July Exercise & Health Support

[fidgiegirl]

I expanded the title a little, figured maybe people want to talk about other healthy choices other than fitness activities.

The heat, of course, has made it really difficult to do vigorous exercise. In retrospect I should have paid $ to go to the pool or something. But since I figured everyone in the city would be there, I didn't.

At least my 10 minutes a day streak is maintained. I am over 30 days now. Again tonight I will do a Spark People video. They have sustained me through the heat. Tomorrow morning I plan to go for a run, the first in a week. Just putting it out here on the boards helps keep me accountable for doing it. Going out of town and running things are packed. We will also pack bike helmets to use the bikes at the place in Door County. That reminds me that I will need my seat, too.

And - miracle of miracles - I have lost some weight. About 3 pounds. Can't believe it. I attribute this to DH going on his fishing trips so I wasn't eating 3 full meals every day. Also, he always wants a little sweet treat after every meal, and that's never really enough for me. Basically there are few sweets around that I can eat, anyway, and a little dark chocolate never hurt anyone. ;) Being off gluten and dairy is also helping, I think. My inflammation in the gut is reduced and also they are high calorie foods, for the most part.

How's it going for everyone?

[nswef]

Ah, well, no streaks here, just relaxing and trying to avoid the heat. I read about biking and think...maybe I should do that...then hiking...then walking. What I have done is some weeding, some stretching and a wee walk- very wee- last week at the beach. So, I could be discouraged, but theAC is on now and just perhaps I will do some yoga. I think I will look up that spark people you talk about. Might get me moving. Thanks for the boost!

[nswef]

Thank you, thank you...I just did the 11 minute seated cardio on the stability ball that I use for the chair at the computer. another streak beginning until I take up that lane walking again.

[Mighty Frugal]

I have upped my exercising to 5 days a week (up from 4) and am concentrating on solely cardio until I shed a few pounds. My goal was to lose 17 lbs and I am down 5:)

I jog on the treadmill (speed 5-whatever that means) for half an hour and am up to 4km-my goal is 5km

I am TRYING to eat well-because it is summer and we have gone away on weekends or had friends over or gone to parties, etc I give myself a long leash on the weekend. But during the week I TRY to stick to veggies, fruit and beans. I do have m 100 calorie ice cream coated with hard chocolate after the kids are in bed-tonight I had two-yum...

12 lbs to go

So, heres the thing-will I ever love to jog? I know real runners love it but I just do it because it is good for me. If it weren't for the TV screen in front of my hot sweaty face I would never get through the whole half hour-time truly does slow down when I am on that treadmill-it's like I enter some sort of time warp-maybe my running makes the time slow down...dunno..but it is the longest half hour of my day

will it get better? I really dislike it. I've been doing it for about 2 months now-progressively gaining speed\distance

groan..oh and I miss cheese..and bread...and pasta...sigh

[razz]

I have not joined this thread before as I have focused on walking the dog twice daily. Some friends invited me to join them at 8am as they started to explore some of the hiking trails developed from old train lines. I have done this twice and it takes about an hour at the most as we walk just a portion and return and then next time, pick up from the point reached and so on. Lovely trails and I so wanted to do this sometime. Gardening takes a lot of energy so that has been my exercise a couple of times a week as well.

Re exercise - are there some simple exercises for the upper arm that will help with the flap under the arm? As I have lost my 34.5 lbs and counting, almost everthing has becomed toned and healthy looking but the underarm flaps are a challenge.

[redfox]

I just signed up for a walking/running group with coaches. I am a walker, and there's another woman in her late 50's who is also a walker. I'm stoked... we'll do a team 5k in September. Woo hoo!

[nswef]

It's encouraging to read what others are doing, trying and succeeding in doing. I cannot imagine ever enjoying jogging and have decided at 63 I will never be athletic, but I can be a walker. Yesterday walking up the lane I passed the "meadow" where 6 golfinches flew up and around in a circle. I would have NEVER seen that in the house!

[catccc]

fidgiegirl, what do you do 10 minutes a day? 10 minutes of any kind of exercise? I really need to get back to working out. I used to be a workout fiend, and felt so strong because of it! I'm lucky that I bounced back fast after having a couple of kids, as I'm essentially the same weight now as I was at 16... but I just had so much more cardiovascular strength in days gone by! I'd love to feel healthy like that again.

The last time I "exercised" was when I ran a 5K completely cold in November 2011- I had not run in at least 3 years prior to that, and have not run since.

mighty frugal- I used to think running was lame, and I did grow to enjoy it. I don't enjoy it now, obviously, but I can remember a time when I did. I do think that running on a treadmill is boring, though. I feel like 10 minutes outside feels like 30 on a treadmill. It's hard to feel like you are making progress when you are literally going nowhere. Maybe if you take it outside it would be more enjoyable?!

[fidgiegirl]

I second the recommendation to go outside, Mighty Frugal. I don't run on the treadmill and generally find machines just something to be endured. But I enjoy going outside. Plus, I once read from a long-time runner that she always hates the first mile. :)

catccc, I do anything EXCEPT walk the dog. That we already do every day, so my only rule is that it has to be more than that. The idea of the 10 minute streak is that once you are doing it, you keep doing more. So if I think, well, I'll tool around the neighborhood on my bike to get my 10 minutes, pretty soon I've headed down to the river and gone to the store and back home and it's 30 minutes later. Or I will plan a run a few times a week and go as long as I feel like it and it's usually 30-45. Also, I really rely on the Spark People 10-minute videos (http://www.youtube.com/user/sparkpeople/videos?view=1). They have been a huge help. When we went to MI/WI and I knew I would be offline but would need a workout (not good enough yet to pull one out of my head), I bought an inexpensive iPhone app with some strength exercises. Boring but needed it in a pinch. If the streak were a 30 minute a day streak, I'd inevitably fail. But with 10 minutes, even if I'm super tired and it's bedtime and I realize I haven't done 10 minutes of exercise that day, I can do a Spark People vid on the mat and it's SOMETHING and it's a success. The guy who started Spark People talks a lot about the approach in his book The Spark.

razz, I dunno about the arm thing . . . I thought there wasn't really a way to "spot tone." But maybe I'm wrong? Not an exercise expert by any means . . . Anyone else know?

Hang in there, all! It's been a hot one!!

[lhamo]

I'm exactly opposite when it comes to running -- I can run quite long times/distances on the treadmill, but find it a struggle/chore outside. Maybe related to the fact that I started running here in Beijing, and most days you do NOT want to be running outside due to the air pollution factor (not much better inside, actually, but seems a bit kinder on the lungs to me).

I've only been doing so-so with exercise and eating. Going through a particularly stressful period at work, with one of my team members preparing to leave for graduate studies in the US -- I'm happy for her, but it has been kind of stressful working out the transition plan, starting the hiring process, etc. And I just really haven't gotten back into low carbing/exercising this summer like I had thought I would. Weight is holding steady, though, so at least I'm not regressing on that front. And I am keeping up with my goals of a minimum of 12 excercise sessions/month. Will probably barely make it this month due to a wierd muscle thing I had after my last international flight (thought I was developing an embolism, but thankfully it wasn't that) and general lack of follow-through.

Big challenge for next month is that most of it I'll be in the US -- big temptations to over indulge in a lot of old favorites. But also better accessability to low carby stuff, so I'll try to focus on that. No gym, but lots of opportunity for walking/hiking and swimming, so I'll focus on that.

Good luck with the rest of the month, everybody!

lhamo

[nswef]

It's always so nice to read this. I've been working on the lane walking- uphill and have increased from 15 min. to 20. I do have rest days. Yoga some days. I KNOW I sleep better when I exercise, so that helps motivate me. I've been doing yard things, too, weeding mainly. So, my challenge is just to keep doing something every day! Good luck Ihamo on your trip to the US. Travel sure can be tricky.

[catccc]

catccc, I do anything EXCEPT walk the dog. That we already do every day, so my only rule is that it has to be more than that. The idea of the 10 minute streak is that once you are doing it, you keep doing more. So if I think, well, I'll tool around the neighborhood on my bike to get my 10 minutes, pretty soon I've headed down to the river and gone to the store and back home and it's 30 minutes later. Or I will plan a run a few times a week and go as long as I feel like it and it's usually 30-45. Also, I really rely on the Spark People 10-minute videos (http://www.youtube.com/user/sparkpeople/videos?view=1). They have been a huge help. When we went to MI/WI and I knew I would be offline but would need a workout (not good enough yet to pull one out of my head), I bought an inexpensive iPhone app with some strength exercises. Boring but needed it in a pinch. If the streak were a 30 minute a day streak, I'd inevitably fail. But with 10 minutes, even if I'm super tired and it's bedtime and I realize I haven't done 10 minutes of exercise that day, I can do a Spark People vid on the mat and it's SOMETHING and it's a success. The guy who started Spark People talks a lot about the approach in his book The Spark.


Thanks, fidgiegirl! In May I told some friends I was going to walk for 10 minutes a day. I did it for... this is sad... One day. Just that one day. I will get back to it, though! Thanks for the inspiration! I'll do it right now before I go to bed. Thanks for the link and ideas!

[Gardenarian]

I got really out of shape this spring, one health crisis after another. I'm slowly working my way back. I've gotten back to walking an hour a day (with my dog) and try to do a little yoga everyday. I used to do about 1/2 hour of yoga most days, but it is so difficult! I'm also spending more time gardening and can now weed/dig/plant for more than 10 minutes without being totally wiped out. It seems as you get older you not only lose muscle more quickly when inactive, but it is also harder to get it back. Not fair! My goal is to be able to climb a (small) nearby mountain in October. I used to do it weekly - I hope I can get myself back into that shape!

[nswef]

Gardenarian, I know how you feel! Isn't it great when you can do something for more time than you used to? Climbing a mountain is quite impressive to me. You'll do it. Wallking the dog an hour a day seems a lot to me...cat owner here.

[Geila]

I was off of my exercise for three weeks due to illness and then a combination of lack of time and stress. Well, I did manage to walk 30 minutes a day most days so I wasn't completely sedentary. I'm working on positive self-talk! :)

I started my workout again yesterday with level 2 of the 30-Day Shred and today I also added a 30 minute walk pre-workout. My goal is to do one week of the Shred and then get back to my No More Trouble Zones workout. I was doing the NMTZ for a while and really loved it. The workout is 40 minutes of very low-impact exercise, mostly strength training with light weights to spot tone the arms, abs, thighs and glutes. I noticed a big difference in just a few weeks. And I love that it's low impact. I found level 3 of the Shred to be too high impact for my taste. They do plyometrics for the cardio section.

[fidgiegirl]

That's right, watergoddess, positive self-talk - so important, sometimes so hard!!

Gardenarian, you can do it! I am confident you will get to the top of that mountain again.

nswef, ever walk your cats? ;)

Here I carry on with gardening and biking and videos. Need to get out for a run but the heat sure scares me off. Perhaps tomorrow. :)
Glad to be hearing from all of you . . .

[Gardenarian]

Thanks for the encouragement guys!! I'll let you know when I reach the top!

[nswef]

I discovered the other day that music helps me walk. I realize most people know this, but I always felt that walking outdoors was an experience to be done without distractions. Well, I walked 30 minutes easily using music ( Bruno Mars ) so I did it again today and my 20 minutes expanded to 28...I also noticed as I walked that the bench which was my saving place when I first started hasn't been needed by me for several weeks! Yea me!! Thanks to you all. This thread keeps me going.