My flab isn't due to loose skin it's simply just flab. Granted my answer to that might change after 20 more pounds of loss, but thats what i'm trying to prevent now. I really want to do my best to lose this next and final 20 with muscle building/toning exercises. I do own a bowflex and should start using it. I had used it a few days in a row and upped my resistance too quickly and ended up unable to walk without pain for about a week. I need to find my beginners limits and try to slowly work my way up i'm guessing. I appreciate all your comments and suggestions. Now I just need to motivate myself to get up off this couch and do it to it. Thanks PhotoChick and Jay for your advice. I see both of your points of view. I believe I should start out slowly, but not limit myself by thinking i'm just a girl and shouldn't lift heavy weights.
Also, I'm going to take a before pic now and then again in a month or so just to see if I can see the difference in my body. I hoping that seeing a change will keep me motivated. Wish me luck! I'm off to drag the bowflex in from the shed.

I own a bowflex - do you have the booklet that comes with it? You can follow those workout plans before designing your own. Bowflex is deceptive in how easy it seems while you are doing it, but you can be very sore the next day. Take it easy, and do no more than 3 workouts a week (if you do the full body).

You will build up strength very quickly.

I have a friend who owns a bowflex and I tried his once. Wowza. I used to think it was a wimpy option - give me free weights any time.

And honestly I'd still rather work with free weights ... but if you have to have a single machine, the bowflex'll kick your behind!

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I like resistance bands -- the kind with handles on each end. I got myself four different "weights", and they fit into a nice small box and they are inexpensive, but still deliver, for my "heaviest" one, over fifty pounds of resistance -- all the way down, for my lightest one, to 3-5 lbs. There is really no muscle group in the body that cannot be worked using them, and I can never use the excuse of "sick kid" or "too busy to get to the gym" because I can do some of the exercises sitting on my own couch. One of my sets came with a DVD and I have looked up various other exercises on the net.

When I first brought them home, my husband laughed at me because we both used to be into free weights. Then, he tried out a couple of my heavier ones -- and he stopped laughing. Now he is a die-hard user too. Unlike weights, with the bands, as you do each rep, it gets harder and harder to push against the resistance. They work really, really well. Also, because there is no sudden taking on of the weight there is less impact on your tendons and ligaments -- the weight builds gradually through the rep as you stretch the band. You just have to make sure you keep your form controlled and do the exercises correctly.

Have you noticed results using the resistance bands? My husband just got me the 10 minute trainer. It comes with resistance bands. Has anyone tried the 10 minute trainer before? If so did you see any results?