40+ Club: Beating The Winter Bulge

singfree

Good morning!

Nobody posted since yesterday afternoon? Everyone must be very busy!

We are bracing for yet another winter storm which could leave us with another foot (or more) of the fluffy white stuff. I'm considering working a double shift today and just stay home tomorrow or just take a vacation day. Either way I'm not venturing out into the storm tomorrow, even with "...the beauty of all wheel drive". The winds will top 40 mph, so there will be a lot of drifting.

On a lighter note, I trust that everyone had a restful night's sleep and you are havinvg a nice fresh and healthy breakfast. My system is still out of whack from the events of the past several weeks. I guess it will take some time to feel myself again. I did some good work with weights at the gym and a short kettlebell workout yesterday. Additionally, I did some cardio on the treadmill. I feel tired and stiff from the weights, which is good!

Alf, I wish I lived closer so I could be one of your Zumba students! You are doing great and we are proud of your accomplishment!

Trina, we like to cook when it snows! We are not home together very often, so it's nice to have a sit-down meal for a change. We get Prevention magazine too. I know it's written mainly for women, but I like some of the articles too. We also get Cooking Light, which gives us some great meal ideas. You probably live fairly close to Emmaus, the home of Prevention mag.

Have a great day and stay warm!

duffyzmom

Happy Tuesday! Let it snow let it snow let it snow! We are expecting 6-10 inches if the weather man is correct. I am hoping for a snow day with the kids as we haven't had one yet this year. Although I'm hoping that it holds off until the repair guy can get here to fix my microwave. So far now flakes and he is scheduled between 8 am and noon (last time he didn't get here till 2:30 so I'm not holding my breath )

Like Alf - yesterday I started week 2 of CX Push - I really went heavy and unfortunately today I'm feeling it in one of my wrists (probably just tendonitis) I think I'm going to have my husband show me how to use the sled because I really want to go heavy for my lower body (right now I'm squating about 50lbs but know I can do much more if my wrists and elbow would allow) I may head over to Chalene's Twitter account and see if I can get her to comment on using the sled.

Stay Safe and Stay Warm!

denimangel

At the hotel waiting to go swim a bit before heading for the airport for my flight to MN. My daughter says they have gotten about a foot of snow since Sunday, and the schools are closed again. That sounds so funny to me.. up here they NEVER close the schools because of snow... if the buses can't make it and the parents don't bring the kids to school there is still school for those who live in town. In the 10 years I've been here the school (high school only) closed because of a broken water pipe... never because of a blizzard and we have had some nasty ones. Oh well if schools are closed I get to spend even more time with my grandkids!!

Well off to the pool for some exercise before heading to the airport... I'll try to keep in touch while I am there...

Angel

zebras

Good morning, Sing, Hisangel, duffyz and everyone.

We're due to get 12-18" of snow starting tonight. I won't get snow exercise, because I live in a condo. Though driving to work will probably cause me to burn a lot of calories due to nervous energy. For some reason my office has a weather hotline, but since they have instituted it, they have never actually delayed or closed the office. It always makes me mad when I call it because it wil say something like "As always we are open." So, why do we need a hotline. However, I feel like there might be some time when they really grow a heart and close the office, I and would be the moron who didn't check and drive to work.

Well, I started back up on the treadmill again. I probably over-babied myself by waiting a week. I was kind of mad at myself, because I felt like I have been in a continual state of starting over for the last few months. Then, it dawned on me that in the past when something derailed me, it would be months or years before I started over, so I am much better off than I used to be, and I really think its because I joined this site, and met all of you, and am much more accountable as to what I do.

Texssippian

Hi all! We had below freezing temps last night and it took me two hours to get to work because of little patches of ice on the roads from run-off from rain yesterday. They are talking about snow here in North Texas on Thursday.

Had a good trip to Mississippi over the weekend. Made it back to the trainer last night. SI joint is still not 100% but much, much better. Will be able to do the bike tonight if I can't make it to water aerobics.

Alf: glad the Zumba classes are going well. Does your son like to dance?

Sing: stay warm and safe.

Zebras: Good for you for getting back on track quickly after falling off.

Everyone be safe and stay warm! TxMs

hamiltonba

What if you made her a small basket of goodies that include granola, fresh exotic fruit, nuts, etc. and tell her you love these things and thought she would love it too.......

hamiltonba

I thought that you should have some fats....obviously not too much, but I read that olive oil is a fat that you should use

Swissmiss

:mad: Watching our second bout of snow coming down right now. We have added a couple of inches onto the eight that we already had. It will continue until tomorrow sometime. I have to drive that stupid work van in this. Hope I can keep it on the road.:explode:

Trina22

Thanks for all the feedback about my questions. I don't want to do the whole P90X program because I think it is a little too crazy. Yes, I reached my short-term goal of fitting into size 14 pants instead of the 18s I was wearing. Me next goal is to decrease the amount of fat on my body - any tips on how to do that? I am doing the elliptical at home 3 -4 days a week 15 to 30 minutes each time and streangth training at the gym. I just want to get the fat off my thighs and around my mid section - help! (And happy snow day!)

singfree

Trina, I can't speak for anyone but myself...the BEST fat blaster that I've used was HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). Work hard to get your HR very high, then back off until your HR slows down a bit then repeat that sequence maybe 5 times. You will be exhausted, but I've found nothing that compares.

Here's an example that I use on an elliptical:

Get the HR in a good training zone, for me around 150 BPM
Then go full out for 30-45 seconds, which sends the HR to 170+ BPM
Slow the pace until the HR stabilizes back to 150 BPM
Repeat the sequence a few times

This is a tough workout, but to get the best benefit, you need to get out of your comfort zone.

Again, this works for me...and quickly! Combined with proper nutrition, you will see results in no time.

Also, keep strength training!

Good luck!!!!

2BLean

Hello Everyone ~

I am thinking of you all who are getting hit with all that snow …. :noway: :noway: Hang in there & be safe on those roads!

So far so good on my recovery week. Kickboxing last night then 30 min of Athletic Step & then 30 min of Plyo this a.m. – tonight I am going spinning. Tomorrow will be a good leg workout in the a.m. and then probably spinning again tomorrow evening. Trying to get some good workouts in before I leave for my mom’s on Friday. My workout when I am there is usually just a nice walk.

Trina: I absolutely agree with Sing on his info to you about doing some kind of training that increases your HR up in bursts like that. Enough that it gets you breathing/working hard but brings you back down too. From my experience ~ I was stuck at a plateau for sooooo long and just recently incorporated HiiT style training into my regular workout routine, (weight training, cardio & clean eating). It seems to be helping . . . I am seeing changes FINALLY. :drinker: Also, just changing things up can help too!

Hope everyone is doing good! I’ll check in again soon.

StiringWendel

Hi everybody! For those back east, I hope you are doing all right with this new storm. What a February you are having! :noway:

Welcome to all our newcomers! I hope you keep posting. :flowerforyou:

All here is well. It has been very busy the past few days, but I think things are going to settle down. I had a good weekend....but a horrible weekend for eating. I leaped off the clean eating plan right into a vat of chocolate. :blushing: Oh well. I'm back on track again and don't feel bad about my choices. While I ate way more than I intended this weekend, I also think my body was saying 'Hey....FEED ME!' because I feel SO much better than I was feeling towards the end of last week. And my workouts are feeling better too. So, listening to my body tells me that I should probably be eating a bit more. But I'm thinking there are healthier options than chocolate. :laugh:

Trina, I echo what singfree said about HiiT. It really is extremely effective. The other key, of course, is really cleaning up the diet. I've worked out intensely for years, but the only way I was able to get rid of the jiggle on my thighs was through a very clean diet. Over Christmas when I was doing Insanity but eating less-than-healthy options, the jiggle returned. So that tells me that, for me, diet is more key to controlling my fat level than exercise is. I wish I had better results with exercise alone because that is so much easier for me to stick to than my eating plan is....but, sadly, the eating really is key for me.

Hope you all have a great Wednesday!

singfree

Good morning!

Guess what? It's snowing!!! Sounds like a broken record here in the East. I decided to take a vacation day from work today. It's nearly 20 miles to work over some hilly terrain. So far we have just under 3 inches, with the bulk of the storm coming a bit later. A foot of snow wold not surprise me.

My plan for today is shovel snow, kettlebells, shovel snow, insanity, shovel snow, P90X, crash and burn. I'm going to keep the protein a bit higher today and for the next few days to see how it affects my intended weight loss.

Trina, listen to Stiring...she's a major success story. There are a lot of great people here who want to help. They give advice from experience. I've learned a lot from these wonderful ladies!

Have a great day! Keep shoveling!

duffyzmom

Sing: Let's see it is almost 9:30 so I'm guessing you've shoveled 3 times by now:laugh: I see you are going to have a record snowfall year - and I had to smile because the previous record the winter of 95/96 is the year we were living in the area. I have great pictures of the snow almost over the stop sign outside our house.

I'm enjoying our first snow day of the school year - and I really needed the sleep. Today I'll be carefully doing Push Circuit 2 my left wrist is still pretty swollen and sore this morning so I'll be wrapping it and hoping it cooperates. The good news is I've had problems with this wrist in the past so I have a really good quality splint that I can wear in between icing and ibuprofen. You know you've become and exercise addict when you a spinting wrapping icing etc all to make sure you can keep exercising. For me seeing the muscle definitiion is like a drug - I love it!

Trina - Congrats on reaching that goal - I'm so envious of your trip to WDW - one of my favorite spots in the world and one of these days I'm doing the full marathon there - I've just heard too many good things about that run and I really want a Disney medal.

Stiring: Glad to hear you are feeling stronger - I know what you mean about your body speaking to you - I think for those of us with food issues - it is hard to start trusting signals from our body when in the past we've misread them. For me the cleaner I eat the better able I am to understand what my body is needing (whether it be more protein or more carbs) And actually if you are choicing dark chocolate over 70% it isn't a bad choice - I've started only buying good quality dark for those times when I need a chocolate fix and then trying to keep myself to only 2 squares.

4crazykids

Looks like we are going to be home from school for the rest of the week due to the bizzard. I've been getting my exercise by shoveling w/husband and oldest son. Also, sleigh riding and building igloos w/the rest of the gang. I've also logged on tons of time on the Wii Fit Plus and cleaned the heck out of my house. THe hard part is trying not to eat w/out thinking as I have to keep food going around here because of all of the kids! Stay safe and warm everyone!:happy:

singfree

We already have 10-12 inches on the ground and it's snowing at a rate of 1-2 inches per hour! I'm going out now for my 3rd round of shoveling. Plus I did kettlebells this morning! See ya later!

zebras

Greetings from snowy Connecticut.

I'm guessing we have 6 to 8 inches so far. My company gave us the day off. Now I've seen it all. Its supposed to get blizzardy like around rush hour time here, but right now its been a calm gentle snow fall thins about 2 or 3 this morning.

Hope everyone is keeping safe and warm in this mess!

JuliaSoCal

Mid week check in.

While I have not got a "Have you lost weight???" question yet, I have noticed that my pants are looser....yeah for me.

Can't wait for people to start asking, so I can tell them about this site

Julia

cherigerzabek

New to`the site and about 12 days new....LOVE IT. Concerned about the challenges of losing weight at 41, but have l have lost 4lbs so far....let's hope it continues!!

singfree

Good evening!

The snow is just about over and we got hammered...24+ inches, most of it falling during the day today. I shoveled 5 times to keep up with the snow. Now it is getting very windy. Be safe friends!

StiringWendel

I hope everybody is beginning to dig themselves out from the storm back east! Sounds fierce. singfree, you aren't going to have to workout for awhile given all that snow removal!! I was thinking about you earlier today because we got a few inches of snow ourselves over here. But it was about 35 degrees, meaning it was really just slush. I was trying to knock it off the sidewalks, and just those few inches of slush was SO heavy. And there you are having to shovel multiple times in one day! :noway: I hope the worst of the snow is over for this winter for all of you.

Welcome cherigerzabek! :flowerforyou: Congrats on the weight loss so far. When I started my weight loss journey last year, I too was concerned about losing weight in my 40s (I was 43 at the time). But it really can happen....as you are proving to yourself already. I hope it continues to go well.

JuliaSoCal, doesn't it feel good when the pants get loser? For me....that is the ultimate in incentive for continuing. I HATE putting on clothing that is too tight. So putting on clothing that is loose is like medicine to my soul. When I was losing weight last year, I lost over 20 pounds before anybody mentioned my weight loss to me....and then people wouldn't stop mentioning it.. :laugh: But I'm okay with that because, like you, I actually enjoy sharing what I've learned and where I've learned it from with people.

duffy, I hope your wrist gets better. I love this line from your post: " For me seeing the muscle definitiion is like a drug - I love it!" So very true for me as well....though I've never worn a splint while working out. Of course, I say that and think back to the time when I was in a sling and exercising, so.................

All here is well. I'm back to clean eating, though I'm taking a break from counting calories and weighing myself right now. I felt I was getting a little to...obsessed....with it all, and I think it is better for me to just listen to my body for a little while instead of focusing too much on numbers. I'm still trying to find the balance I need so desperately (my New Year's Resolution), and am wondering if taking some of the self-imposed pressure off might not be better for me for a little while. We'll see. I pretty much know how much I need to eat now, what is in my foods, how hard I'm working out, etc., so as long as I stick to my healthy eating, I should be fine. My workouts are going well. I'm still loving STS right now, and feel like I'm getting really strong again.

Hope everybody has a great day.

singfree

Good morning!

I'm not sure if or when I will get to work today. The Governor has declared our county to be in a state of emergency. I also have to wait until they plow snow in our development. There is 3 feet of snow in front of our garages. Something tells me I will be shoveling again today.

Enough of me. Stiring, thanks for thinking of us here in the East. Yes, I shoveled 5 times yesterday for a total of 4 hours. I did manage a kettlebell workout and a part of a P90X "shoulders & arms". I'm tired today, but not sore. I ate clean yesterday, and upped my protein throughout the day because of the heavy lifting and cold weather. My hope is that this will accelerate the fat loss. You are right about your diet...forget counting numbers and just go by the plan you've developed over the past year. You will be just fine!

Welcome to all of our new friends!

Have a great day!

zebras

Good morning all:

The storm wasn't as bad by me, as they were predicting, but it was nice to have the day off anyway. My poor husband is set up to work from home when its bad, so he didn't get a break.

Got a good workout in, my husband actually came and worked out for a little while too, so that was nice.

JuliaSoCal

Observation: Have you ever noticed that when you start losing weight, people will ask: "Have you lost weight?". BUT they never say..."Hey, are you gaining weight?"

Maybe that is part of the reason we can stay in denial about weight gain

duffyzmom

Well my kids are back to school today - we only got about 7 inches of snow and although our sub isn't plowed yet most of the major roads have been.

Sing: I'm sure you enjoyed all that shoveling - I don't like to do it daily but every once in awhile I like to shovel and my favorite of all is getting out my ice spade and breaking up big sheets of ice. Talk about a great way to let of steam.

Stiring: A sling and exercise for some reason that doesn't surprise me about you. I headed over to beach body and there is an entire thread about tendonitis and Chalean Extreme. As I was telling my husband yesterday I may just need to find a good wrist brace for the circuits where I want to lift heavy for the lower body. I mean I have all kinds of braces for my legs when I'm training long distances so it makes since. He did teach me how to use his sled so if I want instead of using the dumbbells for squats I can do a hack squat or leg press. I actually used the machine last night to work my calves because I don't think CX focuses enough of calves.

Have a great Thursday!

Texssippian

Hi all! Snowing here in north Texas. We tried to drive in to Dallas this morning and could not see the highway. Missed the exit home (we have lived in this house 20 years...). Temp is 34 but snow is sticking to everything. Big flakes.

I think I will make some homemade soup today. Love to drink hot herbal tea when it is cold outside.

JulieSoCal: I agree that most people don't say "Are you gaining weight?"

Everyone stay warm, dry and safe! TxMs

cherigerzabek

Hello Everyone,
I love reading all the stories. The storm was "the storm that wasn't for most of Massachusetts"...YAY!! I'm ready for the warmer weather. Missed my workout, anticipating bad weather, but happy to be heading to the gym tonight. Do any of the females have advice on weight loss and menopause. I have diagnosed with early menopause...(I'm only 41) and about 15lbs over the last year. This sight has been great at making me really look at what I'm eating and the exercise is helping I think......meeting with a new doctor to discuss the best way to compat all the symptoms....any advice or insight is greatly appreciated.

Texssippian

Cherigerzabek:
I went through the "Pause that Refreshes" early too, around 43. Exercise helped with weight gain and hot flashes. As soon as you feel a hot flash, try to attack it with a hand held fan, ice water, kick off the covers or whatever will work. Also make sure you are getting enough calcium and vitamin D. Hang in there! This is good group for support.

genann

Cherigerzabek:
I went through the "Pause that Refreshes" early too, around 43. Exercise helped with weight gain and hot flashes. As soon as you feel a hot flash, try to attack it with a hand held fan, ice water, kick off the covers or whatever will work. Also make sure you are getting enough calcium and vitamin D. Hang in there! This is good group for support.

:mad: I had hot flashes so intense that they made me physically sick. I could not sleep nights, I couldn't stand to go to work because I had the flashes every 5 to 10 minutes and I was so grouchy that I didn't even like myself! As far as kicking off the covers, my husband use to have the blankets tucked under his arm at night because while I was hot, I was freezing him. I drank glass after glass of water. My doctor finally had to put me on Premarin. Now I am back to my normal self, whatever that means! I guess it means that I feel great, have my sense of humor back and my husband and family seems to like me again. (My husband also gets to keep covered up)

singfree

Good morning!

Happy Friday and "Check-In" day . For those who are new here, we each report how we did during the previous week, No pressure, just being honest!

I did very well, thanks to Mother Nature (via snow). I not only shoveled for nearly 6 hours, but I was able to exercise consistently during the week. My eating was much cleaner and I am feeling alive again! This morning I will do a kettlebell workout.

I am not working today because I have some appointments pertaining to my Mother's estate. My wife does not work on Fridays (lucky gal), so we can enjoy the day later after the appointments.

Have a great day!