<p>We went on a road trip this weekend and I feel like I need to live on lettuce for a week. For all the talk and press about nutrition, most restaurant food is really really unhleathy!</p>
<p>missypie -it’s Restaurant Week here in Seattle, and I’m bracing for impact 
I have a feeling that I will be living on lettuce, water and air for a week, too!</p>
<p>I don’t really mind the extra calories when the food is awesome, like on our New Orleans trip. But last night we stopped at an IHop out of desperation…it was that, Sonic or KFC…horrible horrible high calorie food. The girls got pancakes and there must have been at least a full cup and a half of fake whipped cream on each order.</p>
<p>You know, even the BEST restaurants sometimes overdo it on things like butter and salt. They just can’t help it. Their primary goal is to make the food taste good. I try to order dishes with tomato based sauces but their not always on the menu. </p>
<p>For most places, I must say I have developed into a royal “pain in the butt” when ordering. What kind of bread can substitute? No cheese, no sauce. Dressing on the side. Is that creamy or brothy? Do you use milk? I’m sure it annoys the order takers but I don’t care! I eat out less and less. Although we did go to an awesome place for lunch the other day where I had a brothy exotic mushroom soup (not at all salty) and a yummy salad made with hydroponic lettuce and tomatoes - and homemade dressing. These places are hard to find…</p>
<p>Missypie- that is how I felt when visiting Purdue with my D.</p>
<p>Oh, eddie! 28 pounds!!! Way to go! Hope things get better for you!</p>
<p>mp…my BIL is a healthy eater and for some reason LOVES IHOp and has dragged us there a few times when we visited. He usually gets some kind of buckwheat or whole grain pancakes and egg beaters. I know they have a few things that aren’t horrible. I think it’s possible to eat reasonably healthy at most places if you’re super careful about your choices. Well…maybe not KFC. When we’re on the road, I like to stop at supermarkets and get fresh fruit, wheat bread, and turkey…much better than Wendy’s 
</p>
<p>[IHOP</a> Introduces New Menu Items (Press Release) - 2008-10-08 15:43:00 | Chain Leader](<a href=“chainleader.com - This website is for sale! - Magazine chain leader Resources and Information.”>chainleader.com - This website is for sale! - Magazine chain leader Resources and Information.)</p>
<p>Not to demonize IHop more than any of the other places but compare one of their regular pancakes with one of their “harvest grain and nut” pancakes from the “Healthy” section of the menu:</p>
<p>regular pancake 110 calories 3.5 grams of fat
harvest grain and nut pancake 180 calories 9.0 grams of fat</p>
<p>^^^ lol</p>
<p>Knowing me, I would order an egg, and some melon (if they had it). And maybe one pancake Or do they even offer a la carte? I hate places that throw yukky bacon and sausage on every plate and don’t even let you substitute. </p>
<p>A cooler in the car (even a foam one from seven eleven if need be). That’s what we’re doing when we go to Yellowstone.</p>
<p>I just ordered plain pancakes and bacon and split the order with my husband. But it didn’t even taste very good.</p>
<p>Well, I don’t have a stress fracture, which is good news for my not-particularly-strong bones. “Just” hamstring strain. Will continue PT and the horrific cross-training for another month or so. Ugh.
And now, thanks to you guys, I am craving pancakes! :)</p>
<p>Good news MOWC! There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.</p>
<p>I got my butt whipped today. My trainer decided to try something new that would keep my heart rate up the entire time we were doing weights. At about the 45 minute mark, when I’d just completed some quad work (exercise ball up against the wall, back to ball, and squatting… 15 reps of this), I got dizzy. Told him I had to sit down, which I did on the ball… still feeling dizzy after a couple of minutes, so sat on the floor; still dizzy and starting to feel nauseous, so he brought me a mat to lay on. Then I could tell he was worried because last week, another one of his clients got dizzy, then nauseous, then threw up. But once I laid down for a bit, I was fine to continue, albeit on a much slower pace for the remaining fifteen minutes or so (I think he just didn’t want to deal with vomit!). I had had a huge bowl of oatmeal about two hours before our session, so I don’t think it was a hypoglycemic reaction (I get shaky, then nauseous, then dizzy). He will be out of town until Friday and I’m leaving Saturday morning, so I won’t see him again until next Tuesday. I think I’ve got somewhat of a handle on most of the equipment so that I can get another work out in before I leave. But this one… kicked. my. butt.!!!</p>
<p>hey teri…I felt a bit sick during one of my PT sessions too. I let her know. This lady was really tough and putting me through my paces. At my next (and last) appt…she backed off a bit. I felt like I was working but not killing myself. </p>
<p>I think it’s really important to communicate clearly with a PT. Yes, they show you the right form and all but they also sometimes overestimate what you can do. And I think many of them push really hard. I ended up in some pain but OK overall (actually, I couldn’t walk for a few days after my first time). My next door neighbor had to go to a doc for pills for a really bad back muscle spasm (different PT!) She told me she couldn’t get up from the potty…yikes!</p>
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<p>I guess! These trainers sound like they are crazy people. 15 is a lot of reps for ball squats after 45 minutes of other exercises. I do them with dumbell arm extensions, but the arms are a piece cake compared to the thigh burn. It’s taken me quite a while to get up to 45 seconds of those.</p>
<p>These bodyweight exercises are strenuous. They work big muscles and a lot of weight.</p>
<p>Instead of starting to exercise I find myself coming on this thread and reading about all the exercising being done and I feel worn out and don’t exercise.</p>
<p>Any advice for getting over the inertia hump?</p>
<p>My weight never changes regardless of how much I exercise and it is where it should be. But I’m in my 50s and want to feel better and stronger. Doing a lot of gardening of late and clean my own house. That makes me feel pretty tired. Also going to Costco. I need a nap when I get home. Just living seems to entail a lot of physical activity.</p>
<p>I have a yearning to start swimming again tho . . .</p>
<p>Yeah, as I mentioned before…My pt had me do 25 of these ball squats…with weights…in quick repetition…after almost a full hour. I felt like I was on some weird reality tv show. Yeah…watch out not to overdo it. Personally, I had a hard time with this since I don’t like to feel like a wimp! But I finally told her to dial it down…</p>
<p>sewhappy…check out swimming. I’m a terrible swimmer…otherwise I’d be in the pool myself. Such a good form of exercise. Do it for the energy. And maybe skip going to a PT…lol.</p>
<p>sewhappy, you will have more energy once you start to exercise. Your body is meant to move. Challenge yourself with whatever is your thing – walking, jogging, biking, climbing. Can all be done indoors or out. Lift some heavy things over your head a few days a week. It’ll take a month or so, but you’ll feel terrific.</p>
<p>Just be advised that swimming should NOT be the only form of exercise for women because it is non-weight bearing. Women need to do something else (or at least weights) for bone density.</p>
<p>toneranger - it just took me so totally off guard. I knew I was working hard, but it never occurred to me that I’d get dizzy and then nauseous. I have felt sorer several hours after workouts than I do right now (in fact, I’m not feeling any soreness right now, but I know that could change tomorrow). </p>
<p>At our previous sessions, we were doing three sets of reps per machine with a break of a minute or so in between sets. Today he basically had me doing a circuit, which meant no down time between sets, although he did alternate upper and lower body. He seemed surprised when it all happened and said he thought I’d get through the change-up in program with no difficulty. I think he has re-evaluated what to do with me now based on this. </p>
<p>Honestly, even when I’m at home and am on the floor, or on my knees and continually getting up and down (like when I’m gardening), it’s not unusual for me to get light-headed occasionally. We were talking about The Biggest Loser today and how those people get through those workouts… he said they must be monitored soooo closely, if not for the cardiac risks, but for the trauma their joints must be enduring. </p>
<p>Speaking of The Biggest Loser, did anyone else hear Jillian Michaels speak out last week about never wanting to get pregnant, because of what it would do to her body. But get this… she says she’d adopt if she ever wanted to be a parent. Someone needs to tell her how much it increases her risks of certain cancers by never experiencing a pregnancy/breastfeeding.</p>
<p>I’m just an old fat guy starting to exercise, but I’m not really understanding the mentality of the personal trainers that want to make you feel pain. I understand the concept of stepping it up to the next level as you gain fitness and I’ve done that as I go. But, I don’t understand the point of hurting yourself lifting weights or pushing until you feel dizzy. I’m not a professional athlete; nobody’s paying me to do that! I’m not in that big a hurry.</p>
<p>I actually back off a little when I feel it start to feel stiff and sore after a few days in a row of pushing harder. I like the feeling of having worked the muscles, but I don’t want to be limping up the stairs from my “workout”. If I ever start feeling faint and dizzy, I’m callin’ it a day. The idea here is to exercise so I don’t have a stroke!</p>
<p>I did my 12 exercise “superset” of iPod nazi exercises today. 45 seconds of each with 45 seconds in between. No extra pauses. 18 of the ball squats and arm extensions (that got the burn going). 20 pushups. Lunge walking with dumbbells (ouch). I have a new stability ball that is rock hard. Wow, does it make these exercises harder. It’s hard to even sit on the thing. Followed that up with ten very hard intervals on the Airdyne: 10 seconds fast, 20 seconds slow, 10 seconds fast… Those fast intervals come along very quickly. The heart rate just increases with every interval because there’s not enough recovery.</p>