4 week "Boot camp"
 

Is anyone interested in kicking it up a notch from now until Christmas? That's four work weeks (M-F) of good hard work. I personally want a time limit on it because it means getting up at 4:40 AM for me to accomplish it. :yikes: Plus, what I'm aiming for is going to be hard. I've GOT to break this plateau!

If you'd like to join me, please list your plan.

For me:

M/W/F:
morning: 45 minute cardio (stair climber/elliptical), 45 minute Spin class
afternoon: Swim laps or walk treadmill high incline, 45 minutes

T/TH/F:
morning: 45 minute cardio, 45 minute lifting
Evening: Swim laps or walk treadmill, high inline, 45 minutes.

Sat: 1 hour body + abs class and 45 minute spin

Diet: Increase calories to 1200, dispersing differently. 6 meals at 200 each, first meal being pre-workout, last meal being dinner.

Anyone? :^:

Increasing calories to 1200? Really? You're less than that now? Gosh... And with that much exercise?

Well... I don't know what to say. I wouldn't be able to sustain that for even 1 week.

Jay

I actually do this now in four week cycles (Not the calories, I eat around 1500 a day) =) I just belong to an actual boot camp in my city.

The workouts differ daily which has REALLY helped me not get bored. I wish you much luck and success! Super fun and I noticed changes in my shape within 2 weeks!

I recommend switching it up, do weights for ten minutes, then do some cardio, then squats etc. Confuses your muscles and truly does help to keep you interested!

I've been at 1000 for two months but am getting nowhere. I was maintaining or gaining at 1200. So yep.

But I'm going to try increasing both calories and exercise to see if I can't break out of this. I'd really like to get my metabolism moving again, which is why I'm changing the way I eat too, the timing of everything. For instance, I normally work out on an empty stomach, so eating PRIOR to a work out may get the metabolism started earlier in the day???

Im in....will post my plan later today. I have to break thru this brick wall.

I'm in. My plan is tentative, I need to try it for a week and see how it works our IRL.

M/W/F:
morning: 20 minutes strength training on total gym, 20 minute Ab Jam
evening: 60 minute moderate-pace indoor walk- outdoor if possible

T/TH/F:
morning: 45 minute cardio party DVD
Evening: 60 minute moderate-pace indoor walk- outdoor if possible

Sat: 60 minute moderate-pace indoor walk- outdoor if possible

Lifestyle Adjustments: back on plan- 1550 cals in, 2550 out per bodybugg. Daily protein shake, routine meals 6 days a week, 1 free day per week, limited to 1600 cals. Cut pepsi to 1 day per week, increase water to 100 ozs/day with fresh lemon juice. Double fiber intake.

Day 1 Measurements

Chest 41.0 {down 1.0}
Upper Arm 14.2 {down .6}
Forearm 10.2 {up 1.0}
Waist 51.5 {down 1.0}
Hips 47.2 {down .8}
Thigh 25.2 {down .8}
Calf 14.0 {down 2.0}
Lean Mass 107.14{up .58 lb}
Fat Mass 124.26{up 2.78 lb} *CD 28 so that could explain some of that*

I love the idea of a behavior related challenge. I don't participate in x pounds by Christmas because that is setting myself up for discouragement.

I am in and will post my plan later.

My plan:

1200 calories/day for 5 days of the week - can go up to 1500 calories/day for 2 days

1 hour of exercise minimal per day:
15 minutes early morning - Walk Away the Pounds dvd
15 minutes during break at work - walking around campus
30 minutes at night - either at the gym at the Leisure Center or assorted DVDs

It helps to see that written out. When I am thinking, 1 hour per day sounds like a lot. Seeing it makes me think that I should increase it to:

20 - 30 minutes of Walking Away the Pounds early morning depending on how I slept. I have learned that getting enough sleep is a big factor in my weight loss

20 minutes during breaks - walking around campus

40 minutes at night (same as above)

The increased amount will be my goal. Let's see how I do. I will record my starting weight tomorrow. I have water weight from traveling today. I think that I have gained some real fat, not just water, in the last couple of weeks. It is scary how easy it is to put it back on.

Cheryl, I agree! I am failing miserably in the Jingle challenge! :rofl: It's about the behaviors, not the pounds lost. We have control over the behaviors...the scale, not so much.

I'm in, my exercise won't seem that hardcore in comparison to your all, but I have chronic pain. 40 days ago though I started at 5 mins a day doing barely anything so what I can do now is amazing to me. :D

mwf: 30 mins cardio evening (days I work)
twt: 15 mins upper body afternoon
30 mins cardio evening (my days off)

s/s: 15 mins upper body afternoon
45 mins cardio evening

I need to drink more water (about 96 oz) and I'm cutting cals to about 12-1300

Wow. I am in awe of those of you who commit to so much exercise. Mine is still only walking, and I feel pretty dmn smug that I even do that. Perhaps I'll re-evaluate in the new year. Not this week, anyway, when access routes to gyms and classes are completely blocked with snow....

Rosinante, my exercise is either walking or riding an recumbent bike. I was working with the weight machines and doing free weights but I have a torn rotator cuff now and am afraid to do that stuff.

Your walking is obviously working!

I have struggled with my whole plan for a couple of weeks. I think that it was because I dropped exercise and when I am not exercising, I tend to lose focus. I have to remind myself that the problem is with my arm, not my legs and feet. I can walk.

To be honest, I am scared. I have gained some weight without going back to my old way of eating. I don't have to eat tons of junk to gain weight, just add a couple of hundred calories here and another couple of hundred there. I know that scientifically 3500 calories = pound, but I swear I gain a pound on much less than 3500 calories.

Anyway, I am going to focus on my behaviors. I can control my behaviors. Then, I have to believe, the weight will get back under control. I can not go back to the life that I used to live!!!

I'm in. Ive been needing to up my exercise. Just yesterday, I had hubby move the treadmill from the extra bedroom to the living room. So, I can run while watching tv, which should motivate me more. And, I got Your Shape for the kinect. So I'm going to do the treadmill for an hour in the morning and then the workout from Your Shape in the afternoons. I had only been doing 30 minutes on the treadmill, so this will be more than twice the workout I was getting. I need to add strength training, but don't have any of the equipment.

I can't commit to much because my exercise right now is coughing uncontrollably for at least 6 hours over the course of the day. Shouldn't I have 6-pack abs by now? I've been on this exercise plan for 3 weeks. :(

Okay, doctor tomorrow for antibiotics and then I'll start back on 30 Day Shred while I finish recovering. I was so excited that I had gotten through the painful first 4 days only to get bronchitis and stop.

So - tentatively committing to(dependent on lung function)
MTWF - 30 Day Shred
ThS - elliptical 45 min

Hope to be in the 140s soon!

I'm in! :) I love this. Over the holiday weekend I was just putting together a four week plan to do between now and the next holiday, so this is exactly what I need to help with that. Thank you for starting this Eliana! :)

EVERY DAY
Walk 3 miles outside
Treadmill inclines 30 minutes

M/W/F/SAT
Pilates reformer

T/TH/SUN
Weight lifting & abs

NUTRITION
Reduce carbs
Increase water

ELIANA
GOOD LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL Kudos to you my friend....WOW I don't think I could do that for more than ONE DAY LOLOLOL

If i had the means (gym) etc then I would do it with you!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(

:hug: One, I've worked up to this. ;) My baseline of activity is spinning M/W/F and lifting T/TH. Because it is so routine for me now, my body has gotten quite used to it. It's not hard at all. Therein lies the problem. So the other stuff is kind of like I'm just starting out. I have a really solid cardio base already so honestly, this is hard, but it isn't impossible. And I'm not super woman. ;) I've just built up to this.

Two, you can do this without a gym. :D Well, not this exactly, but why would you want to? You need to start wherever YOU are. I did it at home before joining a gym. The only thing I NEED the gym for is my Spin class. Even at the gym I use almost entirely free weights. For cardio, I started out by running around and around my ping pong table. :D I ran a mile, according to Wii Fit. I also took advantage of snow and ran up and down our backyard hill in the snow. That was the hardest workout I have ever done! You can run up and down stairs. I used to do High Intensity Interval Training at home by jogging around the ping pong table for 60 seconds and then running as fast as I could up and down the stairs 30 seconds for a total of 20 minutes. The. Best. Workout. hands down.

Without a gym, you just have to be a little more creative.

Well I have a personal trainer and she is wonderful no doubt. I go to her once a week. She herself lost 175lbs so she is a real inspiration. She always encourages me. I just now am coming out of a pretty harsh 6-7 months of pretty bad depression. She was very kind to me through it all because I had NO ambition to hardly get out of bed none the less go to her!!!! But I made that once a week commitment no matter what...always was glad I went even though I gained weight during my depression.

Now I feel better than life, now just want my weight to COME OFF for Gods sake UGH UGH UGH UGH it's enough for me already!

You have inspired me. My trainer goes to spinning classes maybe I will ask her tomorrow what it will take for me to join in with her!! They can't be that expensive I wouldn't think anyway!

I do this in an actual bootcamp located around my house (which I missed this morning) and it feels great to work your hardest and then take a much-deserved break. I'm totally in! Our plans change from day to day, so I can't post exactly what we're doing but I can tell you it's intense.

That would be awesome! I'd love to see what you do!

you've just described my body also. Seriously, all I have to do is visualize a bowl of ice cream and I gain and extra chin. I don't know what it is. If i eat out of the normal 1500 in any capacity, I will see it on the scale.

I'm in, but my idea of bootcamp is a lot less rigorous than yours, I think ;)

MWF I'll increase my time on the bike to 45 minutes of moderately to hard riding (my knee is bugging me, so this may be subject to adjustment with a lighter load if need be)

T/Thur will be three miles walks with WATP videos. I'll add in strength training in place of the videos in a few more weeks, I think.

Eating, same as normal plan except with a focus on more protein and less carbohydrates. I am not as balanced on that as I want to be.


Let's go ladies! Yay!

Is it bothering you BECAUSE of the bike? If so, you may try raising your seat. I couldn't believe what a difference that makes. I have to have mine so high when I ride outside it's hard to get on! :yikes:

Ugh. I thought I was the only one. I've just come off of two weeks with my cals below 1200 although I was only doing 50 minutes of cardio daily.

I thought I'd jump start the old pump, but nada-- in fact, in the second week bounced UP-- couldn't possibly be a "real gain" but it was definitely real discouraging.

I went off track over the holidays and ate 1600-1900 every day.

Back on the super low-cal plan today and I was STARVING ALL DAY.

I'm not going to join in the boot camp, as I know I don't have enough hours in the day, but I'll join in DAILY EXERCISE and TIGHT CONTROL.

Gosh, I've been doing some reading on metabolic slowdown in people who do a lot of cardio while restricting calories severely. Maybe some of you folks would like to do a search on it and see what you find...

Jay

I eat 1,000 calories a day and run 3 miles six days a week.
My weight is dropping just as it was when I ate more- but I feel better.
For some bodies more calories cause weird sluggish feelings.
Every body is different.

Edited to add: Sorry I jumped into this thread, I just get upset when people suggest that
lower calories and cardio will somehow destroy your body.

kaala you said it yourself though, every body is different.

it's not to say that isn't true for some people.

Just because you don't like an idea doesn't mean it isn't true. And conversely, just because you do like an idea doesn't mean it is true.

You have to check out the studies that are available. And even after that, you have to decide whether those studies apply to you. They may not!

I'm just saying that in my opinion, and speaking just for myself, given a choice between eating 1500 calories/day and eating 1000 calories/day, with the same amount of exercise, and losing weight on either one of them--why would you not want to eat 1500 calories? :dunno:

And if there is some danger that your metabolism will shift in such a way that you may have to eat 1000 calories a day the rest of your life to maintain your weight, why would you not take a different approach?

I see even in this thread people saying they ate really low calories for a month or two while exercising but they actually gained weight. Well, what is that telling you about low calories and high exercise?

Everyone is free to do what they want, of course! But it's always good to be informed. Do some research--and I mean the serious kind, not the "articles" on some sales-oriented site, and not the opinions of non-expert posters on these forums--even mine!

Off my soap box now. :soap:

Jay

I want to address calories for a minute. ;) I was going to quote the above several posts, but I'll just jump in this way.

I guess I consider myself my own experiment, as we all do. I try something and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. I was gaining/maintaining at 1200 calories. So I dropped them. That seemed logical. Now I'm just maintaining. And I'm tired. I'm back to needing a vitamin for energy.

So I decided to change the way I eat and increase the calories back to 1200. I do very well on 1200 even with intense exercise and I do not deprive myself to the point of feeling ill. If I feel ill, I eat. Changing the way I eat means the timing of it, which tends to make a significant difference for me. Instead of working out on an empty stomach, I eat first. Then I eat breakfast after my workout. I figure this starts up my metabolism. Additionally, I am front loading my calories, so I am eating more in the mornings and afternoons and less for dinner, cutting myself off around 6:00.

Anyway...

Yesterday went well, except I didn't get to swim. I think swimming is going to be a pipe dream. :rolleyes: As if I can get away from home. LOL! But I did walk on the treadmill at an incline of 10 :carrot: while watching some shows. So I did what I said I was going to do.

How did yesterday go for all of you?

ETA: Getting up at 4:40 AM is not easy!!! This challenge can't end soon enough!

I agree, I tend to switch things up and see what works.

I'm trying to ignore the scale right now because it's TOM. :( I accidently threw away my birth control and didn't get a refill until it snuck up on me. augh. (If I"m not taking bc TOM comes. it's more like time of whenever it feels like it though, as I have pcos and am not regular in the least. I run my packs together now though so I only get TOM 4 times a year if all goes as it should. Sometimes it doesn't.)

Anyhow, today was great, I was hurty, but I had therapy and I decided to walk. (about a 25 min walk...in the rain.) because I feel like by the time I get to the bus stop I'm halfway there so....might as well go the full way. so it was a 50 min walk there and back.

Later I'm gonna do some upper body stuff cuz my legs and butt are DYING from the kinect your shape nivea workout I did the other day. Oh man, the pain... lol.

Hopefully by wed I can do lower body again. heh. I think the walking even though sore helped though. I try not to let the soreness stop me entirely. I just back off a little and still do stuff in that area. Sometimes apparently, walking is all I can handle. ha.

I did good on food and water. :)

My exercise is not as "bootcamp" as some of yours but it seems like alot to me. :) Two days down and it is going well. I think with a couple more days and I will be back in the groove.

Back to the calorie discussion, I have to eat 1200 to lose. That is as low as I am willing to go for any length of time so when my weight levels out, I will be at goal.

Cheryl, that's an interesting way to look at it. I guess at 1200 calories my body chose my goal of 160. I'm just not willing to accept that. ;) That's a very healthy mindset though, I think.

Lottie, definitely I think working through soreness helps. It loosens up the muscles within a few minutes of work. I think it's actually the resting that gets us all tight again.

Great morning for me! Last night I did the treadmill increasing the incline from 4% to 10% incrementally by 1% every minute. Then I did three minutes at 10% and returned to 4% to repeat. I've been walking slow at 2.5 because truly it's supposed to be just an extra activity, movement while I'm watching TV. I'm trying not to get obsessive about it because then I'll quit. This morning I did hardcore elliptical! LOL! Heavy crossramp and resistance 1:00 on and 1:00 off. That was followed by Spin class.

I'm toying with resting over Christmas or kicking it up even more because I'll have time. I don't know yet. I'm sure I'll know by then. I can tell you I am liking my increased calories! I have more energy and I am not fighting hunger. The scale seems like it just might cooperate. I am losing ounces every day which I'll take!

Hey guys, just checking in to see how everyone is doing!

I haven't been able to increase my exercise yet cuz of my exhaustion from all the no sleep I was getting, but today I slept and plan to do the full 45 mins.

I've been On Plan with food and doing good with water, woudl like to increase it a little though.

and I lost 2 lbs. wooo! :D

I've been doing an hour on the treadmill everyday and have started to put it on incline and do spurts of running hard for a couple minutes. But, I haven't been keeping up with doing the kinect exercises. Still, I feel good and I'm losing weight. My asthma has been doing much, much better, too!

I'm doing great, although I have taken today off. I think I'm injuring my knee so it wants a rest. ;) My workouts have been hard and I am enjoy the extra calories. I have lost about 1.5 pounds since starting, which is pretty good considering I've been on a plateau for two months.

Yay! Glad your plateau has ended!

I'm doing alright. Not great but not horrible. Doing really well with my strength training. Haven't done my cardio but one day this week but actually staying on my strength and water goals is a huge thing for me. My goal for next week is to build on this week and add back in my cardio.

Eache time I've doubled my work-outs literally from 1-2 hours daily I have gained. My Body rebels.

What always seems to work for me on each platueau is to do the complete opposite. I add calories and cut out the work-outs for about 2-3 days and then get back to the game plan. So I aim for 1200-1400 normally and then went to sort of a maintence mode for caloric intake of about 1800 daily and then gave myself 2-3 rest days with no exercise. Get back on track and watch it kickstart my metabolism. I had to a few plateaus to fiquire this out for me.

If you don't eat enough your body will store, especially when you further burn more.

I'm excited to see if this works for you though, GOOD LUCK!!!

I'm not convinced mine has broken yet so I'm still open for suggestion. I still haven't seen the low in my ticker...the Halloween ticker...the one I'm not changing until I see that low again! :tantrum: LOL! But I'm within a pound of it now.

I am planning to take a complete break from exercise at Christmas. It will be my first break ever since January. I was given advice here that I just may see a really big drop when I do that. What I am doing right now is definitely not sustainable so my plan is to push really hard until Christmas. At this point I'm doing it more because I said I would. :D I have a hard time backing down on a challenge. But I am looking so forward to the break you just can't imagine!

12-5
Walked outside 3 miles
Weight lifting & abs 1 hour
Treadmill inclines 30 min.

Loving the cool weather. Indoors, outdoors, it makes a difference everywhere, yum. :D

Hope everyone is doing well! :)

So, how is everyone doing?

Me..... not so great. I have consistently gotten in my 30 minutes of exercise but not the extra 30 that I was shooting for. I have been tempted to count the time I spent shopping.

Diet wise, I just can't seem to get a grip. I have consistently eaten 1500 calores a day instead of the 1200 that will let me lose. I am tempted to say "1500 calories, 30 minutes of exercise per day" until the end of the year. As of this morning, my weight is holding steady.