<p>For me, it seems like often the least fun part of a run is between mins 21-29. Now if it’s a long run and I’m picking up a lot of speed the last five to ten minutes, that part is hard, but there’s a good reason for it. I have wondered more than once whether the body starts drawing on different fuel somewhere around 30 mins.</p>
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<p>Trying to catch up on some Amazon video rentals that I was too sleepy to watch while camping! Also, going easy on the exercise to make sure my leg is healed!</p>
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<p>Eddieodessa:</p>
<p>Yay! Better to start with modest steps and stick to them! Just walking a little bit each day or washing a car is a great place to start.</p>
<p>WOOT to Sabaray on the extra 5lb party! Enjoy your light up cake. Makes me wonder what I’d weigh right now if I’d committed to something as rigorous as c25k (instead of endless sumer shenanigans 
instead it would seem I’ve gone the other direction for the moment…like a herded cat :)</p>
<p>Welcome, Eddie, and kudos on gettin off the couch, as they say. (Folks, Eddie is a longtime poster and pal from the 2013 parenthood thread). I will take a stab at giving you some tips that hopefully will make this journey a happy one for you!</p>
<p>Getting active can be hard at first and its something I’ve not mastered comparatively I don’t know if you’ve visited the thread before, but idad has lost more than 90lbs over a couple of years and is a great fountain of fitness knowledge as a result. When he started his weightloss trajectory, he would be winded walking to the mailbox. Now he hikes up mountains :)</p>
<p>I know you’re already doing weight watchers now…so be patient and set good SLOW goals. If WW has a tracker capability, I’ve found it helpful to track both what I eat and what I do in terms of exercise. If WW ends up not being a fit, be sure to ask around – different folks are trying different things. In iDad’s case, for example, he is very low sugar/carbs and high protein/fat and its obviously worked like a charm. In my case, I’ve just largely eliminated bread/wheat and moderated carbs, relying more on the global calories in/calories expended model using mynetdiary.com</p>
<p>Sabaray, I believe, is using the tracker approach plus a nice gradual running program that is called C25k meaning “couch to 5 k” and is known for turning anyone in any condition into a runner through a progressive schedule…she’s now a graduate :)</p>
<p>On the fitness front, one thing that helped me outpace mch who was also “being fed lean aka dieting” was setting up a little 20 - 30 minute routine in the a.m.</p>
<p>I didn’t want to run because of some old injury/joint issues and facet joint syndrome, which kinda requires low impact and good stability to avoid further injury/lockups.</p>
<p>So I read up and found out that “exerstriding” was a great way to both burn more fat and calories, get your heart rate up on a walk, and at the same time, creates stability. It is better for overall toning than straight walking.</p>
<p>So in my case, I snowshoed up a hill for a mile every day in the winter, then used cleats in the spring. (I added other things, but this is my “base” activity.)</p>
<p>But you don’t need snow or a hill to exerstride (aka Nordic walking). You can just get the poles that convert to street walking and walk around the neighborhood before you get ready for the day. Here’s a link to my collapsible pair that telescope down to be carried around with you if you travel – eg I just used them a lot on my St. John’s trip.
[Amazon.com:</a> Mountainsmith Carbonlite Pro Trekking Poles, Slate: Sports & Outdoors](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000G1KCMY/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000G1KCMY/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)</p>
<p>If you make your goal a mile a day no matter what, at first, going slower, it will take you about a half hour.,.going faster will take 20 min or less. Here’s what I predict will happen:</p>
<p>First, you will notice your legs toning up. Then your shoulder and arms area. Then one day you’ll suddenly notice that your core muscles, like your transverse, have more definition and your waist is getting smaller this happens slowly, over months, with exerstriding, but its quite definite.</p>
<p>At the same time, because exerstriding increases your oxygen capacity by having you engage all your muscles when walking (its the arm movement that increases cardio and reduces shear loading on your spine), you’ll also notice you don’t get winded as easily. Then one day you’ll kind of “realize” you’re in much better shape and will have built a bit of a base to expand the activity level in other ways, whether its biking or kayaking or even jogging (in my case, water jogging for low impact.)</p>
<p>The most important thing that I predict will happen is that you will start to really “enjoy” your body and your new or renewed sense of strength. Having that little routine is also a way of saying “this is ME time just for me.” It helps clear your head and sets up your metabolism for the day to burn better. You start to notice that you have more energy from doing it. And in my case anyway, more mental clarity.</p>
<p>There are a ton of other things that can be done and that are more aggressive and produce faster results. And when you slim down, you ultimately need to increase activity or reduce caloric intake to maintain.</p>
<p>But if you give yourself a small, achievable, low-risk-for-injury place to start and just commit to five or more days a week of it for a few months, you will build a habit that’s easier to maintain and that’s good for your bones, muscles, and oxygen capacity.</p>
<p>12 years ago when my facet condition was diagnosed, my back surgeon had recommended, based on recent research, that I walk a mile a day and so doing would help me avoid a very risky surgery. I had followed drs orders until 2 years ago when we moved. I still got fat by over-eating and an otherwise sedentary lifestyle, but my back stayed pretty good. But once I combined weightloss and added the poles/increased the intensity, I noticed a dramatic difference. Early research into exerstriding is showing even more gains for folks with many conditions, including back, arthritis, obesity, etc.</p>
<p>So these are just ideas to get you started on some kind of routine to accompany your weightloss plan. It doesn’t really matter what you do…it just matters to decide to be unstoppable about it…and at the same time, avoid overdoing it to avoidance (eg keep it simple or easy enough to habituate it, then increase intensity if more aggressive results are desired.)</p>
<p>In truth, its entirely possible to lose weight without changing the activity level whatsoever…mr “fed lean” mch has lost 30 lbs and went from a fasting blood sugar level of 126 to 106, thereby avoiding or forestalling a need for metformin. And trust me, he’s truly not embracing an active lifestyle.</p>
<p>But I think you might find the results are both more satisfying and lasting if you pair the two plans together.</p>
<p>The other critical thing to a “successful” re shaping of you physique and activity level is to love the you on the couch too, the same way we “love the kids on the couch.” If you are telling your body all the time that you hate it, by god will it dig in its heels. You have to outsmart it by lovin it up lots, because when you set your intent for self love, its both easier to make good choices and easier to forgive yourself for tumbles off the wagon and to just get right back up. </p>
<p>It’s a tricky thing to self-motivate enough to “change or transform” and at the same time not “make it mean something” when you have setbacks. If you can bring the idea of joy into what you eat or do, somehow its all more satisfying and you begin to realize that all those “treats” before were an attempt of some kind to create a more artificial joy (eg stimulate dopamine) when in fact you can have that at your disposal through moderate nutrition and activity…and pure thought…instead.</p>
<p>And speaking of loving oneself when one has fallen off the wagon, I have to love myself outta 5 vacation pounds according to my more cruel home scale today, so had better stop talkin and start movin :)</p>
<p>Just finished a 2 hr bike ride w H and now off to work. You guys are inspirational!!</p>
<p>Weirdly for me, I often find minutes 2-10 of a run the hardest - I start out fine and then looking too far ahead I STILL doubt if I can make it for a 30 minute run. The first mile sometimes seems LONG. The second mile seems to fly by - my breathing is very good, legs feel good. Mile 2-3 I’m not whipped but my legs get a little tired - I might get a little “bored”. Anything past 3 miles is bonus for me - I have not gone 4+ yet myself, but I’m so proud at 3 that I feel pretty good. </p>
<p>Time is one of the factors for me for not running much past 3 miles. I can carve out 45 mins (stretch, run, cool down) but often don’t have or plan extra time past that. But I’m good with where I’m at.</p>
<p>Today’s exercise–first, cutting the grass in the back yard. Then we’ll see…it’s supposed to be 90 and humid. :(</p>
<p>Still working on being consistently able to do a pullup. I am happy to do 3/4s of one with good form rather than “hopping up” just to say I did one. Really feel it in the core muscles!</p>
<p>I had to run at 4:30am this morning since I was leaving for a car business trip at 6am. Ugh. 1.1 mile in the dark with my headlamp. The streak lives on.</p>
<p>I’ve watched several different YouTube “how to do a pullup” videos. It’s interesting to see they can vary quite a bit in approach. One, by somebody who goes by scooby, involves using a chair and a walk the plank technique. If you start from the bottom, with no assist, no chair, no hopping up part of the way, you don’t get the chance to work the top part of the pullup as much (unless you’re doing it via some other exercise), so I see there being advantages to various approaches, not just one where you tough it out from the bottom but might miss out on working part of what one needs to develop to do a full one. To make quicker progress I’d need to get myself to a place where there’s a bar I can use to practice more often! Still would be interested in comments on the pullup training approach in The Proof is in the Pullup article by Melody Schoenfeld I asked about some time back (husband found that one).</p>
<p>Quick video about how to develop a race pace:</p>
<p>[How</a> to Find a Race Pace That Works | ACTIVE](<a href=“http://beta.active.com/articles/running/how-to-find-a-race-pace-that-works?cmp=17-7-5116]How”>http://beta.active.com/articles/running/how-to-find-a-race-pace-that-works?cmp=17-7-5116)</p>
<p>Wow, MofWC, I wanna be just like you when I grow up! Great job! I would have just slept in and ran my mileage at 11 pm. :p</p>
<p>I’m doing the Lolo Jones core workouts this week and playing with my new toy. Mr B laughed at my new 15 lb “kettlebell for babies”. 
Deborah, I too really want to learn to do a pull-up!</p>
<p>I had to get up early anyway, unfortunately. I hope to run more tonight, but we might not be back in time. That was my fear- if we got stuck or something happened, my streak would end if I didn’t do the mile in the morning. Stupid- but that’s where I am right now! My ribs are still sore.</p>
<p>I worked towards chinups with a series of bands like this:</p>
<p>[Rachel</a> Cosgrove teaching Chin-ups - YouTube](<a href=“Rachel Cosgrove teaching Chin-ups - YouTube”>Rachel Cosgrove teaching Chin-ups - YouTube)</p>
<p>The bands give you the most help at the bottom of the chin up rather than the top.</p>
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<p>Running is stupid! ;)</p>
<p>~ 3 1/3 mi run. A lone turtle out sunning himself, a company party – football and all, and a lot more ‘glistening’ than if I had run 3 hours earlier.</p>
<p>~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~</p>
<p>Boy, can she do chin-ups!</p>
<p>I’m having a little trouble seeing her hands and figuring out whether she’s actually doing chin-ups or pullups – a lot of whichever it is!</p>
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<p>MOWC, the amazing part to me is always that your feet aren’t ready to fall off after one of your standard 15 or so mile runs like this past weekend.</p>
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<p>I’m pretty sure its chin ups with her palms facing her body. Those are supposed to be a little easier and a little less stressful on the shoulders.</p>
<p>Hi eddieo! Glad to see you here! My motto is just keep plugging away a little at a time! 
Congrats sabaray!!! I am so impressed! You go girl!</p>
<p>Crazy week and weekend for me. Preparing for move in at the cabin. Got my 10,000 steps a day in plus 20-24 flights of stairs per day plus carrying furniture without messing up my knee or back. Whew! Now for more of the same this week! :)</p>
<p>No chin ups or pull ups here. Rest day (but I wouldn’t be doing chin ups or pulls up even if it weren’t). Nice relaxing training session at the park with Sabadog.</p>
<p>NM, take it easy on that knee! That’s me pretending to be your mother!</p>
<p>She was doing chin ups.
29 minute run/walk today for me.</p>
<p>Deborah- Today really goes down as a rest day. I didn’t get to run more after work since we didn’t get back from east TN until 7pm and I was just too tired. So- 1.1 miles for today (and the ValSlides). That should help with recovery from the 15! Strangely, I feel guilty. It doesn’t feel like “enough”. Humorous note- the plaintiff in this case that we were dealing with today out of town is, basically, a loser petty criminal- but not an unpleasant guy. We are the defendant and it was our witness who was being deposed today. The plaintiff was present with his lawyer and this was our 2nd meeting. He was raving about how good I look for my age and how impressed he is to the point that his lawyer basically told him to shut up. It was pretty funny, really. The plaintiff is not in good shape and I think he lost some toes in prison. His lawyer is quite portly. I’m exhausted.</p>
<p>Oh- I did stand up and do some one leg balancing stuff during the deposition.</p>