Yes, it does make sense shiny - thank you for the helpful post. I haven't been to the gym in a few weeks, but will be going back next week.

I'm not the best at logging my food intake, but I notice that when I do - the calories are anywhere from 1100-1400 or thereabouts. That said, I suspect that when I'm logging my food like that, I have a tendency to try extra hard, food-wise. This is probably not such a great thing.

Angie, I'm with you. I have always had a really hard time eating first thing in the morning too. But I do know that when I do, I tend to eat better the rest of the day, and also I'm more likely not to skip my exercise, and to find exercise a lot more enjoyable.

Best trick for me is to just drink a smoothie! I can't eat anything in the early AM, but I can drink. So I blend it thin enough to drink through a straw. And yes, when I have to go into the office, I just pack it in a thermos and drink it in the car.

I will confess that on Sunday's DH and I have only one meal: a huge, late brunch. I get a veggie omelet with a salad and fruit, and he'll eat the hungry man's special. He and I could both probably get away with one single, midday LARGE meal every day and be quite content. I do not do well on any diet that encourages snacking and mini-meals throughout the day. I have tried and tried, but it's just not something my body likes! I've never been a grazer. I prefer being fully sated after a meal, instead of hungry a few hours later.

Chewy thanks for continuing to keep this thread going!

You ladies have all been doing fabulously. It is inspiring to read your stories!!!

My efforts since the last time we checked in have been poor! I can feel my pants and jeans fitter tighter - not good!!

For now I am focusing on trying to incorporate some form of exercise, even if its just a walk into every day. I am tracking my progress here on 43things (does anyone else use that site???). My gym membership has just expired, but I don't want that to be an excuse for not moving!!! A local personal training studio has just started a bootcamp a few minutes walk from my house, and there is also a yoga studio I want to go to. With the weather starting to get warmer (hello 28°C today!!) I want to get out and enjoy the great outdoors more!!!

I have a question re: jogging.
At this point I am just trying to get my aerobic fitness up, but on previous experience, that shouldn't take too long. I also feel that a limiting factor for me in getting back to running is that my legs feel tight and that I can't move very fast.

My daughter was showing me some of the stretches she does in her acrobatics class and there is no way I could do them! For instance, sitting with legs apart and straight, she can touch the floor with her body, I can only slightly lean forward (and she says she could do them as soon as she started learning; it isn't a skill she has acquired in the class).

Any hints for flexibility? ( I am not really keen on the idea of yoga)

Anne, you might want to look into active isolated stretching (AIS). Here are some sample exercises for runners:
http://runningtimes.com/Articl.....cleID=3512

I don't do this type of stretching (I'm a yoga person), but my husband swears by it!

Hey Ladies!

I am so impressed with the support for your wonderful weight loss adventures. And wow, we are lucky to have several members with a great amount of knowledge re: diet and exercise!! I just wanted to let you know that if you ever have any questions about diet/exercise, I'd be happy to humbly offer my .02 in as well. It's my line of work and would be delighted if at any time my knowledge could supplement the already great advice you're receiving from the other gals!

Great job everyone, and keep it up!

Steffie

Thanks so much Cathy! Looks great. I'll have a closer look tonight as it is lunchtime here!

I'm really inflexible too, Anne. I think some of us just are that way naturally. If I'm doing yoga consistently, I do get better, but there's a limit to how much I can improve. I will never be able to touch my forehead to my knees while holding on to the bottom of my foot!

I would say whatever you do, don't stretch before you run. Walk or jog slowly for at least 10 minutes, then stop and stretch. Or stretch after running when your muscles are warmed up. I say this because in the past I have injured myself stretching cold muscles!
I like the stretches in the link Cciele posted. Those are the basic stretches my PT has me do every day for my back problems.

And if you feel tight and as if you can't move very fast, I find it really helps to give yourself a long, SLOW warm-up. My best runs always start out with about 10 minutes of really slow jogging - nearly a walk. If I start slow, I can end fast. And the run tends to be much more comfortable and enjoyable overall.

NCYogini4 (Steffie)....thank you for chiming in.

I do have a question for you (and everyone else). I've mostly lost this weight through diet, but joined a gym last November (just putzing around). Then, in February, I hired a personal trainer to develop a newbie/beginner's weight training routine for me.

My question is this - do you think I need to increase the cardio?

Basic routine is this:

Mondays - weights - chest and triceps - tricep dips on the tower machine, chest press, chest fly, pushups, skullcrushers, tricep kickbacks

Tuesday - cardio - just elliptical - haven't tried intervals or anything daring like that yet

Wednesday - weights - legs and abs - squats, walking/standing lunges, hip adductor/abductor, calf raises, planks, abdominal crunches on the ball, Roman Chair, and standing side ab weights (sorry, I don't know all the technical terms) and side twisty abdominal things with a giant dumbell

Thursday - cardio - elliptical

Friday - weights - back and biceps - pullups on the tower machine, lateral raise, cable rows, back extensions, standing barbell bicep curls, concentration curls

Several months ago, I was also adding in some decent long walks in there every day as well - I don't really count this as 'cardio' - but it certainly did help speed along weight loss, and it also really helped with newbie muscle soreness (weight training).

With the elliptical - I just do 45 to 60 minutes on it - at a pretty easy incline/resistance. When I started, I was doing just 10 minutes.

In about 8-9 weeks of the newbie weight routine - I 'only' lost 10 pounds, but I dropped almost 3 clothing sizes. Adding in the weights, even though it was a very newbie-ish routine, had a dramatic effect.

That said, I now feel somewhat stalled out. Do I need to change up the weight routine (the trainer said something about changing everything up - called it 'muscle confusion') or should I be doing more on the cardio front? And if I need to increase/add more cardio - will daily walking do the trick? I'm feeling a bit chicken to hire that trainer back - she was *tough* - thing was, her routine totally worked to improve things for me. It was months ago that she suggested changing up all the weight exercises - I was supposed to call her back...but um, didn't.

Those first two weeks in the weight room - were uh, *killer*. I mean, I was joking around with my husband that I wanted him to get me a walker or something. It hurt to shampoo my hair, even. But, I did it. And things got much easier.

But that's the thing - the routine is seeming 'easy'. And I'm not really getting anywhere, progress wise.

I have some more fat I'd like to lose - I'm not as close to goal as I thought I was, owing to checking out various BMI charts and measuring my wrists and stuff for frame size and yadda yadda yadda.

Any suggestions/comments? I'd love to hear what everyone thinks.

Velvet, that sounds like a great routine, very similar to what I used to do (way back when...I had time to live in the gym!). Except instead of elliptical for cardio, I would run. And I would lift weights 5x's a week. So imagine your routine, except like this:

Monday - chest/tris plus a run
Tuesday - legs and abs plus a run
Wed - back, biceps plus a run
Thurs - chest/tris plus a run
Fri - legs and abs plus a run

Monday - start where you left off... so back/biceps...

And in my case I'd run first, because running was personally more important to me than the weight training.

Question - have you/do you increase your weights? If you are still working with the same level of weights the trainer started you on, that's what I would change up first. Increase the weights. Also how many sets do you do of each exercise?

As for the cardio, I think it's fantastic you've gone from 10 minutes to 45-60 minutes! As for adding in more cardio, I think it's up to you and your goals, and what you enjoy. For me, while I'm no longer doing any weights, I do think weight training gives more bang for your buck, if changing your body shape and dropping dress sizes is your goal. But cardio is wonderful for my mental health - helps me de-stress. And of course it's good for the heart and for blood sugar control.

Number 1 suggestion: guard against boredom. If elliptical is getting boring, try something else. The worse thing, IMO, is to get bored and quit.

Wow - thanks shiny!

And yes ineedy - I find the elliptical very boring. Was waiting around for the cooler weather to start up my long walks outside again. Much prefer being outside.

I've tried to up the weights, but haven't tracked it or been persistent with it. More like, "Hey, maybe I'll try a heavier dumbell today" or what have you.

Woo hoo - you have me psyched up now to put back some more cardio. I'm gonna start with that, and then in a couple of weeks, I'll call that personal trainer again and have her help me figure out a new routine and/or something like what you've described - weights every day, instead of 3x weekly. That way, I can get it done faster. As an example - the back/biceps day takes me a good hour. If I have to do cardio on top of that, it won't likely get done. Perhaps splitting it all up the way you've suggested is the way to go.

And it's 3 sets of everything, start with 8 reps...work up to 12-15 reps, and when I can do that, then it's time to increase weight. That's what the trainer told me. Thing is, I haven't exactly been all that consientious about upping the weight. All that said, I do see improvements - for instance, I could barely do one pushup when I started, and now I can do a lot more. Same with stuff like back extensions.

You've given me some excellent advice shiny - so thank you very much! I think it's going to help if I can reduce the number of resistance exercises - this will allow me to do cardio a few more times a week.

I'm sure Steffie is going to give you the best advice, but yeah, you should definitely up the weights! You are probably not challenging your muscles if you haven't increased the weights.

I used to do Pyramid sets. You can google that term. Here's a quick description:
http://www.fitsugar.com/223548

Do you know Krista at Stumptuous? She's got a lot of great information and ideas for workouts:

http://www.stumptuous.com/

Anne- kids are more flexible because they still have quite a bit of cartiledge. Don't compare your own range of motion to your daughters or you will be extremely disappointed. Yoga has incresed my flexibility a lot, but I don't think that I will ever be one of those uber flexible people. Dh can stand with his feet together and put his hands flat on the floor. He says his grandmother could do that in her 60's. I can't do it even doing yoga regularly. But his family also has really long arms and short legs, so that may be part of it.

Velvetychocolate- I think the current recomendation for cardio for health is 30 mminutes per day, so 3 1/2 hours a week. You really haver to make sure that you're eating back some of those calories, though.

Anne I think I am as inflexible as you. The stretch you described in particular I cannot do at all. I must confess I have never been consistent enough with yoga to see if it does help in regards to that stretch. I know it does help my hamstrings when I do it, but so do simpler stretches too.

As part of my exercise every day challenge I am planning to go to a beginners yoga class tomorrow night, so maybe I will have some news to report one way or the other in a few weeks...if I manage to stick with this that is!!!

And I just wanted to say how impressed I am with your generous offer NCYogini!! What a lovely gesture of support to all of us here!!!

Shiny, I just have to say thank you for your thoughtful and informative words about calories.

Anne, have you tried pilates? Its wonderful and when I'm consistent with it (twice a week) I see wonderful improvement in flexibility and posture.

Thanks for all the advice about flexiblity - and the timely reminder about why my 6 year old is more flexible Khris!
On my walk/jog I incorporated more stretches, as per advice, and I think it made a big difference.
I have also reseved a pilates video from my library (I have done mat classes before, but I don't think I could fit a fixed class time into my week at the moment)

I should probably mention that running straight after I get up, at about 6am, is part of the problem. I would much prefer to do it later in the day, as I did pre-children, but that is not going to happen on any regular basis.