The A2K (virtual) Weight Loss Club !!

Lotta lower back pain yesterday and today, so I had to lower the weights
drastically last night. This aftrnnoon's jog is probably going to become a
walk early on. I look like the movie stereotype of an old codger when I
get up from my chair. Just call me Gramps.

Don't jog like that, even for a moment George! No messing with lumbago.

Yeah, I think you're right, Clary. No sense aggravating it.

Thank goodness ive got an excuse to stop running and walk!!Can I do 60 walk and 20 run?hehe

Good reasoning re the leg thing but its getting from the changing room to the pool where I have to hide them.Isnt it silly that I care what people think about my ushaven legs.

The virtual trainer is trying to kill me.



Joe(three miles--29:59)Nation

6 MPH, niiice!

I just finished week 8 of this regimen, (working out at the gym [mostly elliptical trainer] for an hour, 3 times a week) firming up pretty well, definitely more energy and all the rest of it. I may check out a scale sometime soon, even though it's shocked and appalled me the last couple of times I've done so.

Hope you're feeling better soon, George.

This may be a stupid question, but what's a virtual trainer, and what do you need one for?

-- Thomas, 5'7", 252 lb

Back in my seminary days I used to have a virtuous trainer.

Thomas, I've just spent a year slogging along and losing weight. Slogging is moving at a speed at which conversation, or even singing, is possible. After twenty minutes or so at that speed your body stops burning as much carbohydrate and starts burning more fat. A look at any Fat Burner routine on a good treadmill will confirm this, I just took it to Central Park.

Anyway, after a year of this, and a loss of about 45 pounds, I am able to go ten, eleven, twelve miles but at a speed that mommas pushing baby carriages zoom past me. So, even though I think I have about thirty more pounds to take off, I want to take off a little faster. So I signed up with the New York Road Runners Interactive Trainer.

It's comprehensive and has all the little boxes of stuff I love to fill out. I love to see results graphed out. Another good one just for weight monitoring is Weight Commander. LINK

Both cost money, but not as much money as a real Personal Trainer.

Joe(slimmer but still cheap)Nation

I've signed up!

Okay. So here's the whole story. In the years between 1982 and 1994 I rode more than 50,000 miles on my bicycle, ran maybe 1000 miles a year for those years, some years more, some years less, some years a lot less, so maybe 10,000 miles on foot.
I was never thin, but I've always been strong. I was never fast, but I always finished.

I did a little weight training and messed around in the YMCA pool every once in awhile to see if I could still do 100 laps. The summer before we moved to New York City I rode over three thousand miles and ran 500 miles and swam a thousand laps in the three month long YMCA triathlon.
(You add up all your miles of swim, bike, run for the months of June July and August.) I came in 13th.

There are some animals in Tulsa.

Then we moved to NYC where I proceeded to do nothing.

Nothing.For ten years.

We ate a lot and we ate a lot in restaurants, and I ate a lot when we weren't eating.

I gained about sixty pounds to top out at 252 after one particularly Bacchic Christmas vacation.

It's taken me about three years of hard work with a LOT of work in this past year... to get to where I am now.

no biking, I'm a little freaked out by the traffic.
I now run four to five days a week. Slog along.

And I watch what I eat.

SO

This morning on the friendly bathroom scale I saw, for the first time in almost nine years, a weight with NO twos in it:

199.7

Joe(twenty-five more to go)Nation
NYC Marathon in 2007

Nice going, Joe.

I guess this means I can't call you "fatso" any more.

WHOOOO HOOOOO!!!!!

That is most certainly a ONE at the beginning!!!! Super Congrats to you, Joe.

Damn, J, that makes me near tear up, no kidding.

Tis a proud, proud day.

Joe(smoothies for dinner)Nation

That is AWESOME!!!!!

I would hug the crap outta ya if I could.

( might make for a quick 2 lb loss too! )

hoooooooooooooorraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy !!!

Congratulations Joe! I'm very proud of you.

What an inspiration Joe! Here's luck for the last 25 lbs - the hardest but... I'm sure you can do it!

For those who feel thin is unattainable, remember that some diseases (osteoporosis, pre-menopausal breast cancer, and peptic ulcer, for example) are actually less common among fat people. Fat people who exercise regularly are also less likely to die prematurely than thin people who are sedentary.

The 200-pound barrier has been broken!

Keep on sloggin', Slim.