<p>Get your iPod and commit to walk on the dreadmill for 2 songs. You’ll be surprised how fast it will go. Then you will add another song. Report back in.</p>
<p>Have been running on and off. The weather here is… Let’s say, a down puffer coat would have been appropriate for wearing yesterday. And today. Let’s hope tomorrow we will have temperatures above 60. Did a lot of mall walking today looking for warmer clothes.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reminder emeraldkitty4!;)</p>
<p>Tough weekend. NO workouts on SAT or SUN… my knee is screaming at me and scale is up 3 pounds! Had lots of commtitments from dawn to dusk. New for me. Won’t do that again! Went to the cabin and no gym access… so what can I sustitute for gym acccess??? Need to figure that out. sigh…I am very depressed. :(</p>
<p>very happy:</p>
<p>Yeah, looks like egg and flour. Here’s he ingredient list from a recipe that looks like it must be pretty similar to what my wife makes:</p>
<p>Ingredients
1 (10 ounce) package spinach, rinsed and chopped
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 onion, chopped
1 (8 ounce) package shredded mozzarella cheese</p>
<p>I’m not sure if hers have the baking powder as her spinach brownies are very dense. The baking powder would make them rise a bit and a be a bit more cake-like, I think.</p>
<p>They are really good. But, I resisted.</p>
<p>On the treadmill:</p>
<p>I second the iPod recommendation. I listen to music on the exercise bike and while walking outside. A good playlist, full of surprises, really takes your mind off the clock.</p>
<p>I would make a commitment for 10 minutes, rather than five. I find that there is always a “wall” to hit at about the five minute mark, with almost any kind of exercise. One of the keys for me to start enjoying exercise was to realize that this “warm-up wall” is meaningless and easy to just blast through. </p>
<p>nMINN:</p>
<p>I’ve never set foot in a gym and I don’t intend to change that anytime soon. My wife has tried and tried to get me to join her gym, but for what she spends, I was able to outfit my home workouts with dumbells, stability ball, nice exercise bike, and iPod nazi workouts. She likes the classes and stuff. I would hate them. I guess the one advantage to the gym would be summertime when the house is sometimes just too hot to workout, but that’s really just a few months a year, here.</p>
<p>I have really grown fond of a nice 40 minute spirited walk. I have a really hilly route that winds through fields on a Episcopalean retreat property along a river – gorgeous. With the iPod playing, it’s totally mindless. With a fairly brisk pace, the hills get my heartrate up to 85% to 90% (depending on the heat and how hard I’m pushing).</p>
<p>Just catching up on this thread and checking in. I have maintained my surgery induced weight loss – I really have no interest in eating fatty/fried foods. We’re at our beach house for the summer, so I have been doing my outside walking route, weather permitting. I have decided to do a summer membership at a local health club, though, since I had been making good progress with all the machines back home and hate to lose all that while we’re here. I was able to freeze my home membership for 3 months, so at least I don’t feel as if I’m paying twice. We recently cleaned out the garage here, unearthing our bikes. Today I plan to clean mine up and see how it runs – may need to go to a shop for a tune-up. My plan is to then bike to the mini-mart every day to buy a paper.</p>
<p>Kudos to everyone making progress on their healthy eating and exercise plans; support and encouragement to those just starting out or trying to get back on track.</p>
<p>Northminn - no need to get depressed! Is your cabin near some nice places to walk or bike? Fresh air and sunlight can be very good for the soul. Also, maybe buying some free weights and bands to keep there would be a good idea. </p>
<p>CBBLinker…a beach house for the summer…wow…sounds nice! I have a friend who is doing the same and she invites me out to visit once in a while. Being near the water is restorative…you’re very lucky! I just love long walks on the beach…in the early morning…before the crowds show up. And your bike idea sounds great!</p>
<p>
I agree! But, I don’t actually do my walking on the beach here since there’s too much of a slope and it ends up hurting my hips.</p>
<p>As a side note, we’re able to do this (spend the summer at the beach) since H can work anywhere with high-speed internet and a convenient airport.</p>
<p>Water is still too cold to swim at the cabin, we have no bikes there and a brisk walk is still too much for the old knee. I need to stop whining! Anyway…went to gym this morning and settled in on my recumbent bike for 70 minutes. Will be more careful with weekend snacking!</p>
<p>NM, North Minnesota is such a beautiful place to ride a bike, particularly at this time of year. Is it possible to get a bike while you’re at your cabin? Craigslist? Rent? Or bring one there?</p>
<p>Seven days in a row of some kind of exercise! Like I said, I’m back and I’m bad…</p>
<p>iPod nazi this afternoon. Two circuits of these phase II exercises that have been kicking my butt, then 10 hard intervals on the Airdyne (10 seconds fast, 20 seconds easy, 10 seconds fast, 20 seconds easy, and so forth).</p>
<p>Pretty much brutal – 81 degrees in the house. Lots of ice water, lots of toweling off. Several of these exercises just gas me. Lunge walking while pressing dumbells overhead with each step. Brutal. Ball squats with curl and press of dumbells each time you come up. Brutal. Pushup position with the feed on the stability ball, rolling the ball into the the butt and extending it back out straight. Brutal. Although I finally got the hang of that one. It’s hard to even stay on the ball, but when you get the extension right, it’s an ab killer.</p>
<p>I got through two sets of the seven exercises plus the bike intervals, which was my goal. Exercises all felt stronger, which is what I’m trying to accomplish now. I even lasted the full 45 seconds of plank on the exercise ball – which leave my arms just quivering.</p>
<p>NorthMinn- I’m feeling sorry for myself for not running Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth area this past weekend. Last year’s great marathons seem like a distant memory.</p>
<p>idad- My PT had me doing some ab work (pushup position) on the ball today and at one point I fell right off and rolled over!!</p>
<p>I hear ya. I’ve fallen off the ball a couple of times. iPod nazi says that’s to be expected. Heck, just getting into a pushup position, arms outstretched, with feet/ankles on the stability ball is not easy. Then, once you’re up there, you’ve gotta get the ball stabilized so you don’t fall off. Then, start rolling the ball in until the knees are bent and back out straight. It doesn’t take long for everything to start burning: arms/shoulders, legs, and abs. It looks like such a silly little exercise, but…</p>
<p>I’ve figured out that you just can’t do these ball exercises without a strong core and really controlling the exercise completely. My tendency, when I’m floppin’ around on the ball, is to try to do the exercises really fast. In reality, doing them slowly and deliberately seems to be the trick.</p>
<p>Back at it again today. D1 has exercised with me the past two days as a “guest” at the club. Good to see her trying to get in shape for the wedding. So very hot and humid around here. No way could I exercise outside on a day like today. I have been sweating so much I am getting my hair cut shorter…H thinks it’s funny that my exercise routine is starting to dictate my hair style! ;)</p>
<p>Another stability ball ab killer that I’ve been doing (or, at least, trying to do) is to put the hands on the floor, support the upper body that way, put the calves/feet on the ball, and then pull your core up to the ceiling – and your legs are straight – so your body is like an inverted “V.” Hold it for as long as you can, then roll the ball back so your body is straight, parellel to the floor. I can do about five of those before dying.</p>
<p>Eighth day in a row for me. Little cooler: upper 70s, but overcast and muggy. I decided to push the pace on my hilly river walk. Started out with a fast stride and just kept that pace on the hills. Kept my heart rate up and knocked a minute fifty-five seconds off my previous fastest time! My aerobic capacity (limited though it may be) has bounced back from the flu congestion.</p>
<p>iPod nazi kicked my butt yesterday. Every muscle in my body feels like it’s been rode hard and put up wet. That’s good, though.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It’s amazing, isn’t it? These stability ball exercises look like something you’d see in a senior center, right before bingo. Then, you try to do them and muscles you don’t even know about turn to jelly. I’m truly shocked at how tough some of these simple core exercises are. It’s also pretty amazing to feel the results of strengthening the core. I can either be on the bike or walking, stiffen the core, and immediately feel stronger and pick up the pace.</p>
<p>Had an interesting (and very educational) day today. Decided to go feed some of my planters and bedding plants, so I threw on my bathing suit, in case I got hot and wanted to jump in the pool. But I thought I’d only be out ten minutes or so and I didn’t put on any sunscreen. Well, my ‘feeding’ project turned into doing a lot more outside, so when I jumped in the pool, it felt so good to just relax and float about. Didn’t realize how much time I spent outside (maybe an hour), then came in to get ready for my training session. Saw that I’d gotten some sun, but it’s not too bad. Anyway, just being in the sun zapped me of all energy, and when I got to the gym, within ten minutes of doing some not too difficult work, my heartrate was shooting up very quickly… so the trainer decided to forego any cardio goals for today and focus on some new exercises that focus on small muscles, so that’s what we did (I was still getting my heart rate up, but nothing like it was when we first started out).</p>
<p>We both concluded I was probably dehydrated (I had had very minimal water to drink prior to heading to the gym) and to stay out of the sun just prior to coming in to work with him. </p>
<p>So he made another comment today about the cuts he could see, so I made him go over to a mirror with me and show me what he was seeing. He had me straighten my arm, and when I did so, you could actually see my triceps muscle. It reminded me to tell him I’d be thrilled if I could ever have Michelle Obama arms/upper body!</p>
<p>He loved hearing the story I told him of H’s biking/swimming expedition this weekend. Good news is he has enough frequent flyer miles for a new iPod, and work is replacing his phone. Have not heard back from the bike shop yet, though.</p>
<p>I’m on a college visit road trip with D. I bet I’ve gained 5 pounds in three days. Lots of driving and eating terrible food. The problem is portion control…it feels terrible to not eat 3/4 of the huge portion of food the restaurants serve, and there’s no way to take it home for later. So one either overeats, or feels wasteful. Today’s hotel has one breakfast option: $9.95 buffet. Way too much to pay for a bowl of raisin bran or a piece of wheat toast with peanut butter. Also, the workout facilities ar generally too tiny (too few machines for the number of guests.)</p>
<p>Road food would be a challenge. I guess you just have to do the best you can.</p>
<p>Why not take advantage of these colleges and do some walking? Heck, just the tours wore me out! You could put together a gorgeous walking route at almost any college campus. Some of them are truly spectacular.</p>
<p>^^Great suggestion, i-dad!</p>
<p>I saw this earlier today and have to share with you, fellow exercisers:</p>
<p>[‘Losing</a> It With Jillian’: Five Tips for Better Abs](<a href=“http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/losing-it-with-jillian-5-tips-to-greater-abs--1335]'Losing”>http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/losing-it-with-jillian-5-tips-to-greater-abs--1335)</p>
<p>^^Simple and easy to follow advice (exept the lack of sleep part :))</p>