Diet/Exercise/Health/Wellness Support Thread

Parent Cafe
7101

<p>Saturday is generally my day off from exercise. I’ll probably do some planks and other core exercises, but nothing too serious.</p>

<p>My shoe size has increased in the last year or two while I’ve lost almost 20 pounds.</p>

7102

I think that shoe size goes up. The skin grows hard layers down there with a lot of exercise which means more mass and maybe more volume.

7103

<p>My shoe size went down when I lost weight, and it wasn’t even all that much weight.</p>

7104

I took advantage of a balmy 36 degree mostly sunny day to go out for my first walk in almost a month. The last time I walked was New Year’s Day. Couldn’t go to the state park because the walking bridge over the pond at the old mill house was three feet deep in snow. I had on trail running shoes, not Sorel snow boots! So, I did my original ol’ fat guy 2 mile walk – all on pavement. I intentionally tried to take it easy because the roads were just wet enough to be icy in spots and the last thing I need is to fall and break my neck trying to set a new world’s record for the ol’ fat guy walk! Nevertheless, I walked this route in the second fastest time I’ve ever walked it. A lot of squats and dumbbell swings under the bridge since the last time I walked. Felt like completely different legs. Probably wore a little too much clothing and was hot towards the end of the quicky walk. All in all, it felt great to get outside and get a little fresh air.

7105

My shoe size has radically changed. I went from an 8.5 to a size 10. A 10 is a bit long, but anything smaller really hurts across the top of my foot. I think my foot must be shaped like a size 10 foot with the toes amputated or something!

Now, that I’ve lost weight, my foot has changed shape and is a bit narrower. I have to lace my shoes a little tighter. But, not enough to go down a shoe size. I tried on some 9.5’s in a Timberland boot (I’m wearing a 10) and it was still tight around the ball of my foot. I think I have gotten arches back after wearing SuperFeet continuously for months. I’m just happy that my feet don’t hurt!

7106

<p>My foot is definitely narrower. I noticed when I played tennis on Friday that the front of my foot moved from side to side. By the time I quit playing I was feeling it is the toe pad of both big toes. My running shoes also are very loose. Sandals also.
I love both my running shoes and tennis shoes and I hate the thought and expense of replacing them both. The socks I love are very thin so my first try is going to be wearing a thicker sock to see how that feels.</p>

7107

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<p>It’s time to exfoliate.</p>

7108

<p>I might have spoken too soon about my wee walk. First time out in a month and my legs are feeling it now! It’s amazing how all this stuff works the muscles in completely different ways.</p>

<p>Got in a couple quick sets of band-assisted pull ups and chin ups before dinner. I just keep trying to chip away at these things. I can’t really do them on workout days because the lat pulldowns and inverse rows in the workouts hammer the same muscles and I’ve got nothing left after 36 reps of either of those.</p>

7109

<p>D2 had math competition today. After that she did 5 miles bicycling around the loops in our neighborhood. I did squats twice during the day, 25 squats each. After dinner, we had our routine 35-minute dance. Line dancing is actually fun exercise.</p>

<p>Exercise is lifetime thing. That is what makes it really hard. What is the real motivation for most people here to continue to do it? Losing weight? If you don’t need to lose weight, for instance, your BMI around 21-22, would you still be motivated?</p>

7110

Went to the gym with son and did the weight machines. Felt very good doing it. It’s nice to have healthy joints again.

Motivation besides losing weight? Having the muscles and fitness to recover from injuries faster or avoid them in the first place. Having strong stomach muscles reduces the chances of internal injuries in a tough cold or flu where you’re coughing for two months.

7111

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<p>Note that BMI does not tell the whole story. Athletes and body builders can be “overweight” by BMI standards, but if the extra weight is muscle, that is healthy. On the other hand, many people have high body fat percentage despite being in the “normal” BMI range – this is called “normal weight obesity” in some academic studies, and is associated with the same health risks that obesity is associated with. “Normal weight obesity” is probably more common in those who maintain a low BMI by dieting without exercising.</p>

<p>As far as motivation goes, there are three common types of motivation:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Performance. Usually, this means sports, but it can also mean performance in some sort of non-sport activity (e.g. physical job, or being able to run across the airport to catch your connection flight because your inbound flight was late, or being able to shovel the snow away from your house), or even normal daily life (e.g. senior citizen being able to move around without needing assistance).</p></li>
<li><p>Appearance. Usually, this is more of a motivation for young unmarried people seeking marriage partners.</p></li>
<li><p>Health. Some people realize that long term health, avoidance of chronic disease, and avoidance of need for medical treatment and medications, is helped by lifetime exercise habits. Of course, this requires a long term view; those who have mostly a short term view may not see the benefits of a lifetime exercise habit.</p></li>
</ol>

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7112

<p>My feet got smaller when I lost weight, in length and width. Lifted weights today for the first time in a week (I’ve been nursing a variety of nagging bits). It felt good, but I think I will be sore tomorrow. I struggled a bit with the assisted chin ups/pull ups. Could have been all in my head. </p>

<p>I hope I will continue to work out for the rest of my life. I feel better, I’m fighting bone loss, daily activities are easier, and I can eat more. Fitness at age 60 is an accurate predictor of your chances of living past 80.</p>

7113

<p>I haven’t been exercising for very long, but I believe that the long-term motivation for me will be to find ways to continue to make it fun and challenging. For example, this *New Rules of Lifting for Abs *book that came out last month has three to six months of workouts that start from point A and move you to a much more advanced (and fit) point C and then there are progressions that would enable to you start all over and do the whole thing at a higher level. I think that’s really the mark of a good program: you can look at it and see a well-constructed journey with the work you put in doing one exercise buidling towards a more advanced exercise later. I’m exactly one month into it, alternating between just two workouts – I think I’ve now done each one six times. I’m certainly not bored. If anything, I’m just getting in the groove. Of course, these are extremely clever and interesting workouts.</p>

<p>I stretched out the three month iPod program I started with for nine months, mostly because I was starting from such a horrible state – ex-smoker, no exercise in years, seventy pounds over weight – that I simply had to take it a deliberate pace and give myself time for fitness to improve and pounds to come off in order to move to the more advanced stuff. The core stuff I was doing in Phase III of that program includes some of the most advanced exercises in this New Rules of Lifting for Abs book – definitely some challenging stuff: like pushups with one leg on a stability ball.</p>

<p>There’s so much good stuff out there that just about anyone should be able to find a program that will keep them interested and progressing for three months at a time. Heck, it may take me three months to reach my goal of doing chin ups. No telling how long the one-leg squats will take.</p>

<p>I also try to mix it up and hopefully I’ll be able to keep doing that. I don’t have any particular fat loss goals at this point. I’m pretty happy (hell, let’s be honest, I’m ecstatic!) over where I am right now. I’m more interested in getting more fit and stronger. If I continue to lose a few pounds as a result of that, great. I know my body is certainly changing.</p>

7114

<p>My motivation is to keep osteoporosis at bay. I have multiple risk factors, the most significant of which is that I’m extemely petite. My mother had it and my sister has it. </p>

<p>Before I started lifting weights I had it too, but since I’ve been “lifting heavy things over my head,” I’ve reversed it.</p>

<p>And it’s exciting to see muscles on my abdomen and definition in my shoulders.</p>

7115

These assisted chin up/pull ups are **not **easy! I’m using bands sized so that the most I can do is somewhere between 6 and 10 reps, depending… So, I’m really struggling to pull myself up in every set I do. I end the set when I can’t get my chin up to the bar. I’m also working on lowering myself down slowly. So, for me, at this moment in time, the assisted versions are giving me all the benefit I could possibly ask for.

7116

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<p>Amen. I am surprised at what consistent strength training is doing to my body… and I don’t mean in a “bodybuilder” way. I’m continuing to lose a little weight, but the shape of my body is changing. Waist is getting smaller, butt more “toned”. I mean, I’m realistic. At age 57 (almost), I’m not expecting to get ripped, but this strength training stuff does wonderful things for the way clothes fit. And, it makes you feel fantastic to be stronger.</p>

7117

<p>I’m also motivated to work out now so I can get out of a chair when I’m 80. I specifically devote a workout every third or fourth time to legs, so I can seriously raise myself from a sitting position later, when everyone else needs someone to help them, or an assist bar. </p>

<p>Working out now keeps you in better shape for old age.</p>

7118

<p>^^Exactly. At 57, I was having knee trouble that if it continued, I would have been a cripple before my time. So I do the boring exercises. :)</p>

<p>Studies have shown that even seniors in wheelchairs can gain muscle tone and strength by doing whatever exercises they can…lifting light weights, stretching. </p>

<p>My father, in his upper eighties, goes to an exercise class for seniors 3x a week and credits it with keeping him going. People who aren’t in shape are more prone to falling, for instance, and once you break a hip, it can be downhill from there. Oy.</p>

7119

<p>Motivation for exercise? I love exercise, if it’s the right thing. I have been involved in some form of sport or dance my whole life. There are those times when life gets in the way and I have to stop for a while, but I always come back because I miss it. </p>

<p>I have never had weight issues, so that’s never been a motivating factor, but a doctor once told me something that I’ve never forgotten. He said that most old people who cannot even get themselves out of a chair have no medical reasons for this, they just are too weak. They’ve lost so much muscle strength that they cannot even manage daily life. I don’t want to be that old person.</p>

7120

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<p>Actually, some of the most fit people I have seen are in wheelchairs.</p>

<p>They wheel their own wheelchairs.</p>