Go NMinn!!
<p>So that would be a surprise (5 pound) party!!!</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Ran a slow 5K (compared to my coastal flat land weekend run) on a really hilly greenway this a.m. Was still sweating like a horse at the end even w/ my slow pace. Did some sqauts,planks,jumpin’ jacks,resistance band stuff when I got home.</p>
<p>Almost always gain a pound or so when we do the long weekend car trips to the coast…drives me crazy 'cause I didn’t eat poorly and exercised while there…I blame it on the car!</p>
<p>Yay, nMINN. Nothing beats a surprise party!</p>
<p>Here’s a picture of the under-20 women’s record holder for the Mt. Washington Road Race. </p>
<p>[Carolyn</a> Stocker](<a href=“http://www.snowshoeracing.com/images/2011%20Nationals/CarolynStocker.gif]Carolyn”>http://www.snowshoeracing.com/images/2011%20Nationals/CarolynStocker.gif)</p>
![http://www.snowshoeracing.com/images/2011%20Nationals/CarolynStocker.gif]Carolyn](http://www.snowshoeracing.com/images/2011%20Nationals/CarolynStocker.gif%5DCarolyn){kind=link}
<p>I’m sure if this was taken at the Mt. Washington “Only One Hill” Road Race or at the National Junior Snowshoe Racing championships where she was the runner up.</p>
<p>Either way, mad props from me. These are both hard-core fitness challenges. Sheesh.</p>
<p>Awesome, NM! That’s great!</p>
<p>BCEagle:</p>
<p>I forgot to get back to you on the KFC. The new boneless thing is just like the strips, only it’s original recipe instead of extra crispy and the pieces are bigger, so there is more meat/protein less breading. The only problem is that I have absolutely no idea (yet) how to order them.</p>
<p>I gave up looking at the big board and finally just said to the two ladies behind the register – OK, I want one piece of white meat boneless and one piece of dark meat boneless and nothing else, no sides, no biscuit, no drink. Can I get that?</p>
<p>They hemmed and hawed and said the cheapest way to get that was a combo meal with sides and biscuit and drink. I said, “OK, I’ll take the combo meal, just don’t give me the sides and the biscuit and the drink”.</p>
<p>They said, “We can’t do that…”</p>
<p>Finally, they said “we aren’t supposed to do this…”, but they rang up my two pieces at what must be the “add-on piece price” or something because it came out to be $2. Such a deal, but I still have no idea how to order two pieces of boneless. I’m sure the options will expand. Apparently KFC thinks “boneless” will become their primary product over time.</p>
<p>The good thing is that they open at 10 am in Tilton, so I can get a nice “brunch” in the car on the way to hiking.</p>
<p>The Wendy’s and McD’s option is their fried chicken sandwich and ditch half the bun.</p>
<p>Thanks! :)</p>
<p>Go, NMinn. That is excellent.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl- I like hot yoga a lot and I think it is a great workout on all levels- strength, cardio and flexibility. It takes a few times to be able to stand the heat- and it never gets easy. I did it 4-5 times a week when I was injured and it was really the only thing that felt like a workout for me. I agree with iDad that a few of the postures may not be that good for you- and I am careful.</p>
<p>I started running on the one-year anniversary of my heart attack. Am on the treadmill, doing intervals (2 minutes run, 3 minutes walk), 3.5%/3.2 mph incline on the walk, with the run at no incline and 3.6 mph. I’m going for 20-25 minutes, and then head to 20 minutes on the elliptical with hills. OTOH, I have not run since I was 21. The rehab folks are thrilled silly. My knees are holding up quite well. Not sure I will ever do a 5k run, as I prefer to do this stuff under medical supervision, but if I can get there on a treadmill, that will be plenty good for me. </p>
<p>I need to do something to kickstart the metabolism, as I have been down 90 for about seven weeks without any further progress, and would LOVE to get to normal BMI (which means about 13 lbs) by S1’s wedding celebration 8/3. </p>
<p>Just got new bloodwork: cholesterol level is 92 (!), HDL 41 (better, but still too low), LDL 37, and best of all, triglycerides have dropped from 145 to 70 (this is where the healthy eating and weight loss have really paid off, since meds don’t do much to lower these levels).</p>
<p>Awesome on the exercise AND the bloodwork, CountingDown. Is your doc backing off on the statins? At the very least, those LDL numbers mean you don’t have to feel guilty about a splash of extra virgin olive oil on your salad! The improvement in your triglycerides is huge. It means that you are probably much less insulin resistant – good for your arteries, good for your waistline, good for just about everything!</p>
<p>After losing 90 pounds (fantastic!), I wouldn’t worry about stalling out for the time being. Once you are that close, you don’t have a lot of fat to lose and the rate will really slow down, i.e. long plateaus. Also, with your exercise, you are almost certainly building some muscle, which will offset any fat loss on the scale, even though you are probably fitting in clothes better.</p>
<p>Also, don’t get married to the BMI charts. I would say that most people think I’m pretty “skinny” these days – certainly not overweight. But, on the BMI chart, I’m borderline normal/overweight.</p>
<p>My advice after 90 pounds would be to shift your focus to fitness and let the scale follow along as i will. When you are 90 pounds overweight, it’s pretty easy to set a target. After you have lost 90 pounds, you are in uncharted territory and I haven’t seen anywhere near enough precision from the nutrition science to predict what is ultimately reasonable for you or for me or for any individual.</p>
<p>$2 bucks for two pieces of chicken is great but that’s probably a promotional price. I’d go there after work but I’m pretty sure that my wife will have dinner ready when I go home. I could try picking it up tomorrow afternoon. KFC normally does more marketing for new products - I saw an ad for the boneless chicken but it wasn’t a carpet-bomb thing. Chick-Fil-A has taken a ton of marketshare away from KFC.</p>
<p>CD, that is wonderful. I’m so glad to hear how successful your rehab has been! I’m with iDad, though. Don’t worry about the scale. Losing that much weight and improving your fitness level is just fantastic. </p>
<p>I’ve bumped my calorie intake up to around 1200 a day simply because I didn’t feel well with vigorous exercise and honestly not enough food. I am happy to report that D has started the Couch to 5K program. </p>
<p>Today was another hot one so I headed to the gym and did a 40 minute treadmill run over the rolling hills of Planet Fitness. 3.31 miles. Sabadog is not a fan of the heat, but he is a fan of walks so time to head out.</p>
<p>I worked at a KFC in high school. iDad, those ladies probably thought you were a secret shopper trying to get them to break the rules. :)</p>
<p>Awesome news CD!!! You have done so well! I bet you feel so much better! Congratulations on all of your hard work!</p>
<p>Back to the basement. Summer has come to NH. Put an air conditioner in the window of my office and dragged a fan out of the closet for my workout in the basement that has warmed up to 67 degrees. Actually, pretty nice temp for working out in shorts with a fan on low kicking up a gentle breeze. </p>
<p>Really good workout. Core was the TRX/Jungle Gym fall outs, which I’m gettig the hang of. Probably the best sets of push presses I’ve ever done.</p>
<p>Squats were good (1 DB at the shoulder, 10 reps per side). Plank position rows were good. TRX pushups were good. And definitely the best sets of single leg deadlifts I’ve ever done (and I’ve been working on these for a long time). One of the keys is that I’m not going super heavy. 30 lb DBs for everything. 85% of my max heart rate – on the sets of 20 squats.</p>
<p>Between the warmups, the strength exercises, and the finishers, the volume of squats in this random workout program from the internet is crazy. I don’t know if I’ll it in that slinky black cocktail dress when I’m done, but – if I do – my legs are gonna be lookin’ good! :)</p>
<p>1 hour of tennis, 88 degrees and sunny. We were drained at the end. It will take a bit of time to get used to the heat (and we used to play in higher temps and humidity for three hours).</p>
<p>5.75 miles, 1.54 of it outdoors, also at 88 degrees though not sunny at the time.</p>
<p>It would be nice to get used to the warmer weather running outside.</p>
<p>Thanks, all. The waistline is still not down where it needs to be according to the heart guidelines. Ideally I’d like to lose another 25, which would put me smack in the middle of the range for my height and give me a little fudge room for vacations and special occasions. Pasta and bread (even the whole-grain, ALA-added stuff) are my downfall. </p>
<p>iDad, my fasting glucose is 84 (roughly 4.9% a1c), which is great, but it was never over 110 to begin with. It was 6.4% when I started losing weight and I was trying to nip that problem in the bud, esp. since DH’s a1c was 13.2 (fasting glucose in the 330s).</p>
<p>One thing I have noticed since the heart attack is that my internal temperature regulation system is shot to pieces. Blood does not get to my extremities as well when my heart is 50% less efficient, so I freeze in cool weather and roast when it’s warm. At least I can make modifications there!</p>
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<p>I just don’t eat them. Other than a little pasta in the Progresso soups I eat for lunch, I can’t remember the last time I had pasta. I know it was over a year ago. The only bread I’ve had was my annual Masters ham and cheese on rye sandwiches for lunch on Sat and Sun of the Masters. I didn’t even have turkey sandwiches with leftover turkey at Christmas – because I was “cheating” with the stuffing.</p>
<p>My last 20 pounds and 2 inches off my waist came off after I thought I had permanently stalled. It was when I started doing more intensive weight lifting and core workouts, getting a little more muscular. But, it was also around the time I read Gary Taubes book and really ratcheted down my carb consumption more aggressively. I just decided to concentrate all of my calories on foods that are nutritionally good for me. Other than the little bit of pasta or rice in soups and the croutons in my salads, I don’t eat too many empty calories. I eat a lot of high calorie stuff (like 16 ounce rib eye steaks), but it’s all stuff that is nutritionally dense.</p>
<p>I don’t know if it was lowering the carbs a little more or the exercise that kick-started me out of the plateau. Maybe it was just my body saying, OK, I’m ready to drop a little more fat… Who knows? Once you’ve had the incredible results you have, like I said earlier, it’s uncharted territory. Nobody can say what is realistic. My hat is off to you for having the courage to dig in with the exercise after a coronary. It’s gotta be a psychological challenge to push yourself.</p>
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<p>I’m just a befuddled ol’ geezer trying to order some fried chicken on the way to the mountains… :)</p>
<p>When you don’t eat or drink carbs, a fast food restaurant menu is pretty overwhelming. Kind of like standing in the Ginza at night, with all the flashing neon. The drinks are out (I’ve got my own gourmet coffee with half & half in my thermos – one for the ride up, one for the drive home…). The sides are out. At least KFC has some soggy overcooked stewed green beans, I guess, but how the heck am I gonna eat those while driving? Mashed potatoes and gravy? Potato wedges. Mac n cheese? Nope. Not this geezer… The whole reason I was looking for an alternative is the way those Micky D’s biscuits sat in my stomach like a load of bricks… I’d go for a biscuit if it was a good Bojangles steak biscuit maybe, but not a cold Mickey D’s bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit. About the third time on that one was enough already… I used to like them. Of course, I used to like eating a whole bag of Doritos, too!</p>
<p>Been walking all week. 3 miles tonight. feel like a caged lion. I bought a high altitude mask and have been wearing it in the car and during my walks. Makes me look like Hannibal Lector. My wife is worried I’m going to get arrested! Supposedly it simulates a high altitude environment and increases your cardio capacity. I’ll try anything at this point.</p>
<p>Going to try running and the Alter G tomorrow if I get out of work early enough.</p>