I'm posting this thread here rather than in the exercise thread because as 300+ we all had to/have to start somewhere, and I hope that we can support each other through shared experience of building our fitness level.

Here is the idea: Would anyone be interested in keeping a thread encouraging each other as we build toward our fitness goals? Not simply a thread for counting exercise minutes, but a place to check in, share progress, and encourage others to keep going one more minute or one more step.

Just to give you an idea of where I started. Last summer when I started exercising, I could hardly stand for a few minutes. I started walking in place and could only do it for about 2-3 minutes. At the end of the summer, I could walk once around my block, and I was gasping for air by the time I got back to my front porch. Last week I walked a 26 minute mile on the treadmill (My workouts also include about 20-25 minutes on a stationary bike and weight lifting and stretching). Yesterday, I pushed myself to walk a mile in 25 minutes on the treadmill. Ultimately, I want to increase the distance and decrease the time it takes. And I want so badly to be able to run!

So here is my invite. Tell us where you started, where you are, and where you're going. Stop back in, share progress/struggles, and encourage and be encouraged.

I'd love a thread like that. That's perfect for what I'm doing. I started out struggling to walk 5 minutes last year. I hurt so bad I gave up. Months later I started in again and was surprised that I could go 5 min and pushed myself to 10. Then went up to 20 and 30. I have been gradually increasing my speed from 1.0 to now about 1.5 average. My most recent victories are: 1. I walked the treadmill for an hour! 2. I walked a full, up down, rugged trail for 30 min. in the rain. Both huge firsts for me. My goal is to be able to do a 5k in June.

When I started at 332, I was only able to walk (the dogs) down the street. I was able to get up to a 10 minute walk about 6 months into my change of eating. I added a 10 minute walk in the afternoons soon there after.

I now do a walk/jog every other day for 40 minutes (on top of my daily morning walks). I started out with 8 minutes of walking to 15 seconds of jogging in January. Last night (patting myself on the back here..) I was able to go:

4:13 jog, 3:15 walk, 4:15 jog, 3:15 walk, 3:30 jog, 4:00 walk, 3:30 jog

I would love to track this!

I made a nice leap forward on my jog/walk cycle! I challenged myself to jog 4 minutes / walk 2 minutes and do the cycle 5 times instead of just 4. I did it! I almost vomited, but I did it

Pacifica Bee **Almost** vomited is a victory, right? Yay! Keep going!

I walked a 24 minute mile on Monday and Tuesday this week. I think I'm going to work on building endurance first and speed second. I'm tentatively planning on going on a four/five day camping trip to Cornerstone this summer and that means A LOT of walking. I'm hoping to be up to a 1.5-2 miles before the end of June with a decent recovery time.

Well I have not started walking yet. But I do a routine of squats, touch touches and leg lifts and sometimes crutched every other day. Then I do upper body the opposite day which consist of arm curls, arm lifts, push ups and behind the head lifts with a one and half pound can of yams. There are days I want to do it and there are days I say to heck with it. But the heck with it days are coming farther and farther between. I notice I feel so much better when I do my exercises.

Lynnie, that's awesome! I'm so glad you feel better when doing your exercises. Keep making progress!!

this seems like a great thread! Good job to everyone for all you are able to do!
I used to march parades every weekend (sometimes 2 or 3 a day!), like, 2 summers ago...and now I cant make it around the block...so I am challenging myself to get moving again!
Right now I can go about 5 minutes before the pain and breathing are too much....I will post here if I can add more time to that!!

KiltedHeather, five minutes is five minutes. When I started, I could only do a couple of minutes walking. Now I work out for about two hours with a combination of cardio, weight lifting, and stretching. Big difference! And I feel amazing after working out. I sound like a crazy person, but I actually miss working out when I skip it. You absolutely can add more time!

Looking forward to hearing of everyone's progress!

Upped my cycle this week! I am on 4:30 jog / 3:00 walk. I am going to hold steady here this week and start pushing forward towards 5:00 jog next week. I'm still sweating as I type this as I just got back

I think I need this, I am pretty regular about my excercise I mean I have periods where I "fall off the wagon" and get down and such and don't make it but I do a class (aerobics, sometimes its step aerobics, right now we are doing a 12 week challenge that is more circuit training, and interval classes).

Here's the thing I am trying to figure out what the heck "Average Level of Fitness" means and try and figure out if I can get to that point in a year. (Have a trip planned and I'd like to make the most of it the tour we are thinking of booking says "Average Fitness Level" required ).

And figure out ways to push myself to get there.

Right now I am doing about 60 minutes of moderate intensity (higher than walking but not super intense) excercise three days a week. And walking most other days (but its mostly Non-Excercise walking like, to work, to the store, to my friends house... ambulatory but not specifically a workout-walk).

I need to start ramping up not only the time involved and my intensity but come up with some sort of PLAN to make myself feel better about things.

Still doing the squats and stuff but I feel I need a break today from doing any exercise because my body feels sore. It maybe because its PMS week.

Pacifica, Woo! I know it must feel amazing to be able to jog.

Silentartic, Hmm... I'm not sure what they mean by "Average Level of Fitness," but from my experience I know how much progress can be made in a year. Keep working at it. Having a plan sounds like a good idea. I use Google calendar to keep track of my progress. Keep us posted on your progress!

Lynnie, Glad to hear you're staying with it!

Monday night I walked for time rather than speed/distance. I walked for 26 minutes with a 2 minute cool down (1.17 miles). I didn't get to the gym until late last night, so I had to do a shortened workout. I ended up pushing myself to walk a mile in 22 minutes with a three minute cool down. I found out that at Cornerstone I'm likely going to be walking at least 5 miles a day. Yikes! Better keep working on my distance to get my body used to it.

Just reading and Pacifica Bee you are doing so well an inspiration really.

Lynnie - Hope you feel better about it tomorrow.

So I've been in a surfing mode and doing a lot of reading, and while i've known this for a while 60 to 70 minutes three days a week is just NOT enough to make up for my sedentary lifestyle/job. Feeling a little frustrated at my 'lack of progress' it feels like I'm still struggling and not able to attain even a fraction of normal fitness.

The good points:

Over the past 2 years I've moved from using the 5lb bar for everything to using a 10 for 'light' exercises, a 12 for 'heavy' bar exercises, and I used both together for our final strength chest press exercise.

And I made myself pick up hand weights whenever I could to try and make up for the fact that I just couldn't make myself jump. So that was something and I'm trying not to let that get to me.

I just feel like I 'm running very slowly on a hamster wheel never speeding up and never getting where. Its just one of those days I guess.

Workout video on the weekend I guess, i have bunch of "biggest loser" dvd's I bought a couple years ago that I never really got into I think I'll pick one for my weekend workout.

If I can get up to FIVE consistent workouts a week starting now that would be super. Its still not end-game or 'enough' overall but it will be a step in the right direction.

*Crickets*

Ah well hope everyone is having fabulously active weekends. I had a good workout last night, my friends even commented "You're pushing it hardcore tonight" [with the weights, I was really trying to pick the heaviest ones possible to still manage to do the excercises for the pull interval ]

Still really need to make inrodes on the cardio and upper body strength, I Have to WORK this weekend. Not sure how I am going to fit in a workout, might have to change to just 30 minutes on the recumbant bike at home or something.