New Years' Resolution physical fitness thread

[Tilt]

Just noticed this thread. Pretty cool to see some success stories here. I've struggled with my weight for more than 10 years really. I dropped a lot of weight several years ago (simply eating right and getting proper exercise), and kept it off for a while. However with my nutty life, it slowly came back. Then I yo-yo'd here and there for a couple years, before just giving up. Last year with work and life all over the map, I found myself at my max weight again. I was soon to turn 40, but felt more like a 50 year old (especially when I tried to play and wrestle with my kids). My best friend is a fitness guru (gym owner, certified trainer, triathlete, and fitness author). He'd been dogging me (and the wife) for a while to make some permanent changes. If not for us....for the welfare of our kids. A combination of following my friends book (amazing book - If your Body were a Car....), and just making some simple daily changes.....I've dropped close to 70 pounds since January of this year (the wife has dropped a bunch as well). I'm getting close to my "happy" weight....but more importantly, we've established a pretty strong lifestyle change. I honeslty don't pay much attention to the weight loss, so much as notice the new abilities I'm gaining back. I've basically gone from feeling over 50....to feeling about 30 again. My wife feels a ton better, we both have noticed our daily life and work has dramatically improved, and our kids are reeping major rewards from all this. My oldest daughter is in amazing shape (compared to last summer), and is one of the highest achievers in her gym classes now.

We've made this such a solid lifestyle now (thankfully my wife is fully onboard with me....and that can be a huge aspect to it). I find now that when work and life gets crazy, we just deal with it a ton better....simply because we feel good and healthy. In the past, that was my trigger for falling off the wagon. Having everyone in my family onboard is the best thing ever. We don't consider it a "diet" or a "program" at all....it's just our life now. That's the whole point of my buddies book. It teaches you how the machine (that is your body) actually functions....what it needs....and what particular foods do once they're inside you. Simple, easy terms. No gimmicks, junk, or silliness.

Tilt

[SBARC]

Come on Tilt...share some specific secrets. I sounds like you are one with info that works.

[Tilt]

Come on Tilt...share some specific secrets. I sounds like you are one with info that works.

lol

Well, it really comes down to food and exercise. Our lifestyle follows an 80/20 routine (roughly). 80% of the time we make the correct food choices and get proper exercise. 20% of the time, we just relax all rules and do whatever. For us, that translates into a Monday to Friday routine where eating right and sneaking in exercise is the name of the game. Saturday and Sunday are simply days we don't stress about anything food related. So Monday to Friday I eat 5 to 6 smaller meals a day - consisting of a balance of Protein, Carbs and Fat (yes fat). Some people have different needs, but typically our daily intake is roughly 45-50% protein, 35-40% carbs, and 10-15% fats. And for us, it matters not what gets us those totals. As long as it's somewhat clean foods, with as little processed ingredients as possible (no white flour, and minimal sugars). And fat is good, as long as it's good fat. Notice how much fatter people got since the mass-marketing of "Low Fat" foods? Total con-job. The human body still needs good fats to properly function. Another huge aspect is water. You simply cannot drink enough water. I try to drink about 3 to 5 litres a day. I'm lucky because I work from home, and I don't care that I have to go to the washroom a dozen times a day - people that work at real jobs (lol) may have trouble with that. Another 'biggy' is to limit any and all carbs after around 7pm. The purpose of a carb is to give the body energy fuel, and in the evening when you're winding down and starting to settle in....your body does not require that fuel. We have our supper at around 6 to 6:30 every night....then go for a pretty intense walk right after. I don't eat anything after that until about 9:00 (ish) to 9:45 pm....and that meal simply consists of a majority of protein only. Nothing large (I may have a small drink of chocolate whey powder mixed in water - or a couple hard-boiled egg whites - or even a small bowl of cottage cheese), just enough to keep my body fed and happy as I get ready for sleep.

The wife and I do exercises 3 evenings a week - very simple plyometric style moves designed to strengthen our cores and give us a small aerobic workout. It takes roughly 1/2 an hour, sometimes a bit longer. So really, the only exercise we do (on top of general daily activity) is the walking after supper, and 3 evening workouts.

The weekend hits.....and all hell breaks loose!!! No...not really. We certainly relax the reins, but we do not order pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And now that we're in better shape and healthy again, we find we're SUPER active on weekends. Very little sitting around doing nothing. So that ends up off-setting any of the nasty foods we eat on a Saturday or Sunday.

So yeah, pretty simple stuff. Eat several smaller proper balanced meals, get a ton of water....and move your butt off the sofa - during the week. Chill out a bit on the weekends, but stay off the sofa.....and life is good.

Tilt

[Tilt]

I feel I need to add something. Every person is different. What works well for one, may not work at all for another. I looked at what Bob wrote above. That would never work for me in a million years. I eat maybe 4 or 5 bananas a week, all of my fruit intake is in the morning or early afternoon, and eating anything with carbs in it after 7 to 8 (ish) in the evening would have me gaining weight faster than a speeding Train. But look how good it works for Bob. It's a clear example of how one method may not work for another person, but it works great for you.

And keep in mind that what I'm doing, I have to stick with....otherwise I fold like a house of cards. I, unfortunately, have the ability to gain 5 pounds simply from looking at a chocolate cake. Yay for me - lol. It certainly takes some will-power....but I find I can maintain that pretty easily now a days.

Tilt

[phantom]

Been using water as recovery since my army days. I can STILL pass the tactical fitness test here at work and I just hit 20 years service . Water works for me and best of all I save money for model stuff.

[Karl Sander]

Reaching new highs on pull-ups, but wow, no other resistance exercise causes so much discomfort. I get a nerve sensation that feels exactly like the few times in my life when I did a clumsy thing that got me electrocuted by household current. By contrast, I can do push-ups to fail without complaint, and sit-ups seem downright tedious.

Have I seen that the U.S. Air Force has abandoned sit-ups for crunches? Is there a stated reason why?

Haven't heard the official USAF line, but every so often there's a movement in the navy to get rid of them (so far they CALL them crunches, but for all intents and purposes - namely potential spinal stress - they're sit ups). The main concern folks usually site is neck/spinal concerns.

[Karl Sander]

I'd offer that what you drink post-workout depends on what you're trying to accomplish with your workout. If you're just trying to maintain, or working out to maintain a given caloric balance (or imbalance, as the case may be), in many cases just water would be fine (though there is something to be said for replenishing minerals you loose when you sweat). The 60 minute window for ingesting a carb-protein drink (or easily digested meal) is tied to muscle growth and the fact that after progressive resistance exercise, the muscle glycogen stores are depleted so the right sort of carbs will get speeded to the muscles (ie, there's what staff weenies might call a high demand signal). It my understanding that the thinking then goes that if you ingest protein with it, the protein will also be rushed to the muscles and be relatively rapidly synthesized during what is considered a prime time for muscle fiber repair/growth.

So, if you're trying to grow muscle (which is in fact a valid means to body fat loss as its metabolically active), then it may be worth a carb-protein drink within 30-60 minutes of your workout. If your goal is to simply to keep the heart rate up, burn some calories, and essentially hold what you got (also perfectly fine - no judgement implied here either way), then it's not entirely necessary.

For the record (since I've just found this thread) - Normally (and now that I'm not on the boat) I swim 2000-2500m three days a week, lift the other three. I bike as often as I can (never as often as I like) since I live no farther than 5 1/2 miles than any place I really need to be, to include the pool, gym, and hangar - not seriously training type of biking, more low-intensity cardio. Most of the time when I lift, I'll go for a relatively slow paced run afterwords (theory being after lifting, glycogen stores are depleted and the body is primed to burn fat). In order to spare muscle tissue, I'll chug a protein drink between lifting and running. I buy in bulk on-line (and endeavor to consolidate orders to save on shipping).

I put most of my effort into swimming and lifting. I quit running for my PRT a few years ago (just do it for the calorie burning now as I like to eat well and drink beer, so I better keep burning calories), and as a bit of cross-training). I'm still in the phase where I'm getting a lot of return on investment in the swimming - just this week I beat my old personal best in 500m by around 30 seconds. Nothing inspires success like success. Lifting I've done for 20 years and I just plain like it - even if I'm not trying to get bigger anymore, I still like getting stronger and it's my single best form of stress relief. Mood takes a noticeable swing for the worse when I go too long without throwing steel.

Anyway, looking forward to catching up on the thread. It's another hobby of mine, one that I figure I can allow to overlap into the workday more than my other hobbies; after all if they're going to test me on it regularly, they can allow me the time to do it. Helps that I get a bigger vote in the schedule now... :lol:

[Fishwelding]

Having reached (and really, somewhat exceeded) my weight-loss goal, I'm now trying to learn to live at that weight, and improve body composition (more muscle, less fat). This, I find, is trickier than weight loss where setting a rough deficit and sticking with it was the game. Now, I need to figure out what a good balance of caloric intake and exercise is. My research on nutrition, training plans, kinesology, and so forth is ongoing. I'm still determined to keep this low-cost, however, to prove the point.

[SBARC]

This thread is getting interesting......plenty of great info being shared.

I do know that my Doctor told me that men lose muscle mass as they age due to hormone levels changing and maintaining that muscle mass becomes more and more important as each year goes by.

[Alvis 3.1]

Any day now I'm going to start on this....

[Winnie]

I'm still going hard at my resolution (which has nothing to do with the new year I guess)

Anyhoo, I currently do 2 days of cardio and 4 days of resistance training (mostly resisting going to the gym it seems lately) and it seems to work. Find tho, that everyone wants me to concentrate on building muscle, and I get it, but my "FAT FREE" eright at the moment is HIGHER than where I want to end up eventually, so I will HAVE to burn off some of the lean muscle mass to get there.

Thus I intend to increase the Cardio workouts to 4 days a week too, so my routine should end up something like this:

Sunday (Day one): 12 mins Cardio warm up (jog on threadmill, eliptical or bike, rowing machine etc, depending on mood, Upper body (Pulls)

Monday: 12 min Cardio warm up, lower body, legs, core followed by additional 30 mins of cardio

Tuesday: 60:90 mins cardio only, intervals, rowing, running, etc, conditioning and so on, to prepare for the "event"

Wed: REST (model club, gotta keep our priorities straight here!!!)

THU and FRI same as sun and mon (with Variations, such as pushes instead of pulls)

Saturday, 5K or 10K run. at the moment working on getting the 5 K to a speed where I can complete the 10K in less than an hour...

Take into consideration I am still about 260 lbs, and yes, I know, summer has had too many burgers, even tho only less than a total case of beer drunk...

Cheers

H.

[SBARC]

Take into consideration I am still about 260 lbs, and yes, I know, summer has had too many burgers, even tho only less than a total case of beer drunk...

Cheers

H.

Wow....you are very active for someone that is 260.....well done. I just bought a heart rate monitor wrist watch off e-bay. Neat little unit by Blowflex.

[Karl Sander]

In my now concluded effort to read this from the beginning, 2 quick thoughts-

-BMI is garbage. USN height/weight standards (and the neck/wasit measurements) are not much better. Quick vignette - being of large, though athletic frame, the USMC Major at my NROTC unit was convinced I was out of standards. So he taped me every week. Every week, I would tape out to 16% bodyfat. On a whim, I started going across the street to the Univeristy gym immediately afterwords and getting a calipers test. Whereas I taped out at 16%, by calipers I was 8%. Meanwhile, BMI says I'm morbidly obese. Needless to say I'm somewhere between dismayed to outright offended at the idea that insurance premiums or whathaveyou should be based on it. Having said that, along the same lines as the 'how do your clothes fit' test, keeping track of certain measurements can give you a non-scientific quik-look at how you're doing.

-As Fish noticed, eating healthy is actually not as expensive as you might think. Sure, Whole Foods and the like, and all the truly organic stuff is going to cost more, but just regular non-certified-organic fruits and vegetables, basic whole grains, and lean meat are still more healthy than the overprocessed stuff many people eat far too much of and are generally cheaper. I've heard it described as 'shopping on the outside of the store' - because in most grocery stores, at least in the US, most of the really bad for you stuff is in the inner aisles. (incidentally, there are cheaper ways to supplement too... which I know isn't everyone's bag, but just sayin...)

And I've read much the same stuff about diet soda leading to inadvertent overeating my signalling the body to want more and/or sweeter stuff. Anecdotal evidence on cruise bore this out for me: when I was water only, I lost more fat quicker. When I was drinking diet soda, I plateaued in a hurry.

I'll also put in another plug for swimming for anyone looking to do something other than run for cardio!

[Fishwelding]

As Fish noticed, eating healthy is actually not as expensive as you might think. Sure, Whole Foods and the like, and all the truly organic stuff is going to cost more, but just regular non-certified-organic fruits and vegetables, basic whole grains, and lean meat are still more healthy than the overprocessed stuff many people eat far too much of and are generally cheaper. I've heard it described as 'shopping on the outside of the store' - because in most grocery stores, at least in the US, most of the really bad for you stuff is in the inner aisles. (incidentally, there are cheaper ways to supplement too... which I know isn't everyone's bag, but just sayin...)

I'm glad you brought that up. Occasionally, I post dietary finds that I think are pretty healthy, and usually at an affordable price. In all of these, know that I do not consciously follow the organic foods movement(s), so for anyone who does, I offer no guarantees about availability or price.

BMI seems to be like everything else in this business. It's based on statistics, which means lots of people on either slope or end of a bell curve. Unless you pay for increasingly personal advice, or take the time to figure out your needs on your own, generalized advice offered by websites, books, or any other mass-market source is very good, but should not be taken as an absolute. This is why there's a myriad of different diet and/or exercise plans, most of which work for somebody, and many which work for many people, but it is difficult to establish if any are absolutely better than all the rest.

Given the huge quantity of water I consume, my weight varies radically in a given week, ranging between 185 and 175, or even lower. Actual exercises have changed over time as I targeted different muscle groups, and tried new things. Now, judging from symptoms I am probably carrying a nagging overtraining problem, particularly in regards to cardio and legs, and am presently researching for a program change. But right now, my regime is as follows: 5 days a week, about 40 minutes cardio (running, elliptical), and a resistance regime of back/biceps (2 days), chest/triceps (2 days), and some limited resistance leg-work (1 day). I do more calesthenics than when I started (push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups). As I am no longer trying to lose weight, I'll probably knock that back some in order to press forward with the resistance and weight training.

I'm hoping to get a body composition test done this week, and am actually thinking about investing in a food scale.

Edited September 15, 2010 by Fishwelding

[Karl Sander]

BMI seems to be like everything else in this business. It's based on statistics, which means lots of people on either slope or end of a bell curve.

As I understand it, it's based on rather old statistics. It probably bears more research as time permits, but the last I heard was at least one very common BMI is based on 1923 actuary tables or some such thing...

5 days a week, about 40 minutes cardio (running, elliptical), and a resistance regime of back/biceps (2 days), chest/triceps (2 days), and some limited resistance leg-work (1 day). I do more calesthenics than when I started (push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups). As I am no longer trying to lose weight, I'll probably knock that back some in order to press forward with the resistance and weight training.

Given that you're no longer trying to lose weight, even if you're not trying to gain a LOT of muscle, gaining a bit (metabolically active, remember) might help keep unwanted fat off - as such, you may want to consider more than 'limited' leg work. There's a growth hormone response to strength training, and the bigger the muscle the bigger the response. Muscles don't get much bigger than the quadriceps - and the growth hormone benefits in many people don't seem to be strictly limited to the working muscle. Anectodaly, when I dial back running and/or focus more on heavier leg work (with an obligatory warning here regarding form and the like to avoid injury), my chest, arm, shoulder and back routines have also generally yielded greater results. It's as if your muscles just marinide in a (NATURALLY) anabolic* sauce....

*loaded word I know. I use it strictly in the sense of 'growth producing' as opposed to 'catabolic,' describing things that cause loss of muscle tissue.

[Fishwelding]

Given that you're no longer trying to lose weight, even if you're not trying to gain a LOT of muscle, gaining a bit (metabolically active, remember) might help keep unwanted fat off - as such, you may want to consider more than 'limited' leg work. There's a growth hormone response to strength training, and the bigger the muscle the bigger the response. Muscles don't get much bigger than the quadriceps - and the growth hormone benefits in many people don't seem to be strictly limited to the working muscle. Anectodaly, when I dial back running and/or focus more on heavier leg work (with an obligatory warning here regarding form and the like to avoid injury), my chest, arm, shoulder and back routines have also generally yielded greater results. It's as if your muscles just marinide in a (NATURALLY) anabolic* sauce....

*loaded word I know. I use it strictly in the sense of 'growth producing' as opposed to 'catabolic,' describing things that cause loss of muscle tissue.

Overall muscle performance as well as weight loss was why I added a limited leg routine. But when I was out of shape (and I'm still not entirely "in" shape by any means), my weakness was nearly all upper body. As this is increasingly less the case, I suppose I should up the leg-work further, as you suggest. Building lean muscle is precisely my plan to keep the weight off, and allow more "room to maneuver" calorically. I don't plan on competing in body-building competitions, but I'd like to shed/replace the excess fat with muscle.

I don't really want to get into supplements, at least not yet, although I have a highly targetted diet. I'm concluding that perhaps I've been slightly too low on fats, and have actually added a handful of unsalted peanuts, or the occasional salmon serving to my daily intake. The bodybuilders seem to love fish oil. They also consume quantities of protein, while all the MDs shout that this is a waste of time, as the body simply doesn't metabolise this. (Reference the Navy Seal guides above, for one of many examples).

[SBARC]

Working the big muscles does get the hormones flowing. Some people will do their leg workot forst.....walking running etc first then go to the gym for an upper body workout. Working the leg muscles gets the hormones flowing which helps during the upper body workout. As you get older and hormone levels decrease.....maintaining musle mass will get more and more difficult.

[Tilt]

As far as the cost of food......it doesn't even compare!! Where we certainly spend more for quality foods at the grocery store, and some suppliments (protein powders, glutamine suppliments, etc).....the savings on NOT going out for meals at restaurants nearly as often is massive. I don't know what it's like in other places, but an evening out at an average restaurant around here is minimum 60 to 70 bucks (2 adults, 2 kids). I get my suppliments (the few I use) from my buddy that owns his own fitness gym, so I get a pretty decent deal. I can get a larger container of Whey Powder Protein drink for under 40 bucks. And that will last around 2 weeks. Compare the cost of going out for supper and the price of better foods, healthy suppliments, even gym memberships......it just doesn't compare. You can go to a slightly nicer place here to eat and pay the equivalent to a 1 month gym membership for 2 adults.

Tilt

*edit*

Yeah, BMI is a total turd!! At my best fighting weight (which I'm not too far off now), I'd be considered morbidly obese as well. It simply doesn't take into account the body type (Ectomorphic, Mesomorphic, or Endomorphic). I'm deffintely Endomorphic (large frame structure). If I were ever able to get down to my correct BMI, I would look sickly and likely be in an awful condition.

Edited September 15, 2010 by Tilt

[Karl Sander]

Overall muscle performance as well as weight loss was why I added a limited leg routine. But when I was out of shape (and I'm still not entirely "in" shape by any means), my weakness was nearly all upper body. As this is increasingly less the case, I suppose I should up the leg-work further, as you suggest. Building lean muscle is precisely my plan to keep the weight off, and allow more "room to maneuver" calorically. I don't plan on competing in body-building competitions, but I'd like to shed/replace the excess fat with muscle.

I don't really want to get into supplements, at least not yet, although I have a highly targetted diet. I'm concluding that perhaps I've been slightly too low on fats, and have actually added a handful of unsalted peanuts, or the occasional salmon serving to my daily intake. The bodybuilders seem to love fish oil. They also consume quantities of protein, while all the MDs shout that this is a waste of time, as the body simply doesn't metabolise this. (Reference the Navy Seal guides above, for one of many examples).

Yeah, looking back over the past several years of my paying at least a little attention to diet, it's pretty interesting to watch the ebb and flow of fats. I think pretty much everyone agrees HEALTHY fats are good. Atheletes of many flavors like fish oil for the Omega-3s, which some studies have shown to help performance in certain types of athletic endeavors and in any case is good for one's ticker.

To reattack the leg stuff, consider also the core benefits of things like lunges, squats, and deadlifts. Now, a lot of folks steer away from some of these exercises because of percieved risk. True, improperly executed squats, for example, can really, REALLY, hurt your back (among other things), but properly done not only are arguably the best quad/glute exercise known to man, but also stimulate a lot of activity for the core, particularly low back muscles. You don't have to go 'world strongest man competetion' crazy with them - a reasonable weight done in the 10-12 rep range for a few sets would probably get you headed where you want to go.

[Fishwelding]

To reattack the leg stuff, consider also the core benefits of things like lunges, squats, and deadlifts. Now, a lot of folks steer away from some of these exercises because of percieved risk. True, improperly executed squats, for example, can really, REALLY, hurt your back (among other things), but properly done not only are arguably the best quad/glute exercise known to man, but also stimulate a lot of activity for the core, particularly low back muscles. You don't have to go 'world strongest man competetion' crazy with them - a reasonable weight done in the 10-12 rep range for a few sets would probably get you headed where you want to go.

I might look into these. In any event, I'm not terribly impressed with the machines I've been toying with the past several weeks for legs. I've done some lunges, but without weights, so far. In general, I think I'm going to slowly phase in more use of freeweights. I used machines for a while because they're quicker, but I'm aware that the balance required with barbells and dumbells provide better performance.

By the way, for the last several weeks I've been listening to these people. They're a little crazy in their dedication, being personal training professionals, but surprisingly not that crazy in terms of advice to the hoi polloi. Generally, they can speak to noobs like myself, with fairly mainstream advice (eat smart, exercise smart, work hard but don't overreach, be disciplined but don't freak out over day-to-day stuff, etc.) but for the seasoned gym-rat, there's plenty of stuff, too. They can get preachy from a resistence-training perspective; they chewed into Yoga and Pilates pretty badly, although one of the more even-handed of them admitted they have their own biases. I'm learning stuff, though: they're providing me a bibliography of stuff to consult, and have given me lots of tips. For example, they warned me away from over-use of assisted pull-up machines, because these don't exercise a full range of effort through the movement.

Edited September 16, 2010 by Fishwelding

[Karl Sander]

Pull-ups are an area I've always been a little weak in due to an old rotator cuff injury. The assisted ones always just plain felt 'funny' (not ha-ha funny), so I've generally used the cable pulldown to help get more lat work. Though it's another area where swimming has helped me out - all those miles (literally) of freestyle have made my back grow a lot which, aside from the minor hassle of tax-deductible new uniform purchases and a somewhat less than comfortable fit into the torso harness, is actually pretty cool.

I like to think I'm rather tolerant if not egalitarian when it comes to FORMS of exercise. Obviously I have my favorites that I have decades of experience with, but fundamentally the most correct answer to someone's question of 'what sort of exercise should I do?' is 'whatever type you'll REGULARLY do.' Sure there's all sorts of studys about the pros and cons of different types... but if somone doesn't LIKE lifting (finds it too monotonous or whatever) then, odds are, over the long haul, they won't do it, so whatever scientifically recognized benefits of it won't matter a hill of beans. On the other hand, if they like yoga, or like Zumba, or whatever, and they like it in such a way that they WANT to do it regularly, then they're more likely to stick with it which, all merit-based debates aside, is CERTAINLY better than being sedentary (or being MOSTLY sedentary while half-heartedly doing something that someone else told them they SHOULD be doing because it's 'better').

[Fishwelding]

I like to think I'm rather tolerant if not egalitarian when it comes to FORMS of exercise. Obviously I have my favorites that I have decades of experience with, but fundamentally the most correct answer to someone's question of 'what sort of exercise should I do?' is 'whatever type you'll REGULARLY do.' Sure there's all sorts of studys about the pros and cons of different types... but if somone doesn't LIKE lifting (finds it too monotonous or whatever) then, odds are, over the long haul, they won't do it, so whatever scientifically recognized benefits of it won't matter a hill of beans. On the other hand, if they like yoga, or like Zumba, or whatever, and they like it in such a way that they WANT to do it regularly, then they're more likely to stick with it which, all merit-based debates aside, is CERTAINLY better than being sedentary (or being MOSTLY sedentary while half-heartedly doing something that someone else told them they SHOULD be doing because it's 'better').

I tend to agree. I've done all my efforts in part as an experiment to see if one can do this living cheaply, but I also don't fault people who put down cash for things like a personal trainer or paid-for exercise plans, or even "home gym" equipment. If you got the cash, and that's what you need to be motivated, go for it. I suppose gimmicky exercise "equipment" and stuff that promotes wrong attitudes or information (spot-weight loss, for example) isn't good.

I guess I find the worst "ills" of fitness to be wrong attitudes promoted by the popular media, but that's no surprise. People need to realize that our culturally-constructed ideas about body shape do not constitute maximum strength, fitness, or wellness. Most foolish or pernicious, of course, are the idiocies foisted upon women by the fashion industry, Hollywood, etc., but men get some of that, too. In general, a lot of stuff I've sifted through on the web, even on sites that have a medium-to-high reputation for information quality, say stuff that's at least poorly written. Again, part of it is generalized statements about things that in fact should vary widely from person-to-person. What's one's daily caloric intake? 2,200 calories is one "cited" average for an adult male, but in fact is considered an average for males over 40 by the government, and low for those of us with bigger frames, and yet women, too, could easily clear that if they have a job wherein they are frequently on their feet.

[Winnie]

This turned interesting quickly!!

I used to do lots of swimming too, however I got bored with it. The running seems to keep me going for now, even the monotony of the treadmill, since I most of the time keep busting records. Read through (skimmed) the Seal Fitness guide, and it actually backs my plans, even tho I need to go with less caloric intake obviously, if I am to lose weight at all...

As long as I can manage to keep at it 5-6 times a week I suppose I'll do good!

Mr. Fishwelding, do you have a link to the Seal Nutrition guide that is a pdf??

cheers

H.

[Fishwelding]

This turned interesting quickly!!

I used to do lots of swimming too, however I got bored with it. The running seems to keep me going for now, even the monotony of the treadmill, since I most of the time keep busting records. Read through (skimmed) the Seal Fitness guide, and it actually backs my plans, even tho I need to go with less caloric intake obviously, if I am to lose weight at all...

As long as I can manage to keep at it 5-6 times a week I suppose I'll do good!

Mr. Fishwelding, do you have a link to the Seal Nutrition guide that is a pdf??

cheers

H.

I haven't found a .pdf for that, yet, and note that conspicuously, Google doesn't offer one as they do with many other non-copywritten materials they have. So there may be some agreement concerning that preventing a downloadable version.

Just heard on that podcast that one can add mild variety to the taste of water (because drinking LOTS of water is key) by adding cucumber slices. It's not bad. The change is subtle, like squeezing in some lemon juice, but worth knowing about.

Tried some hip flexor stuff today in preparation for upping the lower body workout. Hopefully I won't be a cripple by tonight.

[Winnie]

My workout from yesterday!

(Did not have 1000% motivation due to some mildly upsetting news in the afternoon)

Warm up/ Cardio, 42 mins on the treadmill, 3 3/4 mile 5.5 mph constant. Now before any comments are made, please not that I HAVE to do my Cardio first, particularily running, or I won't do it at all. Tonite it's 30 mins interval rowing, and that I'll do after...

Then I did my exercises, upper body/Arms/PULLS

Seated Row 3 X 15

Lat Pulldown 3 X 15

Reversed Pulldown 3 X 15

Reverse Flyes 3 X 15

Pullovers 3 X 15

Shrugs 3 X 15

Assisted Pullups (Yes I'm big, I need help..) 3 X 10

Standing Rows 3 X 15

then polished it up by 4 X 20 Situps on a slightly inclined bench.

The resistance is about the max i can stand, but I have been going for more reps, since the goal is to build endurance rather than pacjing on more mass.

The scale also showed a tad of a decline so that is good.

Cheers

H.