<p>Fruit is definitely a sugar- that’s the problem. I do feel better after eating a peach or some cherries than after eating half a bag of caramel corn like I did yesterday (part of our work junk food drop), though.</p>
<p>iDad can definitely weigh in on the Aerdyne issue for amesie.</p>
<p>Kmc, I fully understand what you are saying. As my H is on WW , that is one flaw I see for him- he will happily eat more fruit than veggies - especially for snacking - but it also sure adds up in calories when you add in the quantity. One thing for him to have an apple- another thing for him to eat a huge bowl of grapes. </p>
<p>In my world, I have never seen fruit as a substitute for dessert - haha , fruit doesn’t cut it!! If I want dessert, I’d take one good cookie over any amount of fruit. Kudos to you who can sub the fruit as a “dessert”!!!</p>
<p>~ 4 mi rolling hills run. Beautiful day out. A touch on the warm side for running, but oh, so nice.</p>
<p>Communications from the race director of my next marathon are all addressed to “Masochists” and refer to making wills and “if” we receive a finisher’s prize…</p>
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<p>I think the biggest lobster I’ve ever cooked was about 7 pounds, but I’ve found that 2 to 2.5 pounders make a nice serving. Another trick I learned from Julia Child (in addition to her steaming times for every size lobster from 1 to 7 lbs), is that small lobsters have more meat (proportionally) than large lobsters. So, these days, a single serving for me is two 1 to 1.25 pound lobsters. I think think the two I bought yesterday totaled up to 2.25 pounds or $9.</p>
<p>blankmind, I’m not a pro like MOWC but when running down hills, I lean forward a little and shorten my stride. The idea is to keep your feet under your body rather than long strides throwing your knees out in front of you to take the full brunt of the downhill pounding.<br>
I feel more in control with my feet underneath me on steep hills.</p>
<p>Totally agreed. However, if I ate 10 pieces of fruit a day, that would be so filling I wouldn’t wind up eating much else. I think everything in moderation. There’s a concept! </p>
<p>This will sound funny, but eating an apple takes a while to do, and gives me a “mouth crunch” that satisfies, so I can eat the apple and really feel like I’ve had something of substance.</p>
<p>On the downhills- Yes, try to remain mostly upright and not leaning too far one way or the other. I tend to be somewhat cautious since I’m a faller. Shorten stride and keep feet under your body. Falling while running downhill is a very, very bad thing, as I know.</p>
<p>amesie: </p>
<p>My Schwinn Airdyne bike and a pair of 8 lb dumbbells from KMart were the first two piece of exercise gear I bought. The DBs are long gone, but the Airdyne is still going strong and will certainly outlive me.</p>
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<p>First things first, I think you have to decide what you want as the Airdyne is not really a conventional exercise bike in a couple of key ways:</p>
<p>1) Standard exercise bikes are legs only. On the Airdyne, you pedal like a bike and push and pull with the arms at the same time. While it is possible to just pedal or just use the arms, most of the time you’ll do both. Working arms and legs simultaneously is very challenging from an oxygen consumption standpoint. Going hard on an Airdyne will gas you very quickly!</p>
<p>2) Standard exercise bikes have variable resistance (usually with an adjustable magnetic force). So you press buttons to make it easier or harder to pedal. And, you will need to make these adjustments if you want to pedal faster or slower. The Airdyne has zero adjustments. The front wheel is a fan. So you are pedalling against the wind resistance of the fan. When you pedal faster, the increasing air resistance automatically increases the resistance of the pedals. Pedal slower and the pedaling gets easier, automatically. No adjustments, no settings. Ever. </p>
<p>3) Here’s the kicker: the wind resistance increases with the square of speed. So when you start pedaling faster, it gets harder and harder very quickly. This makes the Airdyne the perfect exercise machine for intervals – workouts where you are alternating between short hard bursts and slow recovery periods. On a regular exercise bike, you’ve got to adjust the settings to pedal fast and hard and then adjust them again to pedal slow and easy. On the Airdyne, it is completely automatic. For a work interval, you just pedal faster and the resistance automatically adjusts. To rest, just pedal slower and the resistance automatically gets easier. All automatic, regardless of whether you want to do short 10 second ultra high energy intervals or longer 2 minute moderate intervals. This is why Airdynes are so widely used for sports training and really good fat loss programs.</p>
<p>4) For just long slow easy cardio, either type will work. On a regular bike, you just set it and pedal. On the Airdyne, you just pedal slow and easy. One characteristic of the Airdyne is that it is incredibly smooth – like pedalling a very expensive high end exercise bike with a huge flywheel. Very easy on the joints.</p>
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<p>If you decide to go with a regular exercise bike, there are three options: upright standard bike, recumbent sitting bike, or spin bike that is like a road bike. Personally, unless you’ve got some physical issues, I wouldn’t get a recumbent. The whole point of exercise is to counteract the effects of sitting all day long, so it doesn’t make much sense to get an exercise machine where we are sitting in a chair. If you ride real bikes, then a spin bike probably make sense as it’s going to be training for the road bike.</p>
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<p>The difference between the two Airdynes is the difference between the pro/commercial gym model and the home version. The [AD6</a> Airdyne](<a href=“http://www.bodybasics.com/sites/default/files/products/71Qbdqmr8GL._SL1500__0.jpg]AD6”>http://www.bodybasics.com/sites/default/files/products/71Qbdqmr8GL._SL1500__0.jpg) is the current version of the commercial quality Airdyne that has been in production since the 1970s. This is the new version of the Airdyne I have and the one that NFL teams and top gyms use. Very heavy duty, like a $5000 treadmill compared to a home model. For home use, it will last literally forever. It won’t be one of those throw-away exercise machines that’s falling apart in three years. in fact, there’s quite an active market in 20 and 30 year old Airdynes. The [AD2</a> Airdyne](<a href=“http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71Eo90pjP0L._SL1500_.jpg]AD2”>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71Eo90pjP0L._SL1500_.jpg) is the new inexpensive home version that was introduced a couple of years ago. It’s functionally the same, but lighter construction and a lot of plastic parts. Airdynes are so cheap compared to most high end exercise machines, that I would definitely buy the $550 AD6 over the $320 AD2 if I were buying one today.</p>
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<p>Abasket - FWIW, if I eat more than 1 banana, I give myself a point for it even though it doesn’t technically get one. Because one could really down quite a few bananas in a short period of time! All I can say is - I could not do this whole thing without apples, grapes (in moderation - maybe a cup a day), raspberries and blueberries, and without those Mini Babybels and Laughing Cow wedges. I just can’t make myself eat more than nominal amounts of celery sticks or carrots or other raw veggies. And during the day I’m not having cooked veggies.</p>
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<p>If you ride a real bicycle, you can just get a trainer stand or rollers to ride indoors if the weather is too nasty to ride outside. A trainer stand or rollers takes up a lot less room than a dedicated stationary bicycle.</p>
<p>ucb- When was the last time you saw a regular ol’ person riding rollers? That’s really not helpful advice, in my opinion. I don’t even know of any triathletes these days who use rollers. They all have sophisticated training stands with computerized stuff. With rollers- even if you are very skilled- there is that risk of riding through your kitchen by accident!</p>
<p>Here’s high end option in both a spin bike and a magnetic resistance Airdyne type:</p>
<p>[M3</a> Indoor Cycle](<a href=“http://mseries.keiser.com/m3.html]M3”>http://mseries.keiser.com/m3.html)
[M3</a> Total Bdy Trainer](<a href=“http://mseries.keiser.com/tbt.html]M3”>http://mseries.keiser.com/tbt.html)</p>
<p>The bike is $1700 on Amazon. I think the Airdyne type bike is a couple hundred more. Magnetic resistance controlled by a shift lever on the handlebar.</p>
<p>idad- why did you decide to go with an Airdyne bike when you first started. I am familiar with the bike since my years working at a gym. Most people did not use it because it worked you so hard.
My wife and I are discussing purchasing one for the basement when my current gym closes. That is coming soon.</p>
<p>We have two Nordic Trac machines which we had many years of great use but they have been unused now for years. We also have a Concept 2 rower- original model and the bike rollers. I always hated those.
We have enough equipment but I have always liked the vibe of working out at the gym.</p>
<p>I figured I would comment on the fruit issue. This only applies to me but I love fruit and I most certainly did not get fat eating it. My issue was I slacked off of my workouts for a year which turned into significant weight gain. I then fooled myself by getting back in shape and continued to eat like a glutton. So I stayed fat but was feeling great- still do. As I got older I could not out work a terrible diet so I continued to gain weight.</p>
<p>So now I decided to make a concerted effort to lose weight and I am on and off the wagon. A few weeks ago I did some comparison and kept a food log. Days I kept carbs down weight came off fairly easily days I ate fruit but still kept my calorie count the same as the lower carb days the weight loss was significantly less. The more insidious problem for me was the days I ate fruit I had far greater urge to eat other carbs. The bad ones cookies, cake, ice cream and pudding.
So I decided to try the low carb plan. I am finding 100 carbs is not that hard to maintain and so far cravings for the junk have not been an issue.
When I say I ate junk I mean a box of cookies, the container of ice cream etc and more often than not it was not only one it was several of the junk food categories at a time.
My family is naturally thin so I while am heavy other people that ate like me would be far fatter in most cases. So somehow the fruit triggered the urge to eat more sugars and so far staying away -only one apple every morning seems to be working.</p>
<p>tom:</p>
<p>The very first beginner workout program I started with began day one with short high intensity intervals that I did on a rickety old yard sale exercise bike. That thing was a death trap – you adjusted the resistance by tightening or loosening a brake shoe and it was pretty much impossible to do intervals on it. So I needed to find something for warm-up, cool-down, and intervals. I thought about an elliptical, but my wife said that she hated them and prefered an exercise bike. Silly me, I thought that meant she would use it, so I started looking for a bike. After a little bit of googling, it because obvious that the Airdyne was the instrument of choice for coaches that preached interval training. In fact, those google searches and articles about Airdynes were how I initially found Mike Boyle’s stuff and Alwyn Cosgrove’s stuff.</p>
<p>[Interval</a> Training- HIIT or Miss?](<a href=“http://www.strengthcoach.com/public/1766.cfm]Interval”>http://www.strengthcoach.com/public/1766.cfm)</p>
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<p>I like the old-school simplicity of the Airdyne, the fact that it doesn’t have to be plugged into the wall and the fact that the original large fan model I bought is essentially unchanged for 40 years.</p>
<p>I would like a Concept 2 rower for the same reasons, but there is definitely a much higher injury potential than the Airdyne. On the Airdyne, you don’t have to worry about maintaining proper form to avoid back strain when you are completely gassed.</p>
<p>I don’t actually use it that often because Airdyne intervals are tough. It’s hard to gear up for them more than once a week or so. But, still, a 20 minute Airdyne workout once a week is a big plus, especially in the winter when jogging intervals outside aren’t an option. It’s also a fantastic tool for low intensity cardio – good for a ten minute warmup or cooldown. I just don’t use it that way, except when I’ve been sick for a few days and just need to something really easy to get my blood flowing.</p>
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<p>That’s the way I was. I had to just rope off those foods as poison in my mind. Making sugar and processed carbs the villian is a big help to keeping myself on track in the grocery store. Actually, once you make sugar/processed carbs the villian, you are pretty much limited to eating real food.</p>
<p>Two minutes of very hard Airdyne intervals:</p>
<p>[Tabata</a> Airdyne Bike Intervals - YouTube](<a href=“Tabata Airdyne Bike Intervals - YouTube”>Tabata Airdyne Bike Intervals - YouTube)</p>
<p>I’ve only done these (20 seconds hard/10 seconds rest) once. 20 seconds hard, 40 seconds (or even 60 seconds) rest is challenging enough.</p>
<p>It never gets easier, because when you get a little stronger, you pedal just a little faster, and end up bent over panting like a dog just the same… A perfect pace is when the legs are just starting to burn at the end of each interval.</p>
<p>Re: running downhill. As MOfWC and the others said, short strides are the key. I also slow down, use less muscle power and let my legs “coast” to conserve energy. Downhill running is not fun…</p>
<p>great points, kmc. Always enjoy your posts.</p>
<p>Big, sunny, warm, beautiful outdoor day.</p>
<p>2 mountain bike rides.
1 loop ca. 5 miles
another longer loop ca. 11 miles.
Both trails considered “easy”, but with all the roots, rocks, uneven terrain, and on my 25+ year old mountain bike (purchased with my first measly paycheck right out of college), it was challenging enough, thank you very much.
Then almost an hour of hitting tennis balls in 90+ degree heat and lots of wind. Fun, but ugly. Felt like I earned the 2 sugar free lemon drop martinis.</p>
<p>Apropos of tennis, BCEagle needs to come back!! I think I need advice on buying a new racket, for one thing.</p>
<p>Back to the basement for me. Second time through my new workouts. Nice solid workout. Raining, so I had to substitute indoor lunges and some agility ladder runs for the carioca and lateral shuttles I do outside.</p>
<p>Three good sets of chin-ups. Only four per set, but nice and slow, to a complete stop at the bottom and a stop with my chin over the bar at the top. These are starting to feel like a real exercise instead of an all-out thrash.</p>
<p>Hex bar dead lifts. Rear foot elevated split squats with my foot in the Jungle Gym. Alternating DB bench press. And 50 lb KB swings for the finisher.</p>
<p>I’ll be taking (most of) next week off from strength training as I plan to hike three days in a row. I have a short hike the first day, to leave time to pitch a tent for the first time. I’ll be hiking in search of the infamous [Keeper</a> of Stray Ladies](<a href=“http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-89lVBN9jFwc/UcZU45WLpPI/AAAAAAAAB78/MY1ZKLf22mc/s640/Bette+Davis+Plaque+2_OTIS.JPG]Keeper”>http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-89lVBN9jFwc/UcZU45WLpPI/AAAAAAAAB78/MY1ZKLf22mc/s640/Bette+Davis+Plaque+2_OTIS.JPG) plaque placed on a rock by Bette Davis in honor of her NH innkeeper husband, Arthur Farnsworth.</p>
<p>The next day, I’m planning to climb another 4000 footer, [Mt</a>. Pierce](<a href=“http://www.franklinsites.com/hikephotos/NewHampshire/mtpiercesummitbig-2007-0626a.jpg]Mt”>http://www.franklinsites.com/hikephotos/NewHampshire/mtpiercesummitbig-2007-0626a.jpg), a few summits down the ridge from Mt. Washington.</p>
<p>Still mulling options for the third day, depending on how tired I am and how early I can get the tent and gear stuffed back into the car.</p>
![http://www.bodybasics.com/sites/default/files/products/71Qbdqmr8GL._SL1500__0.jpg]AD6](http://www.bodybasics.com/sites/default/files/products/71Qbdqmr8GL._SL1500__0.jpg%5DAD6){kind=link}
![http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71Eo90pjP0L._SL1500_.jpg]AD2](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71Eo90pjP0L._SL1500_.jpg%5DAD2){kind=link}
![http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-89lVBN9jFwc/UcZU45WLpPI/AAAAAAAAB78/MY1ZKLf22mc/s640/Bette+Davis+Plaque+2_OTIS.JPG]Keeper](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-89lVBN9jFwc/UcZU45WLpPI/AAAAAAAAB78/MY1ZKLf22mc/s640/Bette+Davis+Plaque+2_OTIS.JPG%5DKeeper){kind=link}
![http://www.franklinsites.com/hikephotos/NewHampshire/mtpiercesummitbig-2007-0626a.jpg]Mt](http://www.franklinsites.com/hikephotos/NewHampshire/mtpiercesummitbig-2007-0626a.jpg%5DMt){kind=link}
