Good Morning Gurus!

11,167 steps yesterday. That's 4.5 miles. Shooting for 5 today, but I'm a little sore. I deserve it, as I've been walking in slip-on Vans shoes. I need to bust out my running shoes...

Another quiet evening at my house... My kids made all kinds of nice comments about the flowers though.

So, I have a question for you healthy types...

Should I be walking every day, or should I give my body a rest, and only do it say three days a week, or four? It is a fairly low impact deal, and I really only think I'm sore because of the improper footwear.

I'm not working on weight training or nutrition yet. Just the aerobic part. I'm hoping that I can get myself to where I NEED to walk every day, and love it. Then start adding the other parts to the mix. I am a LITTLE more careful about what I eat, but I love food too much to deny myself the things I love. I need to find a balance that lets me enjoy life and get healthy at the same time.

Anyway, enough of that.

A beautiful day in Colorado, with reasonable temps. Gotta love that! And today is my last day at work for ten days. w00t!

Anybody have big plans for this weekend? I was hoping to join 81c3 on a cruise to a show & shine with my wife, but I guess that ain't happening.

I am hoping my vacation consists of washing, waxing and a half-assed detailing of our four cars. And maybe some maintenance items that I have been neglecting on the cars and the house. Not all of those are free, so I will have to prioritize, I suppose.

Well, have a freakishly great day, and I will try to post regularly whilst on vacation, but feel free to start the chat without me!

You should do a day on day off routine. Now thats not saying you should not be doing anything on the off day. Basically you should work one muscle group one day and a differant group the next day. You allways want to give your muscle group you just worked at least 1 day of recovery. So if you walk/run one day, the next day do push ups or sit ups or some other upper body work out. You can easily smoke yourself by doing just push ups and sit ups. Try doing this: 2 mins of normal push ups then break for 2 mins, then do 1:30 of wide are push ups (spread your arms out further to the left and right) then 1:30 rest, then do 1 min close hand push ups (hands should be touching at the thumb and pointer fingars) then 1 min rest. Then move on to sit ups the same way. 2 mins of normal sit ups, 1:30 of rocky sit ups (twist on the way up touching one elbow to the oppisite knee then on the next rep do the oppisite) then do 1 min crunches (remember to squeeze your abs and dont let up until your done, when you rest your abs you lose some of the work out)

Dude, I can do maybe 2 push-ups!

But I hear what you're saying. Thanks!

Quote:Sorry, not a problem though. Just do them on your knees and knock the times down. Start at 1 min and go down in 15 sec. increments.

Good monring CGs!

How is everyone doing this morning? Not a whole lot here. Tried to feed the rugrat, but she wasn't too enthused about the bottle. She doesn't like it very much, so you almost have to force feed her. Took 15 minutes just to get her to take it. Oh well. Persistence is the key.

Chris - walking everyday is fine, or you can do it every other day if you want (at least 3 times per week is recommended). Walking should be low impact, so you are not engaging the muscles in the same manner as if you were lifting, that's why you can do it more often. Walking gives you a cardiovascular workout, so the goal is to maintain a target heart rate (a heart rate monitor/watch is helpful, or you can do it the old fashioned way). Based on your health level, you target heart rate should be around 60-80% of your maximum heart rate (220-age - or in your case 220-100, so 60% of 120... ). The AHA has some good guidelines here: Target Heart Rates

I think very important, too, is your diet. I try to eat healthy, but at the same time I don't deprive myself. There's a difference between having one scoop of ice cream once a week and having two scoops every night...Just use common sense with your decisions. Try to cut out soda, cut back on junk food and fast food, and you'll see a big difference

Matthew

Chris, when you have a few minutes, get into "thewalkingsite.com". It covers all of your questions.
(message board, beginning a fitness walking program,FAQ etc.)
And its all free.

Cool, thanks. I just came from the runnersworld website. Some slightly depressing facts on walking vs. running. No way I am ready for running at this point. But maybe I can get there.

Based on what they're saying, at 300lbs (I am only a little less) walking 4 miles a day is only burning a little over 600 calories. And that does not take into account the calories I would have burned by just sitting on my ass. So I'm not even walking off one meal at this point. But I'm not going to give up. I am starting to feel some of the benefits, and I don't want to give that up.

I am kinda digging being outside a little more, but I may invest in a treadmill one of these days. That way I could work on running a little in the privacy of my basement, rather than bouncing my way up the street in full view of other humans.

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That's not the way to look at it. Sitting on the couch you might be burning 50 calories. By walking, you are then burning an extra 550 calories *in addition to* the cardiovascular benefits such as increasing blood flow to the heart, creating new capillaries, increased oxygen to the brain, etc. As you continue, you will also find that as you lose weight and build more lean muscle, that muscle will itself burn additional calories at rest. It's a win-win situation. You might find that after a short while walking, maybe a few weeks, you feel strong enough to power walk or jog a little more, which will burn more calories. It's a continuous cycle. That coupled with healthier eating and in 30 days you'll see visible results. The key to cardiovascular/aerobic exercise is to maintain your target heart rate. That's why I recommend one of those wristwatch heartrate monitors.

Additionally, if you want to throw in a little bit of light weight training a couple days a week, you'll feel a lot better. If you want, I can help you with some basic workouts that require no weights or you can buy some resistance bands from the fitness store for about $35.

Matthew

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I checked that out - it looks like a pretty good site with some good information

Matthew

I have a weight bench and some plates at home... Down by the cat litter box.

But I do plan to get down there and use 'em. So I would love to get some beginning set/rep guidelines for my upper body.

I sure do appreciate you guys helping me out here. It will help keep me motivated.

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Let me know how often you want to work out, timelines, etc. I've got a couple great books on modifying workouts to fit into your schedule. If you only plan on working out sporadically, I recommend a vertical circuit training routine for your whole body, but send me a message and I can help you work something out.

Matthew

Cardio workouts are probably fine every day of the week. It's when you do weight training that you need to take anywhere from 3 days to a week to let those muscles recuperate before going back at it.

The low impact, low weight, repetitive stuff is your best bet for burning fat. Eat healthy, don't skimp on food, it'll just slow your metabolism down more, which is why starvation diets don't work in the long term.


It's all about hp/weight ratio. Adding more hp probably isn't your top priority, if you've got some extra lbs in the trunk you can remove more easily. You might find you've got enough strength and energy once you aren't carrying as much weight around.

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Got a bench weight myself. Im to lazy to use it much though. I go thru cycles of lifting then quit. I loose interest in it.

Good stuff guys, thanks!

I have been cutting back on the soda. And over the past couple weeks, I have been working (a little) on eating less fried stuff. Although pretty much anything fried is my all-time favorite food.

My eating is highly motivated by texture. And there's something about french fries and fried mozzarella that really turns me on. I'M DEAD SEXY! GEET IN MAH BELLY!

I haven't found a healthy alternative. And the first person to say carrot sticks gets sat on!

I am fortunate that I do not drink, smoke or do drugs. So other than a bunch of extra fat, I'm pretty healthy. My cholesterol levels are very good and my BP is right on. I'm also fortunate that I'm 6'4" tall. So I can move this ponderous bulk around without looking crazy fat. But I know I don't look the way I wanna. That's for sure.

I do have something going on with my liver (known about it since age 14) that looks like cirrhosis (but I don't drink) so I have to keep an eye on that. Mostly it doesn't affect me, but there are lots of medicines out there that I should probably not take. But I hesitate to even take pain relievers. I like to let my body take care of itself in that regard.

Anyway, maybe we need a health and wellness forum or something, like CC mentioned earlier? I hate to bog down the chat with this stuff. But I am excited about it.

Smoking is a good way to lose weight and suppress appetite. Especially if it's meth or crack.

I'm on it, thanks!

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Hey Fat Bastard - I sent you a PM.

Matthew

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Looks like you chopped off that guys head then tried to reattach another one.

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I hope you're joking. It's a picture of Mike Meyers. Chris' quote is from Austin Powers.

Matthew

Ok, let's start a fitness thread.

Yesterday I didn't go to the gym for the 60th day in a row. But they never forget to collect the fees...

I just like going so I have more energy, which I haven't had lately, and feel healthier.

You should take up golf, and walk the course. The added aggravation is bound to burn up more calories ;-)