My heart went into a-fib last week and I’ve been coasting for a while. I will probably try to workout today. I haven’t been eating too bad, but I’ve been sneaking some sweets. Overall it was a bad week.
This week will be better.
Thanks Tikki! I am quite proud of myself here. I still have about 85 lbs or so to go to reach my goal weight.
Jayjay and I are heading to Minneapolis for a social gathering/convention. I got the idea to look for a local meeting from other WW members here. It seems like a good idea to keep us on track and just to see what others around the country are doing.
Congrats to supervenusfreak,WTG on 99 lbs! and to Tikki-the 150’s I’m right behind you!
I weighed in this am at 162 so I actually DID move pretty quickly down from where I was the last time I posted. I am now looking at the 150’s with hope.
For my fellow WW’ers, I started CORE last Monday and I am pleasantly surprised. I don’t know why I was so scared of it. I can still have my little treats as I use my 5 points/day and also can use any AP I may earn (which I always earn).
Core has me eating a lot more fruits,veggies and variety in dairy. Also bought some whole grain hot cereals which I enjoy. I’m going to stay on Core for another week or 2 at least and then go from there.
I can’t believe September is almost upon us. Then come the holidays and all that crap, I feel ready though!
Do you mean that when you were excersizing, your heart went into an irratic beat? That happens to my wife once in a while. It must be very scary. Nevertheless, she can run 5 miles with no problem.
Unfortunately for me, my wife’s ability to excersize and eat everything leaves me with a much higher calorie intake than I would like. I have been slowly losing weight, but every pound I have lost is due to excersize. I recently weighed in at under 230 lbs. I’d weigh myself now, but after pie last night I’m afraid to look. Tommorow I will run 2.5 miles. I have to constantly run further now because I’m not tired enough when I get back.
Yay Cattitude! Another COREbie on the boards! I love the program. I eat very well, and have learned to recognize when I am full, and stop.
Jayjay and I started doing this right after Thanksgiving last year. Most of our friends thought that we were crazy to do it then, but I was ready for a change.
There are plenty of holiday recipes that can be adapted and used. It’s simply a matter of planning ahead and using moderation when it comes to holiday dinners and parties.
I hope that everything is better for you today Khadaji. I know how hard it can be to deal with such things.
Yes to the erratic beat, no to exercise being to blame. I woke up that way. The cardiologist tells me that it usually happens in the middle of the night.
I spoke to 4 different doctors and got four different explanations (although none of them really conflict.)
I actually can and should go back to exercising. As I said in an earlier post, I’m sulking… While they were poking around inside me trying to find the cause they also found that I have a rather severe hernia in the chest - a large loop of intestines is up near the left lung. This means more operations for me and I had hoped - dreamed - that I was over them.
I need to get over my sulks, but so far nothing seems to be helping. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.
I hit one of my unofficial goals this weekend. I had to go shopping for new jeans, since my current ones are too large now. One pair still fits, but the others were practically falling off.
That is bloody awesome. I remember that first milestone. I’ve got all of last winter’s jeans to ebay, come to think of it.
Down another pound this week, for a total loss of 51.7. More than half way there!
I got a (semi-spam) e-mail today linking to the BeachBody website. It had 10 exercise myths. You all probably know all of these already, but here thay are. Sorry, there is some advertizing in it.
Can you turn fat into muscle? Is the morning the best time to exercise? Will you get cramps if you drink too much water when you exercise? Can those ab machines on TV get rid of your pot belly? Spend time surfing the Internet for fitness information and, pretty soon, your head will explode from reading all the contradictions and misinformation about the best strategies to get fit. Here are some of the more popular myths and old wives’ tales that have been propagated over the years.
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You can turn fat into muscle. This is completely false. Muscle and fat are two entirely different substances. Muscle is a fibrous, contractible tissue that can only be built through exercise—via a break-down-and-rebuild process. Fat is adipose tissue that can be converted into energy in the service of building muscle, but the tissue itself can’t be transformed into muscle tissue. So if you are an out-of-shape 200 pounds, you’re not going to look like a young Schwarzenegger just by lifting weights. You’ll have to do a lot of Turbo Jam®-style cardio to burn the fat off before anyone can see how ripped you’ve gotten. Which leads us to . . .
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You can turn a pot belly into a six-pack just by doing crunches. Any insomniac has seen those late-night commercials that guarantee miracles with rollers, chairs, crunchers, and various other contraptions. They all promise a Brad Pitt six-pack in just minutes a day. But if you’re starting with a Homer Simpson beer gut, it’s going to take more than rocking back and forth a few minutes in a modified lawn chair every day to see any results. No matter how steely your ab muscles are, if they’re covered in inches of fat, no one is going to be able to appreciate them. That’s why programs like Hip Hop Abs™ combine a healthy amount of cardio with the ab work. You can read more on this in “Dancing Your Way to 6-Pack Abs.” If you don’t burn the fat, you’ll never see the muscle.
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You can lose weight just by dieting. This is technically true. If you don’t eat or eat less, you will lose weight—initially. But you will plateau quickly, and your body will readjust its metabolism to survive on fewer calories, making it even more difficult to lose weight. If you really want to move the needle on the bathroom scale in a meaningful way, it’s going to take diet and exercise. Even light to moderate levels of exercise on a regular basis help a lot. Physical activity not only burns calories, it also helps build muscle and increase your metabolism, both of which turn your body into a more efficient calorie-burning machine, even while at rest. Plus, there are numerous other health benefits, from cardiovascular improvement to mood elevation. And in-shape people look a lot hotter than sallow, starved people do.
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If you don’t exercise every day, you might as well not exercise at all. This comes from the same flawed, excuse-driven logic dieters use when they decide that because they cheated at lunch, they might as well order a pizza for dinner. While some form of daily exercise is ideal, studies have shown tremendous benefits even with as little exercise as a 30-minute brisk walk three times a week. Even if you fall off the wagon, put in that Beachbody® video or walk around the block a few times. Before too long, you’ll be craving exercise more than that burrito you thought you wanted.
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No pain, no gain. This is a popular one uttered by almost every high school gym teacher and coach that I’ve ever met. And it’s not only utterly wrong, it’s potentially dangerous. This may seem obvious, but when you feel physical pain, it’s your body’s way of telling you, “Hey, you’re hurting me!” And instead of trying to push through the pain, you should take a step back and see what kind of damage you’re doing to your body. It’s natural to feel fatigue during and after a workout, but if you’re feeling actual physical pain, you’re doing something wrong, and you could potentially permanently damage yourself. Maybe it would be better to say, “No exercise, no gain.” But exercise and pain should never go hand in hand.
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More sweat, more weight loss. Most good workouts will make you sweat, but the amount you sweat isn’t necessarily the test of a good workout. Everyone sweats differently. And all sweat does is cool your body off with water (see “The Sweatiest Thing” for more on perspiring). What you get from sweating isn’t fat dripping off your body. If it were, you’d be leaving a big oil stain on the floor after you worked out. Sweating just causes you to lose water weight. It’s the activity itself that causes your body to burn stored fat for energy.
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Drinking water during exercise can cause cramping. In fact, the opposite is true. You’re much more likely to cramp if you’re underhydrated, so for the best results when exercising, it’s a good idea to drink water before you start your workout so you’re beginning your workout with a full tank. As you work out, you should keep a bottle of water handy, particularly if it’s a long or especially rigorous workout. After working out, you should treat your body to a big glass of water to replenish your fluids, and if you’ve been extra good, maybe some P90X® Peak Recovery Formula for maximum replenishment.
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The best time to exercise is in the morning. A lot of people find that they prefer getting their workout out of the way first thing in the morning, and often feel that it gives them an energy boost for the rest of the day. But a good workout any time of day is just as good for you, although you may not get the best results if you’re overly tired. So if you’re someone who likes to burn the midnight oil, you can burn fat just as effectively then as you can at sunrise.
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Lifting weights will create bulky muscles. This is a half-truth. Lifting heavy weights can create large, bulky muscles, but lifting light weights will self-regulate their ability to grow and, therefore, will create a leaner look. So if you want the Vin Diesel look, with your guns pumped, you can lift heavier weights with fewer reps. But if you want a more slender look (for example, many women don’t believe that Vin Diesel’s arms perfectly accessorize a Chanel cocktail dress), you can do more reps with lighter weights or resistance bands to get that slender, toned “swimmer’s” build. And speaking of swimming . . .
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Swimming is effective for weight loss. This is another half-truth. Swimming is great for building lean muscle and increasing cardiovascular endurance, which do lead to weight loss. But because the water supports so much of your body weight, swimming has been found to be less effective than land-based aerobic activity for weight loss, since the effort it takes to haul your carcass around does a lot more for fat burning. Swimming’s still a great thing to add to your fitness regimen though. Having a variety of exercises, like Slim in 6® and Power 90®, will decrease your boredom and increase your overall results.
Well I am not over my sulks. But at least I forced myself to work out. I confess it felt good. Hopefully I’ll be able to force myself to workout tomorrow too.
Blah.
That’s all. I haven’t weighed in three weeks and now I’m scared of the scale. I’ve actually been eating okay, but I haven’t been tracking really, and I haven’t been eating really well, either.
Alright, dammit, I’m going for the scale. Somebody spot me… 248.7. Hmmm…gained 2 poundsish. Okay, so be it. Not as bad as I was fearing, actually.
Okay, someone hold out a hand so I can hoist this fat ass back onto the bandwagon - urgh…ah! Here I am! Congratulations to everyone who lost whilst I was away!
Welcome back to the bandwagon. I wouldn’t fret over two pounds. I usually wait 2 weeks between weighings so that the little 2 lb bumps don’t get noticed.
My weight hasn’t really budged this month, not that I’m surprised. I’ve been eating way too much bread in the last couple weeks. Carbohydrates are definitely my weakness. I’m still running but I probably ate back in bread form whatever I lost. I was going to sign up for WW online today but I had problems with the page so I just went back to Spark People. I am going to have to start tracking everything I eat if I’m going to lose a significant amount of weight. On the bright side, I have lost about 10-15 pounds in the last 3 months, which is not stellar but hey, that’s 10-15 pounds gone! Also I noticed today on my run that my fitness level is slowly increasing.
Whaddaya mean it’s not stellar? It is so! It’s fantastic!
More operations??? What are your innards made of…Swiss cheese? Personally, I think your doctors are pirates in disguise and little by little, they’re carving a map to their treasure on your torso. You’re more durable than a piece of parchment but are a bit hard to fold up to stash in a pocket.
Seriously, my best wishes to you. I’m glad you forced yourself to exercise but take it easy a little until that hernia and a-fib are resolved.
Thanks! I know I shouldn’t compare my progress to other people’s but it’s hard when some people lose that amount in a month.
I guess on the plus side - if chicks really *do *dig scars - well I’m gonna be swamped with women! 
The cardiologist said I could workout and I asked my surgeon if I should change any of my habits and he said not to worry until he had a chance to read the CT scan. I have stopped the weights anyway. Hopefully I’ll hear tomorrow.
I’m still in 3 of the phases of grief over the fact that I have to have more operations: denial, anger and depression. No one at work has noticed. That either means I’m always a mean old grump or I hide it well. 
OK, so I’m jumping on this bandwagon. My job has a gym onsite and free membership for permanent employees, which I am now, so I finally signed up and had my first workout last Friday. The trainer dude recommended 2 days of strength training with some cardio, and 1 day of just cardio to start. My weight afterwards was 225 lbs. I don’t expect to get all the way down to my high school weight of 150; mostly I just want to not feel so damn tired and creaky all the time.
And that rate of loss per month is not sustainable nor healthy. 1-2 pounds per week is generally though of as a healthy rate of loss. There are of course exceptions to this rule.
Welcome to the club sturmhauke. Good luck losing!