Hi Ladies!

Ok, so I have lost 19 lbs in 3 months which is a steady pace, but I am not complaining . I want to lose 31 more lbs. When I started exercising consistantly, I was doing cardio 5 X a week at about 40 min per session. This consisted of Tae Bo or Brisk walking. Now I am doing mostly treadmill on an incline of 4 and I switch it up between 35 to 50 min per session. Right now I do a 5 min warm up at 3.0 mph, then I rotate every 5 min between 3.6 & 4.1 & then do a final cool down at 3.0 mph. A few weeks back I got some great advice from Meg and began to implement weight training 3 X per week as well. My question is, now that my weight loss is slowing a bit, do I have to up my cardio? I just can't see myself working out (cardio) for more than 45 or 50 min per day......besides that, it's not very practical for me anyways (I am a stay at home mommy who works out during baby's nap time). Should I just focus on upping my speed every week or what? I guess I just want to make sure that whatever I implement I will be able to do forever.......I don't want to end up having to workout 3 hrs a day to get the results I did in the beginning - LOL!

Thx Ladies,
Melanie

Hiya, Melanie - you 'loser', you! I'm glad that the weight workout is working for you.

No, I don't think you should increase your cardio. You're really doing enough, time-wise. But it's always a good idea to change it up like you posted, by increasing intensity, trying intervals, changing inclines and speeds ... keep your body guessing!

Now about the weight loss slowing -- assuming that your calories have remained the same and you're not eating more -- that's natural and there isn't anything that you should (or can) do about it. The closer you get to your goal weight, the longer it takes for the weight to come off. We all long for the Good Old Days when it seemed like we were losing every time we jumped on the scales, but those days are gone!

You're absolutely right that you don't want to do something now that you can't sustain for the rest of your life. My advice is to stick with what you're doing and take the weight loss as it comes. In the end, it doesn't matter how fast or slow it comes off -- all that counts is you establishing new eating and exercising habits for life and it sounds like you're doing an outstanding job so far!

This isn't directed at you, Melanie, because I know that you 'get it' , but too often people want to rush through weight loss as fast as possible, thinking that the diet will be over once they reach goal. Wrong! Better to think of weight loss as practice for maintenance -- the more you practice, the better you'll be at keeping the weight off for life. And that IS the goal, right?

Thanks, Meg

I am taking your advice because it's practical and this is a lifelong commitment to myself! I am going to stick with my cardio 5X per week but try to rotate my intensity and times each day so my body doesn't get use to the same exact workout. I am still doing the weight training routines you gave me which are still kicking my butt - LOL. I actually have been doing them with 10 lb dumbells instead of 8lbs. Most of the arm workouts I do 3 sets of 15 reps.......but on the legs I am doing 2 sets of 15 reps - should I increase this every week or what would you suggest? Also, there weren't any exercises in the routine for stomach toning, so I have been adding crunches on my yoga ball. Any particular suggestions as to how many reps in each set I should be doing?

Don't mean to bombard you with questions, but I like picking your brain

Take Care,
Melanie