<p>2 hour snowshoe hike.</p>
<p>I mile run + floor stretches (not from a video). About to go to the Y for weekend weights.</p>
<p>Planet Fitness time for me this afternoon. Really good solid workout. Used the cable towers for two sets of core: plank position rows, side plank rows, pallof presses plus some farmers walks back and forth across the gym with a 60 lb DB.</p>
<p>For power, I did three sets of [DB</a> snatches](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube) with a 30 lb DB. That’s become one of my favorite exercises. Can’t do any med ball slams to with it at Planet Fitness – although I guess I could bring my med ball and do them out in the parking lot!</p>
<p>Did single leg DB deadlifts, 60 lb goblet squats, one-arm rows, and alternating standing overhead DB presses for my strength sets. Good stuff. Good workout…</p>
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<p>And, I should take a moment to thank iPod nazi for getting me off on the right direction way back on day one. The best part of going to the gym is seeing all the crazy stuff people do. There was the young college age girl who spent her time on the elliptical texting on her iPod. Then, later I saw her in the stretching room lying on a mat, texting on her iPod. Probably has strong thumbs.</p>
<p>And, some poor guy that looked like me at 250 pounds. Big ol’ fat guy. Props to him for being at the gym, but he was sitting on a weight bench doing wrist curls. I wanted to say, “guy, the problem here is not weak wrists and the answer is not wrist curls.”</p>
<p>And everybody in the gym was doing this weird exercise where they stand with DBs at their sides and bend to the left and then the right. I have no earthly idea what that is supposed to be accomplishing. “Toning” something or another, I suppose… :)</p>
<p>I could have just as easily been an ol’ fat guy doing really dumb exercises. It was just the grace of god, or something, that made me order that iPod nazi program and get started with a sound approach to workouts – use big muscles, work the whole body.</p>
<p>bromfield and CJane:</p>
<p>Wow. Ya’ll are killin’ me with the spin classes and snow shoe hikes. Those are both crazy hard cardio! I’ve only averaged 80% of my max heart rate one time in over two years of working out. That’s seriously tough because it requires going really high on the top end without much recovery on the bottom end.</p>
<p>The fitness room was actually crowded at the Y today. I had to find myself a spot. There were two teenagers doing box jumps. Now I know what those are. Put a short box on the floor and then jump to either side of the box. They only had one fall between them. I guess a foot caught the edge of the box and he fell.</p>
<p>I do side pulls though I do it with one dumbbell. I take a 75 pounder (more or less on good or bad days), hold it at my side and then bend in the opposite direction. You can feel it in your side. I don’t know what happens with two dumbbells - I don’t think that I could carry two 75 pounders.</p>
<p>Got in my split squats and I’m doing a bit more. I think that I’ll work up to 20 and then try adding weights. That I can do them means that my knees are getting better - probably due to reduced tennis time.</p>
<p>Ok…did my 5 mile walk today…and did not have chocolate this week. This is my second longest period without chocolate since I was allowed to eat chocolate as a little kid…as far as I know.</p>
<p>Sounds like you eat it on an almost daily basis.</p>
<p>There are times when I’ve gone for months without chocolate - it’s not something that I avoid; the opportunity just isn’t there.</p>
<p>When I really get it going…I eat 750 calories a day of the stuff.</p>
<p>Months without…i don’t know… I have only done that once.</p>
<p>My wife wanted to go to a great organic ice cream shop today…she rarely eats sweets…and I said, “No”. A little role reversal at my place.</p>
<p>75 lbs…sounds like a lot.</p>
<p>I ran. That’s all. :p</p>
<p>30 min, 3.6 miles, shine. I think I gained one pound - yay! Costco has fantastic portobello ravioli. The trick is to not get hooked on them. :)</p>
I worked in my yard all day. Im pooped. ( Spread mulch, moved raspberries & potted plants)
I did eat chocolate today. Yesterday when I walked to the grocery- there were the cutest Brownies sitting out front…
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<p>So, look on the bright side! All you have to do is stop eating chocolate and the weight will just melt off you! :)</p>
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<p>I could probably pick up a 75 pound dumbbell, but I wouldn’t want to hold it for very long!</p>
<p>My exercise set is no more than 25 seconds so that’s not very long. The hard part is putting it back into the rack. The floor is cushioned so no problems with dropping them - which a lot of people do. With some exercises, I guess it’s hard to get back up with the dumbbells so people just drop them on the floor.</p>
Interesteddad…I am counting on it. 
<p>For your chocolate fix, do this:</p>
<p>Get some unsweetened cocoa powder.</p>
<p>Put two to four tablespoons of cocoa in a mug, with one teaspoon of sugar.</p>
<p>Add a little hot water and stir.</p>
<p>Fill the mug with hot water.</p>
<p>This will let you savor the flavor for far longer, and with fewer calories, than solid chocolate.</p>
<p>That’s true…</p>
<p>I have done that…</p>
<p>But… It ends up with 750 calories a day…</p>
<p>I am really ok right now…</p>
<p>I may give that a shot again later…</p>
<p>It is not really an addiction…chocolate is a habit…
I live near bakeries and great, great ice cream stores…
It is hard to walk by without stopping in…</p>
<p>I just have to break this habit.</p>
<p>I am only about 13 pounds overweight…it is not that bad. </p>
<p>Are you overweight UCB…?</p>
<p>If so…are you doing anything to lose weight?</p>
<p>No. (Digression: I don’t like the term “overweight”. Some people are higher than the normal weight range due to being heavy with muscle, which is healthy. But others are within the normal weight range, but have low muscle and high body fat – “normal weight obesity”, which is unhealthy. Check your waistline at navel level – try to get it below half your height.)</p>
<p>But I do exercise a lot, and eat selectively (with respect to both carbohydrates and fats, and sufficient protein to support the relatively high volume of exercise).</p>
<p>Those bakeries and ice cream shops likely have a lot of foods that are both high carbohydrate* and high fat** => very calorie dense.</p>
<p><em>typically sugar and refined grain
*</em>typically hydrogenated and saturated fats</p>
<p>I agree with ucbalumnus about the “overweight” business. A good friend is very slim but has NO muscle tone. She prides herself on never exercising, but even though she is slim, her lack of tone and lack of exercise shows. She just looks – mushy.</p>
<p>I think everyone should exercise to some degree, and not just to lose weight. It makes a huge difference in muscle strength, bone strength, ability to do simple things like get out of a chair, walk up stairs, etc.</p>
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<p>Some of those things are harder to do the morning after if you do a lot of strength-training.</p>
<p>^^ or if you do a long run! :)</p>
<p>Bad decision this morning. At 7am it was sunny, calm but 30 degrees. I decided to wait until it warmed up a little to do my run. At 11 it was cloudy, EXTREMELY windy and 47. Not pleasant. 4.1 miles done for 38.1 mile week. I’m feeling tired- a combination of the miles, my life and crashing in the 10 mile run yesterday. I’m going to try a little experiment this week and do very slow mileage and keep my heart rate low. I haven’t succeeded at this lately, but I need to get some energy back. I don’t want to drop my miles or take rest days (that would make too much sense) because of the marathon training, but I need to feel a little better.</p>
<p>MOWC, ya’ gotta take care of yourself. If you don’t do that, no one else will. Slow down – you’re allowed.</p>