Take care of yourself

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Thanks Idaho.  But I rode my bike to the gym so you can quit proselytizing.  ;D

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

I've got a book you might be interested in, too.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

HC, from what I hear about your vocal prowess, you underestimate your aerobic capacity. With every deep breath you take you're expanding your lungs and making your heart work harder. And with the addition of regular bouts of exercise, your heart and lungs will make the rest of your temple/body snap to.

That said, you're halfway there. It's about the physical now. Keep up the good work and make it a habit!

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

I started physical therapy for my shoulder this week. The one thing the therapist really harped on was my posture. I guess I have a tendency to hunch my shoulders forward and that set me up for the problems I have.
While I've always done bench presses (or some version of them) in the past, I've never gone overboard with them and I've always done lat work (rows, pulldowns) to balance it out, so I'm a little surprised I got this way.
Maybe it's all the time I spend at a computer and driving.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

I'm running up to 45 minutes in a row now on the mill, and doing 30 minutes of either eliptical or stairmaster. Five months into the great reshape, I'm down 40 pounds.

HC, you've also got to change your eating habits. It's not all about the gym. The hardest part is the reformed eating. It ain't easy.

But congratulations. Keep it up.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

I pulled my groin this morning. Felt so good I pulled it again.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

I've been having a great time lately. I had ankle surgery in early June for a torn brevis tendon and some damage to my longus tendon (thanks again, grrlhack) ... and spent six weeks off all cardio equipment. A cast will do that to you. Anyway, I'm back on the equipment now and it's like the funnest thing.

I don't get tired. I expected to have to start from scratch, but I retained a lot of my fitness. The thing I've noticed is that my heart rate gets higher than it did three months ago. I'm sure that will change as I get back into the flow. Still, it's surprising. Oh well. I'm just glad to have my ankle back.

leg cast + 100-degree Alabama heat = sucks

ps: Good for you, Songbird.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Oh, the eating habits are improving too. When I was doing the gym before I was also doing Weight Watchers. Now, I'm trying to find a healthy lifestyle rather than a 'diet'.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

HC ... fill your fridge with healthy stuff and eat often, at least every 2 or 3 hours.

Fruit, nuts, string cheese, snack veggies, etc., etc. What kills a lot of people's weight loss efforts is that they try to cut calories down to the point where they eat just three meals a day. When you do that, you get hungry, and you tend to gorge once dinnertime comes. Plus, you get blood sugar spikes that screw with your body's metabolism.

I usually have:
Breakfast -- coffee and cereal or oatmeal
Pre-workout -- smoothie (lately, it's been strawberry/banana or blueberry/mango)
Post-workout -- protein shake or a glass of chocolate milk
Lunch -- turkey sandwich on wheat and fruit
Mid-afternoon snack -- string cheese or carrots or a couple of handfuls of cashews/almonds
Dinner -- whatever, though it's usually built around a high protein, sensible carb layout
Night snack -- see mid-afternoon snack

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

I'm telling your wife (and in laws)

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

HC--What Hokie/Comso said above, plus tons of advice on this thread. We should have published this thing.

Eat all day--protein, fruit, vegetables. When you don't eat, your blood sugar starts to fall, you automatically reach for something sweet, which raises your sugar, and then it plummets again. So you chase it with more food. Disaster.

Get most of your carbs early in the day...you burn them up all day, and it fuels your exercise. When they're gone, you can get to the fat you want to burn instead.

If you're doing weight training, do your weights before your cardio. You'll burn through your stored glycogen, so when you get to your cardio, you're burning fat instead of sugar.

Eat something in the morning, without fail. It tells your metabolism to get to work...otherwise, your body just conserves calories in case you've been placed in captivity and can't eat.

Quick protein ideas: i keep a bowl of hard boiled eggs in the fridge all the time---i toss the yellow part and eat the whites. Not fascinating, but pure protein. Grill a bunch of chicken breasts---a fast snack, or easy to chop up and toss over vegetables--even a diced tomato. So easy.

I'm a huge fan of the Met-Rx protein shakes---one packet in the blender with water and maybe some fruit, you have 40+ grams of protein, 2g carbs, and very low calories with lots of vitamins/minerals.

You won't believe how good you feel when you find the right nutrition lifestyle. You are so right to not look for a diet. Find what makes you feel good--not restricted--and you'll do it forever.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

I work in a 6-person office. Right now, the other 5 are eating fast food. It's fucking killing me, the smell of delicious fat. I want to eat what they're eating. This is worse than a nic fit or a cocaine craving.

I'm going to eat a banana. Man, I hate eating healthy.