I just did 30 minutes on the stationary bike. Will head to the gym this afternoon. I'll report more later.

Marvin, thanks for starting the new thread. Have fun at curves.

Have a great day, everyone!
Hugs,
Dena

I walked the Mall of America, swam laps, played in the pool with Em and walked a few other stores today. I feel really good. I did a crazy aerobics tape on Saturday night that my friend loaned me. It's from 1986 and it was just weird. I think it was hi intensity. Needless to say, I won't be doing it again. Hehe. But at least I got some excercise in!!
In Christ,
Pamela

Glad to see everyone is kicking. I am also increasing my water intake and cutting back on the ice tea.......I love ice tea with lemon and splenda.

Went to the gym last night and was totally unmotivated. Well maybe not unmotivated I just did not feel well. My head was killing me. I could only do 15 minutes on the bike and 150 crunches. It should of been 30 minutes on the bike, 150 crunches and my upper body routine. I feel better today.

What do you guys eat before you work out? I think maybe I was hungry too. I am going to add Friday to my exercise routine. So the only day off from the gym is Tuesdays.

I need some help. I started to go to the gym 2 weeks ago. I need to loose 35 pounds + my arms are big and fat. I don't know what kind of exercise I should be doing and how many repetions I should do. I always like to start with walking on the treadmill or doing the step masters (to burns some calories) but after that I don't know what else to do. There's no expert in the gym so no one can tell me for sure what to do. Any suggestions will be realy appreciate it I go every day from 4 pm to 5:30 pm. Thank you.

Good Morning Everybody
I'm still around but haven't had alot of free computer time lately. It's great to see that you are all doing great

Tiana~~Here are some suggestions for working out at the gym.
First of all, I would highly recommend reading the book 'Body For Life". It incorporates nutrition, cardio and weight lifting.

As far as the exercise part of it goes, here's the basic premise.
You exercise 6 days a week, taking one Free Day a week (it's Free Day on food, also!).
Of the 6 days, you alternate, one day cardio (interval training), the next day weights, etc. You then break up the body work out into upper body one day and lower body the next weight-day.
Ex.~~
Mon~Upper body w/weights
Tues~Cardio (interval training)
Wed~Lower body
Thurs~Cardio
Fri~Upper body
Sat~Cardio
Sun~Free Day
Mon~Lower body, etc.

Upper body consists of one exercise for each muscle -group (biceps, triceps,shoulder, back, chest).
Ex. (Chest)
Peck-Deck or Dumbell Flyes:
12 reps at 20#
10 reps at 20#
8 reps at 30#
6 reps at 30#
12 reps at 20#
Then pick another exercise for the chest and only do 12 reps at 30#.
As you can see, you are increasing your weight with less reps in each cycle. It sounds complicated but it's not.

You follow the same program for lower body (quads, hamstring, calfes and abs).

You can go to the www.bodyforlife.com site and look up the training journals. It will show you the Daily Progress Report (worksheet) that makes it easy. You can even download the form and print it out.

Also, www.exrx.net/Exercise.html is a good site to learn about different exercise. You can pick the muscle you want to train, and it will give you a list of appropriate exercises. It even gives you a video demonstration of a person doing that exercise.

Another place to get good exercise info is at www.muscleandfitnesshers.com There are always good articles there on different exercise for women. Check out the section on Training. This month there is even an article on Interval Training Cardio (much better than 50 min at moderate speed ).

Sorry to be so wordy~but I hope I've given you some info that will help you.
~~~Sil

2BFITI1

Thank you sooo much for your excellent answer. Iam going to check out those sites and also Iam going to print out your answers so that way when I go today to the gym I will follow the steps.

Good for you, Marvin, for getting over to Curves. Usually it's the getting up and over there part that is so tough. once you're there it doesn't seem so bad.

I also got to the gym this morning. I did my upper body workout and was feeling pretty proud of myself. Then in walked this 20-something year old, size 3, tanned with obvious implants. (nothing against them,wish mine looked that good!)

Anyway, she was doing lower body and I couldn't help to see what exercises and how much weight she was using.
Wish I could look that good!
~~~Sil

We went to the Community Center first thing this morning (otherwise Emmett gets crabby if we do it last thing on the run). I swam for half an hour and then chased Emmett for 45 minutes. We also mall walked and I did some cleaning. Woohoo! My dad is doing the body for life right now. I have been trying to do some light weight excercises just to do them, but when I'm closer to my goal weight, I will get into the bigger machines.
In Christ,
Pamela

Pamela~~Why not start now? I started body for life (BFL) after having had surgery on my neck for a degenerative disc that was causing pain and nerve damage. I was losing strength on my left side.

I began lifting weights (per BFL) using 5# dumbbells. We all have to start somewhere, and I had to start at the bottom. But I'm not there anymore.

The fear of STARTING is the downfall to success
~~~Sil