40+ Club - Fall Fitness Fanatics

Swissmiss

sing, such great insights. I have certainly found that in order to continue losing, I have to change something...either my foods or my exercise. Our bodies get used to our everyday stuff. By the way, did you get a bunch of snow? My in-laws live in Williamsport. We haven't talked to them in a while but will be talking to my father-in-law tonight as this is his birthday.

Happy birthday Zebras !!!

:flowerforyou: alf, I see that you catch up while at work also. I am on my lunch hour.

zebras

Thanks, Swiss, you're the best too. This whole group is!

tron3002

Zebras... Happy Birthday!!!!:flowerforyou:

I think I figured out what part of my weight loss problem is... When I get busy I dont eat often enough. I usually only eat lunch and dinner and sometimes I get so hungry because I have been working non stop til around 9pm that I don't make the best choices. What ever is the quickest thing to put into my mouth. So I'm am gonna try to slow down and get back into the habit of eating smaller meals more often and see if that helps.

StiringWendel

Happy Birthday, zebras! :drinker: I hope you enjoy your time in Maine.

So I've finished P90X for the first time. :happy: I'm really happy I did the program and will most definitely do it again. Here are some random thoughts on the programs I've done/am doing right now....in case anybody cares.

Cathe Friedrich's STS remains, in my opinion, the best pure weight lifting system on the market today. While P90X is great, it involved alot more body resistance exercises than STS, was more repetitive than STS (by far), and wasn't even as close to being as balanced as STS. So if anybody is looking for a pure weight lifting program that is focused and balanced, I would recommend STS over P90X all the time.

That being said, P90X is more than just a weight lifting program, and for that reason, I think it is excellent. I think the cardio in P90X was weak. But where I think P90X absolutely kicked butt was in building up my core strength. While I have lifted weights forever, and have done better weight lifting programs, I would argue that I am as strong as I've ever been right now, not because of the amount I'm lifting per dumbbell and such, but because my core is stronger than it has ever been in my life. I credit the yoga ALOT for this, as well as the plyometrics. And this is a benefit I feel in everyday living. So in terms of functional fitness, I think P90X rocks!

Insanity...what can I say? I'm in love with Shaun T. Don't tell my husband, but....seriously....I love this guy. And I love the program he has created. I've only done the first section of workouts in the program (the shorter workouts), and I've not done them as a rotation. But I finish these workouts feeling SO good. I think these workouts will be an incredible addition to my cardio collection. And where I don't think I'll probably do too many Insanity rotations because I love to lift weights, I will probably be doing these workouts for as long as my body will take them.

Which leads me to my final point. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself this morning (see my earlier post :laugh: ), feeling tired, beat up, sore and...well.....even more tired. So after I posted this morning, I went over to the Cathe Friedrich site to see what was going on with the new workouts she is filming (she is filming a set of cardio DVDs to go with the STS strength series). Somebody posted a video of a mother (60) and daughter doing Insanity together. I found this so inspirational. The mother adjusted the workout to match her level of ability which was wonderful to see. What I liked even more was the sense of accomplishment on both of their faces when they were done. And, best yet, the video ended with the following phrase: The only limits you have are the ones you set.

Maybe I'm feeling sentimental as I pack up another house, or because I just finished P90X, or because I'm silly , but when I look back on this past year, I never imagined back in January when I started on my weight loss journey that I would do what I've done this year with my body. I've reached way beyond what I would have seen as my limit 9 months ago. And it has me wondering what will happen if I just keep reaching. I think I might have fun trying to figure that one out.

Thank you all for being here and being so supportive. I never could have done this without all of you. :flowerforyou: Now back to cleaning the house.........:grumble: :happy:

zebras

Thank you Stiring and Tron!

I'm shortly going to go into a Birthday Cake Coma. I think it had some rum in it, and since I'm not a drinker at all, who know what will happen? LOL

You all will be proud in that I took what was left after my department finished it, and walked around the building until I gave the rest away, if I had that at home, I wouldn't be able control myself!

Texssippian

Hi all!! Finally have time to get on the thread. Have been logging food and exercise but haven't had the time for you guys.

Hoosier: What a wonderful family and you look maavelous! Can you now do wedding planning in your sleep?

MK: moving grown children's furniture counts as exercise. I counted the moving we did in Austin in August in 100+ degree heat. There is a "moving furniture" calorie calculation in MFP.

Swiss: at least you are not gaining. Check your body fat if you can, you may be replacing fat with muscle. That is better than only moving the number on the scale. Also, bathroom in another building at work? Great cardiovascular employee wellness program as well as bladder training (Sorry Sing).

Stirring, dumb question but can you rent a dress in Korea? How cool to be talking about going to a ball! Sounds like Cinderella! Sorry you have to give away the wine. Make everyone to whom you give the wine promise to send you something in the mail once you get to Korea. Think of all the fun adventures you can do with your healthy body while you are there.

Tron: We have to put up our Halloween lights before we can put up our Christmas lights. Did I mention I am married to Mr. Holiday? He has had a slow start this year but I am sure we will be spending Saturday (between Texas and SEC football games) putting out Halloween. He has not even gotten out the Halloween coffe mugs, plates, glasses and wine glasses. Horrors! We have a big Christmas display at my work. They start putting the lights in the trees the first of October.

Sing: Thank you for your faithful posts. I agree that logging your food does wonders in controlling what you eat. I need you to talk to my husband. He will wait to log and entire week's food until right before we are supposed to go to the trainer and turn in our food to log the previous week. I ratted him out. Now he has to email the trainer every two days... I read a study about the effectiveness of interval training versus steady pace for a longer time. You get faster results with intervals with less time spent exercising.

Zebras: Keep at it and you will be wearing a size 12. You are right to not worry about numbers but how you feel and what you are doing. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I got to go to deep water aerobics tonight. Yea! The great (17 year old kid) instructor from river aerobics taught the class. One of the hardest w a classes I have ever had. We did kicking intervals on the side of the pool for ten minutes. Also had to stand on a water noodle and balance keeping hands out of the water. Great work for the core!

We think my brother in law is going to get to go home this weekend - at least for the weekend! He has not been home since middle of July. Monday will be two months post liver transplant. He sounds great and is ready to get home.

Long enough from me. Take care all! TexMs.

alf1163

Maybe I'm feeling sentimental as I pack up another house, or because I just finished P90X, or because I'm silly , but when I look back on this past year, I never imagined back in January when I started on my weight loss journey that I would do what I've done this year with my body. I've reached way beyond what I would have seen as my limit 9 months ago. And it has me wondering what will happen if I just keep reaching. I think I might have fun trying to figure that one out.

Thank you all for being here and being so supportive. I never could have done this without all of you. :flowerforyou: Now back to cleaning the house.........:grumble: :happy:

Stiring, I am SO PROUD of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ((((((((((((((((HUGS))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) :flowerforyou:

alf1163

Tex, those are great news about your BIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :drinker: :drinker:

Stiring, maybe STS is in my near future. I am done with week 1 of phase 3, 4 more wks and I will be done with P90X. I am getting a little bored with it. STS videos are as long as the X?

Sing, I totally agree with all your points. I love HIIT and find it very effective but as you mentioned it can be very hard on my aching joints. Also counting calories has gotten me where I am today but it is very important to eat the right combinations. When I first started using this site in Jan 08 I was just looking at the calorie amounts and not the appropriate requirements. I soon learned that a calorie is not just a calorie, that I needed to choose the proper foods and the proper amount. That is when I really saw big changes in my body. Now, it is a full time job, very time consuming. I had stopped logging in for a couple of months and it was pretty much working for me, I was not hungry, had plenty of energy for my workouts but I continued to losing weight when I wanted to maintain. I tend to undereat if I am not logging in my calories. I have been logging in the past few days but it is really taking too much of my time. I am spending my evenings pretty much plannning my meals for the next day. I really cannot continue doing that. Now that I have seen where I am "lacking" I am going to test myself again and not log in my foods. I will see what happens.

Gotta go to sleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :yawn: Have a great evening! :flowerforyou:

singfree

Good morning!

What a flurry of activity here! This is great. Friends helping friends. Thank you!!! :drinker:

OK, it's Friday again (TGIF). As you all know by my long-winded posts, I really am making an effort to get control of my eating habits. I must say that I was pretty successful this week. I do feel a bit leaner and my pants feel a bit looser. I have to keep this up as Thanksgiving is now less than 5 weeks away!

I had a good day yesterday. I arrived home at 11 am and then had to stain & finish an end table we recently purchased at an unfinished furniture store. I was able to take a long ride on my bike, since the temp got up in the high 70s. The road that I bike on generally follows an old branch line of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Even though the tracks are no longer there, you can still see the path where the tracks were laid. This RR was in use over 150 years ago and I still marvel at how they were able to situate the tracks around and over obstacles like hills and rivers and other competing RR lines. Must be a guy thing.

Stiring, thank you for your last post on the pros & cons of P90X. Yes, I agree with you that it does need balance. I really think that it was developed to appeal to men mostly. Look at the packaging, the cds themselves are to replicate an old school, sweaty gym. This appeals to the "macho" part of me. As we discussed earlier, a hybrid between P90X and Insanity would be pretty much ideal. When the weather gets too cold for biking, I will also do some spinning at home. Shaun T is a good instructor. How did a guy from NJ learn to use "y'all" ??? Must be south Jersey!! :laugh:

Alf, yes, yes, YES!!!! You've hit on the essence of what this is all about! A calorie is NOT a calorie. We need to have as much nutrient dense food in our bodies as possible. I totally agree with experts about eating smaller, but more frequent meals. I am more aware of how the Glycemic Index (GI) affects my blood sugar levels, mood and energy levels. Like Stiring, you've become tuned in to minute changes in your body and how even small changes in diet & exercise can affect this fragile balance.

Tron & Tex, I used to put up Christmas lights, Nativity Scenes, the works. We now live in a townhome where we are somewhat restricted as to what we can display. This is fine with me. Now we only put a few electric candles in the windows. They are on timers so no work there either. In the next few years I am going to buy a German train set. I think my Grandson would enjoy it (so will Opa).

Zebras, how was the rum cake? I'll be you were the life of the party!!! :drinker:

Have a great day!

StiringWendel

Happy Friday!!

Today is check-in day....and I don't have a clue how my weight is this week. :frown: Actually, I'm doing fine not knowing. It has only been three days after all. :laugh: But I am cognizant of the fact that I can't monitor my weight right now, and that is actually working as a motivator for keeping me in line (well, pretty much in line). But I had a relatively good week eating and working out. I ate a few cookies yesterday, but worked them into my calorie allowance. We're running out of food in the house (intentionally) so I'm actually struggling right now to find the right combination of foods to get in enough calories. I think this is one of the reasons I usually eat so much when we move because by this point I'm usually headed to restaurants for at least one meal a day. Not this time, so I'm having the opposite problem. Oh, well.

I'm going to do a tough circuit workout today (about 80 minutes). It feels strange not to be doing a P90X workout today!

Tex, I'm not sure about dress rentals in Korea. The biggest complaint I've heard about shopping in Korea is that most Americans simply can't wear Korean clothing because it is too small. The biggest shoe size is equivalent to a 7, and I heard from one lady that her daughter (a size 0) was wearing their biggest clothing size. My feet should be okay (I'm a size 6) and I might be able to wear their clothing (I'm wearing clothes anywhere between 00 and 2 right now) but I don't want to gamble on that thinking I'll be fine and then figure out when I get there that my hips/thighs are too big (or whatever). So I'm trying to do most of my shopping here. But thanks for the suggestion! And don't let the word 'ball' make you think these are elegant affairs. While the formal functions are nice, it is still just a bunch of people sitting around tables and eating traditional mass-produced rubber chicken! :happy: We're just dressed up when doing it!

alf, thanks for the hugs. :flowerforyou: I think you'd like STS. I also think you might like Insanity. Regarding STS, many of the workouts are actually a little shorter than P90X. The length varies (I'm going based on memory here) between 45 minutes and about 70 minutes. The ab workouts (there are a number of ab routines--6 or 7) vary in length between 10 and 20 minutes. STS is more flexible than P90X in that you aren't doing the same ab routine after a workout, so you can choose what works best for you on any given day or even do your abs on non-STS days. And there is no 90 minute yoga workout or anything like that! The one drawback for STS is that it requires alot more equipment than P90X. But it is worth it (at least it was for me). If you are serious about it, please ask me any questions you have because it is a costly investment. But it is also 40 DVDs of excellent weight lifting sessions.

singfree, I totally agree that P90X feels like working out with a bunch of people in the gym. That part of P90X really appealed to me even though I'd never describe myself as 'macho'. :laugh: I think it is wonderful that there is finally an option for use-at-home-DVDs that appeal to men. Women have had this option for years. I suppose the argument could be that men have had the same option because they could use the women-instructed DVDs, but I don't think many/most of the workouts are geared towards men at all so I don't blame men for not using them. I think I might have mentioned this before, but I felt P90X really focused on what men like to work on more than what women like to work on (the back muscles to create the V shape, the quad muscles, the chest muscles, etc). A program like STS focuses on those as well, but spends alot more time than P90X does on things like glutes/hamstrings and triceps which are 'problem' areas for women. So where I kind of got the 'do I really need to work my back again?' feeling with P90X, I'm sure some of the men who have done STS (and there are men who have done STS!) are thinking 'I don't need to work the back of my legs nearly as much'. But I'm happy there are now options for everybody.

I think after this next couple of months doing Insanity, I'm going to go back to STS and do a 3 month STS rotation with Cathe's new cardio (she's doing more HIIT type work in this new program). Then I think I'm going to do a 90-day undulating rotation with STS (where you switch between endurance, strength and muscle building workouts every week, constantly challenging the muscles in a new way) with the Insanity workouts. Then I think I'll go into a hybrid P90X with Cathe cardio and Insanity workouts as the cardio. Well, that's my plan right now. We'll see how this all works out. :bigsmile: But if I am able to do things that way, it will be using similar workouts I've done this year, but in different ways and I think that will be good for challenging my body.

And, singfree, you call your posts long-winded? I'm thinking I take the cake (not literally, of course) on that one. :laugh: Off to do my workout and get started on the house some more. I hope everybody has a great day. :flowerforyou:

mkwood10

Happy belated birthday Zebras........meant to get on the site yesterday to give good wishes on the day, but it just didn't happen. The stress factor in my life has skyrocketed in the past 48 hours..........

My hubby's retired from the Army, but he still works for the Army as a civilian and being deployed IS part of his job description. Found out on Wednesday afternoon that he is headed overseas again......:frown: :frown: He'll be heading to Afghanistan before Thanksgiving to replace a guy who had to be brought back to the states for family emergency or medical, not sure which (not that it matters). Right now we don't know if it'll just be to finish that guy's deployment, which would mean home sometime in February, or (more likely) it'll be a full 6 month deployment. I'm figuring on him being gone the 6 months, and it'll be a great thing if he comes back home sooner. We'll know more by the middle of next week, including when he flys out.

Our daughters aren't too happy, especially the youngest one, who is a senior in college. Her reaction was fear that he volunteered to go back overseas to make extra money because we're having to help her out with finances this year. She lost over half of her scholarship $ this year due to the economy; the organizations just couldn't afford to give as much as they have in the past.:frown: It took a lot of talking to convince her that he didn't volunteer; he was just at that point in the rotation roster.

Gonna be very hectic for me the next month until he leaves, then things will settle down some.....going to be a struggle to keep the weight and inches steady until after he leaves. Don't know how often I'll get back into the site, but I will be trying to maintain the progress I've made so far.................

StiringWendel

mkwood, my thoughts are with you. No matter how you look at it (military vs. civilian), deployments are tough. I'm especially sorry that it is happening this time of the year because of the holidays. I hope your husband doesn't have to stay the six months.

I'm sure with him being in the Army you have been through this before. But I also believe that it never gets easier, no matter how many time you go through it. You may know better what to expect, but that doesn't make the reality anymore fun than it was without knowing all that (at least it doesn't for me).

Check in when you get a chance. Right now is the time to focus on your family, but please take care of yourself at the same time. We'll be here for you when you need us. :flowerforyou:

singfree

I stand corrected...Stiring, you are long-winded!!! :laugh: (just kidding)!!

Truly, I am very happy when you post, no matter the length. You have so much good info for us, I always look forward to read it. I hope that you will be able to check in with us on occasion when you arrive in Korea. We need you here, but we understand how time consuming this move is going to be.

MK, my thoughts are with you as well! Please use your friends here as a kind of support system. We won't mind a bit if you need a shoulder to cry on. Best wishes to you and your family! :flowerforyou:

Swissmiss

:flowerforyou: mkwood, I am so sorry that your family is going to be separated. Hopefully, it won't be for too long. You certainly do not look like you could have a daughter that age.

Swissmiss

:flowerforyou: tex, thanks for the advice. How do I check my body fat? I know that I have some.:laugh: Yes, the restroom is in another building and this makes going there terrible in the winter or when it rains like today.

Swissmiss

singfree..you will be happy to know that I am sitting here drinking a glass of red wine.

singfree

Good morning!

Off to do some errands this morning. First stop is Barnes & Noble for a coffee and a bagel. For my wife & me, nothing is more relaxing than enjoying a coffee in their cafe and talking about the day and maybe browsing some books.

Swiss :drinker: I hope you enjoyed the wine last night. So relaxing on a dreary night.

Have a great weekend everyone!

cardigirl

Good morning!

Off to do some errands this morning. First stop is Barnes & Noble for a coffee and a bagel. For my wife & me, nothing is more relaxing than enjoying a coffee in their cafe and talking about the day and maybe browsing some books.

Swiss :drinker: I hope you enjoyed the wine last night. So relaxing on a dreary night.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Sounds perfect to me. Used to do that all the time after going out to dinner. Nothing like browsing in a book store. Have a great weekend, Sing and Mrs. Sing.

alf1163

Hello all!!!! You guys can post...:noway: I am sorry if I cannot respond to each one of you...

I ran my first half marathon!!!! :drinker: :drinker: I finished in 2:03. My goal was 2hrs, a little ambitious I must say, but 3 minutes longer is not bad. I am happy with it. My husband finished in 2:48. His goal was 3 hrs so he did fantastic!!!! I am proud of him!!! I dont know yet how I finished overall. The weather was perfect, a little chilly at the start line.

MK, my thoughts and prayers for you and your family. I know how hard it can be. You need to stay strong for your husband and your children. Everything will be alright. Feel free to talk to us whenever you need to.

Sing, my husband and I love to go to Barnes and Noble to get a cup of coffee and read...it is very relaxing.

Have a wonderful day!! :flowerforyou:

tron3002

My goal for today is to steam clean the carpets in my sons room and clean the rest of the house. I want to get as much done as possible so starting Sunday I can concentrate on my diet and exercise. I dont think I have anything planned for next week so its a good time to get started.

MK.... I am sorry that your husband is leaving. Lets all pray that its for the shortest time possible.

Sing.... Have fun at Barns and Noble. Wish we had one here but I live in a small town. Guess thats the sacrifice we make for not having our neighbors right on top of us. But we wont get into my neighbors, I dont really like them so I stay FAR away.:grumble:

Alf... GREAT JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!:flowerforyou: :drinker: