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Exercise and Fitness: sticking to resolutions


Iskaral Pust

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Got back to it this weekend by taking some flow classes.  Sweat my ass off, but now my muscles are exhausted and I feel constantly dehydrated.  Bought some pedialyte to hopefully help w/ that.  Really hoping I'm not coming down with something....

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It's certainly possible. I've never really focused too much on my weight but, while exercise can definitely help, I'd think you'd probably want to keep track of your diet as well if losing a certain amount of weight is your goal. Having said that I've lost about a stone, admittedly probably over a longer period than 3 months, just by running more often than I used to do so who knows. (Bit of a mixed bag when you're getting fit to play second row):dunno:

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1 hour ago, Theda Baratheon said:

im trying to lose a stone in 3 months thats totally achievable right 

14lbs in three months is doable if you're pretty overweight as your starting point.  I lost a similar amount over a similar period a year ago and I wasn't much overweight to begin with (losing the 14lbs took me to a lean ideal body weight), but I did have a good amount of muscle mass which helps with metabolic rate.  And 14lbs is a smaller % of a man's body weight to lose.  So make sure you haven't set your goal too high for your body.

You're trying to lose 1lb per week for a sustained period.  That's 3500 calories per week, or 500 per day.  (1lb of body fat is 3500 kcal)    If you have any retained water weight to lose, that'll make things easier.  Reduce sodium intake and try a light diuretic like dandelion root tea to see if you shed any water weight and clean up your liver and kidneys at the same time.

Please recognize that minus 500 calories per day, by eating less without moving less and/or moving more without eating more, for a long period is going to be really tough.  Your body will try to resist that kind of sudden calorie deficit.  Make a good plan for your diet to achieve this and be realistic.  You'll probably need to reduce sugars and refined carbs and focus more on fibrous vegetables and lean protein, with a small amount of healthy fats to help with satiety.  Do some research.  Extreme diets rarely work and can be unhealthy.

Best of luck.  

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20 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

14lbs in three months is doable if you're pretty overweight as your starting point.  I lost a similar amount over a similar period a year ago and I wasn't much overweight to begin with (losing the 14lbs took me to a lean ideal body weight), but I did have a good amount of muscle mass which helps with metabolic rate.  And 14lbs is a smaller % of a man's body weight to lose.  So make sure you haven't set your goal too high for your body.

You're trying to lose 1lb per week for a sustained period.  That's 3500 calories per week, or 500 per day.  (1lb of body fat is 3500 kcal)    If you have any retained water weight to lose, that'll make things easier.  Reduce sodium intake and try a light diuretic like dandelion root tea to see if you shed any water weight and clean up your liver and kidneys at the same time.

Please recognize that minus 500 calories per day, by eating less without moving less and/or moving more without eating more, for a long period is going to be really tough.  Your body will try to resist that kind of sudden calorie deficit.  Make a good plan for your diet to achieve this and be realistic.  You'll probably need to reduce sugars and refined carbs and focus more on fibrous vegetables and lean protein, with a small amount of healthy fats to help with satiety.  Do some research.  Extreme diets rarely work and can be unhealthy.

Best of luck.  

Well I'm just over a stone overweight for a healthy weight for my age and height; I don't look my weight at all but I definitely feel it and this is about getting fit - not looking skinny. I'm not going on any kind of crash diet or really any kind of diet at all as I want to just be a more healthy person in general. I'm exercising more and eating around 1200 a day - do far after a week I already feel healthier and better for it. IM just not doing anything too crazy but hope I can lose the stone in 3 months in time for a comic convention LOL want the costume to look okay.

Thanks - I'm feeling really good about it all actually - I used to be very good at sports in school and was pretty fit and then went to uni, got really depressed and a bit fat and now I'm trying to get fit again haha - time will tell if I'm successful ..also a smaller stomach wouldn't hurt...

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2 hours ago, Leap said:

Yes, certainly - have to recommend MyFitnessPal as a way of keeping track of calories. Worked wonders for me last year. 

Thank's that's what I'm using :D it's pretty good! 

1 hour ago, ljkeane said:

It's certainly possible. I've never really focused too much on my weight but, while exercise can definitely help, I'd think you'd probably want to keep track of your diet as well if losing a certain amount of weight is your goal. Having said that I've lost about a stone, admittedly probably over a longer period than 3 months, just by running more often than I used to do so who knows. (Bit of a mixed bag when you're getting fit to play second row):dunno:

I'm eating less and exercising a lot more so fingers crossed lol I just am totally clueless about fitness...and *cough* health in general and wanted to know if it was possible lol

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Thankfully, the weather here is fine for swimming, at least for the next few days, and the outdoor pools are heated.  I got a good swim with my son before dinner this evening.  Which is just as well because we have great restaurant recommendations from some foodie friends and it looks like I'll be eating a lot on this trip. 

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Been upping the cardio big time. 5 mile runs in the morning, 15 to 30 mile bike rides on the indoor trainer at night for the last 6 days. Using the Zwift cycling software is a game changer. Being able to ride with people from all over the world on a smart trainer that simulates the hills is amazing. Really excited to get out with my cycling group this spring to see if I can hang with the B group on long rides. Pretty much have decided to do the bare minimum I need to make it through my swim legs during Tri season. It is going to be all about the bike and the run. 

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I'm losing my form instead of improving it before my first HM and I have no idea why. I noticed in the last couple of weeks my trainings became forced and I'm struggling to achieve the results I barely had to sweat for late last year. I used to quite comfortably run 5k in 23:30-24:30 range and yesterday I barely managed to make it in 24:38 and felt completely exhausted afterwards. Symptoms of overtraining or what? But I'm not training more than usual. As a matter of fact the distance covered in the last two months is lower than in June-September period of last year, though admittedly higher than any January-February period so far. And my general willingness for trainings is significantly lower, despite improving weather. Generally speaking, prospects for reaching my goal at the half marathon in just two weeks seem greatly overclouded for now.

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@3CityApache

Are you doing rest weeks? When I prepped for a half-marathon, the program was chopped up in cycles of 3 weeks of increasing distances and pace and then taking it a bit easier for a week. After that "rest" week, I'd feel much better physically and it would help mentally by breaking the routine and the intensity of training and let you chill for a while. I've been a big fan of rest weeks ever since.

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Maybe a weather issue? I have a tough time making speed gains in really cold weather. I find it best in the cooler weather but only cool enough to wear shorts and a tshirt and maybe a light long sleeve shirt. In the really cold outside running of winter you wont go as fast and sometimes you can feel off just because of the seasonal effects of winter. 

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32 minutes ago, baxus said:

Sunny (or at least dry), no wind, 5-15ºC temperature is my favourite weather range for running.

Anything over 22-23ºC is just as bad as running in sub-zero temperature, if not worse for me.

I second that. Maybe 10-18ºC would be even more in my comfort zone, but anything above zero and below 20ºC is fine. And no, I was not doing rest weeks, perhaps I should start, though I'm afraid it is a bit too late in preparations to this particular race, which takes place on March 5th. Worst that can happen is that I'll have worse result than I hoped I would have. Not a big deal after all.

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Just to point out, rest week doesn't mean you don't run for a week. It means you do the same type of training you usually would, but take it a bit easier regarding distance and pace.

March 5th is in less than two weeks. I'd definitely recommend doing a rest week in a week just before the race. If you feel exhausted and are not motivated to train, maybe you should consider taking all the remaining time for a bit lighter runs so you can get some rest and be fresh for the race. Sometimes that can do you more good than putting in one extra big run a week or two before the race.

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Tuesday had lots of swimming and only isolated patches of sunburn (an unfortunate way to discover that you missed a spot), and then an attempt at a legs day at the resort gym.  I attempted Smith machine squats without my squat collar and found it painful at the point where the bar sat on my upper back.  I did my warm up sets ok but only one heavy set and then switched to leg press instead.  Then I could not do deadlifts because the lowest point for the bar was too high (above my knee) for the starting point.  And then the leg curl machine was so badly designed as to be unusable.  Disappointing.  I just did some Bulgarian half squats and calf raises to finish. 

Wednesday had more swimming, with my technique feeling really good on my third day.  It's only a 20m lap pool so I had to do a lot of laps to get the same amount of exercise as my technique improved. Then I went back to the resort gym for dumbbell shoulder press and pull-ups.  That went well and is obviously less sensitive to different equipment.  No lat raises because three consecutive days of swimming caused the same old strain in my left deltoid. 

The weather is supposed to cool a bit after today so we'll play golf tomorrow and then go to Sedona on Friday to hike in the canyons. 

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Went jogging/briskly walking for another 50 mins today! Baby steps...baby steps...I'm getting out of breath fairly quickly which is natural as I'm quite unfit but I'm surprised at how narurally my body is getting back into it as I'm jogging pretty well and I'm not pushing myself to sprint but I'm naturally quite fast and find it easier than trying to go too slow. I used to be a great runner in school and I'm soooo looking forward getting back into proper running again. 

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I've signed up to Adidas Runners Warsaw, kind of runners club where you can join trainings led by professional trainers. Must say the first training I took part in was kinda disappointing, there weren't much running, mostly different kinds of exercises, especially skip A and skip B. But the second one yesterday was really tough. After 2k of warm up jogging, we were to make six loops in the park consisting of 500 meters of strong uphill, 500 meters of flat straight line, that we were supposed to run in the pace 20 seconds faster than our current 10k PB and 700 meters of gentle downhill/flat. Fifth and sixth loops were really a challenge. After 0.5k of uphill run, even in a moderate pace, immediate switch to the pace better than your 10k PB by 20 seconds is tough, believe me. 

But I like it a lot, the trainer is cool and most people attending are much more experienced runners with PB's better by far (in the area of 35-45 minutes for 10k), which I find encouraging.

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I know this isn't a big deal for everyone here but I'm ecstatic because I haven't been fit since I was 16 (now 22) and I just ran for 2.5k straight only stopping VERY briefly to cross the road a couple of times and I briskly walked/jogged another 3k on top of that - I feel great

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