<p>Am I the only fan of Ezekiel bread here? I go thru phases when I really like a particular food and right now it’s Ezekiel bread, toasted, a thin smear of PB and low-sugar blackberry jam. It get’s my motor running.</p>
<p>Happy to report that I’ve done the treadmill and lifted random weights on the Hoist system the sellers of our house left in the basement. Have no idea what I’m doing but have the setting at “2” so hopefully will not get injured. I tend to tone up quickly and already see some improvement in my upper arms. </p>
<p>You guys who run marathons jus slay me. Hats off. Seriously.</p>
<p>Cool. From the looks of the Hoist home gyms on their internet site, that would be a fantastic piece of equipment to have. Those things are thousands of dollars. Lots of fun stuff.</p>
<p>Inasmuch as JYM reposted Fallenchemist’s post on another thread and Fallenchemist mentioned me in his post, I feel I am meant to be here!</p>
<p>I am an Atkins follower (don’t yell at me!). That is to say, I have no willpower unless I am eating very few carbs. I have been successful at it, with about 5 lbs to go (having lost about 15). I go off from time to time, and especially on vacations and yes, the food gets boring. </p>
<p>I hate exercise but recently signed up for a Pilates Reformers class from a Groupon. It was OK. I’ll never love working out like other people do. I do love reading other people’s success stories and their struggles too.</p>
<p>I had a look at Hoist Fitness to ensure that it is what I think it is. We have a pulley-weights system at the old YMCA and I think that it’s a neat for doing certain kinds of resistance training that you can’t do with free weights. For tennis, you can simulate resistance on a serve, forehand and backhand as the resistance isn’t dependent on you pushing up. I normally don’t use the pulley system as we have only one of them at the Y and it is frequently in use. It is nice in that the system is relatively compact and allows you to do a wide variety of exercises and I think that it’s a pretty safe machine as the weights are self-contained.</p>
<p>Ran 6 miles for a total of 29 this week. I have until tomorrow evening to knock off the remaining one mile. Might do that tonight if son wants to go running.</p>
<p>The cable weight pulley systems are the only “machines” at places like Mike Boyle’s and Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove’s gyms. There are some fantastic exercises that can really only be done with a cable pulley system – lot of great core stability exericises. I made do with resistance bands, but I would love access to a cable pulley system.</p>
<p>sewhappy, I’m having some envy here. When I used to go to the gym I definitely used a similar system. I recall feeling a bit awkward until I got into the swing of things, but it was definitely worth it. </p>
<p>I like listening to music from when I was young(er) when I exercise. For some reason my body doesn’t hurt quite as much. It thinks I am 20 again! Don’t laugh, but when I’m doing cardio I often envision myself winning an Olympic marathon or something. Visualization is really important to me. </p>
<p>At the French Open website, they have lots of clips of the players’ lounge area and some players sleep, some watch matches and some warm up. Resistance bands are pretty popular - even Federer uses them. Someone stands behind him and he twists left and right to simulate groundstrokes. No real room for weight equipment at the players’ lounge or on the court.</p>
<p>You could check around at the local gyms for one. It sounds like you don’t want to buy one in your home (I wouldn’t want one - not enough space in the basement).</p>
<p>You won’t get any yelling from me. I’m not a hard core Atkins dieter, but I have eaten moderately low carb for quite a while now – typically 100 g a day, probably 80 g if you back out the fiber. Maybe 20% to 25% of my total calories.</p>
<p>I’m pretty much convinced that it’s a very effective way to lose fat (and prevent fat gain) for an awful lot of us, especially for any of us who may have insulin resistance. I know it’s worked for me.</p>
<p>I’ve been reading the new Atkins book. The three authors are among the top low carb guys in the country. Westman runs the low carb weight loss lifestyle clinic at Duke. Volek is probably the top PhD low carb/fitness researcher in the country at UConn. Cassandra Forsythe, who did the nutrition part of the book, New Rules of Lifting for Women, was a PhD student of his and did some terrific research on weight lifting, fitness training, and low carb diets. After a couple decades of no funding for low carb nutrition research, Volek’s stuff is long overdue.</p>
<p>I try to keep carbs at 20 to 33 percent. The Atkins diet can be a little scary as we’ve been conditioned for forty years that we should eat a lot of carbs. I think that many here are doing fairly well on a lower-carb diet. Perhaps not the percentages of the Atkins diet, but usage of the same general principle.</p>
<p>I’m like Forest Gump and a box of chocolates when I exercise. I have my iPod set up to give me a random selection of all the songs I’ve rated 5-Stars that I haven’t heard in the last 180 days. So I never know what I’m going to get. Serendipity sometimes.</p>
<p>Yesterday, while I was doing burpees, I got this gem: a duet with Jack White and Loretta Lynn:</p>
<p>I’m keeping it simple. Supposed to be rainy, so I’m about to fire up the grill. Do rib eye steak and corn on the cob for tonight and, while the coals are hot, sear some boneless chicken breast for one night of chicken caesar salad and one night of chicken fajitas. Boring ol’ standbys, but I haven’t had chicken all week.</p>
<p>Speaking of chicken and fowl in general – how does one not become slavish to it night after night without bankruptcy at the fish counter or giving into sirloin . . . and stay healthy?</p>
<p>That is just all and all a great song from a great album. I don’t know if it would motivate me to do burpees, however. Tonight I plan on watching some hockey and tomorrow morning will walk to our farmer’s market, then fit in an actual run. It’s supposed to be cooler (as in less than 90 degrees) so I think it will be a good day for it.</p>
<p>sewhappy, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with red meat once or twice a week.</p>
<p>I have a lot of ways of cooking or serving chicken, so I try to mix it up. Bar-b-q chicken one week. Boneless breasts for chicken ceasar salad another. Grannies fried. Roasted whole chicken.</p>
<p>I also cook a lot of pork. Dirt cheap, reasonably lean, and pork chops or boneless roast is pretty good eating.</p>
<p>I also cook a lot of cheaper cuts of beef in stews, chili, pot roast, etc.</p>
<p>Went to the track with son and knocked off the last mile so 30 for the week. Last time I did that was in the 1990s. That leaves me free for tennis tomorrow (I sent out an email to someone to see if they will hit - it’s going to rain so their usual group will probably be cancelled). </p>
<p>I only have 154 calories in my budget today and am still fairly hungry. It’s been somewhat of a murderous week exercise-wise and I may go over by a few hundred calories. The calorie calculator that I just used estimates calories burned by running at 1,000 (seems reasonable at my weight) so I actually have a lot of calories to play with eating-wise.</p>
<p>Tonight: burgers, french-cut green beans, sauteed onions, eggplant cutlets.</p>
<p>I flipped the script and did my Saturday exercise today (5K walk/jog) on a gorgeous sunny 72 degree afternoon with a cool breeze. I’ll do my Friday workout (core and weights) tomorrow when it’s supposed to be raining.</p>
<p>I’ve got tired muscles after five days in a row. These little walk/jogs are no longer easy recovery days for me. The jogging intervals plus walking all the hills makes them pretty good workouts. The good news: I haven’t fallen or twisted an ankle yet!</p>