End of week 2. Exercised 11 out of 14 days, eating is about 90% clean. But one unfortunate side effect is that my knees are bothering me more. Not that they hurt, it's just getting up and down (like squatting down to clean the litter box! ) I know that knee replacement is in my future - they've been bad for 20+ years - but I'm hoping that I can put it off awhile longer.

hi Pat,

regarding the sore knees: according to my doctor if the muscles on both sides of the knees are stronger they can take some of the load and your knee joint is loaded less heavily. But it must be on both sides of the knee. I find I have less knee problems if I do the leg stuff consistently, like squats & lunges, but you have to be really carefull that you don't let the knee go past your toes ( I hope this is clear) or else you load your knee in the wrong way when you do the exercises and that makes them worse. I do the squats & lunges with a mirror at my side to make sure.

Oh, and I also take glucosamine with chondroit (sp?) for my joints. I have the impression that it helps.

Good luck,
Rabbit

Thanks Rabbit. I do squats and lunges (very carefully) several times a week. I think my recent problem was caused by wearing worn-down shoes (need some new outdoor walking shoes) on pavement. There is a dirt trail most of the way, but it hasn't completely thawed yet so it's mud over frozen ground - not nice walking texture. I've gone back to doing elliptical at gym and knees are better.

Glad to hear that Pat! The glucosamine stuff is for arthritis type problems, so this would not have much to do with what you have now.
Wornd own shoes can rapidlt cause me problems on the knees and hips too. I bought new running shoes about 2 weeks ago but I have now had time to run. We go camping next week, so I might take them with me & see if I can do something around the campsite.

Rabbit

If nobody minds I'd like to join y'all.

I started the BFL workouts last week and I'm really liking it so far. I get about 10 hours of cardio in a week, but my weight / resistance training has been really hit and miss so I'm liking the structure of the work outs.

I loved how much my triceps hurt after the first UBWO, that seems to be my most neglected area. I'm also looking forward to putting some muscle on my chest as I'm looking a little bony there after my weight loss.

Like some others of you have mentioned, the LBWO is challenging to my knees, but I'm starting slow and watching my form and hopefully they will show some improvement soon.

Hi Tani, of course you are welcome! You are a great success story!! Cardio 10 hours a week - man, that's awesome! I guess we know how you achieved your weight loss. Is that about 2 hours of cardio a day, or do you just make sure to do something every day and you are very active on your weekends? Please share!

Fran, love your changing avatars!

So far I've exercised 4 out of 5 days this week. Tomorrow will be the second rest day - though I'll be square dancing at the Relay for Life (and swatting at the mosquitos! ). Food is less good, but today was better and tomorrow will be better than today.

Hi all! My working out has been negligable this past week. My sister, niece and fiance were here thru Tuesday, wore me out running around plus eating out alot...I did get to the gym for at least one workout, but other than that since they left I have just been catching up on my sleep and trying to get my eating back under control.

And now I am down in Nashville visiting my grandbaby, DD and SIL, and it is doubtful I will be able to do anything other than gardening and maybe lower body. I just hope I can watch my food intake...there's going to be a big brunch for grandbaby's first birthday, which means cake, casseroles, and lots of carbs. And the time change really screws up my sleep schedule...everyone goes to sleep late here which means 11-12 pm...and my normal bedtime is 9:30. Of course my body rhythms have me waking at 6:30 no matter what, which is 5:30 their time. Late to bed and early to rise means a tired me. When I'm tired I eat....vicious cycle. I have, have, have to keep control!

Hope everyone's been ahving a good week.

Art

Crazy woman here, haven't have gotten to the gym since Monday, but lots of problems have been resolved and next week looks pretty clear. Yes.

RABITT - I agree on the knees and the strength around them. My left one is wracked up from years of heavy shoulder bags on my left side, but I know that I have way fewer problems since I converted to a backpack and have started the upper leg workouts.

TANI - Welcome and love the geekly pagan chick title. Your numbers look great too.

FRAN - I dream of the adjustable weights. Like you curious on the TANI 10 hours, I am striving for 1 hour a day and then lots of opportunities no matter how small.

ART - For some reason I love First Birthday parties the best. We always have big ones here and of course they are mostly for parents. A small piece of cake tastes the same as the big piece though if that helps.

Weight stayed the same this week and I should be glad for that. Was able to eat pretty good and when I was faced with less than great choices, I went with the portion control. so no exercise and food and no weight change was a learning experience.

Thanks for the Welcome About the 10 hours, It's spread out throughout the day. I ride my bike to and from downtown to work as part of my commute, so there's 5 hours without even trying. Then I have a 1 hour aquacize class that I take with my mom 3 times a week, and I walk on my lunch break at work with a friend (mostly just to get away from the office )

It's going to be more challenging starting in July when my job moves 10 miles down the road and I switch from my bicycle to my new scooter. The nice thing is that I'll then be working from home 2 days a week. My plan is to rejoin the gym and go for an hour in the morning on the days I work at home (Tues/Thurs) and an hour at night on Monday and Wednesday (my dh has agreed to come on Mon/Wed, so that will be cool)

My aquacize classes are in the evening Tues/Thurs and Saturday morning, so hopefully that will work out okay. I'm one of those maintainers who has to either get in a lot of exercise or eat like a bird, and I'm *not* the eat like a bird type

Right now I'm doing the BFL lifting Monday Wednesday & Sunday. Speaking of which, omg do my quads hurt today.

Skipping the gym this morning, went and picked out a screen door for the front porch instead, boring but hey, has to get done.

Food is going to be ok today, I do have to go do some grocery shopping. Continuing my work on acquiring a taste for cottage cheese, hey if i could learn to prefer FF plain yogurt then I can do anything.

Liza - is it the texture that bothers you? You can blend it using a stick blender so it's not so lumpy. I find what works well for me is to add in a spoonful of yogurt (usually lf vanilla, but any would work). I then add in my fruit. Had applesauce with it yesterday which was surprisingly good. I think cinnamon would have added to it, but I was at work and it was just one of those 1/2 cup plastic containers of applesauce. We grow strawberries, raspberries, currents and rhubarb, and pick wild blueberries, so those are more often my choices (well, the currents and rhubarb are more DH's, they need to much sweetening to be palatable for me).

I am growing to almost like cottage cheese. I don't like it when it is being itself like on a salad - but I like it when its pretending to be something else, like hidden in oatie pancakes or when I've mixed it with sweetener and vanilla and it turns in to a cream substitute with fruit. I've recently started using it in place of milk with muesli, I whizz it up and then add a little sweetner and enough water to get a milk like consistency. I also whizz it up and add a green chili, chopped mint and cilantro with a touch of honey to make a dip or salad dressing.

Anything to disguise it really!

PAT - RE: Cottage cheese, no, I don't mind the texture, though I do prefere the small curd to large, it is just a taste thing, Love currants.

Thanks for the cottage cheese boost, I am hitting the motivation wall, not sure if I am sleep deprived or facing too many things. End of school for DD and stuff like that.

Just outlined my plan for the week in the weekly thread. Looks good so far. And I appear to have dropped 2#! Yippee. Still looking for the danged tape measure.....