The Joker, Mercurial and prettyprettyprettygood - Thanks. I'll consider what you've all said, maybe I'll try each of yours once and see what works best aha.
Whoa, somehow I missed this before. Thanks, Jon, for the encouragement. I guess it could just be an increase in appetite, but I haven't seen any big changes in my off birth control appetite versus my on birth control appetite. I've always struggled to lose weight in my stomach, though, so that's probably just combining with the birth control to make it that much harder... Dude, the elliptical is girlier?? For me, the elliptical is way harder than the treadmill...
I love the machines in the gym, I prefer to run outside at east one in a while, because running on pavement is totally different, but its okay because some athletes train on them even all year round. For those who maybe don't like to run or feel they don't have enough time, there is no excuse. There are excercises that take very little time to do and are great at bringing the heart rate up and burning fat. Unfortunately, no one likes them. I really have to pimp out the burpees, jump squats, half burpees, and mountain climbers. Trust me, you wil hae them, but nothing has gotten my endurance and stamina up better than them. Running 3 miles before doing them I thought nothing might improve my run times. Now I'm up to a 7:30 minute mile pace (from 8) mostly because of these. Running seems like a break compared to them :O
^Couldn't agree more. We do "ultimates" at practice fairly often, where we skate two laps, do x number of an exercise, skate two laps, do x number of another exercise, etc, until you've done ten laps. A lot of the time, burpees or mountain climbers are some of the exercises we do. Exhausting, and burpees on skates are no picnic, but damn, do they get you in shape.
Ah, sounds like an old fartlek run, but skating instead of running Burpees on skates? That's commando :O *Fartlek, which means "speed play" in Swedish,[1] is a form of interval training which puts stress on the whole aerobic energy system due to the continuous nature of the exercise.*
Heh, fartlek, I like that name better. We also do suicides, which is kind of the same concept, only depending on who is running practice it can either be slightly easier or way, way harder. Ooh, and pyramids...ugh. Man, now that I'm thinking about it, I haven't had an endurance focused practice in a long time. I kind of miss it. Edit: I don't know how many of you know much about the whole herbalife deal, but it has been adapted for roller derby, and one of our skaters just got certified as a derbalife coach. They're doing something called "look hotter in your hot pants" (ok, I don't know if that's the real name for it, but that's what we've been calling it ), and I joined it. Six week ass kicking, and the most improved gets prizes. Woohoo! I'm so excited to step up my game.
I took up jump roping and hula-hooping about a week ago. I wanted to do something to get my calves back in shape after a year and a half of being a new mom and not adjusting back into my old work-out routine as easily. I figured it'd be a good step toward running again. So far so good, and there's even slight more room in my knee high boots than there were when I bought them a month ago =) I also have started portion control again. I eat healthy in general, with a bad snack every now and then, but I noticed I'd begun drinking soda, and more juices. So I cut out the soda altogether, quit the weekend beers, and have completely erased junk food from my life. It hurts, and my mood-swinging PMS-mode is constantly justifying why eating a tub of soy ice cream and chugging a half-gallon of chocolate almond milk is totally OK with my new, more astringent diet, but I'm keeping strong... Two weeks down, and two more months to go before I can let chocolate back in my life.
High five, you see, all the hard work pays off---it just takes time and dedication. Being consistent is the key, keep it up!
I love running to music, here are a few of my favourites, some may be a little cheesy Iron Maiden - Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner Low Fidelity All Stars - Battle Flag Cake - Going the Distance Led Zep - Fool in the Rain Primal Scream - Rocks, Country Girl Electric Six - Danger! High Voltage Maximo Park - Our Velocity Not rock or indie but awesome for running: James Brown - Get Up Offa that Thing
Thanks. Yeah, some funk is great for running. I've been listening to old RHCP and it's quite motivating.
Thanks for the encouraging words! I was very pleasantly surprised when I got on the scale and saw I was down another 2 pounds, woohoo! 17! The only thing that's a bit discouraging is the fact that though I am noticing a bit of a difference in my clothes, I'm not down a dress size yet like I thought I'd be. In fact, I've only lost like an inch on my hips and arms, I think maybe I'm losing the quickest in my butt or something LOL.
Lol I wish I could jog with music. In the city that I live in jogging with headphones will probably get you stabbed. The muggers would have a field day if their intended victim had no sense of hearing.
Broke through my plateau; I was another pound down as of yesterday, and even weighed less last night than I did that morning. I'd call that success! I was really surprised considering I probably drank my weight in alcohol this weekend. :redface: I suppose it's just a nice coincidence, but maybe it helps you lose weight. Although I ate my feelings today, so I may be back up a pound. Sigh. Weight gain is so easy. But weight loss is like a neverending battle that you may never win. Regardless, as of this morning before I ate, still, I was at my lowest weight in over two years. I'm proud of that... I still have 18 pounds until I reach my goal weight, but I'm hoping to be there or at least be within 5 pounds of that by the start of 2012; I feel like that is reasonable with a little luck, a little effort, and strict eating. Every day I feel a little prouder of my body. I looked in the mirror today and was like "WTF who is this girl? She's actually kinda... pretty? Wait, that's me? " That feels nice and is definitely inspiration to continue to continue to eat healthy and work out and make the right choices on most days.
Way to go, Merc. Conversely, I weighed myself Sunday and was actually the heaviest I've ever been...157 pounds, eek! A lot of that is muscle, but the parts that aren't, I'm determined to lose. My derbalife for life Look Hotter in your Hot Pants challenge kicked off yesterday--super stoked to really get my ass in gear and get in better shape! Part of the challenge is to improve endurance, so we timed ourselves to see how many laps we could skate in five minutes, and we're going to do it again at the end of the challenge. For my pre-challenge skate, I got 25.25 laps. I'm not sure how realistic it is, to be honest, but I'd like to get up to 30 by the end of the six weeks.
Ooh, good luck, Heather! I try to measure myself too so I actually know if I've gotten bigger or not, because silly muscle always screws my weight up. You sound like you're fairly comfortable with your body, but if you aren't, let me just say that measuring tape is a godsend... I've lost 2 inches off my hips so far (!), an inch off my upper arms, and 0.5 inches off my stomach. And bones are sticking out where they didn't used to. My collarbone is prominent again; yay. It's actually kind of weird that I've seen so much weight loss in my hips and not in my stomach. I hate my stomach; that's where I want and need to lose weight the most. And I never really gave my hips a second thought --they used to be 2 inches bigger than my chest, so I was fine with that. It's kind of weird that you lose weight in places you don't care about and lose the least weight in the places you do care about... Sigh! Well, 2 inches later, I'm actually exactly proportionate; if only we could get my stomach to shrink 5 or 6 inches, I'd be so pleased. Anyway, yeah, I wish I had people or a team to do a challenge with! I hope it goes well for you. Good luck on making 30 laps! You can dooo it! I imagine with how much derby you play, you're probably in great shape anyway. But now that you're in school again, I sympathize... That stress goes right to the tummy. (Also, I lost another 0.2 pounds since Tuesday morning and now. Which I'm ecstatic about... I ate my feelings on Tuesday --like pizza, and a chicken sandwich, and fries... but not all at once So any weight loss is good weight loss. Success!)
You are pretty. Congratulations and keep up the good work. Remember these anecdotes because these are the silver lining behind all the hard work and healthy choices. It does feel good when you look in the mirror and see a healthy, attractive person looking back. It also helps confidence, and it will show.
Thanks, Jon & Jess! I am doing my best to hold onto these feelings of accomplishment and the knowledge that I am, in fact, succeeding. It really helps to finally see results for all my hard work. I'm just ecstatic that this one war that I've never been able to win is going my way. Fatty has won the battles for the last few years... but I am going to win the war! Like I said in my previous post, I'm down 0.2 pounds from yesterday. Not a lot, but any weight loss is good weight loss when you had a bad "eating" day. It feels so good! Does anyone have any tummy-shrinking tips, though? I mean, I'd like to get down to a certain weight because I am a numbers person, but honestly if I stayed at this current weight forever and just had a stomach that was 5 or 6 inches smaller, I'd be happy. I was thinking about paying more attention to my stomach when I work out... more time doing sit ups and eliminating push ups or cutting five minutes off my run, for example, but I'm worried that the muscle would actually make my stomach bigger. And besides, it doesn't matter how rock hard your abs are when you have a layer of fat covering them up. That's the only disheartening part about weight loss. I'm just not losing weight where I want to be!
Thanks, Gi! I do feel very accomplished... I cant wait to get there. I only wish weight loss could be faster!
