The A2K (virtual) Weight Loss Club !!

Shewolf--

Great news about finding a Walking Buddy in the neighborhood. Husbands--all men, really--are excellent support but there's something about having civilized conversation with someone with whom you have no family ties that is very sustaining.

It's time for me to prevent my yearly 'bulking up for the winter' weight gain. It was such a struggle to get last winter's weigh off, I am determined to fight my hibernating bear syndrome and stay in my normal range. I've been lazy the past few weeks and haven't exercised much at all. I've been in twice-weekly chiropractic care since my back spasm episode in early August and have been afraid to start my routine again.

Today is the day I will begin. I'm going to walk, do 100 jumping jacks, and begin strength training with light weights.

My goal is to stay around 170 through the winter. It will be a mission because I tend to put on about 12-15 lbs every October through January. NOT THIS YEAR!!!!

J_B-

I hate to sound as if the Grim Reaper is approaching, but maybe you want to switch from high impact exercises--like Jumping Jacks--to something more sultry and swooping?

The scales didn't move this week, but I definitely feel a difference in my Sunday-Go-To-Meeting Jeans. Now that I can work without danger of slipping in puddles of my own sweat, I'm making great inroads with the mulch pile. Of course, having an exercise-minded friend is helpful--she's the sort of woman who charges at a project.

Well,

At least I'm consistent.

Haven't gained

Haven't lost

damn, damn, damn!

You were probably right, Noddy. Monday I did the jumping jacks, a short (1.5 mile) walk and a few lifts with very light weights. By Monday evening my lower back was feeling sore, yesterday it was a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being excrutiating, and this morning I had full-scale spasms in the same area I was having them before.

Right now I would call it a '6' and fortunately I have an already scheduled appt with the chiro this afternoon. ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!! This was supposed to be my last appt.

I don't think it was the jumping jacks as much as the weights, but it might have been either or both. I only used 8lb weights compared to the 20s I usually use for this exercise, but the spasms started back in August when I did the same exercise after an extensive break in my routine.

wow, i have been gone a while sorry. i am down to around 171. goal is still 145. that is what i was when i graduated college and i swear i am gonna make it. only what 26lbs to go? well, i have really changed the way i eat. i eat more throughout the day and much less at night. it helps alot. i also eat about 5 meals a day, 8am, 1030am, 100pm, 330pm and 630pm. i eat about 200 calories at 1030 and 330, and about 4-500 at the other three meals.

its been kinda tough but i have managed to get closer to my lowest weight of recent-167. i am gonna make it...we can do it!!!!!!! JB, keep it up, just stop hurting your back-swimming is supposedly really good. also there is some book called core concepts or somethign like that...it helps strengthen your back so you wouldn't get the spasms...may be worthwhile to look into if you haven't...take care of your back!

J_B--

If I'm right, I'm very sorry to be right, but aging gracefully is a semi-mythical concept.

Dragon--

Your determination sounds good.

The dark is closing in and I'm having a hard time curbing the evening nibbles. I did the grocery shopping today and made no room in my cart for evening indulging--although I did splurge on some black rye bread and pickled herring.

Pound by pound, ounce by ounce, calorie by calorie.

ok this morning...170 even. one more pound to get in the 6's!!!! back in the 6's. I am all for it these days. i do have to get back into my 2 mi run in the am, i signed up for a 5k in about 2 weeks. what was i thinking. needed motivation i guess. not really going to try to compete or anything, really just for motivation and to support cure for breast cancer. i get two for the price of one.

i may try for the rock and roll half marathon which is about 11 months from now-that gives me enough time to be able to run 13 miles right? we shall see, maybe i will just keep signing up for the 5ks...much shorter.

ok, i figured it out. Big Lunch. That's my ticket. Well, big as in - soup, meal, salad. That way I don't have breakfast (never did), and only something like tomatoes with feta cheese and basil or sumtin in the evening, cuz i'm still not hungry. i do get plenty of biking in (1-2 hours a day) plus boxing three times a week. if this won't work i'll eat all my shawls!

Dragon--

Excellent.

Dak--

I don't know what you sophisticated Europeans do, but the American Farm tradition is a major meal at noon and a light supper. This means the American Farm Wife can devote her whole afternoon to other chores.

I'm getting my nibbling under control--mostly by getting the nibbles out of the house. When I'm running errands this afternoon I'm going to pick up a mylar balloon for visual inspiration.

curious, is this because when you look in it, it makes you look thinner? seriously, i am curious.

Dragon--

Because I want to think, "Lighter than air, lighter than air"

Fat people look like balloons--they don't own them.

I think I missed a week.

Last Saturday I was at the top of my game. I ran down Broadway at seven in the morning and hit the gym full of happy happy joy joy.

BUT

somehow I overstretched my right hamstring and threw my back into total disarray. (Not really somehow. I know how. I used the stretching stand to "fully stretch those reluctant muscles." )
I barely made through the afternoon at work and then took a cab home and climbed into bed in agony.

That would be the night before my youngest was flying in to to see the 'rents and catch up.

I gamely walked about the Medieval Fair at Ft. Tryon Park and led the group through the Cloisters all while wondering just how I was going to carry my leg once it fell off which it felt like it would do at any moment.

I stayed in bed Monday. Took my Advil and did the Say-Goodbye-to-Back-Pain exercises with the religiosity of a Trappist monk.

Today, I am well. I went for a short (30 Minutes) walk.jog (GREAY BEING BACK ON THE ROAD!!) and, despite eating everything placed in front of me for a week and NOT going to the gym at all, I lost another two pounds or so down to 213.4.

So, I forgot two things and paid the price. What I forgot was:

1) Never use anything to assist in stretching if you are still out of shape. IF you can't gently stretch it without a towel or a strap or a Stretching Stand forget it.

2)This is, and is supposed to be, fun. Overstressing got me when I should have been listening to the happy happy joy joy.

Joe(Gently back to the gym tomorrow)Nation

Joe--

Congratulations, both on the weight loss and on the speedy recovery. Do you suppose your regimem has stimulated your metabolism for accelerated healing?

I'm moving through life dragging my mylar balloon above me, but the days are growing shorter and the nights are dark, dark, dark.

This weekend we had twelve inches of rain, adding to the bleakness.

Hold your dominion.

2)This is, and is supposed to be, fun. Overstressing got me when I should have been listening to the happy happy joy joy.
____________________________________


with every step of the jog repeat-

(step) happy (step) happy (step) joy (step ) joy

just keeping your words in pace with your feet will make you laugh at the sillyness..

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000CABIS/104-8442591-6761508?v=glance

simple, easy , great stretching that gets your heart rate up at the same time.. all for less then 20 bucks.
I used this when i started my walking schedule.
It has helped me beyond belief.
When I was a teenager I took martial arts and was one of the only people in the class, besides the instructor , who could do the splits all ways.
Ppppbbbbtthh- about all I split now is the crotch of my pants.
I use this twice a week. Amazing results, easy to follow.. might be right up your alley.

I've decided I'm going to join this weight loss club, and here's why: I came in from a hard day's work yesterday, peeled my tee shirt off as I headed for the shower, and as I passed my full-length mirror I noticed something in my reflection that gave me pause.

I was alarmed at first. Visions of tumors ran through my mind. There was something near and just above my hip bone. I looked at it. A slight, almost imperceptible rising of the skin.

I poked it. I was shocked when my finger sunk 1/64 of an inch through a soft, malleable material before it came to rest on the rock-hard muscle below.

"What is this strange growth?", I wondered aloud.

And then it hit me with the force of a sledgehammer. Fat. There was a pocket of fat growing on my body!

Heart beating wildly, I looked at the other side. Like an evil twin, another small package of fat lay embraced.

So, no beer for at least an hour and the potato chips have been fed to the dog.

What else should I do?

ummm, not to bring the morale down, but i have to confess i am reading these posts with a full glass of red wine accompanied with spoonfuls of Eurocrem (think Nutella, only even better). I swear I am going to the gym tomorrow, then boxing on Wed. and Friday. Doing generally good. The 'growth' that appeared one day, just like in Gus's case (but in my case it concided, for mysterious reasons, with my coming to America), is generally decreasing, slowly but steadily. Still not willing to step on the scale - I think I'll only do that in January when I'm ready to head back to the Dangerous Country, the land of the free...and fat.

i want some wine too..

with out men, this world would be full of fat happy PMS women all with a glass of wine in one hand and a sack full of batteries at their sides.

dry wine, a glass of, is ok. helps you forget about lot more cravings (chocolate, wine, you name it), mellows you a little, and of course, has iron and regenerates red blood cells