Am I making excuses.
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I get up at 4:45 am to get my workout in. 45 minutes on the elliptical.0
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Thanks everyone for all your comments.
It seems that I am doing plenty but just need to increasing the intensity not the hours of exercise.
I guess there's plenty of time to increase my hours when I retire or when my boys leave home.
Good idea about leaving my husband to walk the lab whilst I run on with the greyhound. I did start that when I started the C25K but the dogs like to be together so I guess I will just run along and if my greyhound wants to join me she can.
You taking one and hubby taking the other works! Be thankful you have one dog who will run with you. I have a little 12lb shih Tzu .. not a great running partner lol! Next dog I get will be one I can run with.0 -
You lose weight in the kitchen, and build muscle in the gym. It sounds like you have a decent activity level through the week, but what does your food diary look like?0
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Your activity level is fine. You need to find some time for strength training.0
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You don't have to exercise for hours to get results. Many of us can understand the demands of raising a family, working and trying to fit everything and everybody into our daily responsibilities. The good new is that you don't even have to DIET. I have been on MFP and it has changed my life forever. Pay special attention to eating quality food, staying within your calorie and fats for the day and begin a "realistic" exercise plan that fits into your life. Something you enjoy and will do faithfully--you will find after a brief time you will look forward to your exercise time and if you plan a little bit everybody is happy. Good luck-you CAN do this--first few weeks are learning curve but once your plan is in place it becomes automatic for you to stay with it. 0
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You know what? I don't do HALF of that. You're fine. I have handweights at my desk and I do squats and pushups here and there throughout the day, but that's nearly all the "real" exercise I do. I walk here and there, I play with my dogs, I do my housework, and I lift weights at my desk. Period. It works. You do what works for you and don't worry about what everyone else thinks.I really feel that I need to up my exercise but feel that I don't really have time, so I am asking for people to take a look at my day and suggest what I can do.
Below is a breakdown of my week.
Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday.
6am, get up and out with the dogs, back just before 7, shower, breakfast, clean up after breakfast.
8.30. Work, on my feet all day, coffee whilst working and don't have a lunch break. ( am adding about the lunch break so you know I can't go for a walk during my lunch )
4pm. Home, feed & walk the dogs.
5pm.. Cook dinner.
Between 6 & 7 off to aerobic class.
Back home anytime between 7 & 8.30 depends on time of class.
8.30, shower and dinner.
9pm. A bit of housework.
9.30. Catch up and chat with my boys.
10PM ish bed..
Thursday & Friday,
Exactly the same as before but no classes so either grab 30 minutes on the exercise bike or lift weights.
Saturday & Sunday. My husband works away during the week so the weekend is our time together,
7AM Up and walk the dogs.
Housework...
Chilling with husband.
Most Saturday we get a couple of hours walk in, normally end up in a pub for a glass of wine. :laugh:
Back home to walk the dogs.
Dinner, clear up and chill.
I look at some people's diary's and they tend to fit in hours of exercise, I really need to fit in more so come on guys, I need advice. 0 -
You only need to exercise 1 hour or less, 5x per week
There's 168 hours in a week. If you sleep 8 hours a day, that leaves 112 hours. if you work 9 hours per day 5x per week, that leaves 67 hours. If you spend 3 hours of uninterrupted family time per day that leaves 46 hours. . Somewhere in that 46 hours you can find 5 hours to exercise.
Yes, you're making excuses.
With all due respect, she is getting about a average of an 45 minutes in 5 days a week, not including walking.0 -
You lose weight in the kitchen, and build muscle in the gym. It sounds like you have a decent activity level through the week, but what does your food diary look like?
I am sure my diary is open for all to see. X0 -
So don't up it just make it harder! Planning, Planning., Planning ( Like I live that! NO! but it is what I aspire to)0
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Something you enjoy and will do faithfully--you will find after a brief time you will look forward to your exercise time
I've been going to the same aerobic class for 10 years so I can safely say that I do enjoy that and I do look forward to that. :laugh:
I do try and vary my other exercise though as our bodies need a change but wouldn't want to give up my aerobic classes.0 -
Sounds like lack of activity isn't your problem. Especially if you're on your feet during working ours. I would focus on making your diet as healthy as possible (this also takes time). If you really want to step it up I would suggest making your current workout time more intense. I certainly don't think you need to add more time.0
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Maybe just make the most of the exercise you are already doing? Run the dogs instead of walking them. Throw in some pushups and crunches before your shower in the a.m. When you go to aerobics do it with 100% effort. When you've been doing the same routine for awhile, you'll find that sometimes you just show up and go through the motions without much effort. I have people I workout with that do this, and they are like, hhhhmmmm... why are you in obviously better shape than me when we do the same workout? Effort and intensity makes all the difference.0
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Something you enjoy and will do faithfully--you will find after a brief time you will look forward to your exercise time
I've been going to the same aerobic class for 10 years so I can safely say that I do enjoy that and I do look forward to that. :laugh:
I do try and vary my other exercise though as our bodies need a change but wouldn't want to give up my aerobic classes.
If you aren't using weights already, add them to your aerobics class or up them. Make it difficult. If you've been going to the same aerobics class for that long, you're super adapted to it, and you need to find a way to make it challenging if you want to get the full benefit from it.0 -
its easy, wake up earlier....and yes, you are making excuses0
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You only need to exercise 1 hour or less, 5x per week
There's 168 hours in a week. If you sleep 8 hours a day, that leaves 112 hours. if you work 9 hours per day 5x per week, that leaves 67 hours. If you spend 3 hours of uninterrupted family time per day that leaves 46 hours. . Somewhere in that 46 hours you can find 5 hours to exercise.
Yes, you're making excuses.
With all due respect, she is getting about a average of an 45 minutes in 5 days a week, not including walking.
That's my point. There's enough time in the week for her to get her exercise in, work, eat, sleep, spend time with family and friends, and most importantly, accomplish her goals.
If she's not hitting her fitness goals, the problem is either she's not doing the time she's saying, she's not doing enough when she does work out, or she's not eating right. She's making excuses for something, but I never specifically said it was time spent working out.0 -
You can add weights to what you are doing. For walking and aerobic class you can wear ankle and/or wrist weights. Also can do squats while with the dogs adding a few minutes of doing push-ups too. I know you have been trying but just need to make sure you get enough protein to stay strong.0
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Something you enjoy and will do faithfully--you will find after a brief time you will look forward to your exercise time
I've been going to the same aerobic class for 10 years so I can safely say that I do enjoy that and I do look forward to that. :laugh:
I do try and vary my other exercise though as our bodies need a change but wouldn't want to give up my aerobic classes.
An effective instructor should be changing the routine every few weeks so that people's muscles don't get too used to the moves.
What kind of job do you work? If it's food service, you could always try to add in wall pushups, pulse squats, and/or standing calf raises while you wait for your food to come up on the line or during any down time. You can also do standing crunches and side crunches pretty easily as well. Some of these things could also be done pretty unobtrusively in a retail environment as well. When I was a server, I used to wear a pedometer and I would take laps around the restaurant just to get in more steps when it wasn't that busy.
Otherwise it looks like you're doing really well! Good luck! :happy:0 -
You only need to exercise 1 hour or less, 5x per week
There's 168 hours in a week. If you sleep 8 hours a day, that leaves 112 hours. if you work 9 hours per day 5x per week, that leaves 67 hours. If you spend 3 hours of uninterrupted family time per day that leaves 46 hours. . Somewhere in that 46 hours you can find 5 hours to exercise.
Yes, you're making excuses.
With all due respect, she is getting about a average of an 45 minutes in 5 days a week, not including walking.
That's my point. There's enough time in the week for her to get her exercise in, work, eat, sleep, spend time with family and friends, and most importantly, accomplish her goals.
If she's not hitting her fitness goals, the problem is either she's not doing the time she's saying, she's not doing enough when she does work out, or she's not eating right. She's making excuses for something, but I never specifically said it was time spent working out.
Agreed. It's sufficient time, so there's something off.
However, having been a woman all my life, I understand the misinformation we tend to get fed about what a quality fitness program looks like. I've been using gyms off and on for about 17 years. I've never believed that women could become bulky and has always been interested in gaining strength - which means that I've been directed to circuit training machines and spending a lot of time on routines that work a lot of more peripheral muscles with free weights. A lot of work on abs.
It's only been recently that the idea of heavy lifting being a staple part of a basic fitness routine has become popular - unless you were specifically interested in body building, you were encouraged to do other things in the past. I'm loving New Rules of Lifting for Women (the lifting part, not the diet or cardio advice) because it really makes sense with everything I know about fitness. But I wasn't able to put it together until reading the book. One of the greatest things about the routine is that it takes so much less time than I was doing committing to building strength. And I have two toddlers so I have a strong need for efficiency and effectiveness.
It's possible that she's not making excuses, she just doesn't know what to do with the time.0 -
Id imagine the problem lies in calories. At your height and age your BMR is small. If a few things get underestimated it will make a pretty big impact on a the deficit you're at. Your numbers and goals look pretty good, but, I suspect that little things are adding up. You also have to consider that calories on labels can be as far off at 20% in some cases. Yes 20%! Theres no calorie police, in a lab, authenticating data on labels. (dont tell me the FDA you silly straw man... the FDA is Monsantos left nut)
My suggestion, drop your calories by 100 and see if things improve. Also, eat more protein. ~30% of calories from protein are burned by digesting it. Google TEF (thermic effect of food). Protein has the highest thermic effect of all 3 macros..
The thermic effect of food is the energy required for digestion, absorption, and disposal of ingested nutrients. Its magnitude depends on the composition of the food consumed:
Carbohydrates: 5 to 15 % of the energy consumed
Protein: 20 to 35%
Fats: at most 5 to 15 %[4]
boom.... dropping knowledge bombs yo
do the math.... replace 500 calories of carbs with 500 calories of protein and you probably just basically netted 100 calories less on the day.. the carbs would be 450 after processing (assuming 10% TEF) and the protein would be 350 (assuming 30% TEF)...0 -
So I'm totally limited for time (single mom of a 3 yearold and I work full time), so like me your time is limited and there are things about your schedule you can't completly change, like walking the dogs, so you just need to switch things up a bit.
I would suggest a progressive strength program. I'm using You Are Your Own Gym. It's 30 minutes a day 4 times a week. There is also Body By You, the YAYOG program tailored for women and that one is only about 20 minutes 3 times a week. Both are body weight strength programs and are progressive because you do more challenging excercises as time goes on. So you could definitely add to one of your days you don't do aerobics and to one weekend day, and sometimes I do two days in a row if I'm working different muscle groups or you add it to one of your aerobics days, in the morning when you wake up or during your evening chill time.0 -
An effective instructor should be changing the routine every few weeks so that people's muscles don't get too used to the moves.
What kind of job do you work? If it's food service, you could always try to add in wall pushups, pulse squats, and/or standing calf raises while you wait for your food to come up on the line or during any down time. You can also do standing crunches and side crunches pretty easily as well. Some of these things could also be done pretty unobtrusively in a retail environment as well. When I was a server, I used to wear a pedometer and I would take laps around the restaurant just to get in more steps when it wasn't that busy.
Otherwise it looks like you're doing really well! Good luck! :happy:
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Our aerobic routine changes every couple of days so we work different muscle groups.
As for work I am a carer so I do spent a lot of time running up and down stairs and lifting clients. I have an jawbone up which records my steps and I generally do between 16,000 and 23,000 steps each day. The last few days I have stayed under 20,000 though as I've had an op on my feet last October and its still causing me problems. Oops, is that another excuse. :laugh:0 -
You only need to exercise 1 hour or less, 5x per week
There's 168 hours in a week. If you sleep 8 hours a day, that leaves 112 hours. if you work 9 hours per day 5x per week, that leaves 67 hours. If you spend 3 hours of uninterrupted family time per day that leaves 46 hours. . Somewhere in that 46 hours you can find 5 hours to exercise.
Yes, you're making excuses.
With all due respect, she is getting about a average of an 45 minutes in 5 days a week, not including walking.
That's my point. There's enough time in the week for her to get her exercise in, work, eat, sleep, spend time with family and friends, and most importantly, accomplish her goals.
If she's not hitting her fitness goals, the problem is either she's not doing the time she's saying, she's not doing enough when she does work out, or she's not eating right. She's making excuses for something, but I never specifically said it was time spent working out.
Why would I lie about the amount of time I am exercising, surely I would be kidding myself if that was the case. Yes I probably could push myself abit harder during my workouts, which I intend to do.0 -
You only need to exercise 1 hour or less, 5x per week
There's 168 hours in a week. If you sleep 8 hours a day, that leaves 112 hours. if you work 9 hours per day 5x per week, that leaves 67 hours. If you spend 3 hours of uninterrupted family time per day that leaves 46 hours. . Somewhere in that 46 hours you can find 5 hours to exercise.
Yes, you're making excuses.
With all due respect, she is getting about a average of an 45 minutes in 5 days a week, not including walking.
That's my point. There's enough time in the week for her to get her exercise in, work, eat, sleep, spend time with family and friends, and most importantly, accomplish her goals.
If she's not hitting her fitness goals, the problem is either she's not doing the time she's saying, she's not doing enough when she does work out, or she's not eating right. She's making excuses for something, but I never specifically said it was time spent working out.
Why would I lie about the amount of time I am exercising, surely I would be kidding myself if that was the case. Yes I probably could push myself abit harder during my workouts, which I intend to do.
I don't think he's saying that you're lying. He means that you should be able to get the results you are seeking in the time you have available, so there's something not adding up.
I think RunnerElizabeth's suggestion might take you to that next level. I have the You Are Your Own Gym app and use it when my schedule is off (like for Memorial Day). It's really easy to use and a quality workout.0 -
I apologize if it's already been addressed but, what's your goal with the exercising? Are you getting ready for an event, or are you just aiming to slim down a bit? If it's the latter, you're exercising plenty already. Just eat healthy foods in the right portions and you're set.0
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I apologize if it's already been addressed but, what's your goal with the exercising? Are you getting ready for an event, or are you just aiming to slim down a bit? If it's the latter, you're exercising plenty already. Just eat healthy foods in the right portions and you're set.
Not getting ready for an event, the event has been and gone ( got married 2 months ago ) I was happy with my weight at my wedding but I still have the figure of 9 stone in my head with less fat around my middle so am determined to get there. I am 9 stone 4 but the number on the scales isn't that important, just need to lose fat. I know I need to eat more protein in my diet but I do struggle with that so that's my goal to improve my protein intake. X0 -
"If it's important to you, you'll find a way. If not, you'll find an excuse"
Which applies to you?0 -
You seem to spend a lot of time walking your dogs, which I LOVE to do, myself! Are you just ambling along, or is this an omg, they're about to pull my arm off situation? Walking is a great exercise. Maybe you could incorporate some body weight exercises throughout your day. Squats while you brush your teeth. Toe raisers while you wait for the coffee to brew. Wall push-ups while you talk to your hubby about your days. These aren't great suggestions, but will allow you to sprinkle some additional exercise into your day. Good luck!
I had to laugh a bit at this because this was my "walk" with my hubby and I . We did body weight exercises on the trail 0 -
I apologize if it's already been addressed but, what's your goal with the exercising? Are you getting ready for an event, or are you just aiming to slim down a bit? If it's the latter, you're exercising plenty already. Just eat healthy foods in the right portions and you're set.
Not getting ready for an event, the event has been and gone ( got married 2 months ago ) I was happy with my weight at my wedding but I still have the figure of 9 stone in my head with less fat around my middle so am determined to get there. I am 9 stone 4 but the number on the scales isn't that important, just need to lose fat. I know I need to eat more protein in my diet but I do struggle with that so that's my goal to improve my protein intake. X
Right on. Well, I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, but... baked not fried, as little processed food as possible, fruits, vegetables all the time, lean meats... and you're all set. The exercise you're getting now will be fine.0 -
I apologize if it's already been addressed but, what's your goal with the exercising? Are you getting ready for an event, or are you just aiming to slim down a bit? If it's the latter, you're exercising plenty already. Just eat healthy foods in the right portions and you're set.
Not getting ready for an event, the event has been and gone ( got married 2 months ago ) I was happy with my weight at my wedding but I still have the figure of 9 stone in my head with less fat around my middle so am determined to get there. I am 9 stone 4 but the number on the scales isn't that important, just need to lose fat. I know I need to eat more protein in my diet but I do struggle with that so that's my goal to improve my protein intake. X
9 stone is 126 pounds.
I'm about 5 pounds away from my body fat goal. I've gone on maintenance while I lift and gain muscle for 12 weeks. Then I'll cut my calories again to lose the final bit of body fat to get me to my 23% bf goal.0 -
I used to use the "my husband works away so the weekend is our time together" excuse too. An hour or two out of each day is not much.0
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