Diet/Exercise/Health/Wellness Support Thread

Parent Cafe
6621

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<p>It’s just looking for ways to save some calories. Having a turkey sandwich with mayo, but make a big sacrifice and don’t put cheese on it. That’s 100 calorie savings. Or have the scrambled eggs, but don’t add the cheese. Another 100 calories. These are not big sacrifices. Two of those a day is a half pound of fat loss a week. Now, lose another half pound a week by not having candy or chips and you are on the way to fitting in your thermometer jeans – all while eating good stuff for meals. </p>

<p>To me, being able to eat a turkey on rye sandwich with mayo for lunch is not exactly a painful diet. Tonight, I’m having roast pork loin (it’s out on the grill) and a baked potato with butter. It doesn’t have to be all nasty diet stuff.</p>

6622

<p>Eliminating cheese from many sandwiches is a good idea. Keeping the mayo to a minimum is also a good idea. But eliminating things altogether results in feeling deprived – not a good mindset to be in. I pretty much eat everything I want to, but not a lot of it.</p>

6623

<p>I’m in the eat everything but in moderation camp as well. Portion control is the key. And when it comes to sandwiches, I peel and discard the top slice of bread, keep the cheese and substitute the icky mayo with garlic aioli mustard (TJ’s). It is the best-tasting mustard, and no, it does not result in garlic breath.</p>

6624

<p>So I went for a quick 2 mile walk today – had to stay on the pavement. Some lady name Joan Benoit Samulsen lives in my iPod and piped up saying it was my fastest mile ever!</p>

<p>I’m amazed at how sore my legs are afterwards. I haven’t done a walk in 12 days, even though I’ve been doing workouts and Airdyne intervals. Just goes to show how each different type of exercise works different muscles. Or, maybe they are still sore from Spartacus squats yesterday.</p>

<p>Probably a good thing I only did 2 miles!</p>

6625

<p>So I got the Kindle version of *The New Rules of Lifting for Abs *book tonight and have been skimming it:</p>

<p>[Amazon.com:</a> The New Rules of Lifting for Abs: A Myth-Busting Fitness Plan for Men and Women Who Want a Strong Core and a Pain-Free Back (9781583334133): Lou Schuler, Alwyn Cosgrove: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/New-Rules-Lifting-Abs-Myth-Busting/dp/1583334130]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/New-Rules-Lifting-Abs-Myth-Busting/dp/1583334130)</p>

<p>What an incredible book. These are going to be my new workouts for the next six months. The workouts are designed by Alwyn Cosgrove and basically follow the template used by the Cosgroves at their Results Fitness gym in California.</p>

<p>Each workout follows a template:</p>

<p>**1) Dynamic warmup exercises (10 minutes). **These are bodyweight exercises to warm up, stretch, and improve mobility of joints like ankles and hips.</p>

<p>**2) Core exercises (10 minutes). **These start with basics like plank and side plank and progress to really insane stuff – like the T-Pushups and stability ball pushups I’ve been doing.</p>

<p>**3) Strength training (20 minutes). **Two or three sets of four exercises. For example, the first workout is a split squat, an inverted row, a deadlift, and a push up.</p>

<p>**4) Metabolic exercise (aka intervals) (10 minutes). **A finisher to get you totally gassed like burpees (do six, stop for the rest of a minute, then do six more, rest again. Or, one-arm dumbbell/kettleball swings.</p>

<p>All told, each workout is 45 minutes to an hour. You need fairly basic equipment: dumbells and/or barbells, stabilty ball, cable pull or elastic bands, steps, chin up bar, etc. </p>

<p>There are three phases starting with fairly basic and going through very advanced. Each phase can be done for six to eight weeks. Each phase has two alternating workouts (Workout A and Workout B), so you would do A on Mon and Fri, B on Wed – then flip it the following week.</p>

<p>Much of the book is descriptions and photos of each exercise plus a million variations. So, there are pushups and then pushup variations suitable for more or less challenge. There are so many variations that you could keep doing these workouts and plugging in different variations almost indefinitely.</p>

<p>I have no doubt that anyone doing these workouts, as written, three days a week, would get significanlty leaner, stronger, and more fit.</p>

6626

<p>Ah, idad – too much information! I must confess I mostly skim your detailed fitness routines. But more power to you and to whoever reads it all and DOES it all!!</p>

<p>What a year. I am sooooooo glad 2010 is over with. Not as glad as my older son, who has had a plethora of health concerns, but I’m just really ready to move on. I think something significant will happen (to me) in 2011, and I’m looking forward to it. I have lots of things in my life right now that I’d like to change – luckily, my weight and fitness level are not either of them, thanks you all of you! – and I hope I can get some of them to change during the New Year!</p>

6627

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<p>Ha. Ha. Fair enough.</p>

<p>Short version: This book is a cookbook with recipes for 3 months of complete workouts. Just like a good cookbook will provide choices for appetizers, side dishes, entrees, and desserts, this book provides all of the parts for a complete 45 to 60 minute workout – put together by two of the best celebrity chefs in the business.</p>

<p>If someone were asking, “I’ve been having back issues and need to strengthen my core, lose some weight, and get in shape. Where do I start?”, this book would be an excellent answer.</p>

<p>If you don’t live in Valencia, California or can’t afford the $150 a month for group training sessions at Robin and Alwyn Cosgrove’s gym, this is the next best thing. Their workouts that you can do at any gym or at home (with no more investment in equipment than a TV Infomerical “Ab machine”).</p>

6628

<p>Congrats to you, idad – hope your family comes around from the dark side, because there’s no way you should be apologizing for anything!</p>

<p>Went to the gym extra early this morning before the dog’s vet appointment. In the past I probably would have blown off the gym, but how could I do that with you all keeping me on the straight and narrow? So, thanks for that, everyone! I even checked to see what time the gym opens tomorrow (9 AM) – I’ll let you know if I actually go.</p>

6629

<p>I have a horrible cold/bronchitis and have sore abs, chest muscles from the cough. Today is a little better, but, shockingly, I didn’t run yesterday or today. One of my new goals is to be reasonable. Actually, I woke up in Tulsa yesterday morning facing day 2 of the drive from hell back home from Colorado and I truly wasn’t sure I had it in me to even get out of bed, much less run or drive! Today I am feeling somewhat better, but still don’t need to exercise. I didn’t gain weight on the trip- I was pretty active, except for the 2 days in the car. </p>

<p>One of my very gifted running friends has a tagline on his posts “Develop your talent, not your training log.” I’m going to take that to heart. He had 64 days off in 2010 and still ran 3200 miles and had a marathon PR. (Did I mention that he’s young?)</p>

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<p>idad- Do you log all your workouts online or on paper? I’m assuming you do since you are so good about reporting to us. (I like it) What program do you use if you do it all online?<br>
I log my stuff on RunningAhead, which allows for cross training, weights etc, too.</p>

6631

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<p>No. Only the most rudimentary info. I have spread sheet with one line per day. I record my morning weight, my bodyfat % (from the scale), and a cursory notation of my workout (such as “Spartacus 2 sets” or “iPod Phase 3 week 3, 3 sets” or “5k state park walk”). Then I record the heart rate monitor info: # minutes, avg heart rate, peak heart rate.</p>

<p>I don’t record # reps and weights used because, honestly, it’s not that hard to remember from one workout to the next. I just pick a weight that I can do for 8 to 12 reps. When 12 gets to be “easy”, I go up in weight. Right now, I struggle to get 8 reps on the T-pushups with 10 pound weights and on the one-arm “bench press” on the stability ball with a 28.5 pound dumbbell (8 reps per side)</p>

<p>I might start recording the info with these New Rules of Lifting for Abs workouts. </p>

<p>The Nike+iPod website records all my walks, automatically, every time I sync my iPod.</p>

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<p>BTW, I rigged up a ghetto chin up bar down in the cellar. I can’t come close to doing a full chin-up and I’m far enough away that I think I would hurt myself trying. So, I’m going to back the truck up and start doing inverted rows (basically an upside down pushup, pullling yourself up to a bar)</p>

6632

<p>You might want more of your information down the road (pun intended)- i.e. God forbid you get seriously ill or hurt and have to start back up. It can be nice to know a lot of detail about what you did. Besides, your progress has been amazing and in 20 years or so you will want to read back over it all!</p>

6633

<p>Wish me luck. I’m about to try the first of *The New Rules of Lifting for Abs *workouts.</p>

<p>I can do the actual core and strength portions of the workout, but I’m not so sure I can handle the warmup first. Those could be some ugly exercises.</p>

<p>This workout is:</p>

<p>Warmup:
10 dynamic warmup exercises</p>

<p>Core:
Plank (I’ll do the plank on the ball variation, lifting one leg then the other)
Side plank (I’m going to play around with two one-leg variations)</p>

<p>Strength:
Split squat (front foot on step)
Inverted row</p>

<p>Romanian Deadlift (bend at waist lift weights from knees to waist)
Pushups</p>

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<p>Phase I doesn’t have the metabolic finishers (burpees, etc.), but we’ll see how I feel. This is going to be a little less of an aerobic workout than I’ve been getting, but a more intense weight/strength session – more rest, harder sets.</p>

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<p>BCEagle:</p>

<p>I’ve got my ghetto suspension rings set up in the basement and I don’t think that inverted row is easy at all. It’s easy if you bend the legs at the knees 90 degrees. But, with my body full straight, like in an upside down pushup, it’s hard as heck to pull up and works the devil out of the core. I can’t do 12 reps, so I’ve raised the bar/rings up towards the ceiling (easier geometry – like doing a pushup with your hands on a bench).</p>

6634

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<p>All interesteddad would need to do is look at this thread on CC!
I actually went back and skimmed some old pages the other day when BunsenBurner mentioned it was the year anniversary for this thread. Kind of fascinating to see the transformations logged on here. To all who stuck with it, a big congratulations! (Sadly, not me, but there’s always this new year.)</p>

6635

<p>Well, I’ve been doing the Spartacus Workout for several months and I hate Rachel Cosgrove (in the best possible way) for kicking my butt. Now, I officially hate her husband, too.</p>

<p>I did the first workout for Phase I in this new book. It has longer rests than Spartacus and thus didn’t get my heart rate up quite as high (although it will in Phase II with ten minutes of interval burpees!). I saw a peak of 90% versus 97% during Spartacus on Wednesday. Part of that is that the weight lifting in this workout is a bit slower, compared to dumbell swings and push presses that gas you in no time at all. This was a bit more focused on slow, controlled squats and stuff.</p>

<p>As I expected, the 10 minute dynamic warmup killed me. That is going to take a lot of work. Just one example – so simple on paper. Stand on one leg, hop forward a couple of inches and then immediately hop backwards Ten reps back and forth hopping on the left foot, then 10 reps back and forth hopping on the right foot. It might not be so hard for some of ya’ll yoga ladies, but an ol’ (formerly) fat guy has a way to go with that stuff.</p>

<p>Or the inch worm. Stand up. Bend at the waist to touch the ground with both hands. Step back wards with one foot then the other into a push up position. Then, inch the feet backwards to extend the arms as far out in front as you can go without losing the neutral spine. Hold that for ten seconds, then walk the hands back to the feet and stand up. 10 reps. Damn, that stretches some stuff.</p>

<p>I did some of the variations on the plank and side plank. 60 seconds of plank on the stabilty ball, alternating lifting one leg then the other for 10 seconds each. I did the side plank (30 seconds on each side) with one arm to the ceiling. I tried lifting the top leg up, but could only hold that for five seconds at a time. That’s tough.</p>

<p>Two sets, 12 reps each, split squats (front foot on step), inverted rows, dumbbell deadlift, and pushups.</p>

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<p>Idad- It makes me tired just READING your posts (and I have been know to run for 4 hours at a time…). Way to go!</p>

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<p>It felt like a day at the beach. These workouts have 45 to 60 seconds rest between exercises. I’ve been getting 30 seconds in Spartacus and back to back exercises (no rest) from iPod nazi lately. That’s why the heart rate was a little lower. </p>

<p>Less rest equals more “cardio” component as you stay gassed. More rest lets you recover and work a little stronger on each exercise.</p>

6638

I mentioned this story on another thread, but the day after (a Saturday) D2 had her last final a couple of weeks ago, she got a late start driving home… probably around noon. Monday morning she had an 8AM flight to meet us in Honolulu, so she had to get home on Saturday, so she could pack Sunday and leave Monday. About an hour and a half after leaving her apartment, she realized she’d forgotten to pack a crate full of things she needed to work on for school over the winter break, so she had to turn around and go back. She was just recovering from this, was back on the road, about 45 minutes away, ‘getting into her driving groove with her music’ when she realized she’d missed the exit off the Pennsylvania Turnpike onto I-80; it’s another ten miles to the next exit (yea, I’ve actually made the same mistake before). As she was making the u-turn there, her Coke spilled all over her pants and car seat. So she then had to pull off at the next exit and change her clothes. Oh, then there was the speeding ticket in Indiana for going 10 over. I guess she was not a happy camper when she arrived home around 3:30AM, but I was already in Hawaii, so I didn’t have to deal with it.

Am completely exhausted after getting maybe three hours of sleep last night between our flights from Maui to San Francisco, then San Francisco to Chicago, but I will provide you all with an update on my adventures soon. To pique your interest, I will just say I am sooooo glad that our last adventure was the horseback riding on Wednesday, because I have parts of my body that hurt that I never knew existed, and there may be some collateral damage. Our gym is closed tomorrow, so the soonest I will attempt anything is Sunday. And I will provide my perspective on our meeting with BB and her H (don’t ever believe anything she says if she refers to herself as being out of shape!).

Nighty night.

P.S. In case I forget, at least H took pity on me and let me have his first-class seat when he was bumped up on the SF to Chicago leg of the trip. I didn’t even ask for it (well, maybe my body language said something, despite my not verbally asking for it).

6639

<p>Happy New Year everyone! I was thinking about how great it is that this thread has been going strong for a full year, which got me thinking about how so many have made such wonderful progress – all of which got me thinking/wondering about our collective “stats.” SO, let’s collect all the info!! I’ll start – please copy and add your info to the list. (Feel free to post whatever progress you’ve made, not just weight loss.)</p>

<p>CBBBlinker – lost 20 pounds; on average, cardio 5-6x/week & weights 3x/week; lower fat diet</p>

6640

<p>OP here - Happy New Year to all. </p>

<p>As you all know, I started this thread about one year ago to motivate me to eat better, exercise more and lose weight. I am happy to report that I have accomplished all of these goals. </p>

<p>As I expected, my weight loss slowed over the course of the year. I am happy to report, however, that I lost a total of 59 pounds. I kept track of what I was eating; I used DailyPlate regularly; I tried to work in some type of exercise every day, even if it was just vigorous walking with Big Dog; I didn’t eat when I was upset or stressed, I went for a walk or did deep breathing. I ate regular meals when I was hungry and didn’t snack in the evenings. Brushed my teeth and flossed after dinner- that meant no more eating. </p>

<p>Slow, steady changes, nothing radical. Seemed to work for me. It’s something I can live with. </p>

<p>Kudos to all of you die hard exercisers, particularly iDad. I am in awe. Congratulations to everyone for the positive changes they were able to make in 2010.</p>