missypie- Are you sure you can’t read? My son in law did some of his med school reading on the elliptical. I’ve never been able to read on exercise machines.
<p>I’m another one who must have the iPod while exercising. My favorites while I’m on the treadmill are the B52s’ Love Shack, and all of Ricky Martin – She Bangs is the best!!</p>
<p>I’m open to suggestions for other wonderful running music.</p>
<p>Missypie can read. Just not while on the elliptical. :)</p>
<p>I have tried reading while on the recumbent bike but I really slow down as I get in to the book. My girls gave me my first ipod for Christmas. I am excited to use it as I add music. Cool that families can share music from itunes now! Anyone interested in posting their favorite workout music?</p>
<p>So far today I am drinking lots of water, had a healthy breakfast and trying to keep busy out of the kitchen. Did throw H’s homemade cinnamon rolls out…they are too tempting! No exercise yet.</p>
<p>H can’t stand gyms. Therefore we run outdoors, rain or shine. I think it is the fresh air that makes us less hungry. When I used to exercise in a gym, I always felt hungry after my 30-minute runs on a treadmill.</p>
<p>I don’t read while I am exercising because my focus is my body not my head,I want to pay attention to how it feels and to push myself a bit. So I will listen to invigorating music, but not read. While the upright bikes are facing the wall’o televisions, I still listen to my music even though the screens are distracting. (we don’t have cable at home so some of it seems really bizarre)</p>
<p>I also noticed that when I exercised in the morning when the young moms and the grandpas did, I didn’t work as hard cause they were all reading on the machines and I adapted my pace to theirs despite myself.
So I go after dinner when the aspiring body builders do now and i get my heart rate up higher ;)</p>
<p>^^^Not a bad thing to be with others whose bods you covet.</p>
<p>About a decade ago I spent a year with a local university as my client, so I worked on campus. I am an alumni of the school, so I was able to get a discount to use the student fitness facilities. VeryHappy, there IS a limit on how many young, fit bodies you want around you when working out. Even 10 years ago it made me feel awful old and tubby…</p>
<p>About diet–I think it’s essential to decide before starting what kind of dieter you can most successfully be.</p>
<p>My trainer says his clients are pretty equally divided between the WW approach and the “clean food” approach. Different lifestyles seem to impact which approach works for imdividuals.</p>
<p>I’m always amazed at what WW lets you eat. That seems to work best for busy people who don’t want to commit to much cooking. You can go into the grocery store and buy lots that’s easy to prepare. But you are still eating a lot of foods that are processed and not healthy. You’ll lose weight (slowly in the case of most I know), but I really question how much most are improving their health. </p>
<p>The clean food approach–cutting out additives, preservatives, processed foods is a much more time consuming effort. </p>
<p>The bottom line is reducing calories in any form will make you lose weight, but you need to decide what your real goal is–weight loss alone or weight loss and overall health.</p>
<p>Choosing exercise involves the same consideration. Are you just trying to look better or do you want to maximize heart health, bone density, overall strength? Are you understanding how easy it is to do real damage by not getting proper instruction? A good plan can maximize your health benefits with routines that take very little time and effort.</p>
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<p>Toneranger/ post#51 – for a moment there, I thought you were discussing your physique, not your recipe ingredients!:)</p>
<p>Well, speaking for myself hmom5, I am more interested in the approach you are recommending- to eliminate additives, preservatives, processed foods and the like. For the most part I feel I have a pretty good, balanced diet. </p>
<p>Do you have any resources you can suggest? After seeing “Supersize Me” I purchased the book written by Alexandra Jameson- aka “Healthy Chef Alex” - but found it a challenging read and it was intimidating to me as a novice. I also have books by Bob Greene and Rosie ? - folks who worked with Oprah. </p>
<p>In spite of being overweight, I am in generally good health, or so my physician tells me. With a family history of heart disease though I really want to live better. I’m open to suggestions. That’s what this thread is for! I think we all want to be better to ourselves- be healthy and strong.</p>
<p>LOL…actually organic chic breasts work well in that recipe too :)</p>
<p>Just got back from a yoga class…it’s been a while…felt great. </p>
<p>I am one of the clean food eaters…apparently I still eat too much though given that I could stand to lose 20! I hide it well cause I’m tall (and it’s winter) but I know how much better it felt to be thinner. </p>
<p>sabaray…read the Michael Pollan books and it will change the way you eat forever. Omninvore’s Dilemma…or In Defense of Food. </p>
<p>Favorite exercise itunes: What is Love by Haddaway and I’ve Been Thinking About You by Londonbeat. I also have a yoga playlist with slow new age music…drums and things. Pretty cool.</p>
<p>I am actually a HUGE Michael Pollan fan. Have both books but perhaps I should re-read them now that I’ve reached a sufficient level of motivation!</p>
<p>Missypie, instead of “exercising,” how do you feel about a nice gossipy walk with friends? In my neighborhood I often see groups of women walking together. You don’t have to break a sweat, just walk a mile or two or three regularly, to get a huge benefit. Even if it’s cold, even if it’s rainy or snowy, you can still walk.</p>
<p>I don’t walk with friends, but I do take gossipy bike rides with friends. Commiserating about the problems of our teenage kids makes the miles fly by. Not only do I get a workout, but I learn that I’m not the only one with a problem child. (I don’t even know what Fang Jr’s grades are this quarter, except for the Incomplete. I don’t think I want to know.)</p>
<p>Another Pollan fan. He hugely influenced how we now eat.</p>
<p>I have to admit when I started my health journey, I was living in an area with daily farmer’s markets, organic farms and lots of fresh wild fish. I was able to spend a lot of time shopping and cooking. </p>
<p>Many recipes I use come from the NYT Well Section, others I used Google to find once I chose the ingredients I wanted to use. I combed stores like Whole foods’ bins and introduced myself to previously unknown things like flax seed and oat bran. I learned about legumes as I cut out most meat. What meat we did eat became things with under 4% fat and portions became 4 ounces. </p>
<p>To satisfy everyone’s sweet tooth, I learned to bake with unsweetened applesauce, canned pumpkin, brans and fruit. Amazing what you can make. </p>
<p>DD who doesn’t mind additives but likes to stay thin swears by the Hungry Girl cookbook for recipes.</p>
<p>There’s also a book currently popular called something like The End Of Overeating. It was written by the former head of the FDA. One of the things he talks about that I think is helpful is the brain chemistry of overeating. It’s an addiction, and it takes some time for your body to break the addiction–the craving of foods with fat and sugar. It explains why so many diets fail. You have to be determined to fight your way through the period of breaking the addiction to allow your brain chemistry to change and the cravings to stop.</p>
<p>I found this particularly true with my cravings for meat. A former steak lover, I have not had one for months and they now look completely unattractive as I pass them in the store.</p>
<p>For heart health, first step is to buy a heart monitor. I like the Brookstone one that’s a ring. Many people think they are helping their hearts through walks and other exercise when they aren’t. Unless you get your heart to yout target rate and keep it there, a walk is not doing much.</p>
<p>Best “diet advice” I’ve ever heard was something that our physiology prof told us - stop eating when your stomach feels about 3/4th full, which means you’ve already had enough, but your hunger pathways have not yet had a chance to react and signal to your brain to stop shoveling food into your mouth. She was right; apparently, that’s what people in Japan do.</p>
<p>Actually, cooking from scratch is not that complicated or time-consuming. I can make a healthy dinner after our nightly run in less than 30 minutes. Some soups require more time, but you can make them in advance and eat a couple of nights in a row, just add a slightly different salad for variety.</p>
<p>I agree with bunsen, I think cooking is less time consuming than going out. It does require some planning though.</p>
<p>One thing we will be doing more of is preparing meals at one of those meal prep places (FWIW I go to Let’s Dish). With just 3 of us at home the split meals are the right portion size.
The dinners are generally healthy with no preservatives.</p>
<p>A piece of exercise advice. I see many people cover up the indicators on the machines. Don’t do that. You need to repeat a routine and those indicators, as ridiculous as they may be for indicating effort (and calories burned), can tell you a lot. Take the extra 20 seconds to input your weight and age - because the calculators are set for a 150 lb male of an age I forget. Then when you do a routine repeatedly you can at least judge your effort. For example, let’s say I use a machine for 45 minutes. If the final number is 570, I worked at the top end of the range, while 560 is in the middle and 550 is easy. I can divide that up and judge as I’m going. This may sound silly but consider that you shouldn’t work exactly the same each day and a day at the hard end for you should be followed by something slower. This prevents injury and keeps your will up. </p>
<p>A dieting trick or two:</p>
<ol>
<li>Learn basic calorie measures by heart. For example, an ounce of wheat is 100 calories, so a slice of bread is usually 100 calories. That means the rolls you eat before dinner at a restaurant can be 400 calories you don’t really count in your head.</li>
<li>Take away a piece of bread. I like sandwiches, but a mile of running is little more in calories than a slice of bread, so I will eat open-faced sandwiches. A half of a hamburger roll is 90 to 140 calories so leaving off half has a big impact.</li>
</ol>
<p>BTW, an actually free way of burning calories is ice water. You have to heat the water in your body - and raising the temperature of water defines a calorie. Drink a lot of ice water in a day and you can burn 75 to 100 calories. Add that up over a week and then a month and you see that can be the difference between adding and losing weight.</p>
<p>Counting calories may work for some but it never did the trick for me. Maybe because I’m not a math person ;). The problem was that I was still just as hungry whether I knew how many calories I’d had or not.</p>
<p>Even though I don’t really have a weight problem, I do crave all the wrong foods and snack all night long. I have a very high cholesterol level. I KNOW exactly what I should eat, and I have plenty of access to good food. But I am addicted to fat, salt and sugar, preferably in combination and I can’t seem to kick this habit. AArgh! </p>
<p>anyway, this thread is inspiring me to make more of an effort.</p>
<p>re iPods for exercising. I load podcasts on mine – This American Life, Radiolab, even foreign language lesson podcasts that I get free online. I alternate between these and music so I don’t get bored.</p>
<p>I’m dubious about this plan of drinking ice water to burn excess calories. I’m pretty sure your body has enough excess heat that it doesn’t have to generate any to warm up the water to body temperature.</p>
<p>But hey, if that method works, wouldn’t turning down the thermostat in your house work even better?</p>