<p>Well, Eddie, come on up a few miles to PA and I will make you a second cup! (You can stay in your pj’s)</p>
<p>wnp, 5K in 32:08 - that is a *very impressive *pace! Congrats!</p>
<p>(Just out of curiosity I looked up racewalking- the current World record for ladies’ 20K is 1:24:50 :eek: If you do the math, they walk 4 X 5K in less than 22 minutes per 5K! Unbelievable!) My goal is to be able to run a 5K in under 24 minutes.</p>
<p>CNN.com reporting that a man has been arrested in the suspected rape and murder of the missing California jogger. I believe her name is Chelsea King. Still looking for Chelsea.</p>
<p>Yesterday I found this amazing website: [Lyle</a> McDonald - Bodyrecomposition](<a href=“http://www.bodyrecomposition.com%5DLyle”>http://www.bodyrecomposition.com)
The articles are very informative. Some of them are written by Lyle McDonald, a physiologist, others are comments to abstracts written by others. At first I thought I had landed on a bodybuilders site but this was not the case at all. It took me a while to get used to the lay-out of the site. There are many, many articles, but finding them is like finding the end of the maze: difficult but worthwhile.</p>
<p>Folks, an article that may be of interest: </p>
<p>[In</a> Obesity Epidemic, What’s One Cookie? - Well Blog - NYTimes.com](<a href=“In Obesity Epidemic, What's One Cookie? - The New York Times”>In Obesity Epidemic, What's One Cookie? - The New York Times)</p>
<p>While arguing that small changes don’t result in huge amounts of weight loss because of the body’s adaptive mechanisms, further commentary indicates that smaller changes often lead to bigger ones, resulting in improved health and fitness. (I’ll admit to not reading it that closely.) </p>
<p>In any event, hope all are hanging in there with their changes. Eddie, are you taking the day off from cheerleading?</p>
<p>Sabaray - it is so true.</p>
<p>One year I developed a serious dependency on Soy Chai. I loved it. I bought boxes of Westsoy Chai and doled out one cup per day. How much could the 160-180 calories hurt. Well, I want to tell you - that was the year I gained the most weight. I put on about 8 pounds in one year and that was a lot for me. </p>
<p>I really hadn’t changed anything, except the chai. It was two and a half years ago when I was getting dressed to go to a football game at d’s college that I realized that I had gradually been putting on weight and it was starting to mount up. I had seen some recent pictures and my face was looking even rounder than usual - but the jeans were the moment of truth. I knew what was goin’ on under my sweatshirt with those low rise jeans and I can tell you it wasn’t pretty. </p>
<p>So, that was it. The chai was the first to go. It took about a year to lose the weight I had put on over five years, and it requires focus every day to keep it off. It is too easy to incorporate something as simple as a cup of chai or a bagel into your routine - without taking anything out.</p>
<p>By the way - as I sit here avoiding my next report, I am happy to say that by making sure I have a good lunch early in the day I seem to avoid that horrible foraging impulse that was going on a couple of days ago. That seems to be the key for me. Make sure I take an actual break for lunch and eat something wholesome and filling.</p>
<p>Well, my fourth day of workouts kicked my butt again, but I made it through and was definitely stronger in some of the exercises. Interestingly, the intervals on the bike (10 seconds hard, 50 seconds easy, etc.) don’t kill me. It’s the exercise circuits with the pushups, lunges, planks, exercise ball crunches, and so forth that just leaves me panting like a dog. The routine calls for 30 seconds of exercise (like holding plank for 30 seconds), then 30 seconds of rest, then 30 seconds of the next exercise. I can’t make it through all six exercises without stopping to catch my breath for two minutes at least once.</p>
<p>I guess that’s a good thing. I’m certainly getting my heart rate and breathing up, which is one of the goals. I am noticing that I recover more quickly. These things are definitely full body workouts. I think every part of my body was feeling it last night.</p>
<p>“While arguing that small changes don’t result in huge amounts of weight loss because of the body’s adaptive mechanisms”</p>
<p>-I disagree based on experience. Not only weight loss, but other very important measurements like blood sugar, BP and cholesterol all going down hugely with very few pounds of weight loss (like 5-7 lbs). Based on self-observations of few members of my family, one of whom is MD in her 80s.</p>
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<p>BunsenBurner- That would be a nice 5K! Find a nice flat course, good weather and go for it! I think 5Ks REALLY hurt. It is a hard effort and you have to sustain that effort for a long time. I ran my best 5K in 10 years last August on a very hot day but on a good course in 25 minutes. (My lifetime best is 19:26 just to give you an idea of what aging does for you).</p>
<p>I am definitely going to go back and read the article more closely. I think one of the points they were arguing was that if you ate an additional cookie every day, you would gain weight. But at some point you would stop gaining weight even if you continued to eat a cookie as your body would have to work harder (more energy required)? I personally am of the mindset that any type of calorie counting and/or exercise will result in some type of health benefit so I was surprised to see this. Perhaps I am reading it all wrong.</p>
<p>Are the positive changes in those cases that are related to BP and Blood sugar being normalized ( cholesterol- can be genetic- doesn’t concern me as much), attributed solely to 5 lbs of weight loss or is it a result of improved muscle tone and better eating habits?</p>
<p>I would agree that many things don’t affect weight- I eat like a pig sometimes ( well not a pig- but if I want to have 1/2 pint of peppermint ice cream for breakfast I do- but then I eat chicken tagine with brown rice for lunch - but I don’t do it every day- or even want to) and I weigh the same- , in fact I mostly weigh the same all the time- it is only when I do a lot of weight training that my clothes fit differently and I feel better- but I still pretty much weigh the same.</p>
<p>Exercise can boost your metabolism though.</p>
<p>* I think every part of my body was feeling it last night.*</p>
<p>One of those " I didn’t know there were * muscles* there? days?</p>
<p>Sabaray, I’ve never understood these sorts of articles either. I do understand that as I weigh less I need to consume fewer calories to lose weight. When I first signed up at Livestrong I could eat 1556 cals a week to lose a pound a week. Now that I’ve lost ten pounds I can only eat 1484. Curious I looked to see how many calories I would get to maintain the weight I had when I got married. It’s 1700, so only about a cookie more than I’m eating now. I think that’s the real problem is that people forget they can’t go back to old habits - the goal weight just requires fewer calories. </p>
<p>Anyway, I think that giving up a cookie will get you to some sort of equilibrium weight lower than the one you started with - it just may not be the weight you want.</p>
<p>My ipod exercise nazi has a different kind of formula for calories to maintain weight. It’s all based on your lean body mass and is the same regardless of how much fat you carry along with lean body mass.</p>
<p>Your lean body mass and activity level will determine how many calories a day you are burning. Eat more than that and you’ll add fat. Eat less than that and you’ll lose fat.</p>
<p>As fat is lost and lean body mass increased through exercise, you burn more calories (adding lean body mass increases metabolism) and you lose weight faster (if you don’t increase your calorie intake). Who knows if that’s true, but so says the ipod nazi.</p>
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<p>Of course, this has dire implications for me. Since I have no lean body mass, I can’t even have a diet of water and crackers without gaining weight!</p>
<p>So I’m not in the league with you Olympic speed walkers, but one of my goals was to walk a mile without getting winded. Today was an off day from my ipod nazi, just 20 minutes of light cardio. So rather than ride the bike, I went out for a nice one mile walk on a pretty hilly route. Took me 25 minutes including about a 2 minute rest at the halfway point. Sly and The Family Stone on the iPod pushed me up the steep hill for the final quarter mile to my house.</p>
<p>I was breathing like on the exercise bike, but not panting. Just a nice stabilized exercise breathing.</p>
<p>Went to Spine doctor today. Was told that for every pound I lose, it takes 8 pounds off my spine. I have to think about that one. Should have asked more questions. I just was thinking that it sounded like “dog years” vs. “people years” somehow.</p>
<p>What happens when you lose enough weight that your spine becomes weightless? Just drift away to outer space?</p>
<p>i-dad- That sounds like a good walk. Walking up hills really does get you winded! As you extend your time walking (adding in perhaps 2-3 minute increments) your fitness level will increase a lot.</p>
<p>I guess I will just drift up into the clouds.</p>
<p>Sabaray: I’ve read the article “What’s one Cooky?” The article is critical about Michelle Obama’s campaign “small changes that add up” because this campaign seems to suggest that the decrease in weight by eating only one cooky less per day will be continuing ‘forever’ (therefore ignoring the fact that the decrease stops after a while because the body equires less energy to maintain this lower weight). I think that you need to keep it simple to make things happen. If children (the campaign is focused on children) will start eating one cookie less or drink one soda less on each day, they may be getting into the right mood. We all know that you need to be very motivated to lose a lot of weight. Who knows? Maybe this is the best way to address children (and unmotivated adults). However, adults who are already very motivated (like we are) will usually opt for a more complete and stricter diet and exercise plan.</p>
<p>emerald,
“Are the positive changes in those cases that are related to BP and Blood sugar being normalized ( cholesterol- can be genetic- doesn’t concern me as much), attributed solely to 5 lbs of weight loss or is it a result of improved muscle tone and better eating habits?”</p>
<p>-Solely attributed to few lbs loss. Exercise / eating habits have remained the same for few decades. I do not have Diabetese, but 2 other members of my family do. I also tend to be on a low side of BP - normal for me is 90/60 - 110/70. With weight gain I was over 120/80 sometime, which is not good for me and sugar was over limit also. I lost weight without trying though, somehow it happens much easier with age (hormonal?) and it fluctuates with season anyway. I eat junk sometime, but I normally do not gain from it, since I am not hungry after 2-3 donuts or 2-3 bagels (B-day in a office). I gain from overeating for 10 days on vacation, then weigth goes down automatically after I eat my regular diet for few weeks after vacation.</p>