press, if you get bored, is to do the same thing, but kneeling on both knees instead of standing. Takes away the ability to cheat with a little body english that sometimes happens when standing.</p>
<p>Now, that’s a good food tracking day. A pound of fresh haddock for dinner along with some fresh broccoli. I did give in and have a late night snack: One celery stalk dipped in blue cheese dip a couple of times. Not too bad.</p>
<p>1707 Calories. Massive protein: 154 grams. Very low carb: 79 grams, 57 net grams after fiber. Only 23 grams sugar, all from veggies and dairy. </p>
<p>Tomorrow will be seven days of minding my P’s and Q’s on the eating front. I should start seeing the scale respond. I’ve been under 2000 calories every day this week, really all from cutting out the snacks.</p>
<p>^ I would perish with the low calorie diets so many of you are doing. </p>
<p>Anyway, our quick sun break in AZ is always an exercise epiphany for me. I feel like superwoman out there – energetic, strong, flexible, a veritable super hero! I think the Northeast climate is my kryptonite.</p>
<p>There was a five-mile desert trail winding through foothills where we stayed and I ran/walked it every day, then swam in the saltwater pool. Heaven.</p>
<p>Week 1, Day 1 of the C25K challenge. Maybe I’ll never make it past week 1. Ha. It was actually fairly easy. I ended up going about 2 miles, a bit less than I’d usually do walking on a Sunday morning. The app worked like a charm, in sync with my ipod and GPS pedometer on which I can chart not only my route, but specific speeds, averages, calories, etc. So, on day 1, I averaged a whopping average of 3.8 mph, burned 146.1 calories (love that accuracy on cals :-), in 32 minutes. I can see graphically the “running” intervals, with a max rate of about 5 mph. Thinking of Mom of WC, I kept the jog very slow. I usually walk about 3.8 mph outside, faster on the treadmill. The app suggested pushups, so I did some of those after the walk/run.</p>
<p>Idad, I’m glad to hear I’m not alone in this running incompatibility. I’m interested to see how my body responds to the higher impact. In the past, I’ve had problems with sideaches, although I haven’t had one in a long while. </p>
<p>DadII, I’ve always been at a good weight, actually at ideal or maybe a tad under right now. But as the years have advanced, I’ve had to increase the intensity of my workouts to keep it there. Because of my husband’s heart health, I dropped over 10 percent of my body weight in the past year plus. All healthy eating, doing something to get the heart rate up twice a day–lots of walking. I had a shoulder problem which I was able to work out with the help of physical therapy, and that led me back into regular weight lifting. I usually do that at the gym, after an aerobic warmup of some kind, but it definitely has helped immensely in my pursuit of fitness.</p>
<p>Thumbs up, PlantMom. 
Re side aches, I think one big culprit can be eating just before running, especially if it’s something hard to digest. Glad to hear Day 1 went well.</p>
<p>Sewhappy, the advantage to <em>not</em> being superwoman is that kryptonite doesn’t do jack to me. ;)</p>
<p>I hope Superwoman will post an update one of these times. You know who you are.</p>
<p>Yippe. The scale was right on schedule this morning, rewarding my week of food tracking with a nice little gift. Down 4.2 pounds from a fluky spike (salt-driven water weight) on Monday. More realistically, down 2.8 pounds from last Sunday. Probably mostly water weight from cranking down my carbs, but a nice start and back in “my range”.</p>
<p>It’s mostly just been a good recalibration on skipping a snack here and there!</p>
<p>Cutting back on calories is planning, will-power and schedule for me.</p>
<p>If there’s food around, well, it’s tempting. If there isn’t food around or if I’m very busy, then I just don’t eat. If I’m going for a run, then I want some carbs a few hours before the run and nothing in-between. If I’m not running, then I’m low-carb for the day.</p>
<p>idad’s magic food is broccoli - low calorie but lots of stuff. Mine too but it has to get into the house - I grabbed a 2 pound bag shopping this morning. My wife didn’t get one even though she knows that I like it for a low-calorie-dense food.</p>
<p>Great job, iDad and PlantMom. </p>
<p>Big day as I got H to the gym. Sabadog and I had our usual 2 mile walk this am, gorgeous morning, and then 30 minutes on the elliptical doing the hilly route, boosting up the level to 15 for more of a challenge. Really monitoring the caloric intake.</p>
<p>Walk/run 3 miles today. I am trying to cut back on sugary things, but I’m having trouble that. Every time I try to improve my eating habits, I end up thinking about food too much.</p>
<p>Dad ll : My back would hurt when I did kettle bell swings too–I found out I wasn’t using the right technique. I think the tips in the video below are good ones: 1) you don’t squat when you start–you start from a hinge movement, 2) keep your back in a neutral position, and 3) squeeze your glutes as you swing that bell–it’s almost a popping movement with your hips.</p>
<p>[3</a> Tips To Improve Your Kettlebell Swing Technique - YouTube](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>
<p>Nice drop, iDad. I need that sort of drop, but so far I haven’t been willing to cut down on the food. Maybe this week…</p>
<p>Got out around noon with the goal of running as far as I could. I wasn’t sure how the coughing would be (seemed a lot better, but I was a little drugged from some of the meds) etc. Managed to run for the goal of 2 hours (over 11 miles) and kept it slow. HR was higher than I wanted, after being almost too low all last week during the evening runs. Beautiful day- sunny 50-54 while I ran. A little more wind than ideal, but I was pretty protected from it most of the way. It wasn’t easy, especially the last few miles. Glad I got it done. 40.5 mile week.</p>
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<p>And that’s when you’re sick. Not just a little.</p>
<p>I planning on upping my annual goal to 1,000 miles if I can get to 100 for January. I’m getting asked on tennis fairly often now so it may get harder. In general, I’ve been telling people that I can’t play because of my ankle - but people still ask me to hit which I can do.</p>
<p>32 min run for me this morning.</p>
<p>Question to the runners - since I just started a running program in September I’m no expert. My question is, what parts of your body do you seasoned runners see as benefitting from running in terms of toning and shaping?? Legs of course. I feel like I’m noticing a little difference in my waist (yeah!) and I think perhaps my arms. Am I just WANTING to see this progress or do you feel running tones more than legs.</p>
<p>Remember, I’m a newbie so don’t need to hear about benefits for advanced runners or runners combining weights and such. Maybe at some point I’ll add those things, but I’m currently reveling in my 3 mile run success at right now!!!</p>
<p>MOWC, incredible!</p>
<p>I skipped ANY workout today. Spent most of day house cleaning. Yeah, I would MUCH rather be at the gym! But my house is only now recovering from Christmas and needed a bunch of attention. </p>
<p>Very noticeable though that I don’t feel done in by the physical effort the way I have been. Lugging vacuum up and down steps, scrubbing floors, etc. No backache, no sore legs/arms, not exhausted. So maybe the last 2 months at the gym have actually given me some stamina??? Gotta find something more fun to use it on!</p>
<p>abasket- running really does help arms and core, too. Not the same way a strength workout would, but definitely it does. When I was pregnant with my daughter (now 28) I wasn’t supposed to do my ab workouts because I had (have) some sort of weird hernia that was popping out. An exercise physiologist at Kenneth Cooper’s place told me I was fine with just my running and it would take care of all those muscles enough.</p>
<p>Was trying to take an easy day today, but feel very good after the first mile so I continued to get at least 2. So the final is 2.15 miles.</p>
<p>Tried three exercises with the stability ball - pushup with hands on the ball and with feet on the ball. Both are easy w/o challenge. The stability ball mountain climbers in which you lift the leg up for 2 second is pretty hard at first. But I got it under control after several tries. At the end, no a big fan of the stability ball.</p>
<p>Overall about 1.5 hours of light work out to reserve energy for the work week.</p>
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More realistically, down 2.8 pounds from last Sunday.
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<p>That is a nice drop Idad. For those of us who have dropped over 50 lbs, even one more lb is difficult. I am not trying to do too much, 2 lb a week for the next 11 weeks will be my stretch goal. I will be happy do get anything over 1 lb a week, realistically.</p>