I use HIIT, on the elliptical and the rowing machine, as part of my overall workout. I do the cardio coach 6 program when on the elliptical (I usually do 22 minutes workouts or sometimes a 45 minute session that has a number of rest periods). Otherwise, I do 10 minutes on the rower, 15 seconds at top effort, followed by 45 seconds at moderate effort. I do these three days a week, plus weight training/calisthenics on the other two days.



Have been doing this for 7 months, dropped BF% by about 10% and lost 50 lbs. I am a big believer in HIIT--I only want to be in the gym for about an hour, so it is a time-saver as well. Husband has done the same weight loss--but his BF% is now 18% and mine is 30%--sucks to be a girl!

Eating clean to me is buying the best quality meats and vegetables. Ordinarily this means buying fresh local produce when possible, and generally includes organic meats when possible, which just happen to have higher standards of care for the animals. I think that any time we can treat other people and animals a bit better, that is a good thing. Who could disagree?

Where is your protein powder? What about peanut butter? You need some more protein in there! The powder does wonders for thickening the smoothie and making the consistency better. I use vanilla whey.



I use frozen peaches, not blueberries, so I can't say about yours. You're getting better at this.

Ooh, I did that too, but with my skinny sister! We were at the gym together and she couldn't do ONE incline bench situp! I felt sooooo cool!

That is the perfect motivation!

Well, I think you've come a long way to where you are, and you are right, being ready to do something IS a good start. I think you need to enlist your boyfriend's help, in a gentle way, to work with you on getting healthier. Go walk with him, prepare healthy meals together, etc.



When I think of all the times I thought "I really need to lose some weight", it wasn't until my husband got involved with me that it really has worked (for the last 6 months). And you have to WANT the better, healthier life more than whatever bad food is in front of you, and you have to make the exercise a "do or die" part of your life. Make it a habit!



Good luck in your journey! I saw someone mention here this good idea: What if you you write down what you want to attain, goal-wise, specifically and in clear language, on a notecard? Then carry it around with you to remind you of why you are making these sacrifices now. Nothing I've ever wanted came to me without sacrifice and focus and intensity.



This is a great first step, now take a few more!

Sarah

Maybe the other frozen stuff is enough and you don't have to add ice at all.

My every morning smoothie has frozen peaches, 4 oz nonfat milk, protein powder, a banana, and some flax meal. No additional ice.

I use natural peanut butter every morning in our smoothies and there is a brand of lite Mayo, Duke's, that is pretty good. But I hardly ever use mayo, except if you are pan cooking fish, it is delicious to spread a very thin coating of mayo on the fish to keep it from drying out. Sprinkle on some fresh herbs, and Yum!



Sarah

You might also want to consider incorporating body fat % into your goals, as that seemed to be a more realistic measure of progress once you get to your goal weight. I am just a couple of pounds away from my goal weight, and now am trying to focus more on the amount of actual fat I'm carrying around, rather than the weight. Not that I'm planning on giving up my morning weighing ritual anytime soon or anything, though!

The Met Life height/weight tables are also good, you can google for them.

Sarah

Okay, I'm not saying this sounds like real carrot cake, but does look easy to make...



From Cooks.com



CARROT CAKE - LOW CALORIE



4 slices wheat bread, crumbed

4 eggs

4 tbsp. oil

2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/3 c. dry milk

2 tsp. baking soda

3/4 c. brown sugar substitute

2 tsp. cinnamon

2 c. pineapple

4 oz. grated carrot



Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth, bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

I get the spouse to get out there with me! We go after work to the gym, I never could get that early morning motivation thing going. It is inconvenient to go after work, but it is the only time that works for us.

Good luck with your goals, and try some other times of day (just make whatever block of time it is sacred), and pretty soon it becomes a habit.

Sarah

We take off one day each week, but have taken off longer stretches of 3-4 days when exhaustion, injury or illness sidelined us. I think if you are getting fatigued, not able to lift the same weight/do the same # of reps without being unusually tired, you should probably take a break.

Peanut butter peach smoothie 270 calories

Has Peanut Butter, frozen peaches, a tbsp of flax meal, a scoop of whey protein powder and a half cup of fat free milk. Have it each and every day, but sometimes add a banana! Filling and loaded with good stuff!

Sarah

Stretching helps me out after a particularly rigorous session with the trainer. Mostly I'm sore, though, and not run-down and headache--did you get enough to eat yesterday?

Sarah

My overweight doctor says she wishes she had my willpower (!) and that is a bit frightening! My trainer is a bodybuilder, I'd be hard pressed to pay an out-of-shape trainer! I don't think I'd leave my doctor just because she's overweight, but then again, I don't really ask her for diet advice, either. When I did ask once, she suggested I see a dietician.

I've had the same problem as Josephine, same Exp 6.0. I can't post a comment, as it says I'm not logged in, but I can go to my page without logging in.

Ditto on the vitamin, protein powder and the hard work!

I got nothing! Nothing! This is pretty disappointing, I'm afraid!

I've used that site before, Brad, thanks for the link! My digital calipers use the Jackson-Pollock 3 skinfold formula. I think using the 7 skinfold measurements would have made my husband's test more accurate.



Shiny, you might want to contact the BodPod folks directly and make sure they haven't sold one to a nearby university or sports medicine clinic.



Sarah

So here's my report on the Bod Pod composition testing.

We had the test done at The Citadel here in Charleston, for $40 each. You need to have a tight-fitting lycra bathing suit, they provide a swim cap. Men can borrow their lycra shorts for the test. It started with height & weight check (did I get shorter?) and then the machine is calibrated before you enter. Those of you old enough to remember Mork and Mindy--the egg looks just like the one Robin Williams had! It takes 3 minutes inside the egg (which has a big window, so no claustraphobia).



The results were interesting: I purchased digital calipers to test with originally, which our trainer used to test us. The calipers registered a 30% BF for me, and the Bod Pod registered the same 30% BF. But on my husband (who has chicken legs that must have "thrown off" the 3 site skinfold test), the calipers had registered a hard-to-believe 13%. The Bod Pod registered 18%BF for him, a more believable number.



We will do a follow up in 6 months, hoping to drop 5% in that time. It was worthwhile to have a proper benchmark from which to operate--not unlike knowing your starting weight and then measuring as you lose weight. The science is much more appealing than the simplistic BMI numbers, which don't account for how much lean v/s fat you have.



Sarah

And what will be real annoying, is that once you do it, and lose the weight, he'll be all congratulatory and "I knew you could do it". Try to restrain the urge to hit him really hard at that point!

But use the anger to help motivate you to prove him wrong--when you want to quit working out 'cause you are tired, just remember his words and keep going!

My brother still annoys me, after he turned 35, got married, and had two kids!

I use fitday periodically to do a two week nutrition analysis, but mostly I just keep up with calories in a small spiral bound diary, which I use to enter my total calories here at Traineo. The daily plate is good, too, when I'm researching foods.

I think mine are Steve Earle's 6 Days on the Road or Can't Stop by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

We eat 1200 calories a day, have for the last 6 months, and have lost 50 lbs or so, a loss of around 1.5 lbs a week. I don't know of this starvation mode--we work out just about every day and haven't seen any really long plateaus at any given weight. I go by how I feel--which is good, but if I was tired or weak, I'd up the calories.

How interesting. Well that helps with the decision to use the BodPod locally. Thanks so much for the link, Shiny!



Sarah

My boss has the BC549. He says that you can "game" the BF % by how much water you have had recently. Being dehydrated can change it pretty dramatically--so he'd down a couple of bottled waters before getting on it!

I bought some $25 digital calipers and I'm thinking of having DEXA or the BodyPod composition testing done so I can benchmark more accurately my starting BF%. I want to use the calipers to monitor my progress, but really want a good data point to start from, like I've done with weight and waist measurements.

Anyone have any experience with these or Hydrostatic weighing procedures? The bodypod is local and $40. The DEXA (Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry) facility is at a university 2 hrs away and free, and is supposed to be the new gold standard, replacing hydrostatic weighing. I've heard the Bodypod isn't as accurate. Any opinions? Thanks!



Sarah

Oooh, that is fun! I bought a watermelon colored sleeveless shirt for workouts and a pair of lime green running shorts last week--let's just say that I would NEVER have bought that before for fear that I would look like a giant fruit salad!



Congrats on the cute belt! That is awesome! You have made an amazing transformation--isn't it fun to be able to shop for cute clothes? I'm going <gulp> bathing suit shopping on Monday! Talk about amazing! The last suit I bought was a size 18, and I am now 8-10!



Sarah

Mmmm, yes, the negative motivation! It works! We got a new motivational tool this week, a digital body fat % caliper. And it has royally $%^&*(# me off! It isn't so much that I'm mad that mine is higher than I'd hoped, its that my husband's is MUCH lower! And that is extremely annoying! Yeah, yeah, I know men's is lower, blah blah blah, but still! And of course he's lording it over me...I think I'm going to start adding lard to his smoothies in the morning as sabotage!

But it made me work a lot harder on the elliptical last night and I will meet my new strength training goals if it kills me!

I am on a 1200 calorie a day diet, which I've been on since the end of November. I go to the gym just about every day, burning calories ranging from 200 to 600 while there. I have lost 1.6 lbs a week, on average since starting. I think that minimum calories are more like 800. But listen to your body, if you feel weak at 1600 calories, go up a bit. I figure that the lbs lost each week is the best indicator that my calories in/out are about right. Lay(wo)man's opinion....



Sarah

Yeah, mine haven't been sent, I thought it was a cool feature and was sorry it was gone.



Sarah