Topic : Ways to Exercise in the House

I would like to give you a trick and that is have someone be on your case everyday to see if you have done your exercises. It's to easy to just say "ah, tomorow" if you have someone you love ask if you've done your're execises, if you lie it's you that will feef bad! My friend joined the gym after I convinced her and she told me she had a hard time doing the cardio, so everyday I would write to her some tricks to be able to do her 45 min cardio.  1 week later she was able to do 45 min of cardio and liked it and she does not miss one day cause i'm on her case every day encouriging her, telling her she can do it. I even went out and bought her a 50$ gift certificate to a clothing store were the clothes are too small for her so that pushed her even more! Just make sure that someone is positive and not negative! thats very important! I wish you all the luck, you can do it !p.s the magazine "oxygnen" is great for routine execise to do at home I just love it and i'ts web site is great to!

I do have a support system in place ...  I report each week my status of exercise and my menu planning  goals.  Exercise is really easy for me now. It's really srange the day I discovered that if I didn't exercise I felt icky and had to figure out a way to get back on board.

 

When I've worked on menu planning a few more weeks, my next goal is to start doing exercises at home.  I was able to get into all 4 exercises classes at the gym.  That's 1 class a day for 4 days, and 2 on Friday.  I also plan on walking my dogs when it's not pouring down rain!

 

I get Self, Fitness, and Shape magazines .. they all have exercise routines in them.  I've been pulling them out ... I just haven't gotten to doing them yet.  Isn't that crazy!!  However, with winter coming ... I'm going to really make a big attempt to do something different.  I do not like to drive on the freeway in really bad weather and January has some really nasty weather up here in Cleveland ...  for like 2 weeks it's blizzard season.

 

DO YOU work out with your girlfriend? 

Yes I do,I like going to the gym with a friend, even if you don't talk it's like you push your self more when someone you know is there with you. I also do it at home when I can't get out (kids, homework, kids friends) While I watch t.v(more motivated when husband watches, he pushes me !) I do my execises, with weights and my cardio on the elleptical. That is one thing I had a hard time was menu planning! I stoped doing it. planning is not my cup of tea! I hate it!! but even after I stopped planning, and stoped going to the gym for 2 months and not execising at home (only once in while for 3 min. maybe) you know summer stuff, when I went to the gym 2 days ago I had lost 4 pounds and still had lots of muscle defenition, now that was surprising! just doing summer stuff kept me going! now that summer is over? if you have tricks to menu planning, I think for winter it  would be best You should take a look at oxygen real great magazine! I used to buy shape and fitness, like better oxygen. try it

I'm working it out 1 step at a time.  I have a mentor -- one of my support group members is 70+ years old and raised 5 kids -- so I'm able to gleam some stuff from her.   I've done Dr. Phil's 21-day menu a few times and I've come to realize that it's really pretty bland ... she had the same problem too ...  so she got a food mag that shows you how to prepare healthy meals.

 

I'm with you ... for me it's really hard.  I just hit that place where I discovered that I don't have much variety in my life.  I mean, I'm fine until I do menu planning & then WHAM!!  So now, I'm working on expanding my breakfast meals.  I'm collecting all sorts of menus from magazines and I am writing down the different things I can make.  I got one that shows me how to make new breakfast stuff and then refrigerate the rest so I can eat it at a later date.  Like my gym morning ... I can nuke it and have some extra time before I have to leave for the gym in the a.m.

 

Now I have to learn to make new foods and add them to my list of foods that I can prepare and eat.   Once I get breakfast up to 21 different meals, then I'm going to tackle dinner.  I'm writing my meals on 3x5 cards so I can simply select a meal .. then plan on eating left overs a couple of times ... including making TV dinners on those days I'm running all day and come home tired and ready to just binge.

 

What problems did you run into when you did menu planning?  How many times have you done it?  I made myself a weekly calendar and go over my wall calendar and put all my appointments on it and then sit down with another weekly form for my menu.  Did you do anything like that?

 I used to make a list of recepies I would make for the week and go grocery shopping and doing all my meals, but I was eating stuff my kids and husband didn't have to eat all the time so I started making them other healthy dishes.

 

I got so sick of making food all the time(I run an in home daycare so I'm alway's making food) that I just stopped planning my meals and started to eat the same food as husband and kids, wich was healthy but.......just not what I was eating. It's so easy to fall of track and hard  to get back on!

 

For the winter, I'll probably go back to eating more of what I used to eat, see, I love the outdoors and gone camiping all summer long, so that made it harder to eat all the right stuff!

 

If you have any good recepies that are easy to make, I would love to have some new ideas! I make great food, everybody love my cooking, but after a while it's alway's the same?!

The neat thing I've just recently learned about meal planning is that is just a tool that I don't need to be so anal about as I get better at it.

 

TASTE OF HOME has a magazine that has nothing but healthy recipes in it.  One of the support members gets it and always makes 1-2 new dishes out of it. 

 

Right now, I'm collecting recipes and I figure that if I get 21 dinners ... then I can rotate thru them.  I got that suggestion from one of my magazine .. I tend to forget what I can make .. I'm writing them down on index cards .. I want to separate them by the type of meat ...  Like I've found out that my grocery stores actually have a pattern when it comes to selling their meats.

 

Like always .. the end of the month they sell chicken breast real cheap.  They sell pork loin cheap 1x a month as well.  I can buy the chicken breast and can figure out what meals I want to make and how I want to fix them -- write it down.

 

I'm thinking of numbering the index cards & my list so I can remember to look at it

 

I guess if you have to cook all the time .. it does seem like work.  I'm just relearning to cook ...LONG STORY THERE ... any way, it's coming along rather okay.

 

It's all about figuring out what meals are healthy and then remembering they are there ... isn't that nuts.  However, it's not a habit ... I'm just now practicing it so it can become one that I want to fit.

 

With the weather turning colder ... you could make it a goal to start looking at your recipes, magazines, etc. for recipes for grilling -- isn't that how you cook when you go camping?   And take your recipes and make them healthier.  Like using low fat dairy instead of plain old milk.

 

Then when you go camping next year, you can take your new healthier recipes camping with you.  Would that be a good idea?

See, I don't have a big problem when it comes to eating healthy. And I don't need to loose more weight(I was 180 down to 120) and I have lots of muscle defifnition. My big problem is when it comes to making the food I alway's seem to be making the same thing over and over again!

 

And I don't like to eat food that has already be prepared and then frozen. I like my food fresh. I eat no processed food, all whole grain (everything), lots of veggies and fruits, soya products, organic as much as possible.

 

See, I went totaly freaky for a while when it came down to food, I would count all the calories that I would ingest (enven my gum of 5 cal!) I went down to 115 and I looked like one of those models on fitnesse mags, but I could'nt keep that up it was lots of hard work and lots of planning. I gain weight just by looking at food, I have to be very carful of what I eat. And the simpler it is, the better.

 

If their is to many ingredients in the recepie, I hate it, it has to be simple and fast. Guess i want my cake and eat it to!

 

I congratulate you by what you are doing when it comes to meal planning, I know I wouldn't be able to do all of that. index cards and all, let me know how it works for you and if you find it easy or complicated.

I hit a wall last week and when I sat down and analyzed where I had left off and how I was feeling and what I was saying to myself ... I AM BORED!!  I don't have a wide range of foods I eat. 

 

And like you, I don't like lots of stuff to mess with.  I want quick and simple actually.

 

That's why I figure if I write down all the recipes I've tried and liked -- then I can remember ... I mean, I just remembered this crockpot recipe I made earlier this year cause I had written it down.  However, if I hadn't dropped the recipe box on the floor, I wouldn't have remembered.  Isn't that pathetic!

 

So I figure if I just write down what I do know how to make .. and because I don't remember stuff too well ... I need to write down the instructions & ingredients as well. 

 

But for other stuff -- like me making oatmeal and cooking up sausage or bacon or whatever to eat with it, I'm just going to write it on a 3x5 piece of paper.   I can put down french toast or scrambled egg or whatever. 

 

Then when I sit down and write out my menu, I'll have them in nice little stacks ... like breakfast, lunch, dinner ...

 

And I'm going to learn about freezing foods.  I mean, if they sell waffles frozen in the store -- then why couldn't I make waffles at home and then freeze them up to eat later.  Do my dinners the same way -- then I know that my frozen TV dinners were healthy and didn't have all that trash in it.

 

Does that sound like it could work?  I'm going to start working it up tomorrow ...  I'll keep you posted ... I figure it's just another experiment that will either knock down the wall I hit hard last week or the wall will just grow a couple more inches.

 

Have you ever checked out those recipe books for 3 ingredients, 4 ingredients, 5 ingredients.  They'll probably at your local library ... you could check them out to see what new dishes you could make.   That's why I've been clipping out recipes out of magazines ... so that when I hit this BORED -- I would have a plan in place.   That was an old plan ... and because I'm just now picking up this goal again, I plan on seeing how well it works.

 

Hope you had a good weekend.  and your weight loss story sounds about right ... maintenance is learning how to be satisfied at a weight the body likes.  I know that I will probably never see 120 lbs because my lean muscle mass is coming in at that weight ...  my trainer & I have talked about it and I just may end up weighing in at 140-145 lbs or so.  We both agreed it's just something I had to deal with now so that when I finally got rid of 10% of my body fat, I wouldn't be freaking out ... better to be prepared ... the neat thing is, my body will be defined and it won't look like I weigh that much ... muscle weighs more .. it's just something I knew was going to happen -- the women in my body have muscles ...  it's just part of my genes.

When I was younger, my nickname was "Arnoldette" for Arnold shaw.....(what ever, you get it!) because I was full of muscles and very strong, My family looked like football players even the women, so I figured that, that was my destiny. Guess what, no it wasn't. I leaned out by working really hard, 1hr of cardio 5 times a week and lots of weight lifting, as heavy as I could, some men in my gym couldn't even do what I was doing!

 

So don't give up, I'm sure you can lean out to, depending on height also, it all depends on how bad you want it! also what you want. thats the biggest. My dad always said that the women in fitness mags are only in fitness mags and no where else, so I wanted to prove to him that you don't have to be in a fitness mag to look like that!

 

Right now my biggest ingredient for cooking in krafts salad dressing, If you like fish (salmon) pour some (vinaigrette, roasted red pepper and Parmesan or other)over it and put in the oven for about 30 min depending on size, delish... I also do that for chicken.

 

I totally despise writing, If someone held a gun to my head and said write 200 words or I shoot I'd say shoot!

 

Rainy weekend here, gave me time to do housework! You?

Today, I got some small stuff done ... I was a little stressed out by me going to the Pilates/Yoga class today.  I made it on time and then I was scared cause I was the only one there and class was to start in 10 minutes.  Then 3 guys showed up and that got me worried even more!  Finally 3 more women showed up and I was okay.

 

The class was good .. I took pilates nearly 2 years ago and stopped because I couldn't afford the $60 per session.  Now, I can go for free so I'm doing it.

 

There were things I couldn't do before and I still can't ... my core muslces are really not strong enough.  Now that I'm healthier, my goal is to finally do those exercises .. then I can do my videos at home.  I want to make sure that I am doing them right ...

 

The last year I took the class, I ended up with some major problems in my feet & legs ... my muscles are really really tight ... I'm going to use this opportunity to finally work it out.

 

My day was filled .. it's been a long time since I've had a long day .... I went shopping -- I get 1 check a month and I hit 3 stores.  I got lots of stuff on sale ...  enough to last me a couple of months.

 

What temperature for the salmon?  I'm using can cause my schedule is so erratic!  I don't work and I've become the "dependable" one.  Like every morning, I have to let my brother's dogs out while he's in the hospital.  I also have to shop for my mom ... The good thing is I'm getting better and better at saying NO.

 

I love journaling ... it really helps me to work stuff out in my head about people, things .... life.  I find that I'm able to catch my patterns quicker and I love asking myself

 

WHAT CAN I DO DIFFERENTLY?

 

HOW CAN I DO IT?

 

Those are some very powerful questions .... 

 

Tomorrow, after my gym class,I'm shopping for my mom and then running to his house again to  let his dogs out.  Then I'm home alone all afternoon ... I want to sit down and continue to figure out what I do make.  Your recipe will be added to my collection.   I have COUNTRY ITALIAN -- has no saturated or trans fat.  It should work just as good as Kraft's. 

 

I have to watch my saturated & trans fat ...   and my calories ...   I just spent 5 months working on bringing myself out of PreDiabetes.  now, my goal is to leave the realm of Metabolic Syndrome.  I have to lower my cholesterol, LDL, & triglerides to do that.  I'm giving myself 6 months to do that. It means more life style changes.  I'm okay with that.  I've been making those changes since 11/18/03 ... I'm still overweight .... however, I've finally tackled binging & overeating.  Yep, it meant dealing with my family, freinds and how I handle life events.