Hi Ladies'

sws10- I hope you fell better soon to. Today for me was much better and I will work out tonight.

Tea- Great job I wish I could be as consistent as you are.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Hi Mercee-- thanks!

Actually, I'm more motivated than usual because I'm set to go to the Seattle folklife festival this coming Memorial Day weekend with a girlfriend of mine I haven't seen in several years. I'm hoping to get into the 160s before I see her next month, that way I'll be 100 lbs thinner than when we first met in college It'll be three weeks next monday when I weigh myself so I'm hoping to have dropped a good number of pounds!
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Friday's workout session:

* 55 minutes on the elliptical machine (My average heart rate was 132 today... not bad, but I was tired and I could really feel some sore hamstrings today, lol... so I'm fine with still being in the 130s! )
* Over an hour of total body weight/resistance training
* abs pilates dvd (*Another great abs session!)
* 20 minutes walking

Saturday's exercise session:

* 55 minutes at the elliptical (heart rate average was one beat higher today: 133)
* 20 minutes walking (?) outside - change of pace
* Pilates for the legs (dvd)

Have a great weekend everybody!

thanks mercee!

this thread is very inspiring!

today
steady state cardio, walking, 2.5 miles
pilates reformer, 20 minutes

Hey everyone!! I was on vacation for a week, visiting my folks. I did survive my mom's cooking and lots of eating out, so hooray! Took a week off from the gym, but ran a 5k twice last week and feeling pretty good about it. I'm back in the gym this week to take it easy and then try to run outside again on Friday. It feels so great to be back in the swing of things!!

I am a tm walker. I do 1h 4-5x/week
I have recently begun a more structured interval workout.

I do a 5 min warm up
-then 2 min on 15 incline at about 3 mph (going above 3 now, but started below)
-then 2 min on a much lower incline (currently about 3.5) with as a high a speed as I can walk (currently about 4.3)
-then 2 min on a lower speed and sometimes less incline too
-then repeat about 3 more x

(there is some time in there not accounted for when the machine is changing speed/incline, in case you noticed that the #'s don't really add up)

This was a 30 min wo I got from Prevention mag but I do 60 min, however at about 45 min I change it and do the 15 (sometimes at lower speed) for as long as I can and sometimes I do the faster walk for as long as I can also (with a little of the "easy" walk in between, to recover).

Currently this yields me about 500 cal burn, lessening as I lose weight/become more fit (this # is according to my Bodybugg, not an hrm)

I like it and I do a 1h full body wo class (dumbbell and barbell lifting with a little step) 1x/week.

I *almost* want to run but really need to wait until I am lighter as I am 40 and do not want to wreck my knees (and have some minor other issues I do not want to cause aggro to).

I need to branch out but find the tm to be so flexible and relatively easy (not that my wo is easy, but, I mean it is "just" walking so no special skills are needed, you kwim)?

Cheers,
Gretchen

Man, I was SO disappointed to find I only dropped ONE pound in THREE weeks?!

I counted my calories and everything... I'll have to find out next Monday when I get on the scale again if I need to drop my caloric intake from 1,500 to 1,200 again or what. I already increase the incline/resistance level of my elliptical workout every 3/4 days so my body doesn't get used to exercising at an "easy" level.)

I dunno. Anyone have suggestions?
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Monday's workout session:

* 55 minutes on the elliptical machine (not so great today, even though the elliptical machine "said" I burned over 600 calories...I take the number with a grain of salt)
* 1 hr 15 minutes (?) resistant/weight training (I moved up to 12.5 lbs dumbbells & increased the weight on the freemotion rows & lateral machines! )
* 15-20 minutes (?) walking outside
* abs pilates dvd

kinda wondering if i should just give up on the whole weight loss thing for now. i haven't actually lost any weight since mid february. granted, i could be doing a better job with the dieting and exercise and would love to get to my target weight, but i'm tired of constantly being disappointed and am having a rare moment of stoicism. i could prob live with the size i am right now. it's not what i want, but it's not that horrible either, i guess.

tea you might want to play with the calories a bit, or wait another week or two and see if anything changes. Our bodies are so strange...it would make things so much easier if weight loss was a linear process...you know... eat less calories, burn more calories and walla - weight loss! Theoretically it DOES work that way, but it never seems to be a straight equation, does it? I can't remember if you've told me this before, but are you taking measurements during these times? I have found that the weeks that I lose nothing or barely nothing, I am losing inches. Then suddenly I'll have a drop of 2-3 lbs on the scale in a week. Anyway just my thoughts!

I got back on the tm today... wanted to see my mile time and was bummed to come in at 13:45. Ugh. I just thought I'd be faster than that. But I guess it's about right. I know I really shouldn't be concentrating on speed right now, and rather be concentrating on duration (hello running for 30+ minutes anyone?) but things had been going so well with the 5k training route that I thought I would see how things were really going with actually being able to monitor my speed/distance on the treadmill.

Sometimes I feel like the treadmill really does a job on my mental strength. When I run outside, I can run for 13+ minutes, no problem. When I get on the treadmill and see those big red numbers ticking away in front of me, I seem to concentrate more on how tired I'm feeling, and I end up doing worse. Anyone else have this problem, or am I just a weirdo?

yesterday
weight lifting, 45 minutes

today
off, still trying to get into the swing of things, and maybe some emotional withdrawing/sabotaging while still trying to gear up and get into a routine

teawithsunshine, i saw your thread in the other section, and i think maybe some of the chicks were on to something when they said it may be that the raise in calories a bit for calorie cycling just coincided with an illness and tom and may have yielded the one pound. i think the great news is that from this you now know you can maintain when the time comes (actually even still keep losing slowly). i think if you continue with your routine and lower your calories a bit again you'll start losing at the rate you were prior. you can do it! seeing your exercise posts is very helpful, so hang in there!

sws19, definitely do what feels most comfortable for you, even if that means taking some time off to sort of take a break while maintaining. i did want to throw in there though that i read a thread sometime in the last day or two where someone mentioned that they realized they were about twenty pounds heavier than would have made them happy, for like ten years, and that they wish they'd realized that and not spent the time being somewhere they weren't quite comfortable. i have thought of that several times since reading it.

fpants, i have an easier time walking outside than when watching the numbers tick by on the treadmill too. i've started trying to use the treadmill for things that can't always be planned outside, like increasing the incline or speed for measured amounts of time and doing interval training. but in general, i know what you mean, watching the numbers tick by makes it seem longer somehow.

ok, happy progressing everyone!

Hi BlueSurfGirl! Is the abbreviation "BSG" alright for us to call you in this thread?

Thanks for the encouragement! I lost 2 lbs the first week I tried eating 1,500 before I got TOM and then got sick with a cold.

From what the other chickies commented on the thread I posted the other day-- was the possibility I didn't lose much weight as I thought due to not exercising as much for the week I was sick AND also that I ate the same amount of calories (1,500 per day) during that week as well.

Now that I'm back in the full swing of exercising I'll try the 1,500 one more week and if I don't lose any weight by next Monday's weigh-in, I'll see about cutting my caloric intake down to about 1,200 - 1,300 or something.

I guess all I can do at this point is wait and see then do some caloric experimenting!
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Tuesday's workout session:

* 55 minutes on the elliptical machine (Did MUCH better than yesterday since I increased the incline to level 9 from 8 ... Sweated a bunch & the machine said I had an average 135 heart beats throughout the workout!)
* 10 minutes walking
* skipped buns & thighs pilates dvd today since my a$$ is SORE from Monday's weight lifting! lol

Wednesday's workout session:

* 55 minutes on the elliptical machine (heart rate average was 130 today... less than yesterday's 135 but I s.w.e.a.t.e.d. a whole bunch and felt like I really did good today compared to yesterday, lol. Go figure ).
* 1 hour & 25 (?) minutes of weight/resistance training (*I got to advance on the number of pounds for dumbbells exercises and several freemotion machine weights! Feels GREAT to be able to finally advance here!! )
* 10 minutes walking
* abs pilates dvd (*Also added some new ab moves with resistance to help toughen up my stomach )

Overall, I really feel like I got a really great, kick-a$$ total workout today! It's wonderful to have days like that!!!

yesterday did a very leisurely 5.5 miles jog and then .5 mile walk. i have my very first 5K early saturday morning so i'm feeling a bit anxious. every time i try and run within a couple of hours of getting up in the morning, i peter out after about a mile or so. the body is a strange strange beast.

Thursday's workout session: feeling tired, tired, tired today......

* 55 minutes on the elliptical machine (Still worked up a great sweat though my average heart rate was a little less than yesterday: 128 )
* 15 minutes walking (?) outside
* buns & thighs pilates dvd

Hi Everyone, just wanted to check in. I have been running outside since the weather has been so nice! Yesterday hubby and I did our 5k route. I finished in a slightly better time and ran for 25 minutes total (out of 36 minutes). I'll probably hit the gym tomorrow for an easy workout and then run my mile route on Sunday if the weather holds up.

Have a great weekend, everyone!