[NESunshine]

Hi everyone,
I thought it was time that I jumped over to a fitness board. I've been posting since November, mainly on the 100lb club and support boards. I've managed since November to turn my eating around 100% and am currently exercising at the gym about 5 days a week, sometimes doing yoga in the mornings before I go to work. I'm slowly working up to working out at the gym every day.

I usually do 45 min-1 hr of cardio usually on an elliptical (I have bad knees so running is out of the question until I've taken off a good amount of the weight) and the impact of treadmills kill me so if I do any walking I try to do it outside. I'm going to attempt the big stairmasters this weekend (with the rotating staircase) I'm hoping that might help me build some muscles up around my knees with low impact so I can work towards being able to do things like run. I'm also weight training 1-2 times per week looking to work up to about 3-4 times a week.

I'm not a stranger to exercise I'm just working on getting back in the saddle and out of the lazy state I've been in for the past couple of years. I'm looking for ways to efficiently burn fat while toning muscle at the same time but not in a way that I 'bulk up' My areas that I primarily want to work on are my upper arms, belly & stomach, hips, and inner thighs. Any advice or pointers from those who have gone before me would be greatly appreciated.
I'm looking forward to getting to know all the fitness guru's here!

Linsey

[Sheila53]

Good to see you here! One of the things that has helped my knees has been doing squats properly, and working out on leg machines. I spend a lot of time working on my quads because of the knee issue. Don't be afraid to get in a good leg work out to help build those big muscles and take the stress off your knees. Additionally, women can't bulk up so don't worry about that--lift as heavy as you can. You'll build some great muscles and burn more fat!