<p>I am back! Stopped going to the YMCA middle of April. Also stopped watching what I was eating. Have gained about 5 pounds back. Hubby and I started back Tuesday night and it feels so good. Eating healthier will soon follow, I am sure.</p>
<p>Northminn…wow, scary story. Glad you’re OK! I’m guessing your doctor has approved you with no limitations on your exercise. </p>
<p>IDAD…on the pants. Yeah, I sort of like the baggy pants too. Interesting, I lost 30 lbs 10 years ago and kept it off for a few years until the “slow creep” ensued. So I have “skinny” shorts and pants in storage that will likely fit when I’m done. But who knows if I’ll keep them. The high waists with the pleats will get chucked immediately!</p>
<p>Wow, if I sprayed Raid on food I threw in the trash, H would surely die because he definitely digs food out of the trash and eats it.</p>
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<p>LOL, ok, but you’re a man, and an iPod nazi veteran to boot. You’re allowed more haddock if you want it.</p>
<p>Deck of cards, people. Deck of cards. It’s fine if you want to eat two decks of cards – two servings – but just pay attention.</p>
<p>A deck of cards of beef or chicken is just fine for me.</p>
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<p>Note that whatever calibration exercise bikes have, it is nothing like what one would achieve on an actual bike actually riding. The hour record for women for cycling is only a little bit bigger than 25 miles, which is to say that most of the best female cyclists in the world wouldn’t be able to ride 25 miles in an hour. It’s a reasonable guess that different exercise bikes are calibrated differently, so we can’t compare “distance” on one brand of exercise bike versus a different brand.</p>
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<p>Excellent. Good cyclists ride at 80-100 rpm. Have you ever watched Lance ride? I don’t think he ever drops below 100 rpm. I think it’s a safe bet that his heart rate is pretty high :)</p>
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<p>A low rpm like that is hard on the knees. Efficiency is not a consideration for an exercise bike, but if you think of taking your biking outside, you’d be more efficient (faster for the same effort) if you doubled the rpm.</p>
<p>Darn it! So that 25 miles on the stationary bike isn’t really 25 miles??? I guess I should just be happy I keep improving! I don’t think I could ever get more than 25 in an hour. I did the 25 today and then walked very slowly on the dreadmill for 2 more miles this morning. I am determined to keep moving!!!</p>
<p>NorthMinnesota, it doesn’t really matter that 25 “miles” on the exercise bike isn’t the same as 25 miles on the road. You’re exercising hard for an hour! That’s great.</p>
<p>Do you ride the exercise bike with a towel around your shoulders? When I’ve used an exercise bike, I’ve poured with sweat.</p>
<p>North Minn…you are to be admired for lasting so long on an exercise bike. Keep up the great work! Personally, I can only do about 15 minutes and then have to switch to another machine out of sheer boredom. I usually do a circuit, bike, eliptical, treadmill. But with the weather so nice, I LOVE to get outside. I can go on my bike for hours…something about the fresh air and the scenery just keeps me going. And going fast…especially down hill…is a terrific feeling. I’m hooked.</p>
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<p>:D Same thing here!</p>
<p>BTW, I usually have only one can of tuna at a time. That day I was particularly hungry and knew I would be eating dinner late after a stint at the gym. I’m in this for the long haul, and I’m not going to martyr myself to hunger every day. Since a can of tuna is a mere 100 calories, my lunch was still around 350 calories. I prefer to eat more earlier in the day. My estimate of 6 oz of chicken was just that–it may actually have been 4, which is what I usually have. I didn’t weigh it, and when I don’t weigh it I do <em>not</em> give myself the benefit of the doubt. 
The total calories for the day were probably under 1200. I doubt that anyone is going to be gaining weight on that, no matter what they say. (The difference may be that when I say that is ALL I ate that day, it really is true. I write it all down, every day.)</p>
<p>^^^^1200 calories would definitely be on the low end. Can’t imagine gaining weight on that, either.</p>
<p>Welcome back EddieOdessa! We have missed you. I am also trying to get back on track. I had been at the same weight now for over a month. This past weekend gained 3 lbs after eating out and having alot of salt. I am back on track with my eating this week and weighed myself last night and again this morning and I am down 5 lbs since Monday. Obviously I was retaining some water. I am for the first time in quite a number of years below 150. I still would like to lose more. But I am going for life changes so while exercising more and eating less I am not depriving myself. I try to avoid pasta and potato and rice during the week. I don’t have 2nd’s and I don’t have wine unless it is a special occasion.
Thank you to whoever posted about the foam roller. It reminder me that we had one.</p>
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<p>I’ll let you spin at 80 rpm on a Schwinn Airdyne! </p>
<p>Here’s two young, fairly fit guys, trying to relay for 8 minutes on an Airdyne. Looks to me like they are spinning at about 60 rpm. They collapse after three minutes each:</p>
<p>[Airdyne</a> 1 Riders 0](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9O2XBHsySk]Airdyne”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9O2XBHsySk)</p>
<p>I agree that you want to spin a road bike faster than 60 rpm. It looks to me like 80 rpm would be a good goal for a newbie bike rider. Lance spins 100+ rpm, but I doubt many new bike riders can do that for very long.</p>
<p>On an exercise bike, I don’t know where the lack of resistance versus pedaling speed advantages lie. I guess the spinning class experts probably know. With her knee problems, NMINN is probably better erring on the side of easier resistance and higher rpms – although Airdynes are used widely in knee rehab and nobody is going to be pedalling those a 80 rpm for very long.</p>
<p>If you can’t go more than 40 rpm, doesn’t matter what bike, it’s going to be hard on your knees.</p>
<p>With the Airdyne you take some pressure off your knees by the work you are doing with your arms.</p>
<p>Had an interesting session today with the personal trainer, who made a comment, totally out of the blue. I was on the assisted dip/chin machine and all of a sudden he looked up at me and said with a sort of surprised look on his face and said, “Wow, you’ve got definition in your arms.” As I kept going up and down, he added, “You’ve got cuts in your muscles.” </p>
<p>At which point I kept my mouth shut because I have no idea what cuts in my muscles are, but by the look on his face, he was feeling a little job satisfaction.</p>
<p>He kicked my butt today… I had to leave 15 minutes early on Tuesday, so we made it up today and went for 75 minutes. He keeps count of the total sets I’m doing in each circuit, then adds everything up and the end and tells me what I’ve done for the day. He was very impressed with what I managed today. I think I did something like 64 sets in about 75 minutes… so not bad! </p>
<p>I am HORRIBLE at noticing subtleties such as ‘cut muscles’, and it would have gone unnoticed on my part had he not said anything, so it felt good to have my hard work acknowledged.</p>
<p>^^^^Yes, cuts are very very good! It’s always so nice to realize that all your hard work is actually getting results.</p>
<p>Teri- I expect to see a pose with those cut muscles on facebook! Way to go!</p>
<p>You guys did not take the bait. I wanted someone to tell me what cut muscles are!!</p>
<p>Teriwtt, if I HAD cut muscles, I’d be sure to tell you what they were.
The only time I was ever told that I had definition in my arms was when I was single and working out six days a week.</p>
<p>Congrats to you!</p>