BS: Getting In Shape

Subject: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 10:06 PM

Most of us in here have been fighting the force of gravity for many years, and losing the battle. In the last yewar or so, I've gotten more serious about trying to hold on to what I got (as the song says.) I've found a lot of things that work that I can live with, and I wonder who else is trying to find that old body of yours. (I know I left it somewhere... probably back in the 60's.)

Like most people, I've gotten serious for short stretches of time, watched what I was eating, excercized and lost weight. But, until this last year, I've never been able to maintain it. I've been steadily determined now for close to a year, and I think I can keep living the way I am now, and enjoy life in the process.

What you folks doing to try to regain that old energy and dimly remembered shape?

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Amos
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 10:14 PM

I have found a fast walk for thirty minutes in the morning makes a whole lot of difference in my energy level and attitude and keeps me from gaining weight. But it doesn't lose me any, either. (Sigh). It is painless and easy to remember to do.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 10:35 PM

Yeah, walking does a lot for me. My wife and I do a half hour power walk as many times a week as we can, following an excercise DVD. That, and changing my diet helped me take off (and keep off) 35 pounds. That's a lot of weight to lug around every day, and I'm glad to have taken it off.

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Bobert
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 10:50 PM

Unfortunately, between the P-Vine havin' me doing the heavy lifting in the gardens from spring to fall and my other boss, Malinda, who works me like a danged slave renovatin' her old buildings the rest of the time, I'm hard pressed to break into the 180 pound category at 6'1"....

It a conspiracy an' Iz on the loosin' end of it...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 10:53 PM

For most of my adult life, I had jobs or activities that kept me in mostly good shape, but the last 10, I have been much more sedentary. Even though I work at a lathe many days and get tired, there is little aerobics or movement involved, and I am beginning to pay for the lay-off and need real muscle-moving work.
so....I have a couple of exercise machines.....a bicycle and a push-pull kinda thing that you sit on and pump...but those intimidate me, as I feel that once I get on, I need to stay on for 20-30 minutes. I do sometimes, but I need something for in-between, so I have begun to do intermittent exercises like taking an extra lap or two around the yard when I go out for the morning paper, and jogging in place when I am waiting for the microwave to *ding*...and trotting up & down the basement stairs an extra time when I go to fetch something. I even do 45° pushups in places like my waist-high dresser, or against the kitchen counter.

I also have a pair of weights that wrap around the wrist(or ankle) and I can lay in bed or sit in a chair and do arm lifts.

If I am gonna make it to 97, like I plan, I gotta make it worthwhile!

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Metchosin
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 11:02 PM

Yeah, where did my bum go? LOL. I guess I'm fortunate by because weight wise I haven't varied much over the years, it's just rearranged itself in some less than flattering ways.

A few years ago, I did some very intensive aerobic stuff for about 8 or 9 months, because my daughter and a friend wanted me to backpack the Westcoast Trail with them and I had been warned that parts of the 71km hike were pretty grueling. (they were)

For the time that I kept up the aerobics, my energy levels were unbelieveable, but as soon as I quit (after I "did" the trail) they were right back down. Thinking about it now makes me realize I miss my zip.

Thanks for reminding me Jerry, I think I'll sign up for some Jazzercise classes in the New Year and spend less time on Mudcat. I've resolved myself to the fact that my backside has gone for good, but I know from experience that I'd rather be energized, which is achieveable, than delude myself into believing I can reclaim a youthful body.

Besides, I've got battle scars and they are part of who I am and even if by magic I could, I don't think I would want to relinqish them.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: GUEST,bflat
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 11:28 PM

I know this is going to sound like one big excuse but, my girlfriend, a personal trainer moved to Florida and I lost my incentive to work out. I can't afford to pay the going rate for a personal trainer so I have lapsed into occasional workouts. My body is getting soft. I need help. I want to live long and play and be healthy for those around me so that I'm not a burden. I must be lazy as I don't seem to have the same motivation I once had. Can Dr. Phil help me?

Ellen

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Bert
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 11:55 PM

This bloke needs to lose weight???

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: number 6
Date: 29 Dec 04 - 12:04 AM

Staying away from carbs. Sticking to my vegetarian diet. Walking my dogs 3 times a day (it's also quality time for them, as opposed to being pushed out in the back yard).

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 29 Dec 04 - 03:09 AM

I'm in shape.

Round is a shape.

Once my heart surgery is over, I should hopefully be off the beta blockers which has sent my weight rocketing upwards again (putting on 14lbs in 4 weeks). Then I'm going to go back to what I did 2 years ago and hopefully get the same result!

When the dicky ticker is fixed, I should have more energy to actually go and do energetic things. At the moment, it goes too fast and the blood doesn't stay in one place long enough to absorb enough oxygen. Consequently, if I do something that makes it go faster, I get annoxia and pass out.

Surgery is scheduled for the 10th Jan, 2005, so come back to me round about the 20th!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: fat B****rd
Date: 29 Dec 04 - 02:19 PM

I'll try what Billy Connolly said. "eat less, move more".

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Rapparee
Date: 29 Dec 04 - 04:26 PM

I've started fencing (with epees, not barbed wire) again and if you don't think that a fencing match isn't a good workout, watch one! I'm also going to increase the amount I'm walking. I also hope to join the local archery club this coming year for the same reason I've joined the local shooting range: it gets me out and doing instead of sitting around not doing. Playing my trumpet also helps improve my wind.

Of course, there are those wonderful "jerks" from the Army: the 8-count pushup, the bend-and-reach, the lay-on-your-back-and-lower-your-legs-to-the-right-and-left, the obstacle course, the infiltration course....

I starting putting on weight when I gave up pipe smoking in 1985, but when I suggested to the doctor that I start smoking again to help with my weight problem she was opposed to it.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: gnu
Date: 29 Dec 04 - 04:30 PM

Don't know if I have this Mark Twain quote correct, but the jist is correct... "If you're healthy, you don't need exercise and if you're sick, you shouldn't take it."

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 29 Dec 04 - 06:26 PM

Rap - for advice on improving wind, talk to CatSPaw.....

I didn't realise you could play the trumpet that way.. but it explains the noise a tuba makes.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Grab
Date: 29 Dec 04 - 07:25 PM

Into my thirties, and the metabolism is starting to slow down. We'd already made the decision to cut out potatoes from our meals - the extra carbs were not doing us any favours. My dad is a great incentive for this, since he's slightly shorter than me and 70lbs heavier, and I *really* didn't want that happening to me. So, I had the choice. Exercise, or eat less...

In the end, I decided I'd rather subject myself to jogging/running than cut out chocolate. :-) I've slipped a bit recently - injuring myself and getting ill kind of knocked my down, but hopefully I should be back up to doing 5 miles again soon.

Graham.

PS. If you're taking up running, get fitted for a proper pair of shoes by a proper shop that does a gait analysis. *Very* worthwhile, especially if your knees and ankles aren't as springy as they used to be.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Rapparee
Date: 29 Dec 04 - 08:35 PM

I'm also getting a set of orthopedic inserts -- the podiatrist tells me that my feet are very flexible (and now when I walk down the street all the children shout "Flexible Feet!" at me) and as a result the outside edges of my feet take a beating.

If you're not comfortable exercising you won't do it, and you can even injure yourself (permanently!). Do get checked out before hand.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: GUEST,Anne Croucher
Date: 29 Dec 04 - 08:40 PM

From personal experience, cut down on the carbs.

Look at the lables, there are lots of things which look like meat but have added 'stabilisers' and 'flavour enhancers' and such, innocent sounding things which are starches and sugars.

If you cut down on the carbs you can just watch your weight reduce, you do not have to force yourself to exercise but after the first couple of stones go you will start to take more exercise without even having to think about it. I got itchy feet, cabin fever - I had to take myself off for long walks, I cleared out cupboards, made plans to go out and do things.

Many carbs are boring white and tasteless - it is what you put with them which gives the flavour.

Anne

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Rapparee
Date: 29 Dec 04 - 10:03 PM

Agreed, Anne. But carbohydrates are still a necessary PART of a diet. We eat far too many for good health. I myself have come to prefer whole grains (and I don't mean processed grains or flours!). And I can't remember the last time I ate something like spaghetti. It has to do with insulin resistance, but my eating habits have changed a lot since 6 Feb 2004.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 Dec 04 - 04:29 AM

And all those people who were slagging off Atkins a while ago... where are they?

Only 11 days to go and then I either drool in a corner or start making an effort to get back to hourglass, rather than clockface
(although I do admit there will still be considerably more sand at the bottom than at the top)!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 30 Dec 04 - 10:36 PM

I knew everything I had to do to get in shape at least thrity years ago. Now, if they could just develop a pill you could take that gave you the discipline to do it for more than a month. The only reason why I "found the resolve" is because I was told that I either had to excercise and take off weight or go on medication for diabetes. I figured that the Lord was trying to get my attention. I chose to lose the weight and keep it off, and find ways to excercise that aren't boring or impractical. I quickly lost the weight, got my blood sugar level well down into the normal range and don't need medication. Just a quarterly check-up. I;ve never been one for diets. We've all tried at least ten (which tells you something about how effective it is to go on a diet.) I just started to live sensibly, and look for alternatives that I enjoy. I've come to enjoy fruit and nuts instead of cookies and cake, and have always liked whole grain bread and cereals, so I didn't have to make any changes there. My wife and I do a half hour of aerobic excercises together, and when one of us doesn't feel like doing it, the other seems to, and we both end up doing it anyway.

I've also given up large pepperoni pizzas just before I go to bed. But, I haven't given up anything entirely. I just have it infrequently (and enjoy it much more because of the infrequency.)

I coulda done this years ago, of course. Just wasn't scared into doing it...

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: hesperis
Date: 31 Dec 04 - 11:45 AM

You don't have to do 20-30 minutes a day, but even that is easy if the exercise machine is in front of the TV or the computer. When it's easy to get on the machine and it's fun to do even 5 minutes... you'll suddenly find yourself doing 5 minutes a LOT during the day, and you'll hit 40 minutes of exercise without even really trying. Or you'll just start training while watching Star Trek reruns.

The secret of exercise is to make it a fun habit, not a drudgery-filled chore.

Now, if I actually had a home and a crosstrainer machine, I'd take my own advice... not for weight loss (my weight is fine!) but for energy.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Dec 04 - 12:27 PM

hesperis, you are right on the money...I have a machine right in front of the TV, so I can pump and get the heart rate up a bit when the news is not doing it FOR me.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: hesperis
Date: 31 Dec 04 - 09:03 PM

Exactly. The problem with going out to exercise is that it often makes a big chore out of the whole thing unless you're already in shape and enjoy all sorts of weather.

Look at any hamster - they have nothing else FUN to do, so they're either on the wheel, sleeping, eating or hanging from the cage bars... or exploring outside the cage... and it's fun to them.

A lot of people are taught that movement isn't fun, and that it has to be hard. It really doesn't have to be hard!

People are actually designed for movement. So if exercise isn't fun and easy, lighten up. Make it easy for yourself to do even a little fun something each day. (And sex counts! Hehehe.)

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 31 Dec 04 - 09:42 PM

Guess I should be getting a giant hamster wheel then.... or is that the daily slog to work?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Gypsy
Date: 31 Dec 04 - 09:53 PM

Liz, have been on Atkins for 2 years..........and don't think i will ever change. Excercise is still a fave, do the 2 mile walk when at work during lunch, use weight bench and stationary bike when at home. And eat all i want! Have kept off 45 pounds.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 01 Jan 05 - 12:02 AM

I am in shape, round is a shape.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: GUEST,Frank
Date: 01 Jan 05 - 12:29 PM

Health IMHO is largely psychological. If you treat an exercise program as a chore, you will not maintain it. Doing less more often is one way to enjoy it more. Many people go for long periods and then start up again with a strenuous regimen out of guilt but it doesn't maintain itself.

A little each day of less is more.

Eating and sleeping right helps a lot too.

The danger in eating is watching TV while you do it. Food commercials have a subliminal effect and you become a muncher. That packs it on.

No pain-no gain is a no-brain. Enjoy your workouts.

Frank

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Alice
Date: 01 Jan 05 - 12:58 PM

I agree with guest Frank. Keeping your metabolism revved up is key and doing some exercise each MORNING that raises your heart rate will help to keep your metabolism running faster all day. Doing a series of exercises each morning that build muscles will help keep your internal fat burner going, too. There is a very easy program designed by Jorge Cruise that takes only 8 minutes a morning. The best exercise is the one you will do every day... keep it simple and short, but do something each day, even if it is only 8 to 10 minutes.

Alice

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: alanabit
Date: 01 Jan 05 - 01:00 PM

I was never an athlete as a young man, but I took up judo and karate and have trained most days for the last thirty years. Changing style to a more relaxed form of karate (the Indonesian Pentjak Silat) has left me with an hour long routine, which I manage to do at least three times a week, but usually five. I use no other equipment than the weight of my own body. That is very important if you want the sort of condition which I do.
I walk quite vigorously for at least a mile or two most days. I cylce when I can. Also, having a five year old son, who needs someone he can hammer at football, also keeps me from too sedentary a life, even when I am feeling lazy. A vegetarian diet helps to keep the weight down. There is nothing virtuous about this, I really would find it very hard to take meat into my mouth. At the age of forty nine I am happier with my body than I was twenty years ago. I always feel better after training. That is enough motivation for me. It is a real drag when I get into a situation when I can't train for a couple of days.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Jan 05 - 01:31 PM

Know thy habits, and work like the devil to change the ones that keep you out of shape.

This is my year to drop the 100 pounds--yes, 100 pounds, that isn't a typo--I need to lose. No magic bullets. Getting active again will take some hard work, and happen over time. I finally had knee surgery in November, so I will now be able to start exercising again. I come from a family with a lot of knee surgery...but the main thing is, I finally had the health insurance to get the surgery that will allow me to become active again. I had been enduring so much pain, I couldn't move much once I finished my shift.

After a long discussion with my surgeon, I've decided I have to change jobs. Being on my feet for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, has taken too much of a toll on my knee joints, and consequently my overall health, because knee pain had made me a couch potato. I won't be able to remain active (or lose the weight) if I blow all my remaining knee cartilage running around at work. So to get in shape, I'm going to have to look for a more sedentary job. That might seem like a crazy idea for someone with my amount of weight to lose. But I'm really motivated to get active again (not just exercising, but doing physical activities I love most, which is walking, biking, camping, gardening, canoeing, etc). So my surgeon assures me that a sedentary job is fine, so long as I'm active outside work, and lose the weight.

The other thing is dietary changes, not dieting. I've gotten to be a very lazy eater and even lazier cook in the last 10 years. Pain and struggle with depression and stress from being intermittently unemployed for long stretches, while caring for an ornery, demanding, aging parent will do that to you. Combine that with slowing metabolism from aging myself, a family genetic trait of putting on a lot of weight after 50, and here I am.

So we're getting back to eating the way we ate when we were young, which was much healthier. We became way to dependent upon pasta, toast, and pizza for starters. Too much butter fat is another problem (all that toast). Junk food at the end of the work day/before the evening meal had been a very serious problem. I would have so much pain at the end of my shift, I would just collapse on the couch and give in to the low blood sugar blues before I could roust myself to make dinner (or order the pizza).

I also need to stop using my car so much, and get back to walking and biking. My surgeon says I won't really be able to walk like I used to if I want to conserve my knee cartilage (I used to walk a couple miles a day). But he says if I'm not in an 8 hr/day 5 day/wk knee pounding job, I can start limited walking again. But he says bicycling would be much better. He wants me to water walk instead of land walk, which I can do, as I love to lap swim. Or use the treadmill he says, which totally doesn't appeal to me. My joy from walking was being outside.

The killer lifestyle is truly the American lifestyle, which sucks IMO. I'm going back to the more Meditteranean lifestyle. Walking, shopping for fresh, unprocessed food daily rather than weekly, making meal prep & time a priority and luxuriating and relaxing over meals, and finally, not being so hurried, harried, and harrassed--that is the hardest habit to break. Getting sucked into the American lifestyle frenzy, which is idiotically stupid.

I have also let go of a lot of material junk, and I continue to "lighten up". We moved in 2003 to a 1600 sq ft apartment with beautiful patio and raised bed gardens, from our stupid behemoth house, which I had truly come to hate. Now, I have no maintenance chores (the two most despised was maintaining a middle class lawn & snow shoveling, but then there was all that deferred maintenance crap...). I had even stopped gardening, which I love, so depressed was I at the prospect of having to do one more thing around the house.

So this year was the first year I had gardened again in nearly a decade. That brought a lot of joy. And we love our patio, as it gives us an extra room during spring, summer & fall. No more stairs (we had the laundry in the basement in the house, and had to haul it to the 2nd floor bedrooms) in our one level apartment, which is also great for my knees. Going up stairs isn't bad on knees, going down is according to my surgeon. He tells me he believes the inventor of the Stairmaster was a spawn of Satan.

So, the answer to "getting into shape" for me is getting my life back by breaking all the negative "American" sorts of lifestyle habits I had lazily adopted to cope with stress in the last 10 years. It wasn't just one thing that got me here, and I know it won't be just one thing to get me back in shape either.

I have no special plan I intend to follow right now, though I'm thinking about using Dr. Weil's 8 Weeks to Optimum Health. I'm also just now getting my other half to agree to doing a program together, which would help tremendously, as the inertia, food buying and eating habits of the loved ones we live with can really drag us down. It is really hard to change, when everyone around you is trying to sabotage your efforts so THEY don't have to change.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 01 Jan 05 - 02:47 PM

You've got it in hand, Guest. Getting in shape isn't dieting. It's completely changing the way that you live. It's paying attention to when you eat and how large the portions are, as much as what you eat. Aerobic excercise is a must, for me. I'm blessed that I can still do strenuous physical excercise. If I couldn't, it would be a real battle keeping my weight down. Most of all, I tried to make changes that offer an enjoyable alternative... plain pecan halves instead of mixed nuts... Wheat Chex and whole wheat bread (which wasn't a change for me.) Fruit for snacks... apples and bananas work best for me, because they are a lazy snack... easier to eat than oranges, and they still taste like the fruit they claim to be (unlike strawberries and much of the pears and peaches.) Being consistent is the key, too. Again, it's as much how regularly you excercise as how long you excercise.

I like the way I've been living the last year, and I've gradually through trial and error found foods that I enjoy that are filling but not fattening. The payoff is having energy I had forgotten about.
Not having to stand on my tiptoes to button my pants is a plus, too..

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Peg
Date: 01 Jan 05 - 04:25 PM

I am still dealing with not being in top form after my broken leg and surgery this summer, so my usual 3-4 mile walks and winter hiking are out of the question for a while yet. But I can walk up to two miles a day with no pain or fatigue. I'm thankful I am still able to be active but it's frustrating to have to worry about overdoing it...

I lost weight while the broken bone was healing, but it started to creep back on when the weather turned cold. Time to go back to yoga! Good companion to my physical therapy stretches.

I agree with the idea that you have to make changes you can live with, whether gradual or sudden. I did not stop running 5-6 miles a day all of a sudden, it was gradual. So replacing it with a similarly-vigorous daily workout would not make sense (nor could I do it at the moment, anyway). But once I get the metal out of my leg (next year hopefully) I hope to go back to jogging 2-3 miles, 3-4 times a week.

Some people get their first taste of organic produce and are so shocked they start eating better, purer food which consequently helps them lose weight...I know I feel better and can keep weight off more easily when I am not eating preservative-laden junk...and eating chemical-free foods is better fo the environment and world in general.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: jacqui.c
Date: 01 Jan 05 - 05:31 PM

As a result of two operations and a lot of stress over the past year I got out of the habit of exercising. Now I'm feeling the effects, and my age!

Once we get back to Maine at the end of the week I'm going to have to get back to regular exercise sessions as I don't like the feeling of not being fit.

I've been on Atkins for about a year and a half, but have fallen off the wagon over Christmas. Result - weight gain. When I stick to the rules I feel fit and my blood pressure and pulse rate are excellent. It doesn't work for everybody but it certainly suits me.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: skarpi
Date: 01 Jan 05 - 06:32 PM

Jerry , walk for about one our a day and hold on to a healthy
food and youll be fine.
Do you drink coca cola , or drink that have suger in it ?
If you doo stop it and you loose a lot of weight.
All the best Skarpi Iceland.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 01 Jan 05 - 06:49 PM

Alice - getting my heart going faster is not a problem I have.. it's getting it to slow down that's the trouble! (That's what the surgery is for soon)

Shanghai, we're like two peas in a pod.. marrowfat peas at that!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 01 Jan 05 - 08:07 PM

Hey, Skarpi: No, I don't drink soda, and when someone wants sugar for their coffee, I have to get a hammer and break a piece off of it.
I've kept the weight off now for about nine months and don't see any likelihood that I'll slip back. I like my life, so I don't consider it a sacrifice.

Oh yeah. My Doctor said, "If you don't drink a lot of water, you won't lose weight." Simple as that. And true too, from my experience.

Thanks for the advice, Skarpi

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: GUEST,Anne Croucher
Date: 01 Jan 05 - 08:29 PM

I find that vegetables are the key - because you can eat so much and enjoy different textures - so important when changing how you eat, and still be eating about 50 gm of carbohydrate each day and so losing weight.

So much of the dense carbohydrate food considered 'normal' or even essential is just empty calories - flour, sugar, sweetcorn, beans, fruits selected to be large and sweet. Carbohydrates are not essential - we can live off meat, but we don't have to, and as long as we avoid as many of the chemicals added deliberately or by pollution it mean we become healthier, and thinner with really very little effort. If I can do it anybody can. I tried to lose weight on conventional diets for decades, and then along comes Dr Atkins - why did no one ever tell me about low carb before?!!         

I keep meaning to get my cholesterol checked - I keep putting it off just for the pleasure I will have of seeing my doctors face when I eventually arrive in her office.

Anne

Subject: RE: BS: Getting In Shape
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 05:03 PM

Let's not talk about being overweight until I finish having too much to eat.

LTS