Let's Get Fit and Healthy Together!

[Zero Cool]

Been a while since I posted here. Started working out again at a local gym. Have been going 4 or 5 days a week for 3 weeks now. Doing 1 hour of cardio, using cross training machine, bicycle or swimming and a half hour of weight lifting. Also, stopped eating food after 8 p.m. and trying to eat more raw foods.

Weighed 92kg three weeks ago.
Current weight: 90.5kg
Goal: 80kg

[absentmindedfan]

8.4 miles in an hour and a half
Decent speed (for me) and the furthest I've run to date
And a little yoga/stretching to cool down

[Frank]

Monthly start weigh-in:

June 13stone 10lbs

May 13stone 11lbs
April 13stone 10lbs
March 14 stone

Biggest disaster - 14 stone 4 pounds on the 15th May.

[Tigerlily]

I got a macrobiotic book. I'm going to try to eat more macrobiotically, see if that helps with my sluggish weight.

[absentmindedfan]

5.4m run Tuesday
3 mile faster run Thursday
4.3m tempo run today

My natural pace is getting faster

[sugarmouse]

You make me so jealous AMF!
I will be a runner soon!

I have been eating healthier conciously for a while now and I feel and look better. Havent been dieting, just eating more salads and vegetables and less stodge and simple carbs.

I want to be a size ten soon, thats my goal, I am a 12. . I know running helps and I love runnnig, but I have so much uni work and my life is so so stressful right now plus my medication makes me as tired as a 90 year old

[absentmindedfan]

Monday 5.4mile run
Tuesday 4.3 mile run
Wed - rest
Today 6mile run (in 1hr 5 mins, my comfy pace is getting faster)

[absentmindedfan]

5.4 mile run today, a total of 21 miles run this week

[talitha]

Hey AMF

I just got back from a 5.5miler too. Look like a drowned rat how about you?

[absentmindedfan]

Sunny with a light breeze, lovely weather for running

[cedarblue]

amf, what are fartleks???

i went back a few pages but couldn't find a description...

[absentmindedfan]

It comes from the Swedish for 'speed play' and it's basically and unstructured form of interval training. So instead of running fast for 2 mins, recovering for 2 mins etc, you run fast for as long as you like, recover for as long as you like and so on. It raises your overall speed, anaerobic and aerobic capacities.

[absentmindedfan]

6 miles today. Hard work, I got up later than I wanted to and it was humid

[absentmindedfan]

3 miles of fartleks today, feeling tired after trekking round London yesterday so I thought I'd take it easy.

[absentmindedfan]

5.3 miles today, light drizzle which was nice as it kept me cool.
Feeling tired this week. Maybe last week tired me out, or maybe it's the less energised part of my cycle.

[sugarmouse]

My fitness goal is to get to absentmindedfan stage lol
I love running but i am nowhere near able to do that yet!

[absentmindedfan]

Take your time, you'll get there. I've been running for a year now

[absentmindedfan]

8.4 miles this morning

[Frank]

''8.4 miles this morning''

You will be running in one of the forthcoming London marathons at this rate.

Fair play to you AMF

[sugarmouse]

I havent weighd myself, but Scruffyhead says I look at least half a stone lighter I have just been watchig what I eat (less stodge ) and running 30 mins few times a week

[thecatspajamas1]

I went running today. (Well, I walked half of it because I was too hot in my clothes!) Going to do my situps and other exercises tonight too.

I havent weighd myself, but Scruffyhead says I look at least half a stone lighter I have just been watchig what I eat (less stodge ) and running 30 mins few times a week

Good job!
I had to look up online how much a "stone" was.

[Frank]

Monthly start weigh-in:

July 13 stone 8lbs

June - 13 stone 10lbs
May - 13 stone 11lbs
April - 13 stone 10lbs
March - 14 stone

Biggest disaster - 14 stone 4 pounds on the 15th May.

[absentmindedfan]

Had all of last week off as Sam is on holiday and taking it easy this week too. 4.5 miles Monday and 5 miles today

[Maisiepaisie]

My fitness goal is to get to absentmindedfan stage lol

Me too. I don't like running as it makes my legs ache, probably because I'm carrying so much extra weight. I'm going to persevere though as I know it will get easier as my fitness levels increase.

[absentmindedfan]

Monday's run wasn't too good, a 4.3mile route but I got wheezy half way round and had to walk some of it
Today's 7miler was fine though

[Yogini]

OK, it's time to start contributing to this thread again. I saw my rheumatologist for a checkup yesterday and when I complained about minor knee pain, he got on my case about having put on ten pounds since last April. (And rightfully so. My knees weren't bothering me at all last April.)

So today I had a smoothie (fresh squeezed oj, frozen banana, frozen strawberries, and a bit of maple syrup.) Lunch was brown rice with a bit of Earth Balance and some nutritional yeast. And a soda. I have five left that I don't want to just throw out, so I'll be drinking one/day until they're gone. Dinner was udon noodles with seitan and peanut sauce from VWAV. Except I used tempeh instead of seitan and omitted the noodles, which are pretty much empty calories and I don't even like them all that much. Peanut butter may have crazy fat, but at least it also has protein and iron. The dish also contained cucumber and bean sprouts (so you all know I did have some veggies.) I also had water and herbal or green tea throughout the day. My total caloric intake was about 1675. I did 45 minutes of yoga, burning a daily total of about 2350, for a calorie deficit of about 675.

[Yogini]

Wednesday

Breakfast: two slices millet toast with Earth Balance and agave nectar

Snack 1: chopped apples in lemon juice, maple syrup, and cinnamon with chopped almonds

Snack 2: veggie burger on a slice of millet toast with ketchup, cola

Dinner: salad made of chickpeas, brown rice, and spinach in a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, and salt

Dessert: finished up the apple salad from Snack 1

Beverages: water, tea (green and herbal)

Exercise: a rather challenging 30 minute Pilates video

Caloric intake: about 1770
Output: about 2310
Deficit: 540

[Yogini]

Does anybody have any idea approximately how many calories are in a steamed vegetable Chinese dumpling? I can't find anything comparable on Fitday and am really trying to keep track of my nutritional intake. (If you happen to know fat, protein, and carb contents, that would be great, too.)

[Roxy]

Did you try http://www.calorieking.com/

They might have it listed.

[Yogini]

They did have steamed veggie dumplings there, but it just says 330/cals "per entire dish." How am I supposed to know from that how big a dish is? According to Fitday, 8 steamed meat dumplings would also have about 330 calories, so I guess that's accurate enough. I just have trouble believing that something I enjoyed so much was only 330 calories!

[Yogini]

Thursday

Breakfast: two slices millet toast with Earth Balance and raspberry jam

Lunch: steamed vegetable dumplings, two sodas (I still have two more left befor the evil stuff is gone.)

Dinner: orange julius (fresh squeezed OJ, soy milk, vanilla, agave nectar, ice.)

Snack: lemon bread with raisins and sunflower seeds

water, tea (green)

I wish I had eaten more veggies.

Fitness: 75 minutes yoga, of which about 55 was asana (the other 20 was pranayama and meditation.) I went to the pool, as well, but that was mostly just lazing in the sun with a magazine.

Total caloric intake: about 1672
Total output: about 2354
Deficit: 682

[absentmindedfan]

8.7 miles today
Furthest run so far. I feel better for having an extra day off yesterday

[RossClement]

I swum a lap around a lake on Wednesday. Does that count?

[Maisiepaisie]

I've started running regularly. The most I can do is only 1.7km, which is just over a mile. I'm not sure if its better to run shorter distances faster. I set the treadmill speed to 6.5 but I've noticed other people set it at 8. 8 is too much for me though

[absentmindedfan]

Take it at your own pace Maisie. There's alot of speculation over fat burning and whether shorter, more anaerobic (e.g. fast and furious) exercise burns more or whether slower (aerobic) runs over longer distances do.
Basically we don't know yet. What I do is a mix of medium pace medium mileage runs, shorter fartleks sessions and long slow runs but that's for my running technique not for weightloss.
At the distances you're running now concentrate on being able to talk while running, whatever speed that is, and slowly (no more that 10% a week) increase your mileage. You'll lose weight and it'll up your metabolic rate too once you're doing it regularly.
Oh, and drink plenty of water afterwards and eat plenty of low fat high GI carb foods to get your metabolism revved up. If you starve yourself you'll go into famine mode and wont lose a pound.

[Yogini]

Not such a good day today.

Breakfast: lemon breakfast bread with sunflower seeds

Lunch: homemade hummus with carrots and celery sticks, cola

Dinner (this is where I went wrong): corn chips, cookies, cola

Activities: 40 minutes on the elliptical, 20 minutes yoga.

I wasn't going to post my intake and output today because I'm embarassed, but I decided it's bogus to only post it on days I have a deficit. So, today's intake was 3174, output about 2583, for a surplus of about 600 calories.

I've dropped about 4 pounds, but that was bound to be water weight. I'll probably have put some back on tomorrow due to the salty chips. (Why do they have to make them so salty? I understand the concept of salt=flavor, but they don't need to be THAT salty.)

[absentmindedfan]

3 mile fartleks this morning, a total of 22 miles this week

[Maisiepaisie]

One thing that really hinders me when working out is getting far too hot and sweaty. Someone told me you can buy special clothing that releases the heat more quickly than normal. Can anyone tell me what this clothing is called? Also can anyone recommend a good sports bra that can be worn on its own? I can't possibly wear a bra and a top, I would pass out!

[absentmindedfan]

I would look on these sites Maisie, Sweatshop, Start Fitness and Wiggle. Have a look through the clothes and lots of them will say things like 'air wicking technology' or 'breathable' - this means the fabric sucks the sweat away and keep you drier and cooler. There should be sports bras on there too that are like crop tops, I wouldn't know cos I have to buy my sports bra from Bravissimo in a back size one bigger than usual and wear it over another bra, so I can't help you there.

[Russ]

I went on a bike ride today ... hoping to do this every day when I'm at home, but it's just gone to show how unfit I am ... I'm totally exhausted and didn't even ride for very long. More reason to keep going!!

[Christina]

I bought some skipping ropes the other day. Im waiting for the weather to change so i can get out inthe garden and skip! (my ceilings are to low lol) They only cost me £3 and they tell you have many you have done/times you/plus has a calorie counter.

[absentmindedfan]

Haven't been keeping up with this thread as much as I should.
So far this week
Monday 3 mile fartleks
Tuesday 5.7m
Thursday 7.5 in 1hr 25 mins, getting faster
Today: 9.5m, my furthest yet Very slow though, took me 1hr 50 mins

[Frank]

Monthly start weigh-in:

August - 13 stone 10lbs

July - 13 stone 8lbs
June - 13 stone 10lbs
May - 13 stone 11lbs
April - 13 stone 10lbs
March - 14 stone

Reason for increase: a varied diet rich in mainly chocolate based products

I ate more chocolate in July than the previous 13 years.

It's now out of my system.

[neil]

Just came across this thread and it reminded me of when I was fit. I used to routinely do a 15- 20 mile training run every Sunday unless I was doing a race and think nothing of it. Quite a few different circumstances got me out out of the routine and I am finding it very hard to even think about starting back. It's probably just about a bit of willpower and about 3 or 4 stones extra I am now carrying

[veganlinda]

I cycled about 40 miles yesterday beautiful day for it. Haven't done any running recently. Used to be keeping up with AMF but she is way out there now Will try and do a 3 mile run before work tomorrow.

[absentmindedfan]

I'm glad I'm inspiring people because it keeps me motivated
To anyone who is thinking of taking up running and thinks even my paltry 20-25 miles a week schedule is impossible, last June I could barely run around the block which isn't even half a mile. I took it slowly, built up my mileage by no more than 1-2 miles a week, and only ran every other day until recently to allow my body to recover and now there's no stopping me.
So if you want to, just begin small and work up slowly. If you need any advice PM me

Now...today I ran 4 miles of fartleks in 40 mins. Not brilliant, but I'm getting heavy legs in the first 20mins of my runs lately which is hindering my speed. I also did some sit-ups and weights.

[foxytina_69]

absentmindedfan, you inspire me also. i dream of being able to do anything, let alone run 20 miles a week. wow. its just amazing, and even though im very sick right now, you inspire me and make me feel as if maybe i can do it one day also. id have an asthma attack after 60 seconds of running, let alone 40 minutes, but hopefully one day i can run too! thanks for being so inspiring!

[Maisiepaisie]

Yes I agree with others, you are inspiring AMF. I really want to be running longer distances. I'm happy to hear that a year ago you couldn't run around the block because thats how I was so thats given me hope I can be as fit as you a year from now I've built upto 2.2 km now (excluding warm up and warm down time) running at a speed of 7km per hour so I'm definately improving

[sugarmouse]

You been running for a year AMF? what differences have you noticed in yourself in that year?

[absentmindedfan]

Fitter, happier, more energy, can eat pretty much what I like and not gain weight, generally crave healthy carbs, fruit and veg not junk...
But mostly it has shown me that I can achieve beyond what I thought possible with a sensible plan and perserverance, it has done wonders for my confidence. Now I focus on my training goals, not my weightloss goals. I don't care what I weigh, I care about speeding up and running further. It has solved alot of my body issues, who cares what I weigh I have a race to train for!