Diet/Exercise/Health/Wellness Support Thread

Parent Cafe
25081

<p>“I think the idea is to clear out all of his stuff (keep the weight bench) and put the “empty nest” to good use! He won’t mind sleeping on an exercise mat with an Airex pad for a pillow when he comes home from college!” Haha. He’d beg to differ, I’m sure, although those dorm beds are pretty uncomfortable. Besides, we have to get him to college first. Senior year in high school, serious load of classes, senioritis possibly kicking in–a parental workout of another sort in action.</p>

25082

<p>PlantMom, the outdoor bike ride sounds heavenly! I used to do a lot of bike riding and loved it but haven’t figured out where here. And it rains a lot, lol. The stationary bike at the gym just isn’t the same.</p>

<p>Exciting time, March of son’s senior year. Congratulations on the fine work you’ve done, Mom!</p>

25083

<p>thank you all for the support. I will check back in once in a while - probably not reporting as frequently. </p>

<p>Last week, I did 4 miles on Tuesday and Thursday on treadmill. Did extra speed on Thursday. Ran another 4 miles outside with hills and then saw BC ran 10 some miles. I was trying to run over that on Sunday but just can’t find any juice on my body. Ended up doing a 4 miles on treadmill. </p>

<p>The anti inflammatory med I was taking did some major hurt on my stomach. So I could not do much running this week. I could see I am gaining weight but can’t really run. </p>

<p>Will also be away April 15th to 26th abroad. </p>

<p>Well, you got the pic.</p>

25084

<p>DadII- Don’t compare yourself to anyone else. Just YOU. And travel is part of the whole deal. You miss some days, but you get back into it. Do what you can.</p>

<p>I forgot to mention that it was 63 degrees this morning at 6:30am when we started the run. Got up to about 69 with a strong south wind (that I hated). It was a little bit of an adjustment since yesterday morning it was 35! People started out in WAY too many clothes. This is the first time I’ve had bare legs outside in ages. It was nice. I wore the Nuu-Muu with a short sleeved tech shirt over it. Just little shorts underneath- no capris.</p>

25085

<p>Just came back from state indoor track meet. The gap between girls and boys is closing! I don’t think you would have ever seen these type of performances from girls if Title IX hadn’t come about.</p>

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<p>I’ve had enough injury cycles to learn not to be too ambitious in goals - in any area. That and life stuff that gets thrown at you. This stuff is for the long haul and you have to think about what you can reasonably sustain, even when obstacles get thrown in your path.</p>

25087

<p>Not worthy? The mileage DadII has been running, as a new runner, is not only worthy, but down right amazing!</p>

<p>Having some food indiscretions isn’t the end of the world, or at least I hope not. I’ve been digging into a 2 lb bag of pistachios like a French pig rootin’ for truffles.</p>

25088

<p>I set my running miles goal for the year low 'cause I want to hit it. I’m thinking of that as my basic goal. I also have two other numbers I think of as more medium level and high level, for me. My guess is that a lot of people starting running when I did would have put what I’m calling high as the goal or be aiming higher. So far I’m on track for my low, medium, and high.</p>

<p>ETA - iDad, that cracked me up!</p>

25089

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<p>That’s the stuff that makes it so difficult for us to not pack on the pounds. If I were going to make a cheat pasta meal, it would be homemade pasta noodles in an alfredo sauce with cream, butter, and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. But, with a massive carb load like that, do I really need breadsticks (I know I can’t eat just one) and pie at the same meal? At lunch?</p>

25090

<p>MOWC:</p>

<p>Outside in shorts sounds heavenly. We got a little tease last week, temps up in the 50s, but now it’s back to winter. It actually snowed a bit last night… 34 degrees here right now.</p>

<p>Ohiopublic:</p>

<p>I’m not shocked at girls being close to boys times in high school track. Mike Boyle writes a lot about coaching high school/college girls versus boys. Says the girls are much easier to coach and more receptive to coaching. Plus, at high school ages, the girls’ edge in maturity over guys nullifies some of the inherent strength and size advantages that will ultimately fall in favor of the guys.</p>

25091

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<p>I won’t be at that level! To paraphrase Bobby Jones on Jack Nicklaus: CJane’s workouts are a form of exercise of which I am not familiar!</p>

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<p>OMG, the first time I hit 100% of my max heart rate was on my first bike ride in 20 years. I got all discombobulated with the gears and ended up trying to climb a little hill on the wrong front sprocket – a hard gear when I was looking for the easiest gear. I gutted it out to the top of the hill, mostly because I knew I would never get going again if I stopped. I was completely bent over panting like a dog when I stopped at the top and my HR monitor was flashing 100%. I’ve since found that wasn’t really my max, but still…</p>

<p>Heat and humidity definitely cranks my heart rate up higher. Same exercise is always higher HR when its hot.</p>

25092

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<p>Thank you for sharing this! I feel like such an idiot when this happens to me. Good to know that this can happen to anyone.</p>

25093

Well, you can just go downhill for a bit and fix the gears or fix them manually if there are some leaves or other trash around.

25094

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<p>Hah. That makes me think back to where I started in Feb 2010. I still remember my very first piece of fitness gear. We had a pair of 5 pound DBs that were all I could handle for a lot of stuff, but I needed some heavy weights for stuff like push squats, weighted step ups, etc. So I went to the KMart about a mile from the house and bought [a</a> pair of neoprene covered 8 pound dumbbells](<a href=“http://images.iconcdn.com/Weider/images/catalog/NDCT8.jpg]a”>http://images.iconcdn.com/Weider/images/catalog/NDCT8.jpg). I could barely carry them to the car.</p>

<p>I had absolutely no fitness clothes. My options were my 44 inch waist jeans or fat guy cargo shorts with an elastic waist. Every time I did even five minutes of exercise, I was completely drenched in sweat, so I had to get something to wear for workouts. So, several trips to WalMart and I had my first exercise wardrobe – all in XLARGE. </p>

<p>[Fruit</a> of the Loom cotton t-shirts](<a href=“http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/B00816O268.01-A2WPUTMMJCDTQ7._SX2000_SCRMZZZZZZZ_V385919009_.jpg]Fruit”>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/B00816O268.01-A2WPUTMMJCDTQ7._SX2000_SCRMZZZZZZZ_V385919009_.jpg)
[Fruit</a> of the Loom cotton fat guy gym shorts](<a href=“http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/B00AZ6NWAY.01-A2WPUTMMJCDTQ7._SX2000_SCRMZZZZZZZ_V375301898_.jpg]Fruit”>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/B00AZ6NWAY.01-A2WPUTMMJCDTQ7._SX2000_SCRMZZZZZZZ_V375301898_.jpg)
[Fruit</a> of the Loom cotton sweat pants](<a href=“http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/B0099QH8LA.01-A2WPUTMMJCDTQ7._SX2000_SCRMZZZZZZZ_V374058361_.jpg]Fruit”>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/B0099QH8LA.01-A2WPUTMMJCDTQ7._SX2000_SCRMZZZZZZZ_V374058361_.jpg)</p>

<p>I went back to the Fruit of the Loom cotton stuff for round 2, when I needed to move down to LARGE. Then, I took a flyer on some high priced stuff ($9.99 Reebok tech shirts at Marshall’s) and realized how much more comfortable they were when you are sweating like a pig.</p>

<p>I was the poster boy for ol’ fat guy exercise. When I rode the $10 yard sale exercise bike, my belly bounced off my thighs.</p>

<p>My third fitness purchase was a keeper. The [Airdyne</a> bike](<a href=“http://www.uwlax.edu/sah/ess/cep/images/morning/Airdyne_circle.jpg]Airdyne”>http://www.uwlax.edu/sah/ess/cep/images/morning/Airdyne_circle.jpg). The workout program I was doing had cardio machine warmup and then intervals to finish each workout. When a part fell off the yard sale clunker the first week, I knew I was going to hurt myself on that thing. I originally thought about an elliptical, but my wife (the fitness expert) said she hated ellipticals. So I switched gears to a new exercise bike. A google search led me to some of [Mike</a> Boyle’s articles on interval training](<a href=“http://www.strengthcoach.com/public/1766.cfm]Mike”>http://www.strengthcoach.com/public/1766.cfm) in which he strongly endorsed Airdyne bikes as being both safe and effective even without training and a learning curve. I liked the whole “old school” vibe of the product (in production essentially unchanged since the 1970s, no electricity, etc.). </p>

<p>Turned out to be a great purchase. It really is the ideal interval cardio machine and it is completely self adapting to any fitness level. It’s the same today as it was when I was 250 pounds, I just pedal faster now. It’ll kick the butt of anyone at any fitness level, including NFL players and NHL hockey players and, after riding it for three years, I think it’s pretty much impossible to get injured on the the thing.</p>

25095

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<p>It all sounds easy in theory, but an ol’ 250 pound fat guy on a bike with dropped handlebars for the first time in 20 years isn’t the picture of grace and balance, stopping and starting.</p>

25096

<p>5.77 miles of slogging along. There was no run at the speed of fun today. I think my problem was having to run uphill for the first mile and a half. I then veered off onto a bike path that was flat-ish, but my hr was already above 155 and it was not going to come down despite the flat terrain. The bike path dropped me out onto a road where I encountered an unexpected big hill. Ugh, had to walk .2 of that, so I added a bit of running onto the end to make the total run be 5.5. I did let myself run free for the last .5 mile, hr went to 174 but it felt like I could have run a couple of more miles at this pace. I think I will try this run again next week, but go the opposite direction and see if that works out better.</p>

25097

<p>Yeah. I only do walk/jog intervals, but I had to flip my route backwards because the first running interval was uphill originally. I find the first few minutes of running (or hiking or Airdyning) to be especially difficult and the uphill, right out of the gate, was just killing me. </p>

<p>That’s a common problem with hiking trails around here. A lot of them go steeply uphill for a little bit from the parking lot. It’s easy to get demoralized until you figure out that you just have to take it real easy and even stop a few times in the first half mile until you get warmed up. It’s not much fun to get gobsmacked before you even get going…</p>

25098

<p>Yeah idad, I am realizing that running uphill to start is worse than running uphill to finish. Who knew…</p>

25099

<p>Just did a 5 mile walk in beautiful 76 degree sunshine.
Averaged 14:58/mile. Tried some jogging intervals but calf muscle still protests.
Earlier today did push-ups,squats,planks,wall sit and random other stuff.<br>
Does dancing to the music on the radio while brushing my teeth count?</p>

25100

<p>PackMom, so jealous of your sunshine! Rain, with nothing but more rain on the way here :frowning:
I have a major-ish hike planned on Tuesday and would really like the rain to stay away, at least for a little while. Still can’t determine if I am going to need Trax or if the snow will be gone. Don’t relish the idea of lots of mud on the trail though, either.</p>