<p>I hear, ya. Conceptually, I try to stay away from Dunkin Donuts and their cinnamon coffee rolls. I buy their coffee beans, though.</p>
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<p>The muscle shirts are a bit too much for me, I’m afraid. I need a few more days of squat presses! I stick with the good ol’ fashioned crew T-shirts. I like to be able to grab a shirt and wear it, regardless if I’m going to the store or working out. So much of the dedicate “workout gear” is just way too form fitting for me. Maybe next summer when you’ll be able to see my “abs of steel”!</p>
<p>I just got the greatest thing since sliced bread for winter workouts. All New Englanders have the medium weight fleece pullovers. A few years back, my wife grabbed an ultra light-weight Columbia fleece shirt (like a long sleeved t-shirt) on the closeout rack at TJ MAXX. I couldn’t figure out what to do with it at first, as it just didn’t work as a pullover sweater. Finally, I just started wearing it as a shirt and the more I wash it, the better it gets. I’ve been looking for a couple more for two years and they are just nowhere to be found.</p>
<p>I finally found that LL BEAN sells them. Ultra light weight fleece – a crew neck version and a quarter-zip collar version. I got one of each. They both have a zipper iPod pocket on the chest. I figure they will be absolutely perfect for walking when it’s in the 40s or 50s. And, for lounging around on a cold winter day, they are like fuzzy pajamas. The more you wear them and wash them, the better. They get softer and softer.</p>
<p>I also found a place that sells the same ultra-light weight fleece sweatpants – elastic drawstring waist, elastic ankles, with a zipper to go over shoes. Again, perfect for a 40 degree day. They also sell a heavier mid-weight version that will beat jeans for running the snowblower on a 10 degree day.</p>
<p>I’m celebrating the big four-oh for a second time today and this time I blew past it with enough margin that it should stick.</p>
<p>The two day spike in weight was odd. No real reason for it and my clothes are getting loser. This time of year, hydration is all over the place with the heat. Or, I might have added a few pounds of lean muscle.</p>
<p>I don’t care how I look to others. The thing about running in t-shirts is that one sleeve or the other will start tugging down and I’ll get the strangling feeling on the other side of the shirt. I certainly don’t wear them to show my abs (you can’t see them).</p>
<p>We finally got a New England summer day. 83 degrees, 50% humidity, blue sky. Nice gentle breeze. So I strapped on the new booties and went for the hour and a half version of my hilly, river, state park hike. Pretty much the same route I walked with my wife two weeks ago. </p>
<p>I’m drenched, but no question that my aerobic fitness has improved. My peak heart rate was lower than my average heart rate walking with my wife and the lowest average and peak I’ve seen in any workout since I’ve been wearing the heart monitor. 68% average, 80% peak. What an amazing change, walking up hills at 78% heart rate that used to have my heart pounding at 90%+. I felt it on my iPod nazi workouts this week, too. That’s maybe as much motivation as losing weight.</p>
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<p>Not for me it isn’t. Life is too short to go through it suffering. I just don’t want to live that way.</p>
<p>I like donuts. Fortunately, in TN I do not have anything like the access to them that I did in Dallas. In Dallas there was a fabulous donut shop about every mile. In TN it’s more about Moon Pies.</p>
<p>We have Dunkin Donuts everywhere in my area. My son’s apartment is owned by Dunkin Donuts and he’s right above them. Fortunately they sell other things besides donuts (coffee, egg muffins, muffins, flatbread sandwiches).</p>
<p>I did four miles and a cold shower. Felt wonderful afterwards - that light, airy feeling after a good workout. Grabbed a can of diet Barq’s and will take a look at a bunch of other tasks that I have to do for work tonight.</p>
<p>MissyPie – regarding your “target” weight – where is this so-called “target” from? If you’re in good shape, not overweight (and obviously you’re not), and you feel good, let it go. Don’t think about it. Don’t worry about it. Eat what you want to eat (within reason, of course) and get on with it.</p>
<p>For years (during my twenties, mainly) I obsessed about my weight, what I ate, how I looked, etc. I finally consciously decided to let it go – and I was much more relaxed. I even lost a few pounds!</p>
<p>I feel so much better! Didn’t have to get up as early for the workers and went to gym at my regular time. Changed things a little. Rode bike for 45 minutes and then walked on dreadmill for 45 minutes. Lifted weights for 45 minutes. Ahhh…much better! Bad diet day yesterday…the artisan Tuscan bread was too much to resist. :(</p>
<p>NM, you are a beast! Weights for 45 minutes! I get bored to death after 10.</p>
<p>The folks at work usually do weights in small groups of people. It makes it easier to change the weights and you get that little recovery break. You can also record what you did while the other person gets on the machine or uses the freeweights. It’s nice to have two people to change the weights on barbells.</p>
<p>I think that people are more successful with workout programs when they do it in small groups as you have someone calling you to go when you don’t feel like going. I like to do most things by myself but weights is something that I like to do with others.</p>
<p>missypie…I am just old and very tired. It takes me awhile to do three sets of each! I do triceps, biceps, chest fly and press, shoulders, lat pulldowns, brain drain moment: the seated thing where you pull weights to back for lats and abs. All upper body stuff. And yes, I am still very overweight…but strong! ;)</p>
<p>My club is starting a 90 day mini Biggest Loser type thing…$25 to enter. You meet with a nutrition counselor and personal trainer. Think I might do it.</p>
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<p>There is a group of three boys from the high school who always “work out” together at my fitness center. I notice them because one of them is a pretty good friend of my D’s…I swear that only one of them ever touches a weight…they walk around the machines, talk, look in the mirror, go to another machine…watching them from above is pretty good treadmill amusement.</p>
<p>I see that a lot at the Y - groups of two or three, usually guys. Sometimes father/son.</p>
<p>Workouts can be social activities - even if there isn’t much working out. It may be that one is working out while the others are just socializing with him. Older folks are usually more goal-oriented.</p>
<p>Our Y has a lot of retired guys that spend as much time talking as they do working out, but they are an amusing bunch. There’s also a small coterie of women in the serious weight room and we bond as well. The high school and college kids who come in are amusing. I love it when they lift up their shirts to admire their six packs. I really enjoy most of them. It is one of the reasons I go pretty regularly, because the culture of this Y is definitely friendly. I’ve worked out at a couple of other sports clubs in town and no one talks to you ever.</p>
<p>I love the places where no one talks to you ever. I don’t want to see people I know when I’m a sweaty mess.</p>
<p>I didn’t get that from the article that you posted.</p>
<p>I thought that Europeans generally walked a lot more than Americans.</p>
<p>I should have been more clear. They don’t join a gym to exercise. They get more exercise in their daily lives, which is so much more natural than what most of us do.</p>
<p>I think that’s due to the logistics of their living spaces and cities.</p>
<p>Kids on college campuses get a lot of exercise carrying books and walking to classes. College campuses assume mostly walking and some bicycling. The modern workplace assumes automobiles and wool suits.</p>