Diet/Exercise/Health/Wellness Support Thread

<p>6.36 miles today. I was going to go to the Y for a few more but my daughter received a phone message with the one place where she applied for a job.</p>

<p>Unfortunately the message left was in pretty bad shape and the phone number left was truncated. I did a little CSI work on the audio and looked up the name but couldn’t find anymore information on the name left.</p>

<p>4.8 mile run.
Haven’t done a “long” (don’t laugh!) run in a while, so I was happy that it felt good. 11 minute mile pace, so not breaking any records, but I didn’t want to push it and the HR was up nonetheless. The lighter weight and stronger legs could definitely be felt.</p>

<p>Went shopping for shorts. Vanity sizing is in full force. Yes, I have trimmed down considerably and feel like I am finally very close to goal, but c’mon Gap, size 4? Kinda funny.</p>

<p>Nice run, CJane. :)</p>

<p>UCB, the numbers shown on this chart are in terms of modified pushups for women.
[The</a> Pushup Test | SparkPeople](<a href=“http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=1113]The”>http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=1113)</p>

<p>Good job, CJane! Enjoy those size 4s!<br>
My 3 mile run this morning was strange. Short on sleep due to horrific travel last night. Went to Perkiomen trail and it was raining but 64 degrees. I was going to run really slowly so I wore a very light LuLu jacket even though I thought it was stupid and I would get too hot. Well, I didn’t. Got back to the car to discover that the temp had dropped 8 degrees in the 33 minutes or so that I ran. It continued to drop all day to the mid 40s. Really awful. Son did a bike ride up here in the Poconos and was really cold. I think it will be nice weather for Sunday marathon, but I hope I don’t freeze at the start.</p>

personal record for 5K today…28:23

<p>Back and stronger than ever – glad to hear you’ve healed and are running again, PackMom.</p>

<p>PackMom, sub 30 5K and PR, nice!</p>

<p>I don’t know any women in real life who do real push ups. I used to do dance aerobics and the teacher (who I like a lot) when she decided we should do a weight class did knee pushups! I was the only one in the room who did real ones. I was also the using heavier weights than anyone else. And I was probably one of the older women in the room. I don’t even consider myself particularly athletic.</p>

<p>Keeping fingers crossed for Sunday sun for you, MOfWC! </p>

<p>CJane, great run! Speaking of vanity sizing, I always feel good about fitting into size 0 pants at the Gap, but then I think about all these poor ladies who are thinner than me - they probably have to walk around nekkid… :eek: :D</p>

<p>PackMom - nice!!!</p>

<p>(Ran 3.5 miles and had to stop to make dinner).</p>

<p>I can proudly report that this afternoon I did…ONE chin-up. Yay me!</p>

<p>My son did 6 and I was going to show him that now I can get myself “this” high…but I just went all the way up! I guess all that fooling around with the bar, little by little, has paid off. :)</p>

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<p>I have had some women tell me that they do not want to do heavier weights (which would include doing “real” pushups over knee pushups) because they “don’t want to get too big”. I’m not sure where this idea comes from – even men, who can get “big” (muscular) more easily than women, really have to work hard (certainly much harder than doing a few “real” pushups) to get “big”.</p>

<p>If that is the case with the women you are observing, perhaps they can do “real” pushups, but choose to do knee pushups because of the mistaken notion that they will get “too big”?</p>

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<p>Congratulations! Now that you have gone from zero to one, it should be easier to work up to more.</p>

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<p>Awesome! Pass the party hats and noisemakers. A chin up party is a big celebration!</p>

<p>It took me the better part of a year to do one.</p>

<p>ucb:</p>

<p>I’m doing a random workout program targetted at younger women. It has a lot of pushups in the program, but assumes that many women will not be able to do them and should start with their hands elevated on a box and work towards doing them on the floor. One of the two models in the video does all the pushups from a box. This is pretty typical for good fitness trainers working with women (of all ages).</p>

<p>When I started workout out, I couldn’t do big boy pushups. I did them from my knees for a few weeks. Of course, I’m not sure I could do big boy pushups now with a 90 pound weight vest like I was “wearing” back then. :)</p>

<p>It’s certainly possible, but anyone looking at me would know that they were unlikely to get very muscular looking!</p>

<p>PackMom- really nice time! Congratulations!</p>

<p>Re chin-ups: If you saw me, you’d know I don’t have that much weight to lift, and as a kid/young adult I used to be able to do at least ONE, so I was confident I could get the ability back. I was just worried about too much too soon and damaging joints or something unpleasant. </p>

<p>I’ve had lots of friends with rotator cuff tears from innocuous activities that they just weren’t used to doing. Getting old is a bear!</p>

<p>Oh, and now you want me to work up to doing more? Humph. :D</p>

<p>MOWC, sendin ya the good mileage mojo this weekend!</p>

<p>Idad, I’m surprised my remote hot tub healing hasn’t fixed you up yet. I’d better get back at it, since its a chill 40 degrees this am :)</p>

<p>Momusic, cheers to the chin up! That’s one more than I am likely to achieve in the rest of my lifetime. My upper body isn’t quite ready to haul the rest of me yet ;)</p>

<p>Mathmom, I actually am one of those not-svelt mesomorphs who can in fact bulk up muscle-wise the way any women fear, but being short and tending to still be hour-glass-ish in overall shape whatever the weight helps offset the impact of that. Long ago I decided I didn’t care…so long as its muscle. The trouble comes when it turns to fat :)</p>

<p>One summer during college I worked for an electric company and drove one of the big trucks (manual steering in those days.) A dear, frank girlfriend took me aside and said “my god look at your arms, you’re going to be in trouble if that turns to fat! stop doing whatever you’re doing!” I was like, ah, stop working? I don’t think so! (I was earning double what she was ;)</p>

<p>On one hand, she was sorta right – until about 12 years ago, i had to do serious gym work if i wanted to stay in shape, but then had a back issue dx’d that complicated things and led to what we’ll now call the sedentary epoch. </p>

<p>However, today, said friend sings a bit of a different tune on that front, wishing she had the strength and endurance I generally have (despite the fat and the back issue) and wishing she got the gains I do from a bit of resistance work. So muscle memory can be a glorious thing and I feel sorry for the types of young women I hear fearing for their femininity :)</p>

<p>After all, as women of a certain age know, muscles are your friend…someday you might have to chop and stack your own wood or lift a sick grandchild or dig your own french drain or take the winter cover off the pool by yourself or haul your spouse around town…
That might be future me speaking there and I suppose above all else that’s my motivation these days to reshape myself :)</p>

<p>Muscle does not “turn into fat”. However, muscular people who stop exercising but continue eating as if they needed that much food to sustain their exercising habits lose muscle and gain fat.</p>

<p>Amen, kmcmom13!</p>

<p>And as we all know, muscle doesn’t “turn” to fat. It just quietly disappears and the fat moves in… :frowning: </p>

<p>:D</p>

<p>One of the fittest women I know got that way by lifting her handicapped daughter for years and years. If she couldn’t lift that girl (who isn’t very large but still) I can only guess she’d have to be institutionalized. And besides being strong, she is beautiful inside & out.</p>

<p>Thanks y’all. Glad to be back on the road. The leg seems fine,got new running shoes this week…life is good. </p>

<p>I do knee push-ups and some regulars along with resistance bands, planks and dips. My 50 yr. old arms look pretty good,all things considered…good thing since boating season is upon us…as my Navy S(who’s putting together an outdoor gym in his backyard) would say “Sun’s Out…Guns Out” :)</p>