Greta
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Posts posted by Greta
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Thank you guys so much for all this great feedback! I so appreciate it.
Laurie, thank you so much for all the links. I look forward to checking those out.
Snickerdoodle, may I ask why you would not recommend the plyometrics?
Slache, yes, I love that idea of putting the non-fixed days on a loop. Brilliant!
Everyone - okay, here's the weird thing. My body does not respond well to stretching. You know how most people feel relaxed like they've had a massage after a stretching session? Well, instead, my muscles cramp up and scream in protest for days. I hate it. I have tried, I really have, I've tried super gentle stretching, dynamic stretching, traditional yoga, I just hate it all. I've been using a foam roller to massage tight muscles, but just on an as needed basis, not on any sort of schedule or routine. So I could change that. And if you think I should add something more relaxing to my routine, there is a great tai chi class at my gym that I could go to. But the thought of stretching makes me want to cry!
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Another question for Laurie or anyone who knows.
My husband swears that lateral arm raises are the best exercise for shoulders, and that if I do those more often I'll have less pain in my upper trapezius. But I don't like that exercise. I usually do a simple overhead press as my primary exercise for shoulders, because I just don't like the way the lateral arm raise feels. I can't explain that, though, so I don't know if I don't like it because it isn't a good exercise for me, or if I don't like it because it's hard, but hard in a good way that my body needs.
Any thoughts on the safety and effectiveness of the lateral arm raise?
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Choose a day for a rest day. Your body needs to recuperate. Alternately, you could just assume that you will not workout one day a week for one reason or another and that can be your rest day. Guilt free.
Not sure the reason for splitting up into legs/arms/shoulders and legs/chest/back. Will your bodyweight exercise day hit all the groups? Which exercises are you planning for those days?
Sunday will probably often end up being a rest day. But I went ahead and scheduled something for it in case I have a migraine day that derails my plans earlier in the week. I'm not sure if a migraine day counts as a rest day, but if so, I will have a rest day or two each week whether I like it or not. :( So this is my "wishful thinking" plan, subject to readjustments due to reality!
When my husband works out with me, we only have one hour to spend at the gym. That sounds like a lot, but we're finding that it's not long enough to get in a full body workout. (Maybe we're slow?) Squats and deadlifts are our priority, so we want to do those every time. We've been just kind of randomly adding whatever upper body stuff we feel like doing, without any sort of plan. So I thought it might be better to focus on back and chest one day, then arms and shoulders the next time, to make sure we're hitting every muscle at least once a week.
I am planning on the bodyweight routine being a full body workout, though I haven't planned it out in any detail yet. And the circuit training class is full body too, though like I said the resistance on those machines isn't very high (and it can't be adjusted). In that class I just try to do as many reps as I can in the allotted time, so it ends up being a mixture of resistance training and cardio.
Does that make sense?
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Okay, here is my tentative plan for the next few weeks (months?). Please critique and give me any feedback that you can think of!
Every Day: walk at least 2 miles, posture and physical therapy exercises, a few planks or other light ab work
Monday: HIIT (could be cycling class at my gym, could be run/walk/run/walk around my neighborhood)
Tuesday: Heavy weights (legs, arms, shoulders)
Wednesday: Circuit Training class at the gym (only 30 minutes, and the weights aren't that heavy) plus a short MIC session (medium intensity cardio)
Thursday: Bodyweight exercises and plyometrics
Friday: long MIC session
Saturday: Heavy Weights (legs, chest, back)
Sunday: long MIC session
Tuesdays and Saturdays are "pinned" because those are the days my husband can workout with me. And I'm not doing heavy stuff without him to spot for me - I'm too chicken! The rest is more flexible, though the class schedule at the gym did influence how I arranged it. What do you think? I'm going back home for a visit in June. Is it possible to look less flabby by then? And if so, do you think this plan will get me there?
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I'm trying to get into shape as well. So there are far more experienced people here who can help you, but yes I think your plan to mix it up sounds good. I mentally divide my workouts into three types: Weights, HIIT (high intensity interval training) and MIC (medium intensity cardio). I try to get a minimum of one HIIT workout, two weight workouts, and three MIC workouts each week. But since you have a time and weight loss goal set, you might want to up the HIIT and Weights a bit, and lower the MIC. (I like to do plenty of MIC because it helps with my migraines, but I assume you don't have that issue to deal with. It's very good for your health, but it doesn't help you lose weight and firm up the way weights and HIIT do, at least from what I've read.)
You can do both MIC and HIIT workouts on your elliptical and/or rowing machine. Do you have any free weights (dumbbells)? If not, there is a great deal you can do with bodyweight. You might want to check out You Are Your Own Gym.
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Actually, your weight lifting will help with the posture. One doctor I watched on Youtube said that most shoulder issues could be prevented if people would only "keep their shoulder blades in their back pocket." It's the position that they should be in for most lifting. As you get stronger, and keep awareness of this position for your lifts, you'll start to use it in other situations. For instance, I feel myself slump in the car, and immediately "put my shoulders in my back pocket." You can kind of see it here. (Wish he would have taken his shirt off so it would be clearer.)
Not just deadlifting, but rows, too, it's really important to set your shoulders that way. You are squeezing those back muscles together. Don't know how to describe it any better.
Yeah, that is a good description! Thank you!
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Did my Saturday morning workout at the gym with my husband. We did legs and back today. Also went for a two mile walk together afterwards, and we'll probably walk again this evening once it has cooled down again.
Didn't do anything yesterday because of a migraine. I just walked one mile around my neighborhood, because that's all I could manage. Glad to be feeling better today!
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If you mean your upper trapezoid, here's a great stretch: http://www.eliteperformancesf.com/category/exercise-list/page/2/ It's called the neck stretch on that page. I do that but without using my hand for added pressure, just gravity. It was suggested both by my PT and by a massage therapist for that area.
Thanks, Laurie! I've been looking at diagrams of the muscles in that area, and it very well could be the trapezoid. Hard for me to tell if it's that or one of the deeper muscles. But I'm guessing trapezoid is the most likely culprit. Unfortunately, my body does not respond well to stretching at all, but I'm going to do some pressure massage on it and try to loosen it up. I know that I have poor posture in my upper back and neck, so that's probably the ultimate source of the problem. It is VERY hard to change habits of posture! But I really need to work on it. Thanks for your help!
ETA: Laurie, you're absolutely right, it's the trapezius. I've been watching some really interesting videos about the problems caused by "forward head posture" and how to work to correct it. Thank you for pointing me in this direction!
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I haven't been posting, but I have been exercising. I've gone for a few short runs, and decided I need to get back to the stair-stepper / elliptical hybrid machine at my gym instead. Running hurts. I've done weights with my hubby and went to that circuit training class again. Somehow managed to cause one of those muscles where the neck and shoulder meet to cramp up terribly, and that hurt for a few days. Trying to get into shape when you're not a spring chicken anymore is challenging!
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Forgot to post yesterday, but my husband and I did weights together at the gym again. Need to do some kind of cardio today.
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But for your purposes I would see if your library has Peter Reinsert's Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor.
They do! It's at a different branch location, but I requested that it be sent to my nearest one. Thanks for the suggestion!
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I love baking bread. I don't make 100% whole wheat, more like 80%: 1 cup of bread flour to 5 cups of whole wheat. I add some gluten and have just started adding a pinch of citric acid to get a higher rise. Now that I've learned about citric acid, I plan to reduce the amount of white flour and see how that goes. So fun to experiment.
We like to try different flours and add-ins. We found that my daughter dislikes the taste of spelt flour. We love love love bread with some cracked wheat tossed in. (Link is to Bob's Red Mill, great source of grains.) My mother used to sprout wheat berries and put them in bread - I have fond memories of that and need to try that myself.
It does sound really fun to experiment. I think the hardest part is going to be keeping my grain intake "moderate"! :)
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Hope you make a quick recovery. Sounds pretty rough.
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Just a few more thoughts...
- We leave a large pizza stone in the oven all the time. We don't actually bake bread on it, though you can. But just having it in the oven makes the bread better and maintains the heat if you have to open/close the oven door. We do slide pizza dough onto it for a crispy crust. If I have something big to cook a few times a year, I'll take it out. Otherwise, it just lives in there.
- You can put a small ceramic ramekin of water (1 cup or so?) in the oven for a crisp crust. The water turns into steam as the bread bakes. The ramekin can stay in the oven too; just add a bit of water each time you bake.
- I read or watched something on La Brea Bakery that mentioned spritzing water into the hot oven with a water bottle to make steam right before putting the loaves in to bake. I don't usually take the time for that extra step, but I have tried it in the past and it worked for a crisper crust.
- We use store-bought bread for sandwiches because the bread we make (Artisan/5 Minute-style) is too hearty for sandwiches. You'd be chewing a long time! And it crumbles. LOL Some people perfect homemade bread for sandwiches, but we've not figured it out. Would probably have to use different flour and dough conditioners? The whole-wheat / homemade is better for toast or with soup/etc.
- Just wanted to add that I think, for a lot of people, bread making is a mental hurdle. So many people--one of my close relatives recently, who is highly intelligent and accomplished!--insist that they're just not good bakers and that the yeast is this impossible, mysterious thing...that bread making is this ancient practice that is very difficult to figure out. If you are one of these folks, take heart! It's really not rocket science! LOL
Obviously, there is some basic science to it (water too hot = dead yeast = no rise.) Baking bread can be an art. But some people make it much harder than it has to be! Follow recipes closely until you get the hang of it. Adapt and change them a bit at a time. Watch videos. Expect some lumpy, too-dry, undercooked, ugly loaves here and there--they still taste better than what you can buy! I've never seen anyone in my life turn away fresh, hot homemade bread right from the oven-- :laugh:
Thank you so much! The few times in my life that I've made a good loaf of bread, there was something so satisfying about it, more rewarding to me for some reason than other forms of cooking. So I think it's a skill that I will really enjoy developing.
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My Mother's Day gift this year was a new pair of running shoes. :D So I decided to break them in this morning with a little HIIT workout: run/walk intervals. The weather was perfect this morning: cool, clear, and dry. Gorgeous day. It was fun.
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Tons of great suggestions. I'm going to have a hard time deciding! Maybe I'll see what my library has so that I can browse through them first. Thank you all so much!
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The average American consumes something like 200-300g of carbs per day, while ketogenic levels are generally less than 50g per day, so that gives a lot of room in-between. So one option is to keep your carbs in the 100-150g per day range. I have read blogs and articles wherein a number of people claim that to be their optimum range: more than that and they gain weight, less than that and they feel run-down. So that's worth a shot - hopefully not low enough to mess up your thyroid? (I'm sure this disclaimer is understood but I'll say it anyway: I'm not a doctor!)
Another option would be to focus on the quality of the carbs instead of the quantity. Eat lots of fresh fruits and veggies, eat moderately of whole grains, eat sparingly of natural sweets such as honey. But avoid sugars and white flours. In a way that's simpler because you're not having to measure, count, and log your food.
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I'd be hesitant to recommend anything as a temporary dietary measure. I'm sure there must be a few exceptions (though I can't think of any specifically), but generally I would say that whatever changes you make to your diet need to be permanent if you also expect the results of those changes to be permanent. So, if your 150g of carbs per day is coming from sugar and refined flours, I would say you could change that to healthier, lower-glycemic sources of carbs, make that a permanent change, and that would be good for your health and possibly for your weight. But temporarily dropping your total carb intake and then going back up isn't likely to help you. Most people, myself included, regain pretty quickly when they increase their carbs again. I ate very low-carb for more than ten years, and I had to stop because it was messing up my hormones. When I did, I gained ten pounds very rapidly. In my case those ten pounds are worth the benefits (the hormone problems were causing me migraines almost every day!), but I know that's not the kind of scenario you're looking for.
If I personally were in your shoes, I would consider switching (long-term!) to either a ketogenic diet, or an intermittent fasting diet. But that's just ME. I would not want to live on 1000-1100 calories per day. I hate calorie restriction because it makes me tired, grumpy, and miserable, so I'd be looking for another method. But if you can live at that level of calorie intake happily for years to come, then please, by all means, do what works for YOU not for me!
(Edited because I had the wrong calorie amount.)
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Joanne, I'm so sorry. I don't know much about Crohn's, so I don't even know what the treatment options are. But I really hope they'll be able to find one that works for you. :grouphug:
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If your plan is to go low enough on the carbs to be ketogenic, then I will say that after those first four or five brutal days, you will feel much better and the cravings will subside drastically (or at least they did for me). For the first four days or so, I felt awful and could not seem to get enough to eat. But then once you make that metabolic switch, your energy levels shoot up and your appetite decreases.
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We probably average 3 meals a week from Thug Kitchen or at least heavily influenced by Thug Kitchen. It's vegan and I often sub chicken broth for veggie broth since we are omnivores. You need to be able to find the humor in the off color language though to like the book.
Colorful language won't bother me a bit. Thanks for the recommendation!
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I am not aware that there are several. the one I have is entitled "The Moosewood Cookbook" -there now is a 40th anniversary edition. I cannot paste the link to the amazon page here, my browser is being stupid
Thanks, but no need to paste the link. This tells me what I need to know!
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The Moosewood Cookbook and anything else by Molly Katzen
Looks like there are a great many Moosewood cookbooks! Any particular one you would recommend, or is it "can't go wrong" kind of situation?
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Most women are weak in their upper body, unless they are specifically working hard at it- that is not something that comes easy to women. Which is why it makes us feel like a badass as Slache said :) Don't feel like a scrawny weakling. You start where you are at. I remember the first time I tried a push-up ages ago and ended on my face, I made it to 1-arm push-ups eventually and would do 100 at a time in sets of 25. (I'm not there right now- especially as I've backed off with hurting my shoulder- I work pulls more than pushes these days). We like results to be fast but generally it takes time and the older we are the more we have to watch it. I hurt my shoulder last summer progessing too fast w/ chaturangas(like a tricep push-up). I still have to watch my shoulder in various moves- because my shoulders are off I tend to use my right one more.
Anyway, the lat pulls are good and if you want to work on pull-ups eventually I'd advise just to start working on dead hangs- get comfortable with hanging there. Then work on bent arm hangs- jump or step up and hold youself at the top of the bar for as long as you can. Then you can progress to negatives- which is starting at a bent arm hang and lowering down as slow as possible. They say once you hit 30 seconds you can probably do a chin-up- chin-ups use more biceps and are usually easier than pull-ups(hands facing away).
Wow, I am in awe! That is very inspiring! And I appreciate the advice regarding the dead hangs, etc. I never would have thought to do that!
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Exercise Thread: May
in The Chat Board
Posted
Oh, and Laurie, your point about rest days between weight workouts is well taken! I'll be honest, the thing I love most about that circuit training class is the people. They are just such a warm friendly bunch, and they welcomed me into their group with open arms. They are fun to be with in class. So that's my main motivation for putting that one on my schedule! But I'll think about whether it really best serves my needs.