Because I have limited space in my reusable bag, I do not want to fill it with crap leaving no room for the nutritious ingredients for the meals I have planned!
Michael, good link. I think the British have been recognizing obesity as a huge public health issue in the UK for a long time now. The NHS periodically does a review of different diets, updating it with the info on the latest fads, but the bottom line is always the same: most diets do not lead to long-term weight loss because folks do not have a long-term plan on how to maintain their new weight. Here is the latest review of the most popular UK diets:
Only Rosemary Conleyâs diet gets a nod from the British Dietic Association because that diet is focused on education about calories, exercise, and portion control. I am not familiar with it, but according to the description by the BDA, this diet plan uses measuring cups for teaching portion control. The biggest flaw, according to the BDA, is that some low fat products the diet allows can be full of sugar and other junk.
Of course, it will only work if the dieter does not cheat herself!
Had a wonderful lunch here at the Swedish equivalent of the Nordstrom Cafe: a delicious salad with fresh greens, some wheat berries, chick peas, radishes, turkey slices, and avocado dressing. Snatched a small chunk of traditional flatbread from the basket next to the utensils⊠Just could not resist it. I am surprisingly stuffed with my small meal. Already up to 8,000 steps (3k towards yesterdayâs plan and 5k today), and yet I have not moved far!
We bring our own locks to the gym. Normally I use the same locker but for whatever reason all the lockers in that bank were taken so I had to go to another area. I looked at this and thought - I have the same basic black lock as everyone else, I know Iâm going to forget the locker number and be an idiot about it. So ⊠I have a little Rubikâs cube-like thing dangling from my key chain. I slipped that off and locked it in the lock, so when I was finished I immediately knew what locker was mine. I was kind of proud of myself
MNK, I showed my trainer the BBG moves I had done and he just shook his head at me :-). He thinks the jumping squats were what did me in, he said at my age only do standing lunges / squats and heâs just glad I didnât hurt my soas because that would be hard to recover from. Iâm pretty back to normal at this point and did an hour of weights and an hour of fluid running. Itâs not that he thought it wasnât a good workout - but for a 25 yo!
I have an identifiable sticker on the back of my lock - the lock itself is purple, but while I like you PG, go straight to a certain locker bank sometimes I have to move - this helps me find my lock - and be sure itâs mine that Iâm trying to open!
I keep a mini spray cologne bottle of a fresh scent (like something lemony or cucumber/melon type fresh, but not flowery) in my bag so if I have to make a quick stop somewhere - and Iâm not showering before I leave - I can do a quick clean up with a washcloth, spritz and get out of there decently!
Other convenient hack - I wear a thin stretchy headband when I work out - seems Iâm always misplacing them or ending up not having one on hand. While I try and keep a couple in my gym bag, I take the sweaty one Iâm wearing off after working out, wash it in the hand sink while at the gym with water and soap and then thread it on one of my gymbag handles so it can dry and itâs clean and ready to go next visit.
Good hacks! Pizzagirl- Iâm glad your trainer said that, because that is what I was thinking.
Our work gym is a problem because the combination locks are built into the lockers and you set it each time when you select your locker. You better remember which one!
I only did 2.5 this morning- tired and I got out a little late. My personal hack is that H left for his bike ride before I was ready to leave for work and he left the elderly female dog out on our deck, which she loves. She is out of sight from the kitchen, though, and I was so afraid I would forget to bring her in. So- I put my purse right by the door to the deck so I would not forget her!
We have thousands and thousands of extra people in town this weekend for CMAFest and Bonnaroo and it is supposed to be in the mid to upper 90s. Very dangerous for these people at outdoor events. They have lots of water, sprayers, etc., but stillâŠ
Yeah weird weather this weekend - beautiful today and tomorrow with temps in the mid-high 70âs and much of the same next week - but smack in the middle of that - Saturday - temps are currently calling for 93. D2 and I are going to an outdoor concert Saturday night - I guess the âglass half fullâ is that the forecasted thunderstorms WITH the 90+ temps are now out of the forecast - so, we just get to really sweat WITHOUT rainfall!
PG: what are soas? I have started a HIT class at my gym and I avoid the jumping lunges, although I do some jumping squats and jumping jacks. Did he say no jumping at all for those in the mid to late 50s and older? I try to do some, as it ups the heart rate, but not too much.
Soas is a certain muscle but I am sure I am misspelling it. Jumping jacks, jumping rope fine - and honestly some jumping lunges probably ok - but the amount I was doing in conjunction with other high impact stuff was likely too much. As MOWC will attest, I am not skinny - I am solidly built - but Iâm pretty strong.
I donât know that I agree that everyone in their 50âs should avoid the jumping. My jumping isnât quite as elevated as the spring chickens in my classes, but I still try and get some lift.
He wasnât telling me no jumping whatsoever. It was specifically jumping lunges / squats he didnât like. His feeling was that itâs easy to fall out of form esp with weights and in doing timed circuits where the incentive is to go fast - in my case, that meant leaning forward too much and putting more weight on my right than left (as my right leg is stronger). FWIW, my trainer is a former Marine, about my age, very fit and no sissy
IMO, you have to really think about whatâs right for you - that day even - and listen and have confidence in your choices. Knee problems? Probably no jumping. Balance issues? Be careful of the jumping (and then quickly switching to another circuit). No shame in not jumping.
Until we âownâ what is right for us - and not what others can/are/should do, do we become in charge of our fitness journey. I mean that! Goals are one thing - âmeasuring upâ is totally different than goals to me.
The psoas muscle is a major core hip flexor muscle that goes from your lumbar spine to the anterior portion of your pelvis. There are actually 2 muscles on each side: psoas major and psoas minor. Bending and jumping motions engage these muscles. Itâs critical to core health and strength that you work these muscles to keep them strong and flexible.
Doing jumping squats and lunges is a form of plyometric exercising. It is a power based movement designed to engage and train for explosive high velocity movement. As a general matter, plyometrics should not be done unless a person has a strong foundational exercise base and in terms of strength and flexibility is ready for the demands of this type of movement. In addition, as we age, our tendons connecting muscles to bones at the joints become less elastic and the explosive release of power and the demands of loading and dissipating the forces of landing can result in injuries. Thatâs not to say that people over 50 canât do plyometric squats and lunges. But you need to be well conditioned and be well schooled in proper form and technique in order to avoid injury.
And there in lies the rub. When training plyometrically, a typical traditional protocol may involve doing only 5-8 reps per set with a controlled recovery between each rep to allow you to âresetâ and prepare for the next effort. You may only do 3-5 sets. Plyometrics, however, have become the darling of group boot camp and HIIT style exercising where a premium is placed on some form of timed speed i.e. do as many reps as you can do in 2 minutes or do 20 reps in a minute etc. This greatly increases the risk of injury as no opportunity is structured to âresetâ for the movement, fatigue sets in and form gets sloppy.
At the fitness conference last weekend, I participated in a boot camp class doing bodyweight and dumbbell/medicine ball exercises. Among the exercises we did were burpees, squats and lunges all with jumps in 3 minute intervals each. I did the class with my daughter and 4 of the instructors from her spinning studio. No way at almost 63 did I attempt to match their 20 something year old speed in doing these movements. Instead, I focused on form and a steady movement at a pace that enabled me to maintain good form. Even so, my legs and hips were beat by the time we all went out to dinner. (Of course, my whole body was beat after a day of a 75 minute class on stability ball core strengthening and stretching, climbing a 36 foot long monkey bar course with verticals and horizontals, lifting weights and doing body weight exercises for an hour in the gym, the 75 minute boot camp and a finale of a 75 minute spin class, all of which culminated in me having the worst left hamstring cramp ever at dinner. The only dividend was having four 20 something year old girls attempt to minister to my distress as my daughter laughed hysterically at me, calling me a dumbass lol.)
Staying at summer place for next few months and started with my trainer here.l
Since I havenât done much weight training she had me do exercises to work all muscle groups. Plan to go to a Yin yoga class tonight (Yin helps stretch out connective tissue). Signed up for Pilates mat classâstarts next week. Hope I survive.
Thanks so much! The HIT instructor is very good at offering alternatives for non-jumpers. My instincts are to go slower than the 20 -30 something âkidsâ in the class and to sometime take the non-jumping alternative. I donât do the jumping lunges, and did not use weights in the jumping squats. But I will be sure to really focus more on form than speed, follow my instincts and listen to my body. Again, thanks to all for taking the time to explain and offer your insights.
Finished the day with 16,000 steps. Actually, close to 19,000 because my Fitbit counted the steps before noon towards yesterday. Where did they all come from? I only rode the tunnelbana to the center and back 2X⊠Plus I looked for lunch and dinner places. Hunting down food here requires a lot of energy! I ran up and down escalators to get my floors, too. I so earned my little scoop of ice cream at dinner! Dinner was a steak (Polish beef, as the menu proudly stated), tomato salad, and a glass or red wine with the abovementioned scoop of ice cream for dessert. Had a very interesting encounter with a dude who looked, sounded, and behaved like he was a âNew Russkiâ (ânewly made Russian wealthâ - these guys love to come here to spend their money and behave like everyone owes them big time). While Mr. was at a business dinner, I decided to scout a dinner place nicer than the restaurant at the hotel. Rode the subway into the center and wandered a bit until I came across a place that looked decent and had some open tables outside. While I waited for the host to inquire about a table, a big, chubby guy with lots of gold chains around his neck and a bunch of gold rings pushed his way past me and plastered himself at an open table. He sat there for a few minutes, but the waiter ignored him. The dude got up and walked away. The host showed up, apologized, and led me to the only open table - the one where the dude sat. As I was studying the menu, I heard a loud, angry scream, âMine table. She not here!â The dude was pointing to the table and waiving his hands. The waiter had a very puzzled look on his face. The dude pushed his way past the waiter and sat at the table across me, yelling, âGo away! Mine table. I here first. You stand, and stand, and stand, I sit. Mine!â Wow. I decided to stand my ground and did not move. The waiter finally convinced the dude to move to a freshly cleared table. The angry dude sat there, chain smoking, and ordered a steak by pointing to a menu item. A few moments after his steak had been served to him, I heard a blood curdling scream. The waiter rushed to the dude who was making strange noises. After a few minutes of listening to some broken English explanations, the waiter got it: the dude was offended by the blood in the steak! He wanted it perfectly brown - all the way to the middle - and was trying to explain that the steak was not properly cooked by making sizzling sounds. Oy. The dude got a brown, rubbery steak as he wished⊠And the new sides not contaminated by the juices of the ârawâ meat. While the waiter was tending to other customers, the dude scarfed down his steak, took a few selfies with his new iPhone, and⊠disappeared. Of course, without paying! I think that was his original intent, and the table fight and the food complaints were just tangential to that plan. I left the waiter a tip which I normally would not, because it is included in the bill. Some people poor waitstaff has to deal withâŠ
Signing off to do my pushups and then catch some zzzzâŠ
