<p>Okay, folks, I’m back. I need a new approach quickly. In the past two weeks I have lost 12 pounds because I can’t eat. This is new for me, and is a result of stress from the death of my beloved Lab. I’m looking a little worse for wear. </p>
<p>I am used to walking with said friend 3 to 4 times daily and now just can’t face the thought of walking without him. I need to exercise and eat because I know this isn’t healthy. How do you all snap out of a funk and get back into exercising when all you want to do is hide under your covers?</p>
<p>sabaray, it there a pet shelter in your town that needs dog walker volunteers? I know that nothing will replace your dear friend, but walking with a purpose might numb your pain a little bit.</p>
<p>Sabaray, if (God forbid) the death was of a close family member, I doubt that you would be beating yourself up for not exercising. Let yourself mourn. Is there any type of comfort food that sounds remotely good to you right now? Ice cream, tapioca, soup? If so, indulge to get some calories in you.</p>
<p>Unfortunately our shelter only allows volunteers to supervise dogs in a fenced play area, which I just think is stupid (not that they have asked me). I don’t know that would be the best thing for me right now. A well socialized dog that is leash trained has a far better chance of adoption, if you ask me (not that they have). </p>
<p>Lots of good discussion on foods right now in this thread. I liked reading about everyone’s breakfasts - I’m a big egg fan and breakfast has always been my largest meal until recently. I was at Target a few weeks ago and was reviewing a book - “The Dukan Diet”. Has anyone read it? Have you all talked about it already? I looked at it and thought there were actually principles in there that I could actually follow. Not sure how healthy it is, however and I don’t know that I actually need to diet for weight loss at this point.</p>
<p>Missypie, I actually think exercising would make me feel a heck of a lot better. I just need to think of something to do that doesn’t make me think of the Big Dog every time I do it!</p>
<p>I’m so sorry about your doggie. I know it is a huge loss. My big guy is 8 now and getting white around the muzzle. I can’t imagine not having him.
What about joining a gym or doing something that is totally non-dog related?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t remember - do you belong to a gym? Or does your community have a fitness center? I was thinking that a big group exercise class - maybe something like Zumba - would be good for you right now.</p>
<p>Cross posted with MOWC.</p>
<p>Doggies should never die before their owners. It’s not fair.</p>
<p>I had a gym membership for quite a while but just couldn’t take the monotony. I did elliptical, treadmill, circuit training, almost everything but the bike. I have some light weights at home and what I call a balance ball that I use for posture, etc. Perhaps I just need to shop around for a bit and see if there is another gym that might offer more in the way of classes/social opportunities. Surely one can get a trial period without committing long term?</p>
<p>Totally agree, VH! My poor guy was only 9 - he’d been slowing down for a bit as I expected with age but had clean blood work last December. I called the vet because I thought he was having vision problems; she wanted to repeat blood work and the poor guy had lymphoma so advanced it was only days before I had to put him to sleep. Symptoms only became apparent in the last few weeks. The thought he had cancer never even crossed my mind.</p>
<p>One of my tennis buddies had to put his dog down last year and it had bothered him for a long time. He went back and forth about getting another dog as he was considering leaving the area and he wouldn’t want a dog if he had to move but he’d have to sell his house to move and the housing market is tough. So he was out of it for a while and then he started using a loaner program from the local shelter where you could bring a dog home for a week to see if you wanted to keep it. He brought home a wonderful dog, great attitude - no problems, but returned it as he wasn’t sure. He went back later on for the dog and, of course, it was gone. He picked up another dog later on but had problems with it and returned it. He picked up another which he liked quite a bit and returned it. He went back later and it was still there so he took it home for keeps.</p>
<p>He’s working from home a lot to get the dog comfortable and keep it company and he’s (my friend) generally in better spirits.</p>
<p>BTW, his problem was that he had a lot of trouble sleeping.</p>
<p>BCEagle, I think it is all related. Sleep, exercise, eating. You have a routine - my husband works extreme hours, my son lives with us but has his own life, D is off doing her thing - I literally spent more time with the dog than with any other family member. Yep, I’m one of those nuts that thinks of her dog as a family member. No exercise- no endorphins. No exercise- no appetite. No appetite - body starts feeding off its stores. Currently I’m waking up at 2 AM, 4:30 AM, and then getting up for the day at 6 AM. That’s great that your friend has the flexibility to work from home and that the shelter allows that type of program.</p>
<p>sabaray…don’t know anything about the Dukan Diet except that is what Kate Middleton and her mom went on before the big Royal Wedding. You are grieving…try to make yourself eat healthy and move a little bit. Sending {{{HUGS}}} and positive thoughts!</p>
<p>Sending good wishes to sabaray on the loss of your beloved pet.</p>
<p>Bought my first pair of running shoes today! Also weighed myself for the first time since really starting my new choices at home - down 5 pounds in 8 days. I’ve been hungry a lot, which I thought might just be cravings for junk, but it looks like I actually might need to up my food intake a bit.</p>
<p>Fantastic t-cliche! Off to a good start. </p>
<p>You may or may not want to adjust your calories. It is fairy typical to see a big number the first week. Particularly, if you cut out a lot of carbs, you’ll drop water weight like crazy the first week. I would also give it another week or two before taking “hunger signals” too seriously. There’s a bit of an adjustment period. You should have seen me standing in the grocery aisle staring longingly at a can of Pringles!</p>
<p>I dont know what your calorie intake is, so it may or may not be too low.</p>
<p>So I did my first workout with the Garmin watch today. Decided to test my owner’s manual skills and downloaded an advanced workout that I customized on the computer (my version of Zuzanna’s Burpee Fusion).</p>
<p>*Warmup</p>
<p>30 sec swings
30 sec rest
30 sec burpees
30 sec rest
30 sec inverted rows
30 sec rest
Rest until heart rate falls to 60%</p>
<p>Repeat three more sets.*</p>
<p>Amazingly enough, it all worked. The watch counted down and told me what to do at each step (“12 swings”), etc. The only thing I didn’t get right was an audible beep at the start of each actiivity. I did have the backlight turning on automatically, so I had a visual cue.</p>
<p>Very cool to have a falling heart rate determine the rest after each set. On the graph, the rests get longer and longer with each set.</p>
<p>47 seconds
2:04 minutes
2:56 minutes</p>
<p>I don’t know when I’ll get to try out the GPS. It’s supposed to keep raining here pretty much until the end of time.</p>
<p>Cool, idad, you are getting waaay more mileage out of that watch than I do. 
Awesome. </p>
<p>It is sunny and almost 60. Of course, today is my day off. I’m sticking to my guns and not running today. The nicer weather is supposed to last for a couple more days, so I will enjoy some sun tomorrow.</p>
<p>Which Garmin did you wind up getting?</p>
<p>I ended up going with the close-out pricing on the 405CX. I’m not a big fan of buttons, so the touch-bezel wasn’t a deal-breaker. The less-bulky size and styling won me over. Messing around with dumbbells and stuff is the majority of my workout time and this thing feels pretty much like a regular sport watch – albeit a fairly large one. We’ll see how it goes over the long haul, but, so far, I like the touch bezel. I’d really like the new 610. It’s gorgeous, but not at twice the price. The 310XT and the 410 are both really nice, but a whole bunch more money than the closeout on the 405CX. The 305 is the steal at $125, but man is it butt ugly.</p>
<p>Do you guys use Garmin Connect to view your data or SportTracks?</p>
<hr>
<p>Seeing the [graph</a> of my workout](<a href=“http://i218.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/albums/cc14/hwc_1000/BurpeeFusion5-17-2011HeartrateofmaxHR-Time.jpg?t=1305683127]graph”>http://i218.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/albums/cc14/hwc_1000/BurpeeFusion5-17-2011HeartrateofmaxHR-Time.jpg?t=1305683127) today made it instantly apparent why this interval training is so effective. The warm-up is the first 13 minutes, then you can clearly see the four identical six-minute sets after that, with longer heart rate recovery rests in between with each additional set. The heart rate doesn’t really fall at all on the short 30 seconds rests. All the rests do it enable you to keep pushing the heart rate higher with the next exercise. In this workout, the inverted rows are a little bit of a breather after the 35 pound swings and burpees, but they make it a complete workout with a dead lift, a pushup, a squat jump, and a pull.</p>
<p>Corrected workout today:</p>
<p>Warmup</p>
<p>30 sec swings
30 sec rest
30 sec burpees
30 sec rest
30 sec inverted rows
30 sec rest
30 sec swings
30 sec rest
30 sec burpees
30 sec rest
30 sec inverted rows
30 sec rest</p>
<p>Rest until heart rate falls to 60%</p>
<p>Repeat three times for a total of four sets.</p>
<p>I don’t use either. Well- my data goes to Garmin Connect, but I never look at it there. I download it right away to [RunningAHEAD</a> - Free online running log to track your training](<a href=“http://www.runningahead.com%5DRunningAHEAD”>http://www.runningahead.com) That’s my other home besides CC! :)</p>
<p>I’m having more trouble figuring out the computer software than I am the watch. I did get SportTracks to import all of my Nike+/iPod walks. And, there’s a SportsTrack plugin that looks like a big improvement over Garmin’s tool for building custom workouts and downloading them to the watch.</p>
<p>I need to get the sensors on the Airdyne and do a GPS hilly walk so I’ve got all three types of workouts to play with.</p>
![http://i218.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/albums/cc14/hwc_1000/BurpeeFusion5-17-2011HeartrateofmaxHR-Time.jpg?t=1305683127]graph](http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc14/hwc_1000/BurpeeFusion5-17-2011HeartrateofmaxHR-Time.jpg?t=1305683127%5Dgraph){kind=link}
