<p>I have not done a single ab crunch since I started my anti-flab crusade a year and a half ago. I think the little planks and pushups had something to do with shaping my waist to the point that I no longer need Spanx!</p>
<p>I can sympathize. I miss my baked potato chips! If that worked for me, I would probably still be eating like that. And I am pretty irate that I started eating like that because I thought it was healthy.</p>
<p>18:20 for a time tonight with average HR @165bpm, max HR @191bpm. I used a 30 pound dumbbell for the single arm snatches and a 40 pound kettlebell for my swings. My partner was hating me again tonight ;)</p>
<p>I’m really starting to feel good. You know this workout was killer while I was doing it, but about 5-10 minutes after I finished, I was grinning Was starting to feel good about what I had just done. I had that “runners’ high” feeling. I was full of energy for about 30 minutes afterwards. I can’t believe that I’m starting to feel like I’m in some of the best shape I’ve ever been in. Considering I’m still 30 pounds overweight and was a 3-sport varsity athlete in high school, that’s pretty good! :)</p>
<p>Pushups are awesome in every way. iPod nazi calls them the best single exercise known to man (personally, I would have to say, the burpee…) </p>
<p>If you want to feel your abs burn, try these two:</p>
<p>a) Get in a push up position, then walk your feet backwards so that your arms are stretched out a bit in front of you. Hold that position. It won’t take long.</p>
<p>b) Try doing a pushup with your hands on a stability ball. To stay on the ball, you have to squeeze the ball with your hands. There’s something about that force that fires the abs like crazy.</p>
<p>One of my favorite parts of New Rules of Lifting for Abs is the lengthy section on dozens of pushup variations and progressions.</p>
<p>Did the study mention the calories consumed under each diet?</p>
<p>Foods that contain both carbs and fat tend to be high in calorie density (consider bread with butter, potatoes with butter and cheese, fettucine alfredo, breaded and fried foods, chips, etc.). Either low carb (Atkins) or low fat (Ornish) eliminates these foods; other studies have found that people tend to eat fewer calories under either type of diet (people are not that likely to eat plain butter or plain bread to the extent that they will eat buttered bread).</p>
<p>The Zone diet may be promoted mainly on its 40/30/30 ratio, but closer inspection indicates that it recommends a certain level of protein for a given body weight and activity level. If you derive, using the 40/30/30 ratio, the amount of carbs and fat to be consumed along with that level of protein, the total calories tends to be very low, ensuring calorie deficit.</p>
<p>A great way to watch TV: during every commerical break, get up and do some pushups. That’s what I’ve been doing for the past hour while watching WNTW!</p>
<p>BC is right - a pushup performed correctly is a combo excersise for both muscle groups. If you middle sags during pushups or your butt sticks up, you are not doing pushups correctly. Our 5th grade “PE Nazi” teacher was a real pushup maniac: if you weren’t doing them correctly, they were not counting towards your 40 that you needed to get an A :)</p>
<p>**Entire group before the study: **
1900 calories a day
46% carb
35% fat
19% protein.</p>
<p>Interestingly, there was essentially no difference in total calories among the four groups. They all dropped to 1500 calories at 8 weeks. and all four groups drifted up to 1600 calories at the one year mark. Also, the protein ended up about the same for all four groups, so the only real differences were carbs and fats.</p>
<p>Just did a bunch of floorwork and stretching yesterday. My workload is such that I’m getting insufficient sleep (about 6 hours) and I’m not going to go running on not enough sleep. I prefer not to do weights either. It will just be floorwork and stretching for this week. And tennis too.</p>
<p>Went to my low-impact exercise class today after missing 2 weeks due to various things ranging from rehearsals to a funeral. </p>
<p>It felt so good! I can exercise at home but there’s something about being in a class with other people, music, and an instructor saying, “Breathe! Keep it up! You can do it!” :)</p>
<p>That looks like a low-carb low fat diet. Also known as starvation!</p>
<p>More power to them. I couldn’t do starvation diets and my hunch is that most people cannot make starvation a permament fixture of a healthy, fit lifestyle.</p>
<p>The article didn’t say how long the “phases” of the Dukan Diet last. One day of meat & oat fiber would be more than enough for me! :(</p>
<p>BB–I have tried to get my DH & sons to get up from the TV or computer periodically and do a few pushups or the like. They’re not having any of it. The young ones don’t think they need to, and the old one is stubborn.</p>
<p>I had a laugh this a.m.–filling out an online survey. They wanted to know what “healthy” foods I buy. OK, meat, fruit, veggies, milk, yogurt, cheese, fish, whole grains and so forth.</p>
<p>The next question was “What are the BRANDS of the healthy foods you buy?” Huh? Chiquita bananas? Dole pineapple?</p>
<p>After another similar question it became clear they were talking about things I never buy–“healthy” PROCESSED foods–commercial granola bars, Weight Watchers or Stouffers lo-cal frozen entrees/desserts, etc. I guess they won’t want to use me in the focus group then? :D</p>
<p>Looks like Ornish group ended up where the “orthodox” / AHA / etc. recommendations suggest, while the Atkins group is not that far off from the Zone ideal ratio. Which are far off from the targets of those diets (Ornish < 10% fat, Atkins as low carb as you can to get into ketosis, probably < 15%).</p>
<p>Also, if the Zone dieters’ protein intake ended up similar to the Atkins and Ornish dieters, they would be at around 20% protein, which is below the Zone target 30%, indicating that they were eating less protein or more fat and carbs than the Zone diet recommends (probably the latter, since the Zone diet tends to be very low calorie if followed strictly).</p>
<p>Hi All! Back from my mini vacation. My first night away I got bit by a dog in the foot!!! I have bad luck right now! Punctured and bruised the foot so I have been out of cardio commission! Weighed in this morning and I have lost 3 pounds even after indulging in daily Happy Hours!!! Weird! Can’t get out of the driveway this morning because of snow and ice. I am so ready for spring! I picked up a new magazine at Target for the weekend and it had some great recipes in it. It is called Clean Eating. I liked it! Made a few of the recipes over the weekend. Yum-O! Today I am cooking a turkey breast in the crockpot. At least I am eating healthy!</p>
<p>The methodology was to divide the study into four groups of about 75 per group. Overweight pre-menopausal women. Each group was randomly assigned to one of the popular diets: Atkins, Zone, LEARN (official gov/AHA diet), or Ornish.</p>
<p>Each group read and studied their assigned diet with a single dietician leading the classes for eight weeks. So, they were very well versed in the details of their respective diets. After the eight week study period, the dieters were left to follow their diets on their own for the remainder of the one-year study, reporting in at regular intervals for weighing, bloodwork, food journals, exercise journals, etc.</p>
<p>So they got more intensive education on their diet plan and, presumably, represent a somewhat better than average shot of reading and understanding the diet details than the average person buying the book on Amazon. To the extent that they were unable to follow a particular diet, we can assume that this is a real-world experience and this is what people do. In fact, the diets were followed so closely for the first eight week period, that I think it’s fair to say these people were better than average in adherence.</p>
<p>If people can’t follow Ornish’s diet because it is unsustainable, on average, then that should be factored in if the point of the exercise is to select a nutrition strategy that, in the real world, is mostly likely to produce fat loss and imiproved health markers such as lowered blood pressure, increased “good” cholesterol, reduced triglycerides, etc.</p>
<p>At the six month mark, the ZONE, LEARN, and ORNISH diets had resulted in an average weight loss of 2% of body mass. The ATKINS group had lost an average of 8% of body mass. The subjects all needed to lose in the 30 to 60 pound range to get down to their ideal target weights.</p>
<p>In addition to signficantly better weight loss, the ATKINS group also had better or equal results on every measured health marker in the study: lower blood pressure, increased good cholesterol, decreased tricglycerides, larger LDL particle size, insulin, blood glucose, etc. The better results on health markers from the low carb/high fat diets even remained after controlling for the more successful weight loss. That’s a real eye-opener, since the original rationale for the low-fat jihad was to reduce the risk of heart disease. Yet, studies are now showing that high-fat diets improve the markers associated with heart disease better than low-fat diets.</p>
Was starting to feel good about what I had just done. I had that “runners’ high” feeling. I was full of energy for about 30 minutes afterwards. I can’t believe that I’m starting to feel like I’m in some of the best shape I’ve ever been in. Considering I’m still 30 pounds overweight and was a 3-sport varsity athlete in high school, that’s pretty good! :)</p>
That’s what I’ve been doing for the past hour while watching WNTW!</p>