<p>OK ladies…for what it’s worth…I don’t think I would ever fit in a FAKE size 0. I’m trying to get back to a size 10…and I probably can do it if my cranky back and elbow would just cooperate. ( I was a size 7/8 once - after I got out of the hospital for major surgery…couldn’t stop shopping :))</p>
<p>Idad…congrats on your weight loss. I think you have the right approach…slow and steady. Have you thought about becoming a personal trainer? :)</p>
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Back when I ran for exercise - I thought 2 miles, 2 or 3 times a week, and 3 miles once a week was plenty - 7 to 10 miles total. 15 miles sounds like a lot to me! Right now I’m trying to walk about 10 miles a week on top of the gym (weights and elliptical) 3 times a week. I could make it 15 - but it’s a matter of wanting to spend the time at it. Getting winded at least is not an issue, I think I’m in good shape.</p>
<p>Did my improvized iPod nazi superset again today. 12 exercises. 45 seconds of each. 45 seconds between exercises. No breaks. Followed by some hard intervals on the bike to get the heart pumping.</p>
<p>If any of yous guyz are looking for a new exercise to add to your routine, try the step up with curl and press. All you need is a step in your house and a pair of WalMart dumbells. I use the bottom step of my stairs up to the second floor, but an outdoor step would work fine, too. </p>
<p>You step up on the step while at the same time curling the weights up from your waist to your shoulders and then, in one motion, pushing them straight above your head. Lower the weights as you step back down. Then, repeat starting with the other foot first. This thing uses every large muscle in the body. It’s deceptively tiring. It will get your heartrate and breathing up in no time at all. I’m doing it with 8 pound dumbells. You don’t need a lot of weight, you are lifting your whole body weight with your legs as you step. It’s the kind exercise that will burn calories like crazy because it’s using so many large muscles.</p>
<p>I struggled to be a sz 8 until my 40th bday. My goal is a real sz 10. I used to play competitive tennis until I had a cerebral hemorrhage about 10 yrs ago. Was afraid to really push myself after that for quite awhile. Never went back to tennis. I was never thin but more athletic build, lots of muscle and curves. I am still pretty strong, just not thin! :o I keep trying and plugging away! Looking forward to 10 more miles tomorrow!</p>
<p>From the NYTimes Magazine (online) “Weighing the Evidence on Exercise”</p>
<p>[Weighing</a> the Evidence on Exercise - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/magazine/18exercise-t.html]Weighing”>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/magazine/18exercise-t.html)</p>
<p>The article is a real hodge-podge discussion about various studies looking at the role of exercise in weight loss. But, I thought the contributors to this thread might find this quote interesting (or depressing, or irritating…) Not interesteddad, of course.</p>
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<p>Yesterday after work (and after my MRI for my leg/hip- stay tuned) I swam for the first time in 3 years (real swimming, that is). I managed 1000 yards and then did 10 minutes of aqua-jogging with a belt. I could only stand 10 minutes because I didn’t have my music.
When I got home I walked 2 miles at 22:30 pace. 
The pace was slow because my walking companion had to sniff or pee on every bush (and the stop to clean up his droppings…)<br>
This morning I went to the gym before work and did two different ellipticals- the AMT Precor that I think is hard, but then 20 minutes on the other one where I can do a faster turnover. I hate it all, but I’m doing it!</p>
<p>Interesting stuff, thanks.</p>
<p>It’s been pretty clear to me that you can’t exercise your way to weight loss without also eating less. All you have to do is look at how long it would take to burn off a half-cannister of Pringles on the treadmill. I think the whole concept of exercise as “burning calories” is probably misguided. It seems to me that exercise is important to improved fitness and improved fitness has to be part of any attempt to reverse couch potato/weight gain syndrome. Burning calories does have some small impact. It contributes to the calorie deficit that causes weight loss, but it’s hard to burn signficant calories when it takes 3500 to lose one pound.</p>
<p>Likewise, it’s pretty clear that extreme dieting isn’t a very good long term solution, either. The whole yo-yo effect of taking it off and packing it right back on clearly suggests that the body will try to correct the imbalance. I once lost a nice amount of weight on a lo-carb diet, but I think the end result was a craving for carbs that didn’t really serve me well. Looking back, dieting without fitness also didn’t produce long-term results. I probably lowered my lean muscle mass and produced a net lowering of my metabolism.</p>
<p>I read a report this week from a guy that claims you should eat pizza once a week when dieting because just one day of eating carbs and fat prevents the mechanism by which the body interprets dieting as “starvation” and starts kicking in changes to leptin and insulin levels to prevent additional weight loss. I don’t know if the guy is a quack or not, but it’s certainly interesting and might explain this whole plateau business. Of course, I will confess that we’ve had a salad and thin-crust pizza for dinner once a week for the entire time I’ve been losing 19 pounds.</p>
<p>Mom of Wild Child:</p>
<p>They need to chain you to the couch with a stack of DVDs or something, maybe a nice bowl of Pringles, for a week or two so you can heal up! How about a Caribbean spa vacation, with a raft in the pool and a Cabana boy to bring you refills on your Pina Coladas?</p>
<p>i-dad, I do not think she’s gonna sit still on that raft! She’ll be doing laps of butterfly and miles of water jogging in that pool! The Cabana boy will be flipping the lap counter for her instead of fetching her tropical drinks! Even if you lock her out of the exercise room, she’ll find a way in ;)</p>
<p>I am really hoping your walking companion was a dog</p>
<p>^^^Thanks for the laughs! Whew! I did my 65 minutes on the bike again today. Got 12 miles in, which is good for me! Heading out of town for the weekend with some friends. Will have some wine but also will be hiking. We all enjoy cooking so I hope I can find something healthy! Each of us is in charge of a different meal. Figure I will practice portion control and moderation. Wishh me luck!</p>
<p>Yes, a canine walking companion! (although runners are known to make pit stops behind random trees etc) </p>
<p>My goal is to obey the directions from the doc and PT while maintaining some level of fitness so I can ramp back up quickly once I can run again. I’m limiting myself to exercise that they said I can do. Interestingly, the fast walking is the thing that bothers the leg the most (still not much).</p>
<p>I was recovering from a skiing injury in 2007 and was doing some deep water aqua-jogging in a lake in the Poconos in PA. I had my iPod tucked under a cap and was out in the middle of the lake and did not realize I was singing along to the music until I noticed my sister and family laughing hysterically back on the dock.</p>
<p>If you want some inspiration… This is one of my running friends from an online forum. We’ve met in person at a race.
[The</a> Incredible Shrinking Marathoner](<a href=“http://running.competitor.com/2010/04/features/the-incredible-shrinking-marathoner_9407]The”>http://running.competitor.com/2010/04/features/the-incredible-shrinking-marathoner_9407)</p>
<p>Now THAT is awesome!!</p>
<p>Hi gang… in lurking mode again. Where’s eddieoddessa?</p>
<p>So I’m going to post twice because I don’t want this little bit of trivia to get lost in my personal update. I’ve hired a personal trainer now for four sessions (the first one was more an assessment) and he feeds me all sort of little tidbits. One I’ll bet most of you have never heard of… do you know that bodybuilders will pay out of the nose for breastmilk? I knew it was good for babies (I nursed two for a combined 42 months), but I draw the line at adults drinking it. ewwwwww</p>
<p>OK… like I said, have had four sessions with the personal trainer. Each session is an hour and we’re just doing weights/strength building. After the first session, the next day I felt like I had the flu, my body hurt so bad. But I’ve also been working out in the yard a lot in the last week, and had done so for about three hours the afternoon after that first session, so I think I overdid it. Had my second session Tuesday and was fully functional yesterday; I worked out in the yard another couple of hours. Had a third session today and did another couple of hours outside. It’s supposed to rain here throughout the weekend, and there were just some projects I wanted to get done… otherwise I wouldn’t have done so much. </p>
<p>I love the variety that he’s giving me, with explanations as to why he has me doing certain exercises (he includes some quick balance work at the beginning of every session). I also appreciate the fact that he’s there checking my form until I get used to this equipment. He told me he doesn’t care how I get my cardio in, whether it’s from the weights we’re doing, or working in the yard, or doing elliptical after our sessions for 30 minutes or so. I wear my heart rate monitor during our sessions so I know I’m getting my heart rate up. This sure beats the boredom of doing a cardio machine for 45-50 minutes 4-5x week!</p>
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<p>Working with a personal trainer and getting a heart rate monitor really worked for me. Hang-in there and you’ll see that the exercises will get easier. I find that I’m buring fewer calories as I lose weight–so my trainer has stepped up the intentsity of the exercise. I’m down 26 pounds in 13 weeks. Going to do a 20-mile charity walk for hunger next weekend. Plan to wear the heart rate monitor and see how many calories I’ll burn. One can get obsessed with that thing.</p>
<p>teriwtt- Having a trainer is really great. I haven’t done that much, but my friends who have see great results. You push a lot harder. Good job!</p>
<p>Swam 1000 yards and did 25 minutes of aqua-jogging before work. I got my pool-running “set up” ready last night. I put my iPod shuffle in a ziploc bag and put it under hat on my head. That way I can listen to music while I basically run in place (you move somewhat, but not rapidly) in deep water. It looks stupid, but it works for me!</p>
<p>^ I cannot wait till pool is open. i do not like to swim inside. yes, before work 6am is the best time to swim, it feels like major uplifting drug in a system for the rest of the day. we have “early bird” swimming 3 times / week, all other days have to swim in afternoon. I start with 1.5 miles and sometime get it to 2 miles at the end of season. It pales comparing to swim team practices, but I am not a swimmer at all and my D. laughs at my swimming all the time. i do not care, I enjoy it very much even without listenning to anything. I never do with any exercise.</p>
<p>Back in post 2485 I posted an article about exercise and weight loss. One of the studies in the article indicated that merely standing instead of sitting burned up a lot of calories. So, here is the solution! I want one of these!</p>
<p>[A</a> Desk That Allows You to Stand or Sit - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/technology/personaltech/22basics.html?src=busln]A”>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/technology/personaltech/22basics.html?src=busln)</p>
<p>I really don’t like to sit for a long period of time; I think this desk would be great.</p>