But at least then you have a good 10-15 minutes (maybe?) of looking for it as you walk around the area where you think you left it! So it helps. This is a pretty good idea - I might try it!
I’d say start with Miracle Mile, but maybe pick up one of the 2-mile ones as well. Honestly, I never bought any of her DVDs, as she has a bunch of stuff on OnDemand cable, and I was able to pick whatever one struck my fancy at the time. But MM will probably challenge you plenty, and when it’s not enough, go through it twice.
As far as weight training goes, I now do the Turbo Jam thing, which just requires me to have some handweights. I recommend that as an in-home workout, but consider that to be more advanced. Give yourself a year of Sansone before advancing to that.
I always heard that you need to keep your heartrate up for at least 25 minutes. So I would think that do whatever activity, no matter how seemingly light, that you can do for 25 minutes and then move up in intensity (as you get in better shape) rather than in the amount of time you work out.
There are two things at work here - burning calories, and improving cardio-vascular fitness. You can burn just as many calories doing short stints of exercises with rests in between as doing the same number of minutes all at once. What you won’t get without at least 20 minutes of cardio activity at a time is improvement in your cardio-vascular fitness. If you start out with calorie-burning activity in short bursts, and then extend those to longer bursts, the same activity can turn into cardio improvement.
As for weights, all I can share is my personal experience, which is mixed. I’ve never had much luck building up muscle, probably I’m not doing things right, but I have had some success firming up my middle with weight work. I think if you’ve never done weights you need someone to coach you on how to do them right, and also on the nutritional changes that would probably be needed to make that sort of exercise effective.
Good luck,
Roddy
Stumptuous. It’s aimed at women, but good for anyone, really. I particularly recommend that you read No Fat Chicks for a different perspective on weightlifting and aerobics. She also has articles on getting weights to use at home instead of going to the gym.
When I started, I could do 3 (yes three) minutes on the elliptical trainer, and that was at a normal-to-slow pace. I still figured it was better than nothing, and by trying it every other day or so, I got up to five minutes…seven…ten…twenty… and now I think nothing of 35 minutes while watching TV. (I’m sure as time goes by I’ll find it even easier.)
So don’t be put off by not being able to start at doing things for long stretches. It ALL counts. It’s ALL calories you weren’t burning otherwise, and it ALL helps with your stamina.
You’ll get there. 
Bears repeating.
Yeah, it did get easier before when I went twice a week. When I first went on the bike it was 10mins on 10 mins off, whereas after a few weeks it was 20mins on, 5 mins off. It just would have been better if my friend hadn’t spent every hour moaning that he was too tired and asking if it was time to go home.
Walking.
Walking.
Walking.
Small bouts, several times a day.
For example. I now (for over two years now) park in the geographically furthest place from the entrance to my building. It takes me 3 minutes at a brisk walk to get to my desk. That’s 6 minutes a day that I didn’t get before… it adds up. Of course if I have an errand to run at lunch… that’s doubled. It’s easy and I don’t notice it. I also don’t take the elevator. This was difficult at first. If it’s too difficult, start by only taking the elevator up, but try to use stairs when going down. I eventually increased my parking lot routine to shopping, going to movies as well. It’s a nice feeling to park the furthest away, but get inside the building faster than people who parking-spot squat waiting for that perfect slot. Not only that, I don’t have to look for my car anymore. That’s definitely a plus! I saved a lot of stress by using the ‘park far away’ plan.
I don’t have a link, but I recently read somewhere that people who do smaller bouts of exercise, but more frequently, tend to stick with their exercise regime longer, and keep weight off longer. The good thing is that it doesn’t all have to be ‘sweating’ exercise. For lunch I used to (not so much right now, in other words) drive to the mall and do a couple of laps. I didn’t sweat (or it was fairly light perspiration), I timed myself to look for improvement.
If you find walking to be hard on your knees, and you can’t switch to swimming, at least look to see if your YMCA or another local facility has a nice rubber track. That will be a little easier on you than the sidewalk or the pavement.
Also, SPEND THE MONEY ON GOOD SHOES. Go to a running shoe store (not a fashion shoe store) and ask for help with fitting. If you can’t walk because it hurts, then you won’t walk at all. Even if you just walk in place at home, it’s totally worth it to scrape together the cash for a good pair of walking shoes. You’ll be spending $80-100 or more.
Sounds like you need a new workout partner, one who will help keep you motivated.
I wasn’t going to say anything, but…
This is so important in any aspect in life where you want to accomplish amazing things. You have to get rid of people who will bring you down with their negativity. Surround yourself with positive and successful people, and soon you’ll count them as your peers.
That could be difficult, i have enough trouble finding normal trainers in size 16, let alone proper walking shoes 
. I’ll have a look if I start walking alot though.
Yeah. My friend Matt is the one who wanted to go to the gym originally. He’d just started as a Special Constable (I don’t know if you have them in the US, basically a volunteer policeman), so he wanted to get fit. He nagged me for weeks to go, then said the proper gym was too expensive. Bearing in mind he was putting £800 a month into his savings account whilst I was only earning £450 a month, he still couldn’t spare £30 for the gym. So we arranged to go to the YMCA twice a week for an hour. That lasted about 4 weeks. He then started coming up with excuses as to why he either couldn’t go or we should go for a walk instead. Well, the walks went from a 1hr+ walk to being a 15min walk round to the shop we used to work at so that he could have a chat. In the end I told him to forget it, by then though i’d drifted off my diet and was back to square one fitness wise because i’d missed so many weeks. This time, if I go to the gym instead of exercising at home, I’m just going to go on my own, if he decides to go at the same time thats up to him
Hmmmm… I’m beginning to think that maybe you don’t actually live in Washington, DC
Nope, UK. DC is my initials.
tdn, i’ve managed to get hold of this dvd, it has 1 & 2 mile workouts. I’ve just tried the 1 mile and had to give up on the arm exercises halfway though, but I just about hung on til the end. That should be enough to keep me going for a bit.
:o (<— out of breath smilie)
Awesome! She’s fun, isn’t she?
No.
The OP wants to start exercise. The primary goal is to start. The second goal is to establish a routine, a habit.
Start slow. If you overdo it you’ll get sore and discouraged. Pick some mild exercise you can do. Can you walk for 10 minutes? Do that.
Set a fixed weekly schedule you can follow. Monday, Wednesday, Friday? Or maybe plus Saturday? Fine to start with. But make sure you keep to the schedule. Do your best to not let anything or anyone interrupt the schedule. Set up the schedule to avoid interruptions.
Once you’ve established a schedule, then increase the exercise bit by bit.
At this point you don’t need special shoes. JUST DO IT. GET STARTED.
Don’t buy equipment until later. Almost all equipment gets used for a while then gathers dust.
That’s why it is small, hardly noticeable to the casual observer, plus I found I always had a general idea of where I left it.
Same here. I wasn’t at 26st, but not too far off. I’d do about three minutes on an elliptical at a moderately slow pace and be totally winded, so I’d slow just to the point of keeping the pedals moving (think slow walking pace) to catch my breath. When I was ready, I’d pick up the pace for another minute or two, and so on. I’d do this in ten minute sets, and in between, would use a little set of hand weights to do preacher curls and other upper body lifts. I’d do gentle weight lifting for five minutes or so, then another ten minutes (three minutes… huff puff… two minutes… huff puff… three minutes…) and so on.
Eventually the rest periods began to decrease, and the amount of time I could go between stopping to puff increased. Just because you lose your breath after a couple minutes doesn’t mean you need to quit the workout. Just slow your pace until you get your wind back. The endurance will come, but not if you don’t encourage it with a challenge.
I really recommend the elliptical, if you have access to one. It’s much better on the knees than walking or running, for me.
Walking certainly helped me. A quick review of the weight loss threads will show that I was 20st 8 back in September (and probably a few more pounds the week before) and I am now under 15 stone. My foot muscles got sore and cramped to begin with, but they soon got used to it and where my toes blistered they soon calloused up. My leg muscle definition has improved beyond all expectation, my bum has melted away, and general calorie-burning certainly helped too. I’d recommend a pedometer, even a cheap one - it gives you something to shoot at, and you can pick one up at Argos or somewhere and see change out of a fiver.
Don’t go overboard on special shoes but if you don’t have any that are comfortable and supportive, buy some. Again, I got a cheap-ish pair of hiking boots and though they’re already badly worn they did the necessary while I was getting going, and were a big improvement over my tired old trainers which really did hurt my feet after the first few hundred yards.