Excerise Question

I think I've been overweight my entire adult life and in my teens. I finally got the motivation this year 2 years after having kids. The weight loss needs to be gradual to be sustainable (1-3 lbs a week). www.sparkpeople.com is another good motivation website where you can read great articles, chat, and track calories. I've been doing that recently and it's made a difference - very eye opening around what calories are in what foods. Once summer is over, your new eating habits should be routine, so even if you aren't exercising on a regular basis, you should hopefully just maintain. One final point, if you have OnDemand w/ cable tv, check out some of the OnDemand workouts that you could possibly do during the winter months.

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First - at this point, your caloric intake is the larger part of weight loss. Just pick one bad food habit (we all have millions), and focus on that. Not getting enough water (or too much soda)? Drink more. Not getting enough fruits and vegetables? Eat more of those (and you'll hopefully be less hungry for other things). Eating too fast and not recognizing that you're full? Focus on that.

Second - when my Mom was on an organized weight loss plan through my Dad's employer, they started her on 5 minutes of exercise, 3 times a week. You could do that, right? You don't need to become a triathlete today. Set a timer and walk up and down your steps for 5 minutes. Park your car 5 minutes from work, and walk it as fast as you can. Get light dumbbells and do some light weight lifting for 5 minutes. Do that for March. Next month, bump it to 10 minutes three times a week. May is 15, and then voila it's summer and you have time to work out.

When you are exhausted and overworked, there's no point in forcing yourself to major changes. Just try to break those little habits that are making it hard for you to get where you need to go. I say that with complete sympathy as I'm trying to lose 15lbs myself, while balancing a job gone mad and a 3 year old, and housekeeping, and a husband, and... So I'm starting small, and we'll see where I get from there.

1 mom found this helpful

You can get exercise in in a LOT of ways when you can't get to the gym. WALK up the Stairs to your office. Skip the elevator.
While you're making dinner, do 10 pushups. Do walking lunges from one room to another. Do 3 sets of 50 crunches while you're giving the kids a bath. Planks over the baby while playing...

It's about committment, and whether or not you are dedicated or interested in putting the time into it. Kinda sounds to me like you're looking for an excuse not to do it.

I would give it a genuine effort during the summer - even if its twice/week. Whatever muscle you gain, will make maintaining the weightloss easier. You might want to look into T-Tapp, which is an exercise (maybe 15mins twice/week??) - a friend of mine is doing it after having triplets and lost 20 inches in the first 6wks. She's motivated to start taking her work out further by doing other things in the program.

I have lots to lose as well, having a child who didn't nap/sleep longer than 20mins for over 2yrs took a toll on my aging body - its holding onto fat from sleep deprivation and making my body seem twice its age. He napped for an hour today, the first time ever (at 34mos) long enough for me to exercise. I tried some of the exercises recommended by my friend (from T-Tapp) and they really made me feel refreshed, instead of more exhausted.

Good luck to us all!

The best way to lose weight is to watch what you eat and exercise. Lose the weight slow so you will keep it off. In order to keep the weight off you will need to keep exercising and eating well. It is not a diet but a lifestyle change. I have lost 21 of the 70 pounds that I need to lose. Try weight watchers. It will teach you how to eat right. Good luck

hopefully working out in the summer will turn it into a habit for you. When I am in the swing of working out I love it and want to do it every day. But skip just a couple and I easliy go back to blowing it off. I have confidence you will be able to find a way to fit it in. You can always breakit up into quick 10 minute workouts also.

Start walking but invest in good shoes. You'd be amazed how much better you will feel with more oxygen going to your brain.

Drink LOTS of water and add fiber. THAT made a huge difference to my weight loss. Cut out soda including diet soda and eat mini meals, you'll never be hungry.

I like to work out, just habitual from bein a Marine I guess. I would feel like hell no I don't want to go lol but once I literally dragged myself there turned on my ipod (well zune when I first started going) and started jogging or lifting weights... I would feel awesome and have so much energy. I'd sit in the sauna after for a few mins after... I met some nice people in the sauna and we would talk. I'd take a shower and head out. It was such a refresher and would melt all my stress away. I've been slackin since school started but plan on going to one that has a college student discount.

I never have had the motivation to work out, but have found that once I start a routine of it, I feel SO good! I also never want to workout, but until I get going I'm not going to feel the good effects of it. What got me started was something super easy...walking to dvds in my own home. Try looking up Leslie Sansone. You can walk a mile in your living room in about 20-25 minutes, including a warm-up and cool-down. She combines simple aerobic movements with walking. I love her dvds and can even find many of them on my Cable on demand for free! She has a ton of different workouts, starting from one mile up to 5! Just get started with something and you'll feel better!

You may want to check out a wide range of activities that you can do at different times of the year... Water aerobics is a great activity for the summer... and then maybe you can do other things in the winter... (exercise videos, belly dancing, indoor swimming) My sister just got me addicted to fitness classes using a hula hoop. (a large weighted one to start out) Plus- when you rotate the activities you won't get bored.. My favorite thing to do in winter is just put on some of my favorite music, go down in the basement and rotate between weights, an exercise bench, hula hoop, belly dance hip scarf, weight bar, etc... It doesn't take a ton of equipment... Interval training is great because you get to change it up every 3-4 minutes...

Also- a good way to try out exercise videos without having to commit is to rent them through Netflix... even some libraries have them.

Good luck. You can do it... it's just the 'getting started' part that's hard...

There have been some studies lately that show that although exercise is good for you in a lot of ways, it doesn't help a whole lot by itself with weight loss. This is because exercise also stimulates your appetite and SO many people will spend hours burning calories at a gym only to reward themselves with a treat or a muffin which completely replaces the calories they just burnt off.
So, I'd say you don't really need a routine that's really intense. Just walking can be a very good exercise. Gradually increase the pace and length of the walks and be sure to drink plenty of water. Cut out empty calories where you can (sugary snacks, fruit juice, carbonated drinks, etc). Eat more vegetables (no butter, easy on the salt). They help you feel full and provide plenty of roughage. Make small changes that you can keep up and the weight will drop off and stay off.

Yes. I lost 17 lbs by counting calories and excersising. I did a moderate program of two three mile runs/ week and one alternative form of exercise (boogie board, hike, walk, yoga). This was during a time when I didn't work. When I started a new job and developed runners knee, I stopped altogether, but continued to eat smaller portions as I had learned to do while counting calories (I no longer counted, but had learned what was reasonable to eat). All in all I only gained two pounds back in 6 months (then got pregnant). Anyway, point is this. You can excersise until you are blue in the face, but most of your weight loss will come from eating less. Excersise is such a wonderful aid to weight loss for so many reasons: raises metabolism, helps modivate you to make better eating decisions all day, burns some extra calories, helps you tone up, uplifts your mood, etc. You will only put on weight "and then some" if you drop your calories too low (and put your body into starvation mode). I followed advice from Gillian Micheals on eating only your basal (resting) metabolism (for me this is about 1450 calories). That way any movement you do amounts to weight loss , but its enough calories to keep your metabolism from slowing. If if you excersise you loose even faster. Yes, you can use this summer to loose weight, and if during the school year you cannot exercise much, yes you can maintain you weight loss by watching your portions. I am proof of that. Here is another trick, weigh daily and anytime you gain two pounds, cut back for a few days until you are at your maintainable low. Don't be afraid to try. You absolutely won't gain it all back if you can keep your calories to about 1600-1700 (depending on your age, height bla bla bla..) Think of your body being in two modes: weight loss and maintenance. Go into weight loss mode this summer (it could look something like this: 1400 cal/day, exercise 60 min 4 times a week). Then go into weight maintinance (it could look something like this: 1650 calories/day excersise once a week). Good luck. Don't be afraid to try. Its not about dieting, its about making a permanent change. Here is another analogy: you are an airplaine who has gone off course. you were flying from NYC and are headed to L.A. However, you really want to go to Seatle. Don't make any drastic moves, change course by 3 degrees and keep with it, you'll end up in the right place.

on another note: i just bought Gillian Michaels 30 day shred. the point is its 20 min. intense work outs. So even with little to no time you can get a surprisingly great work out. She makes every second count.

I agree with you that yes you could work out during the summer but you will gain the weight back if you stop working out. Even if you cut your caloric intake you may have difficulty maintaining your weight.

The wonderful thing about exercise is it can be addictive, at least it is for me. I find the more I do it the better I feel. To be honest I don't enjoy it, but like the way it makes me feel. You also don't need to work out for hours every day. In the winter could you work out one to two hours on Saturdays and Sundays? Could you wake up twenty minutes early during the week a few days and lift weights/run/walk? Spend twenty minutes before you go to bed doing the same? Everything adds up. It may not seem like you have the time but you can do a small amount multiple times or when you can. If it is truly important to you, you will find the time. My schedule is more lax now but when it isn't I still get up at 5:00 am to work out. When I training for my career I would work anywhere from 5-8 am to 8-12 pm (or all night) depending on my rotation and would still find time to work out.

You can do it!