@SalveMater–but give yourself time. There’s a lot of evidence that the slower you lose it, the easier it is to keep off.
Completed day 2 of the yoga challenge–slow flow yoga and meditation.
Still have a nasty cold–drinking lots of water and tea. Happy to be back to my regular routines–D2 left this morning and the house is empty (H traveling for work.)
@1214mom, DH hasn’t exercised in the 33 years we’ve been married. He’s significantly overweight, has diabetes, and has severe sleep apnea and just doesn’t care, which explains in part why he doesn’t value that I care. Thought that would have changed after I dropped dead in front of him, but nope. As he says, at least he’s well-insured. In the meantime, I still have many things I want to do!
Loving the chatter above. Please know that many of us were in the same spot as many who are trying to start up that fitness hill again. We climbed slowly and sometimes slipped down the hill - and still do! Having a place to come and talk, complain, brainstorm, cry a bit, celebrate victories and admit to faults is priceless!
So much great support here. I used to post but dropped back when Idad left.
My resolution for 2016 was to go a year without 1 soda of any kind. I succeeded, but boy was it hard. I thought I’d lose a few pounds but weight is exactly the same.
This year I want to eat vegetables every day and cut out wasted carbs like crackers. Plus walk every day.
CD- hugs to you. Fantastic that you have not gained it all back like I have done so many times. I cleaned out my closet last night and found pants from size 8-18, no kidding. Currently on the larger side, but not the largest so I am going to build from there. You do not have to lose 35 today, just have a healthy morning and then a healthy afternoon etc. one day at a time. I have to stay away from the scale or else I eat in response to the scale not budging.
I like exercise so no problem, but cooking, ugh. I am cooking up a bunch of vege tonight and hard boiling eggs for work lunch the rest of the week. My luxury item would be a personal chef.
Today every time I heated water in the micro for tea I did push-ups against the wall. Gave my co-worker a laugh when I told him I was getting buff
One thing I love about the philosophy of this group is the 5 pound rule. Don’t think of it as having to lose 35 pounds. Just try to lose 5. Then, when you accomplish that, lose another 5.
I went swimming and lifted weights today. Then came home to discover that my iPad is missing, and the only explanation is that the cleaning lady walked off with it. The charger is missing too, and I never disconnect that charger. I called the cleaning company, called the cops, locked the iPad. May or may not start a separate thread on this, but my main goal is to get the company to cough up the money for a replacement. And yes, I’m firing that company.
Oh no! That’s terrible! I’m so sorry.
I did make it to the gym today. I’m still a little sick, but I rode the bike and worked out for at least an hour and a half. I plan to go tomorrow also.
Almost bailed today. Tired. 45 min spinning and 15 min swimming.
When I feel tired before a workout (which is always!) I still head to the club with the idea that I’ll just stretch. Once I change and stretch, the energy starts to come back and I end up doing my routine.
The point is you’ll always be too tired. Morning or evening. Just have to do it.
That’s awful about the iPad @fireandrain. 
Way to go at the gym @1214mom !
While I talked early about not “finding time” but “making time”, I also wanted to say that for me, the time I spend exercising is often “minimal”. It would be a rare occasion for me to work out for an hour and a half. Most of the time, my exercise session is 30-45 minutes max. In that time I can run 3-4 miles, take a 45 minute spin class, do a combo work out of some cardio, some strength training. If I had to “make time” for 90 minutes several times a week, it wouldn’t probably happen.
^^^That was my big problem with hot yoga. As much as I liked it, most of the classes were the Bikram 90 minute format. You had to get there early, then add on the to and from time and showering…and the times were set by someone other than me! It was just too difficult with my job,
Reporting in-Ok took everyone’s advice and got myself cute workout togs and as predicted I look like a silver stuffed sausage. Ugh!
But I did do 30 mins on the Stairmaster and I think I burned a stick of chewing gum off, maybe…c’est la vie. Over and out
Yay, Salve! Definitely a good start!
Thanks MOWC even tho it was sheer drudgery I figured I can stand drudgery for 30 mins. Now 150 ab blasting crunchies. Thanks all for advice and support, its tremendous for me!
@Fireandrain, thanks for the 5 lb reminder. Getting the trend line going is the first big step. Went to cardiac rehab today, but I didn’t have lunch first. Blood sugar dropped, so didn’t do as much as I’d hoped. Then took the dog for a 30 minute walk tonight, so got my 10,000. Food intake was good today. In the past couple of months, I have been doing well for a day or two, then get massive carb-y cravings. Tomorrow will probably be one of those days if the pattern holds. Will take in some fruit and healthy lunch, since I’m working til 2 and I will be starving and inclined to run out and eat something terrible by then.
S2 has started a new job and has to be out the door at 7:15; he and Dh have been driving to the Metro together. Am going to try something new tomorrow and leave when they do, but go to the lake near our synagogue and walk the path before work. If I can knock off a mile or two before 9 am, this would be a great habit to get into.
I also stand in front of the copier at work and do leg stretches and high steps. People are amused.
That’s awful about the iPad, fireandrain.
Salve and CD you are both doing great.
The yoga classes I take are only 1 hour long and some of them meet at 6:30 AM. I used to take the evening classes, but I sometimes work late and missed classes. I also find that if I get a class or a run in before work I have more energy even on the long days. I take the steps up to the office (11 floors) a few times a week, and get up from my desk and walk around every so often. For me the FitBit helps a lot because it reminds me to get the steps in.
Not feeling great the last few days. I wake up coughing, feel better as the day goes on then it starts up again in the evening. It’s still too dark outside so looks like a treadmill day for me.
Not wanting to run 3 days in a row, got up at the usual time and did some strength training before taking pup for her walk. Bi’s, tri’s, anterior/posterior delts, some lower body and core work. I haven’t done a lot of lifting recently. There was a time I was wayyyyy into it, then fell into other things…And when I tried to pick it up again, ended up with a shoulder injury. So I have to be really careful getting back into that. I definitely have a suspicion, that some (hopefully not all!!)of the weight I lost last year is due to losing muscle mass…boooo.
Anyway, I was proud of myself for getting up and doing it. Strength training is a hard thing get motivated for…Until you start seeing results! Goal: get my "guns"back, haha
@SalveMater, great job pushing through the drudgery. We all have days when the thought of doing our routine evokes a big “Ugh”. Just pushing through that and “doing it” goes a long way to creating new behavior patterns and making a permenant lifestyle change. Make sure though to give yourself at least one day off per week where you purposefully do not adhere to your routine. We all need a recovery day to recharge our batteries mentally and physically. On arecovery day, you don’t need to sit around like a lox and do nothing; you can have active recovery where you take a leisurely walk, do some gentle stretching. The point is to take a one day vacation from the stresses of your normal exercise routine. These recovery days are critical to your body getting stronger and to avoiding over-training.
Also, if you are doing 150 crunches, you may want to consider breaking things up a bit and doing some other ab work. Regular old crunches just hit the rectus abdominus muscles - the portion of the abs that everyone associates with the ubiquitous “6 pack”. For real core strength and health, you need to hit the deeper ab muscles called the transverse abdominus that are like your body’s own “girdle” supporting your lumbar spine. Planks are a great way to hit this portion of the abs and once you get to the point that you can do a few sets of planks for a minute each, their are all sorts of variations to make them more challenging including using acstability ball to support either your feet or your arms. And don’t neglect your oblique abdominals that are so important to functional rotational movements of your torso. A good start with them is to do oblique (side) planks on each side. Once you get these basics down, there are all sorts of dynamic (as opposed to static) abdominal exercises that will be much more effective (and therefore time efficient) than crunches.
In addition, when you are doing crunches, be very careful about form. Do not pull with your arms against your head; this will create cervical stress and thoracic curvature (a big cheat) in the movement as well as reduce the work actually being done by your abs. The crunch should be a movement originating from the contraction of your abs that simply lifts your back and shoulders off the floor. Your arms, wherever you have them positioned, just go for the ride. Once you can do a couple of sets of 20-25 clean crunches, it’s time to look for variations and other dynamic ab exercises. Doing crunches on a stability ball, doing crunches with you legs raised in a bent position, mountain climbers, hanging knee raises, are just some examples.
Still struggling with this stomach bug. I really dislike feeling so weak and have now lost 5 lbs due to no solid food for a few days. Stlll have body aches. Hoping this passes soon! Feels like -26 outside today so would be a tough walk. May try to just do some stretching today to ease my aching back!
My 2017 goals are to make doctor appointments to catch up on some neglected health care and to continue to walk daily, eat clean and restart (again) a weight training program. I propbably should get back to daily posting here again for extra accountability.