Fitzilla

Name: Mare
Age: 38
Current workout : While not doing a Challenge, I am following the BFL program. I like the structure. :)
Current workout goal(s): I'd like to get much stronger - esp. my upper body - than I am now. I am also trying to motivate my daughter to a more active lifestyle.
Interests: Oh, dear. Um. *points at interest list on profile page* They won't let me post more than 150! But briefly - writing, reading, learning, biking, music, and enjoying life. (vague, no?)
Also? Since I have /dramatically/ increased my water intake, I have become a (gold medal)Champion of the 100 meter Women's room dash.

I have hypothyroidism and PCOS.. I gained a little over 40lbs over a two year period (2004 & 2005).. I haven't done much (no exercise or dieting) and somehow lost 30lbs in three years.. My doctors still want me to lose at least 11lbs so I am going to try to lose 15lbs in three months.. here are my before pictures (I included the before picture from last May since I have lost some weight since then along with my measurements.. I can't tell a difference in the picture but I can with my clothes since I have gone from a size 10 to a size 8 since May).. I eat balanced as it is and since I am losing weight on my own without doing anything my doctors highly recommended that I keep my eating habits the same.. so no dieting.. I just plan on increasing my activity..

( CLICK HERE TO VIEW PICTURES AND PLAN )

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heres a self portrait of me sweating like a dog during todays bike ride through suburbia

The flail-and-curse instructor never learns.

Today we were made to do our crunches while lying across enormous inflatable yoga balls. And she calls out, "Now, doing the exercise on these balls should make you feel reeeeelly unstable!

So, of course, I have to call out, in time with my exhale, "Kill....Kill...Kiillllll...

And they all fell off their balls laughing, in that there Group W Class.

Hello folks,

My name's Barry. I'm 25 and living in Boston.

I've recently become determined to lose weight, gain muscle, and increase flexibility.

I've been stretching for an hour or so each day, hitting as many different muscle groups as I can. I've been running/jogging/walking 2 to 5 miles daily. I've been lifting weights and doing crunches and push-ups.

My main problem is my diet.

I've decreased the amount of food I eat on a daily basis, because I realize that I was just eating way too much. For the last week or so I've been eating salads and yogurt.

Now, I know this is a bad idea. The problem is: I don't really know what to do. I've been losing a decent amount already, but I know as far as the exercise goes, I need to eat differently in order to get the most out of my workout.

So, what I'm looking for is for someone to tell me what I should be eating to get the best of both worlds. How can I eat right, but still lose fat and add muscle?

Much thanks!

My husband's good friend Jayson competed recently. They know each other through our local powerlifting circuit:









These were taken at the WPO Finals on March 2, 2007. One picture is of him beginning to deadlift 661 lbs. The other picture is of him completing the lift.



From the chart I guess his total was 1774.703 pounds... yet did not place. He sure worked hard though geez. His "best" squat was 340 pounds.

His body weight? 164.9 lbs.

I managed to get out of work early enough to hit Y fitness twice this workweek. They brought back the hulking Carson prototype, and he'd apparently consulted with the female instructors because he'd brought out the medicine balls, rubberbands, Congressional subpoenas, leather whips and other implements of destruction to shape my body into 180 lbs of You Know Your Girlfriend Want Me.

I knew to steel myself for the worst as he started a workout tape that sounded like hypertempo Don Martin sound effects: FWUMPadada-dupppada, FWUMPadada-dupppada, FWUMPadada-dupppada, FWUMPadada-duppada... and yes, he DID sing "YMCA" with a great exuberance while leaping and lunging on the floor. He is SOOOOOO Carson!

An important discovery: Apparently I have "obliques of steel". I found this out when we were asked to lie on our sides, arms straight overhead, and do side crunches, lifting our torsos and legs at the same time into a v-shape. Not only did I not have much trouble with this move, but the only other person who could do them right was the instructor. The women in lycra, who have eight inch waists and shame me at everything that doesn't emphasize upper body strength, couldn't do it. And to think, this time a month ago, I thought obliques meant the look you gave people who still publicly admire George Bush.

Fortunately, I am humble about my newfound superpower, because when we lie on our backs and try to do the same v-crunches, my motions resemble those of a just-tasered banana slug.

Hope you're all the same.

Current Music The cramps with a difference, never mind the weather! When you work with Carson, a Charley Horse forever!

Crossposted to my LJ

Golly Jeepers, but the Y sure has a lot of instructors! Today they sent a bodybuilder to teach Grunt-and-Proud (the official name o' the class is "Body Sculpting", but they just seem to throw anything they want into the class, as long as it burns calories and hurts a lot).

This was the kind of bodybuilder who could do splits, despite being built like a fireplug that eats other fireplugs. He looked like a healthy, bouncy cross between Carson from Queer Eye and a He-Man action figure. He was scarier than the women. His workout emphasized circuit training, with a lot of stair running and heaving medium dumbells to failure.

Odd realization du jour: My legs are the buffest part of me, from decades of walking, running and nordictrack. My lats and shoulders are pretty wimpy, from decades of not regularly putting heavy things on and off of overhead shelves, which is about the only motion that really uses those muscles. They get really exhausted during circuit training. And yet, the day after the workouts, I feel the lactic acid ache in my legs, and not in my lats and shoulders. For the life of me, I can't figure out why.

I've been doing these classes two or three times a week since about mid-March, and I'm getting some decent definition everywhere except in my gut, which is just going to take a while.

More than anything, I'm discovering the inherent silliness of the human body. We are a goofy-built species, we are.

I'm getting tired of calling the thump-and-gasp class "girly exercises". Henceforth, I will refer to any full-body workout that emphasizes core muscles and aerobic conditioning as "Elvish exercise", and macho training that emphasizes learning to bench press your buick and eat glass as "Dwarven exercise". Most Asian martial arts are Elvish; boxing and fighting with explosives are Dwarven. So. There.

I mention this because the normal trainer at heave-and-sweat is a friendly lassie with a healthy farmer's daughter body, who smiles a lot and encourages people to believe that self-torturing one's way to health is fun. This time, however, she was absent, and we had a spandex-clad ELF.

She was about five feet tall and breathtakingly beautiful, with ice-blue eyes that looked like they could see through you, and gymnast muscles that rippled and bulged whenever she moved. I may have imagined the bit where the fly landed on her shoulder and instead of brushing it off, she just twitched her left shoulder without looking, but not by much. The usual mat, stability ball and dumbells on the floor had been supplanted by a frightening array of medicine balls, playground balls, floppy cylinder-discs, big colored rubberbands, stair risers, climbing pitons, potato sacks, rubber chickens, dental tools, handcuffs, jumper cables, raw eggs and a couple of half-frozen sides of beef hanging from the back wall.

"Brother", I whispered to myself, "You are in bad, bad trouble."

My God. This girl was held together by wires. She had us do set after set of abdominal crunches, without her legs, her back, or even her butt touching the mat. That's right, just sort of levitated in the air. At least that's how it looked to me. Then we had to wrap the rubber bands around our legs and do the penguin shuffle-hop-step up and down the floor. Somehow, I ended up suspended from the ceiling with the rubber bands around my head. The rest of the class was spent on autopilot.

At least this time, I managed to get through the whole thing without having to drop out while a group of super-powered ladies tut-tutted and wondered if I needed medical attention. On the other hand, I pretty much cheated during the last half of the set, doing the push ups, er, "Elvish" style, on my knees. I think I pulled something in my back, just trying to sit up.

I'm not an Elf. I'm an Elvish Impersonator.

Lose weight by vegging out
Sneaking fruits and veggies into your diet can help you slim down
By Barbara Rolls
Ph.D.
How many servings of fruits and vegetables did you eat yesterday?

If it was less than two servings of fruits and three servings of vegetables, you're not alone. Barely 11 percent of American adults are meeting the government's minimum Dietary Guidelines for Americans for both fruits and vegetables, according to two studies published earlier this month. A surprising 62 percent did not consume any whole fruit servings and 25 percent ate no veggies in a day.
( Read more... )

Hi.

My name is Sarah, I've been a member of this community for a while, and I'm also a Certified Personal Trainer through NASM. I train people in the gym and at their homes, but I'm now trying to start a new business venture.. Online training. I will be starting up my own website in a few months which will be geared towards creating very individualized plans in both nutrition and workouts to reach whatever goal you may have. I will have many options for plans and prices, however I'd like to get a few people started early (at EXTREEMLY discounted rates) so by the time my website is up I can have a section of "testimonies" and "successes". I dont want to get into any details right now (only because I don't want to clog up people's Friends pages) but if anyone is interested in my services PLEASE reply and I will contact you! I will charge only $10 per plan per month for the clients (through paypal), when regularly I will be charging $50 and up depending on plans. Each plan will be very detailed. This is a great oppertunity, so if you're intrested, comment and I'll get more info to you. Thanks!



(Mods: If this isn't allowed please let me know and I'll take it down!)



x-posted like crazy

My body becomes desensitized to my training and am looking for more ideas for April.

New month. New workout schedule?

- A brief background. Been working out since I was 15. Includes lifting weights, martial arts, yoga, etc.

- I've lost 22 pounds in the last year even though I look the same. (Or at least I think I look the same.) I drastically cut down on refined foods including sugar a la Atkins and I lifted weights throughout this process. Weight/mass loss was not my goal. Please see below.

- My main goals are to maintain my good health as well as to deter the development of diabetes and ovarian cancer.

What do you plan to do for April as it pertains to working out?

I am looking for workout ideas.

For example:

1. Length of workout
2. Order of lifting exercises: reps and sets
3. Ab work
4. Times per week
5. For people studying any martial art... what do you do when training?
6. Order of workout (for example, cardio then lift or lift then cardio)
7. What are you doing for your workouts in April?

If at all possible please be specific because I am working on my workout schedule for April and I like to incorporate other things since my workouts sometimes become stale and/or my body becomes desensitized.


I am looking for workout ideas to incorporate into my routine. Someone has already suggested I return to HIIT which I plan to start again in June but April is here and I would like a new challenge or at least something different than I would normally do since I have been training for about 25 years.

If you just want to tell us what you plan to do for your workouts in April that's fine too. I would love to read what others are doing this month because that is usually how I incorporate some things into my workout.

Thanks in advance.

The "Power Aerobics" class at the Y is a lot more strenuous than the "Body Sculpting". I couldn't keep up with them. Part of it was that I had no idea what the moves were. The lady up front would chant, rapid fire, "One-and-up-and-two-and-touch-and-out-and-thrust, and by the time I had watched to see what part of me was supposed to be out-and-thrust, they'd gone on to in-and-front. The other part was, I'm just not in good enough condition for girly stuff. Not yet, anyhow. I shoulda stuck with the weightlifting and the nice, nonjudgmental epileptical machine.

Here's how I managed to do the workout regardless. The first thing was, I wrenched my face into the Sears catalog grin and kept it there. Seriously. Things don't hurt as much or even seem as frustrating if you do that. Plus, I associate it with being on stage, at which point part of me zones out of the mechanics and something else takes over. Just as if I'd rehearsed it.

The other thing I did was focus on the girl right in front of me. the one with the pneumatic superpowers and the tummy that looked about the consistency of the palm of my hand. I imagined puppet strings connecting all my joints to hers, and rather than listening to the twist-and-sweat commands, I just did what she was doing. I'm told the workout isn't as great if you do mechanics rather than focus on every sit-and-spin muscle group, but this called for desperate measures.

By the end of it my heart was going like a trip-hammer and one of my quadriceps had popped off and was flopping around on the floor like a beached mackerel, but I'd done it. Then, half the class left, and the others brought out the arr-arr pilates balls. I stuck around.

I'd learned about ball exercises from David Kirsch books, and it turned out I'd been doing them wrong. I thought "obliques" referred to the look you were supposed to give the illustration. Turned out, I discovered I had a muscle group called obliques. In fact, they're still getting to know me this morning. Hi there, obliques! Maybe you don't know about the manners of putting your feet on people's ribs the first time you're in their home.

I got some revenge when they did the tricep pushups on the ball. I have actually been doing bench dips and stuff, and my triceps are old friends. I can actually move as much weight with them as with my isolated shoulders. So they were impressed with something I could do after all. Go upper body st

And that was my adventure in physical conditioning for the day. I expect I'll come back for more, but not right away.

Satisfaction guaranteed: How certain foods help you feel full
POSTED: 8:53 a.m. EST, February 1, 2007

By Maureen Callahan, M.S., R.D.
CookingLight.com

Many of us worry about overeating when we sit down for a meal. But what, beyond overindulgence, makes people feel full -- and how can we leverage foods' filling powers to help control portions?

"It's a complex sequence of events that starts with the eyes, the mouth, the stomach, and the gut," says Barbara Rolls, Ph.D., professor of nutritional sciences at Pennsylvania State University and author of "The Volumetrics Eating Plan." "But hunger and satiety, the scientific term for that full feeling that comes after eating, are also influenced by our environment."

Armed with insight about the environmental cues that compel you to eat and the foods that offer the most satisfaction, you can make smart choices that will fill you up, and not out. (How not to pig out at that Super Bowl party. )
( Read more... )

3 times as much fat loss in half the time? Sounds good to me.

Eight seconds key to weight loss

Researchers at the University of NSW and the Garvan Institute studied 45 overweight women over 15 weeks, putting them through a 20 minute cycling regime in which they sprinted on a stationary bike for eight seconds followed by 12 seconds of cycling lightly.

"They lost three times more weight as other women who exercised at a continuous, regular pace for 40 minutes," UNSW Associate Professor Steve Boutcher said.

Read more....

23/01/07
By Jo Willey

AN exercise regime that burns fat three times as fast as a normal gym workout has been developed by scientists.

And it works without the need to diet.

The interval training programme uses frantic bursts of effort followed by periods of much slower exercise.

It prompts the body to produce chemicals that allow more fat to be burned under the skin and within muscles.

Experts at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, studied 45 overweight women over 15 weeks.
( Read more... )

So now there finding a link with the type of bacteria in your gut and obesity. Makes sense since these bacteria evolved with us. Those people with the obese bacteria would be more efficient at extracting calories during famine.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,1976637,00.html

"They transferred samples of the gut bacteria from obese and lean mice into two groups of microbiota-free mice. The mice given the "obese" bacteria extracted more calories from their food than those given the "lean" bacteria. They also found that the bacteria in obese mice was rich in genes for enzymes that broke down otherwise indigestible sugars. "The bacteria in obese mice seemed to assist their host in extracting extra calories from ingested food that could then be used as energy," Prof Seeley said."

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today i went dirt trail rideing ...i took 19 pictures while rideing the bike and if you click on the pic it will take you to the best 4 pictures that looked pritty good ...get a bike to stay fit its the fun way
click pic for next

Anyone here tried Yoga...what do you think of it? Does it calm you? Does it make you feel stronger (both mentally and physically?)

I'm tempted to try it...I have alot of stress at work and I'm in need a good way to get rid of it...also I need to tone up bigtime...I've gained a bit of weight and I'm frustrated with myself for that but the more I try to lose it the way of the gym sometimes the more I get frustrated with myself...it sounds crazy but I'm thinking of trying yoga to branch out and try something different so I'm just curious to know what others might have thought about it...