Boot Camp (Let's make this a thread on accountability)
OK, I am going to measure and weigh myself on Saturday. For those of you that said some of your summer goals were to lose weight and get fit....hope you will join this thread.
Not that I am going to post my weight and measurements but maybe I need to be accountable.
Sooooooo... I will make a comment on Saturday. Then every Saturday, I am going to say weight lost and inches lost. (remember that if you gain muscle the scale will not move or go up. Use a tape measure)
I truly am going to put myself through boot camp. The program I have been watching on TV has shown that in 6 weeks with real effort, one can make a huge difference.
As well, I am going to comment each Saturday on how am reaching the goals I stated for the summer.
We all stated goals for the summer. Let us all be accountable. Some we will attain, some we may fall short on but lets all support each other.
When the fall officially starts (when the h*ll is that?), we can state what we actually achieved.
Sometimes our cyber friends are our best friends. We are non judgemental and hugely supportive.
I know for me, the hugest thing is quitting smoking.
Next, getting fit and healthy. One of my goals is to walk and hike with Cali more. That will fall in to the get fit and healthy boot camp thing.
One was to spend more time with Biko. I clip his wings in the summer, he prefers to walk anyway. I will start taking him to the park on my walks with Cali. That way he can feel he is a part of my life.
Spending more time with my BF. He is hugely busy, I am hugely busy. This is going to be a tough one.
De-cluttering....I am ready. I want it done and I want it done now. I am finally so sick of the mess that I want to do it, Get it done!
So guys, lets have a huge reach your summer goals support group. No better place than this board.
Veg on...
Di
Hi Everyone--
so happy to see ppl posting again.
I've been off the wagon too, though my eating hasn't been that bad. It's mostly exercise (or lack thereof), which combined with my body going haywire from a BCP has resulted in me not feeling great. I don't even want to go on the scale, though I know I should give myself a starting point...
I'm on break between semesters now, so my one BIGGEST goal is to get an exercise habit going that will last me through to the semesters. If a habit takes 21 days to build, and I have three more full weeks of break (plus today/Friday), it should work, no?
My workout of choice lately has been a weight circuit with cardio added in. I do the following in succession:
5 minutes moderate cardio on an eliptical
Leg press
Bicep curl
Dumbell bench press
Tricep pushdown
Lat Pulldown (back)
crunch
lateral raises (shoulder)
Go as fast as you can from machine to machine, do 1 set each time, repeat for 3 circuits
(note: adapted from the Muscle and Fitness hers website)
This gets my weights in (I really like weightlifting), but does so in a way that contributes to my cardio goals as well. Adding the cardio makes it tough!
Other goals: I've fallen off the running bandwagon but will probably do a 5K (it's a run/walk 5K) to benefit a cause one of my students is close to. Also, I NEED to do pilates--I must have been running with bad posture because my back kills and feels hyper-curved.
In fact, I should be at the gym now. Why do I have this mental hurdle?!
Welcome, hiimleksi!
first post in this thread!!! so i decided to start exercising after school lets out. wooo. i even bought my first pair of running shoes. the first and last time i had ever been to a gym i kind of gave up after the one workout because my feet hurt so much, i didnt own running shoes, so i just went in my chucks. eek.
well theres a small 24 hour gym across the highway from me, they have no staff, no trainers or anything, but i get a pretty good discount from being a teacher, and since i'm a teacher, i will have lots of free time coming up very soon. i'm going on vacation to key west 3 weeks after school ends and i wanted to try to work off my beer belly. i'm 5'2 and weigh about 115, so i dont need to lose a ton of weight, but i just need to get rid of this beer belly!!! haha.
questions!!
do you think i can get rid of my beer belly in 3 weeks of daily (weekdays) exercise?
what should my plan be? i dont know anything about exercising and there wont be anyone there to help me out.
is there any sort of website that can help me create an exercise plan or whatever its called?
I posted something really long, but it was general and Shelloid was more specific. So, let me just add two more specific things:
1. For cardio, a few of us were on the couch-to-5K program a few months ago. Google it! It gives you a fitness goal to work toward (besides the beer belly), which is motivating.
2. For belly stuff, I would definitely recommending picking up a pilates DVD as well. It won't get rid of the fat, but it will strengthen your muscles and help with your posture, both of which will make everything less prounouced than you think it is now :)
3. Once you start getting the hang of it, you might research more on the internet (I like Muscle and Fitness Hers for a lot, even though their website is impossible to navigate and their print version is full of meat and supplement ads), or go to your local bookstore and find some books with exercise plans (I had a general Barnes and Noble "weightlifting" book I liked).
the last night i did cardio was Tuesday. I did it for about 1hr 10 minutes or so - i was enjoying the songs so the time just flew - doesn't always work like that though.
that's about all i do right now is cardo. that used to be enough for me to lose weight but lately it doesn't seem to have as strong an affect as it used to. i plan to keep at it though. since March i've lost 2 belt notches ((not much, but something) but in the past couple of weeks i can't seem to lose anything substantial at all - i'm sure i'm overeating. I'm trying to compensate by eating lots of fiber so my outtake equals my intake.
My legs muscles are sore so i avoided working out yesterday and probably today again - to recuperate a bit.
i put my pants on, put on the belt and i'm so hopeful...come on belt buckle - tell me something good and *sighs* :'( more work needs to be done
patience patience patience....
SirDid - 2 belt notches since march? That's fantastic! Wish I was so successful - although my trousers have been feeling a bit looser. I don't think I've lost inches as such, but am certainly more toned than I used to be (I was never fat, just getting less toned and flabby-ish).
Kelsi, I'm glad that my huge long boring list of exercise has helped!
Caroleena - I take it you do pilates then. You think it's good for toning/posture? Maybe I'll hve a look at sessions at my gym - bugger just looked at the timetable and most of the pilates is during the day :(
ARGH well everything has gone a little down the tubes for me.
I've moved house and changed jobs/lifestyle completely so now don't have my gym right across the road from me and no other gym near enough for me to be motivated to go there (I'm really bad at making that hard out effort to GET to the gym, if its easy to get there in a few mins its fine, but with no car and issues with using public transport/walking far at night because I don't live in a great area now...its hard to travel out of my way to go to the gym).
I'm walking to and from work every day (approx 20-30mins each way), and doing a 2 hours of swing dance classes a week...but that's it. I don't feel like I'm getting proper daily exercise at all.
And with winter coming on, I've been craving stuff like hot chips/fries, potato chips, pasta, potatoes, creamy/noochy sauces, coke, hot chocolate, even chocolate - I don't even like sweet things really! So every day I just feel like comfort foods. I think its the change in the weather. Maybe.
So yea - eating badly, not getting enough exercise and feeling frustrated...what to DO?!
I bought loads of fruit and veges yesterday. I'm also pretty broke right now so I used up my last money on that, now I can't buy shit.
Here we go again, starting over
Caroleena - I take it you do pilates then. You think it's good for toning/posture? Maybe I'll hve a look at sessions at my gym - bugger just looked at the timetable and most of the pilates is during the day :(
I don't do them as much as I should. My gym used to have it 2 times a week, but cut back to one (to make room for another yoga class, which is good), and Mondays at 5:30 I was often still at work. Maybe now is a good time to start.
But when I have done pilates, I notice a difference in posture, toning, and flexibility. THere's a leg series that's good for toning legs, and there are exercises for the upper body as well, even for mat pilates (at my old gym we had resistance rings--at my current gym they just do lots of series with planks and pushups). I also have had luck with DVDs--I like MTV pilates.
Currently I'm looking for online pilates videos. I'll let you know if I find something I like!
Currently I'm looking for online pilates videos. I'll let you know if I find something I like!
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=pilates&aq=f
hopefully the above link will help you out some ...
on friday night - i did an hour of my "step-jogging" alternating between jogging and/or walking fast - just depending on how tired and/or sore i was at a given moment (usually, the songs that's playing dictates whether i engage in a jogging or a walking pace).
early Saturday i did another 35 minutes of the same. My plans was to do an additional 35 minutes towards the end of the day - but that didn't happen.
Yesterday, i joined my GF for a 3 mile walk on a charity she was supporting - nothing particularly strenous (the walk) by any means.
My goal is to go more stepping later tonite, from 35 minutes to an hour, depending on how i feel.
so i saved shelloids exercise plan, went to the gym, and they dont have some of the materials in her plan. : ( so i did some similar things. we have a pretty small gym. and today when i went there were a ton of people!!! i seriously would not have had enough room to get down on the floor and do planks.
this is what i did (please let me know if anything seems incorrect, i dont want to hurt myself)
saturday - i tried out all of the machines with the trainer there and then did a run/walk on the treadmill
sunday - 15 minute warm up run/walk, did 10 reps on each abs machine (2), did some pull ups on the assisted pull ups machine and then 20 minutes on the elliptical at the cardio setting
monday - 15 minute warm up run/walk, 10 reps on this hanging thing where i hang and then have to lift myself up, 20 reps on each of the ab machines, 10 minutes on the elliptical on the cardio setting
are those workouts too similar to do every other day?
Since it's summer and I don't really have anything else to do, I decided that I would try to get fit. Not necessarily lose weight, but more like lose some flab and get a little more toned. I'm going to do some abs stuff and then I bought new running shoes and yesterday started the "Couch to 5K" running thing. I think I'm below couch! They should make one that's like..coma to 5K ::) I was fine for the first fifteen minutes, but then I couldn't do the jogging part anymore, so I just walked the rest of the way..I did about 30 minutes, including the warm up and the walking at the end. I hope it gets easier!!
It says on the website to rest in between the days, but I'd like to go for a walk..nothing intense, just something to get out of the house and away from all the food here. Is that ok?
Also, what else should I do? Definitely don't have the dollars to go to a gym, so stuff I can do at home is what I'm looking for. My dad has some five pound weights if that helps...I really hope I stick to this!
It says on the website to rest in between the days, but I'd like to go for a walk..nothing intense, just something to get out of the house and away from all the food here. Is that ok?
Yes!
Also, what else should I do? Definitely don't have the dollars to go to a gym, so stuff I can do at home is what I'm looking for. My dad has some five pound weights if that helps...I really hope I stick to this!
30 day shrreedddddd
Kels, that looks good, but you can always add in more machines, right? Or, some different cardio. You can always just mix it up! Whenever I used the gym in college (for years), I would just kind of do whatever machines I felt like doing that day.
So glad people are posting on here!
sirdid--thanks for the link. I've also had a bunch of luck at ultimatepilatesworkouts. It requires a signin, but I just do the free online version. I like that they're mostly longer workouts (30-45 minutes), and that they get progressively harder. So far I'm just on the (re-)introduction.
hiimkelsi and ponycakes--keep up the good work! In each of your cases, I'd say that you should consider yourselves successful if you just move! If you're starting out I would suggest that your primary goal be to just do SOMETHING. I know from personal experience that I tend to overthink, or tell myself that I need to do something really complicated, to the point where I end up doing nothing.
ponycakes--I did couch-to-5k earlier this year (and successfully ran a 4-mile race in march!) Walks inbetween are definitely fine--just don't overdo the running. Also, don't feel that you have to follow the schedule exactly--stay where you feel are until you feel comfortable moving on. Also, adjust the running pace as needed. I was hurting myself doing a 10-minute mile so I backed off to a 12-minute mile and felt much better. I can always work on speeding up later.
Also, if you want to tone I definitely suggest yoga or pilates. There are lots of great free online resources. (In addition to the pilates site above I lovelovelove yogatoday.com.) If you've never done yoga or pilates before I suggest looking around for a gym or studio that will let you do a free trial, just so you have someone to watch you and correct. Pilates is especially helpful if you run--lack of core strength + running = hurting back :(
Me? I have three weeks of vacation (if you can call it that) before the summer semester starts, so I'm using the time to start all sorts of good habits. One of my habits I'm trying to get into is doing some sort of exercise everyday. I've been pretty sluggish the past two days but still eeked out 45 minutes of pilates on sunday and 30 minutes of cross-trainer (elliptical with arms) yesterday. 19 more days to go!
oh dear, I haven't been too good over the past week. I went to the gym twice last week and aqua aerobics once and that was it.
And I'm on call this week, so I can't go to aqua aerobics - I don't want to take the bleep and on call phone into the pool area and I probably wouldn't hear them any way. I did go to the gym today though and made sure that I really tried hard.
I won't be able to go to the gym tomorrow as I'm working late, but I'll make sure I go on Thursday.
I weighed myself today and I don't think I've lost anything since last time I weighed myself :( BUT my trousers have been feling looser, so I think it's just that I'm toning up rather than losing anything. I'm happy with that.
oh dear, I haven't been too good over the past week. I went to the gym twice last week and aqua aerobics once and that was it.
And I'm on call this week, so I can't go to aqua aerobics - I don't want to take the bleep and on call phone into the pool area and I probably wouldn't hear them any way. I did go to the gym today though and made sure that I really tried hard.
I won't be able to go to the gym tomorrow as I'm working late, but I'll make sure I go on Thursday.
I weighed myself today and I don't think I've lost anything since last time I weighed myself :( BUT my trousers have been feling looser, so I think it's just that I'm toning up rather than losing anything. I'm happy with that.
don't you hate when life insists on getting in the way of stuff - ugh, hehehe.
i think you're doing great. sounds like you did something physical three times last week - that's pretty good, not to mention that you went today as well. give yourself a hand - for sure!
don't worry about the weight, everything i've read said that the true measure is when clothes start feeling more loose. Besides that, even when you're not losing weight in the immediacy of the moment -you're still maintaining, if not improving your health.
i did my stepping cardio last night. i coasted most of the way but towards the end was starting to feel really pooped. the last song was frustrating because i had to stop and restart the song ~twice~ because of needing to break up kitty battles - grrr!
not really 3 times last week - one night I did both the gym and aqua aerobics, so it was only 2 times really.
Even though I haven't lost weight, I have noticed other things - especially my general fitness. Not that I ever got too puffed out or breathless during day-to-day activities, but now I really notice that I don't (hmmm, does that even make sense).
For example: a few weeks ago me and N were walking down the road when we turned around and noticed that the bus we wanted to catch was at the last set of traffic lights - meaning it would get to our stop shortly. So we both ran down the road, a reasonable distance (maybe 200yards) to get to the bus stop. When we got to the bus stop we were hardly out of breath even though we had sprinted. Before starting at the gym I know we both would have been quite breathless and taken a while to get our breath back. So that's a good improvement.
If you're interested in the rest of the bus story - we got to the bus stop and just as we got there the bus drove off.
:w00t!: is for observing your better conditioning when sprinting for the bus. in the two months since i've been working out - i've definitely noticed my body being less winded
:-D is for the bus story - i'm not laughing at you - i'm laughing w/you (wait! you're laughing - right? right? right?). Actually *sighs*, been there - done that, got close enough to bang on the back of the bus w/my hand and the f*c...eerr...kindly bus driver still took off and left me there :err: :wow:
I was actually sobbing my eyes out as I wrote that, so you are definitely laughing at me.
Ok maybe not, I lie. I laughed!
PS I never did buy me some edamame - this weekend I swear I will (if I remember!)
http://www.geekologie.com/2008/11/13/edamame.jpg
i don't know what it means, i just found the picture here:
http://www.geekologie.com/2008/11/now_you_can_get_that_whee_im_p.php
let it guide you to ... the way of the edamame :P
Eeek--this almost left the front page! Then we wouldn't see it again for months!
I got the courage to weigh myself today, and was pleasantly surprised by the results. I'm still heavier than I ought to be (not by much--I could stand to lose about 15 pounds) but I thought I was actually a lot worse off than I was. If anything, I've lost a little bit of weight since the last time I turned on the Wii Fit. Hooray!
(Actually, I've needed to lose the same 15 pounds for many years now. I lose it and then I gain it again. Ugh.)
I'm trying to jumpstart myself with the 30-day shred. I feel a little silly working out at home when I have a gym membership, but it's only to get things going. Plus I can always supplement with extra cardio/yoga classes.
I"m going out of town with friends over the weekend, which means I am certain to drink too much. The best I can hope for is to eat somewhat healthy when we're out--no fried thingies and no falling back on things with too much cheese. (I never eat dairy at home anymore, but I tend to be more lax when I"m out).
Hi everyone!
Sounds like you all have some great goals that you are all well on your way to attaining. Before I went vegan I lost 60 lbs through Weight Watchers, mostly by cutting back on meat and dairy and tracking EVERYTHING I ate.
I still would like to lose 10-15 lbs ideally. But as this thread states, I need to be accountable to someone, otherwise I cheat. I hope you guys can help me with this! It's hard work!
i didn't do any working out either tuesday or wednesday.
this thursday i did an hour of cardio. Friday, i had intended to do an hour - but i bottomed out at 23 minutes in, not sure what happened there. Earlier today i did an hour, still more tired than usual, had to drink more water then usual, had to walk a couple of the songs (instead of jog) and felt like i really had to labor my way through - but alas i was able to complete the hour, by hook or crook.
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