<p>Got my money’s worth here at the hotel - ran 10 miles on the stupid, stupid dreadmill!!! The darn thing was programmed to start cooldown after 1 hour no matter what workout parameters I plugged in. Grrrrr… So thechnically I ran (somewhat more than) a 10k followed by a 26-min 5k. I think I can run another 5k without running out of breath! Did I outgrow my EIB?!! </p>
<p>Idad, that is an awesome plan. Will you authograph my copy of your Lambada workout? :)</p>
<p>I got my 3 workouts in this week. Doesn’t seem like enough, but better than nothing.</p>
<p>Blankmind, that’s great! Three workouts is a good number, because you get recovery time in between. </p>
<p>I’m off to do some serious wine tasting later in the day.</p>
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<p>The key is to lay the foundation of three good workouts a week. As Alwyn Cosgrove lays out in his oft-quoted article [Hierarchy</a> of Fat Loss](<a href=“AlwynCosgrove.com”>AlwynCosgrove.com), you want to do the really basic important stuff first. So, if you only have three hours to workout that weak, you’ve gone the basic workouts. Then, you can start adding on the extras if time allows.</p>
<p>If I do nothing but my three Mon/Wed/Fri workouts in a week, I’ve gotten probably 90% of the potential gain from exercising. If I can then add a walk or some Airdyne intervals on a Tues or Thurs, great. That’s a bonus. The incremental gain, however, is quite small compared to the huge benefits of working out those first three times. In addition to whatever fitness benefits you may get, those three workouts are key to a mindset of thinking of yourself as a fit person.</p>
<p>As I said upthread, I work out “only” three times a week and it works well for me. Anything more and I think I’d view it more as a chore than a pleasure. I love my workouts and am religious about them. Each workout is an hour and 15 to an hour and a half and includes half an hour of cardio.</p>
<p>My schedule is so erratic…with rehearsals some days/weeks and not others, depending on what I have coming up and what other peoples’ schedules are…I just try to do something in the realm of exercise every day. It may be a formal class, a long walk, or just the exercise bike in the basement followed by some stretching.</p>
<p>I figure, whatever I do, it’s better than nothing! And I can always say I’m cross-training. ;)</p>
<p>I was reading this board and got to feeling so guilty I went out for a walk. Just got back. It was a beautiful day. Thanks guys! :)</p>
<p>Went to the ymca to do weight machines. It was a very tiring week and I didn’t wake up until after noon today. The workout felt good.</p>
<p>Got my workout in. We have some painting next week, so I had to move my “gym” down to the cellar. So, my little workout tonight was Farmer’s Walks. Dumbbell in each hand, across the house, down a flight of stairs, and across the basement. I did in descending order:</p>
<p>2 x 45 lbs
2 x 35 lbs
2 x 30 lbs
2 x 25 lbs
2 x 20 lbs
2 x 15 lbs
2 x 10 lbs</p>
<p>Total of 360 pounds. It wasn’t so bad at the end, but farmer’s walking two 45 pounders down a flight of stairs was a more serious endeavor than I originally thought! I’ll have to try going up the stairs sometime. Going up and down the stairs. That’s could almost be a CrossFit Workout of the Day!</p>
<p>Not moving the Airdyne. It’s easy enough to wheel from room to room to escape the painters, but no way I’m hauling that beast up and down stairs.</p>
<p>My new ol’ (formerly) fat guy strength did come in handy. I picked up a 65 pound plasma TV and moved it over to a low-boy cabinet on wheels so that I can wheel that sucker around from room to room to escape the painters. Piece of cake. At least I didn’t have to squat the damn thing down to parallel and back up like in my workouts!</p>
<p>I’ve seen people on the stair machine (it’s a real stair machine; not a stepper) with weights - either hand weights or backpacks. I don’t know how you push the buttons with the weights in your hand but I guess that people manage.</p>
<p>Lol, when i was running my 10 miles this morning on a treadmill at the Sheraton I noticed a label attached above the LCD screen that said some thing like “please no weights while using this machine”. They must have fixed a few broken screens in the past :)</p>
<p>Bunsen- 10 miles on a hotel dreadmill. Wow. I usually just stop the thing when it finishes cooldown and start over if I have to do more.<br>
Did Hot Yoga today with my two houseguests. I have only run once this week, which is pretty pathetic. Plan to do about 7 tomorrow. No ill effects (except lack of sleep) from the steroid injection.</p>
<p>MOfWC, my choices were (i) the dreadmill; (ii) highway shoulder, because this hotel was located in the middle of nowhere. I wisely chose the dreadmill, but I swear that I will never, ever repeat this experience or stay at this hotel again. The so-called heated pool was as cold as the waters of the coast of Antarctica.</p>
<p>So, I’m about halfway through Gary Taubes recent book: [Why</a> We Get Fat: And What to Do About It](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-Borzoi/dp/0307272702]Why”>http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-Borzoi/dp/0307272702)</p>
<p>Interesting stuff. He suggests that we don’t get fat because we overeat and fail to exercise, but rather something physiological triggers excess fat cell production and the increasing fat stores cause us to eat more, slow our metabolism, and become less physically active . Much in the same way that we don’t say a teenager’s growth spurt is caused by “overeating”. The growth spurt is triggered by hormonal changes and, because the body is using all available fuel to add mass, the kid must eat and eat and eat.</p>
<p>I have to say that this has some resonance with me. I have not “deprived” myself of food or been on any kind of a starvation diet. Something has changed as I have reversed my fat gain. Something fundamentally different in my desire for food, exercise, and so forth. Not something as in forcing myself not to eat for months on end.</p>
<p>He also hypothesizes that the low-fat jihad of nutrionists in favor of a high carb grain-heavy diet has contributed to the obesity problem. He proposes that it is actually the overconsumption of carbohydrates that triggers hormonal changes (insulin) resulting in elevated fat storage. Interesting stuff.</p>
<p>Here’s a NYTIMES article he wrote a while back.</p>
<p>[What</a> if It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie? - The New York Times](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/what-if-it-s-all-been-a-big-fat-lie.html?pagewanted=print]What”>http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/what-if-it-s-all-been-a-big-fat-lie.html?pagewanted=print)</p>
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<p>I’m probably more receptive than most for this argument because I have lost 75 pounds over the last year eating a diet with fat as my biggest percentage of calories and carbs as my smallest – although hardly Atkins level carb restriction. I have also seen the abject failure of the health industry’s efforts to push pharmaceutical nicotine as a widespread treatment for nicotine drug addiction and their resulting “success” in bringing smoking cessation rates to a screeching halt. It’s pretty clear that the “low-fat” craze has been equally “successful” with obesity rates.</p>
<p>Idad, I think you can probably figure out where I stand with all of it… none of it is perfect. I think your philosophy on this whole thing is spot-on for weight loss: “eat less, move more.” I don’t think the type of food you eat is as important as the amount. I think you have to be careful some in that if you cut too many calories, your “move more” part is going to work as well. </p>
<p>Today I got me a good workout in. I did about 12 minutes on the recumbent bike for a little warm up. Then I did:</p>
<p>:30 single arm snatch (6/each side)
:30 rest
:30 kettlebell swings (12)
:30 rest
:30 single arm snatch
:30 rest
:30 kettlebell swings
:30 rest
:30 single arm snatch
:30 rest
:30 kettlebell swings
:30 rest
:30 single arm snatch
:30 rest
:30 kb swings
:30 rest
:30 single arm snatch
:30 rest
:30 kb swings
:30 rest
:30 single arm snatch
:30 rest
:30 kb swings
:30 rest</p>
<p>So that gives me 12 minutes. I used a 30 pound dumbbell today. </p>
<p>First round: Average HR 178BPM, Max 189BPM
Second Round: Average HR 177BPM, Max 193BPM
Third Round: Average HR 183BPM, Max 197BPM</p>
<p>In between the 1st and 2nd rounds, I rested for probably close to 10 minutes as I was talking to one of the members. In between the 2nd and 3rd rounds, I rested about 3:30 trying to get myheart rate down to around 100. It only got down to about 120 before I went ahead and started again. In the 3rd round, I upped the KB swings to 20. I found through my first two rounds that I normally had 8-10 seconds left after doing 12 so I decided to push it on the last set. On the third round, I had to stop after my last set of single arm snatch. I looked down at my hands and noticed that I had developed a blood blister and it had busted. When I went to go clean my hand, I discovered that actually both hands had started bleeding. Nothing major, but I decided to stop…</p>
<p>Taubes is suggesting that “eat less/move more” won’t work if there is an underlying trigger for the body to use all available fuel to increase fat storage.</p>
<p>He makes a compelling argument on a number of fronts. One is that an excess of mere 20 calories a day (less than 1% of a typical adult diet) is enough, according to the calories in versus out theory, to turn a lean 25 year old into a 55 year old who is 60 pounds overweight (at the rate of 2 pounds per year). He argues that it is simply not logical that an animal would evolve to a situation where they must control their food intake with that level of precision over a 30 year period to not get obese. And furthermore, that the evolution would have to have occured pratcially overnight given the sky rocketing obesity levels starting in the 1980s, despite a fitness boom in the United States that began in the 1970s.</p>
<p>He rejects the idea that being overweight is universally caused by psychological weakness.</p>
<p>Idad, that sounds like a great book. I pity the three idiots who gave it one star reviews on Amazon - they must have failed their bio classes in HS.</p>
<p>I’ve watched him on a number of shows with diet experts from competing camps. There are some points of universal agreement.</p>
<p>1) Fish oil and omega 3 fats are good for you.</p>
<p>2) Unsaturated fats, such as olive oil, are no longer viewed as a problem.</p>
<p>3) Simple carbs such as refined flour and sugar is significant contributor to obesity and should be reduced/avoided. The insulin spike mechanism Taubes describes with these carbs and fat storage is not seemingly in dispute.</p>
<p>I am loving the kettlebell workouts. Really gets the old heart racing! 
Where is everyone…had to find this on page 3! :eek:</p>
<p>Too tired to post. Getting ready for painters and stuff. Carried heavy boxes and furniture around all day yesterday and more today. Biggest workout yesterday was carrying a 72 pound box down two flights of stairs. Big TV box, barely fit through the doors. I doubt that I could have even picked it up six months ago, let alone carried it down stairs. Took a big mirror off a dresser that had to have weighed even more.</p>
<p>No extra workout for me today. Just sore all over. Carrying a whole bunch of stereo gear, speakers and amplifiers is my workout this evening. Painting in every room, floor sanding, carpet, etc. and it’s just best to get as much junk down in to the cellar and out of the way as possible. There’s only so much you can shuffle around from room to room. Don’t need to be lifting dumbbells, too!</p>