Don't be discouraged by your weight. Really its just a number and it can fluctuate by surprising amounts just in the course of a normal day. I drink about 3 liters of water a day which is about 6 pounds. And that's just water! That means every day at least 6 pounds of stuff enters and is processed by my body. Thankfully my weight doesn't go up by 6 pounds every day but you can imagine that depending on where my body is in the processing cycle my weight could fluctuate pretty dramatically. Then as others have said there are factors that can contribute to your body holding on to extra water like hormones and salt levels.



I'm looking to lose a lot of weight. I weigh myself everyday but I've learned to largely ignore my daily weighings. I like collecting the data so I can chart trends once a month. What's more important to me is how much weight I'm lifting and how difficult my runs/walks feel.

I also agree that counting calories can be hard to do. But like so many things it becomes easier if you make it a habit. For about 2 months before I started counting calories I kept a food log. I looked online for a solution when I started to get frustrated for the occasional day that I would leave my logbook at home or in the car. I work at a computer all day, so its easy for me to visit a site for a couple of minutes a few times a day and log my food. The calories counting was a just a nice bonus.



But quantifying my caloric intake really opened my eyes.



Now I find that counting calories online is easier that logging my food in the little notebook I was using before. Because I am more cognizant of what I eat I also am better at remembering what I eat when I go out to eat and have to enter it into dailyplate later that night or the next day.



As Itadaki pointed out there is plenty of room for error in counting calories so its wise to keep that in mind when you're reviewing your intake. Of course there are ways to mitigate the margin of error like making all your own food and rigorously measuring everything especially portions.



I don't really get what 'Jay' is saying and its unfortunate that he chose to characterize calorie counting as 'a scam' and 'lame'. My experience has been the complete opposite.

I am also a fairly recent convert to counting calories.



I worked first on controlling or eliminating my bad eating habits (soda with meals, eating late at night) and that helped me lose some weight at the beginning. I also tried to eat less processed foods and fats in general. On the advice of my acupuncturist I started logging everything I eat and then my weight. That helped a bit too.



Then I started logging/tracking calories online, I looked at fitday but I ended up choosing 'the daily plate' and I too am addicted to counting calories now. Its really helped me to think about what and how much I eat. I like that I can set a weekly weight loss goal and get a target of how many calories I can have. I like calorie counting because its something quantitative not just 'eat less' or 'reduce carbs'.



Calorie counting has changed the way I think about food. Or I think its more appropriate to say that I am much more deliberate about what I eat now. It has inspired me to pick up some other good habits like trying to have a good breakfast and to carry healthy snacks with me that I can munch on throughout the day. (I had a bit of a problem with running to the candy machine at around 3pm most days. Now I just pull an apple or kashi bar out of my backpack.)

I just reset the number days to my goal.



Again.



Actually I think this is the 3rd or 4th time that I've had to do this. I have a weight goal for the summer solstice (June 21).



Why can't Traineo simply countdown the days correctly?

I think this is pretty normal. When I go for longer bike rides I try to eat something about every hour. I've been trying those 'Sport Beans' that Jelly Belly makes. I really like the sweet tartness. They recommend drinking water with them so I always do that.



I think you'll have to try at least a few different things to find something that will satisfy you and not upset your stomach. I have a friend who uses fig newtons and I've read that some people like bananas. I've thought about trying gels but they seem like a recipe for messiness, thats really what drove me to try the Sport Beans.

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!



I love this holiday. I think because it seems to come around just as Spring is really swinging into gear. Its festive and fun without the stress of shopping for presents for anyone and its just a big party day!



Plus its a beautiful day here in Boston so its perfect for a nice long bike ride and then tonight a few beers with a few friends at an open air bar.



Enjoy everyone!

I know you were joking about stealing your husbands bike, but I just have to say that 'bike fit' is important. You're not gonna fall apart if you go for a short ride, but if you want to bike regularly (and once you start you probably will) its important to ride a bike that fits you properly. This is where your local bike shop can be a huge help.



Oh and as long as I am proselytizing always always always wear a helmet when on your bike.

Your progress does sound good. Congratulations. You seem to have pretty reasonable expectations too.



Consider some other low impact exercise to keep your workouts interesting and to buildup your cardiovascular system without always stressing your legs/hips. Swimming might be a good exercise for you.

I haven't known anyone to train with a 'drag tire' but I am no where near an expert. I would be concerned that a tire might catch on something (and jerk you back hard) or that it would damage the park grass. But like I said, I am not an expert.



I agree with Vern that running with a tire will increase the stress on your knees. It seems like it would also affect your form since you would essentially be leaning forward more than normal to counter the additional drag. I would also stay away from wrist and ankle weights since the stress they add would be increased by the motion of your limbs not to mention that your joints aren't really designed to carry weight in that fashion. If you want to increase resistance when running I think the best option is a weighted vest. The weight is usually adjustable so you can adjust it to your needs. I've read some good things about this vest but I have no direct experience.



Overall though I would say that its probably best to just run more on soft surfaces. Try and find some hilly paths you can run. A pair of trailrunners and a well groomed hiking path may work for you. If you live near the ocean, consider running on the beach. Its my understanding that connective tissue takes more time to strengthen than muscle so be sure your expectations are realistic. Whatever you do pay close attention to what your body tells you.

I've been trying to reverse my meals, by which I mean having a big breakfast and regular lunch and light dinner.



Unfortunately I was raised with just the opposite and its really hard for me to change. Also I really don't want to force myself to have a big breakfast when I'm not hungry. So what I do now is try to have a big breakfast but I don't worry when I am not that hungry in the morning or if I don't have time for a hearty breakfast. What I do when I can't have a big breakfast is try and snack throughout the day. I bring a couple of apples, a couple of plums and a couple of kashi bars and have whichever I crave the most for a snack. I make sure and track my calories so that I am not exceeding my caloric intake goals and so far this is working out well for me. I am less hungry in the evenings and because of the variety of my snacks I don't really feel like I am missing out on much.



I don't have calorie goals per meal. I have been considering doing away with meals entirely and just taking my caloric goals and dividing by 6 and have 6 little meals throughout the day. I think I read somewhere that this is what some people have had success with when trying to switch to 'grazing'.

I was eating healthy for a long while without losing very much weight. Of course my intention wasn't explicitly to lose weight but to eat (and be) healthier. But once I had cleaned up my eating habits I decided to focus more on weight loss so now I count my calories. Its really added a new dimension to the how I think about food. There are several websites to help you track your caloric intake. I use "The Daily Plate" and I love it. It lets me set a weekly weight loss goal and tells what my daily caloric intake needs to be reach that goal. Its really helped me to plan out my meals. I've been losing a little more than 2 lbs a week which is healthy and sustainable for me.

Well it may not satisfy your cookie craving but lately I am really liking these bars...

http://www.kashi.com/ourfood/TLCSnacks/ChewyGranol aBars/Default.aspx



... and I've never been a big fan of granola bars. I especially like the Honey Almond Flax and the Peanut Peanut Butter. Costco carries these in a 25 bar box which I prefer to the small 4 bar boxes from Whole Foods.



I took a look at those Kashi 'Go Lean' bars but they look like they might be too sweet for me and the TLC bars have fewer calories.

Vern you are looking great.



Its also impressive to view your profile and see the chart of your weight since 3/10. It looks like you have been very consistently working out and losing weight. Thats a lot of work but its clearly paying off in spades!

I also would like to see some sophistication on the graphs. The dashed line that appears now on your weight graph just looks to be a line drawn between your weight on the left side of the graph to your weight today. Its pretty useless. A moving average or better yet an ``Exponentially Smoothed Moving Average'' as described here for charting weight would be ideal. I think the weight chart would be much more useful and interesting then.



I would also like to define more goals. I have a long term weight goal and intermediary goals along the way to help me see if I am on track but Traineo only lets me have 1 weight goal. It would be nice to be able to setup either one long term goal with milestones to represent my intermediate goals or else just let me define several independent goals. Also I'd like to have a goal besides just weight loss. I can track things like my body fat % as a log but it would be nice to have a goal there too. Maybe if traineo supported training programs so I could say define a program where I am running 15 miles a week and see how well I do. Maybe allow members to define and share training programs. Again this is really just more sophisticated goal definition.

Tim,



Maybe you should find someone who can evaluate your running. There may be some things technically (shorter strides?) you can do to reduce the stress on your knees and an expert may equipment suggestions like an orthotic or a different style of running shoe (maybe less stability and more cushion?).



Also see if there are trails you can run in your area. Dirt is a lot softer than asphalt/concrete. Maybe there's a university or highschool in your area with one of those special turf tracks. Admittedly its not as fun running in a circle, but those tracks are also softer than the street.



Your muscles and cardiovascular system get stronger relatively quickly compared to your joints and connective tissues. So I think mainly it will be just a question of time.

I am another big advocate of water. Its been a huge help for me and I needed a lot of help.



Also track your food intake. This made a huge difference for me since I could see all bad choices I'd made right in front of me in my own handwriting as I reviewed my week's intake every weekend. Then I switched from a paper food journal to logging my food online. (I use dailyplate.com) Now I could quantify the enormity of my mistakes. I could see how that little slice of cake that I didn't really "need" to eat actually undid a lot of my work from days before. I was "eating healthy" before I tracked my food and calories but tracking them made a big difference for me.



Something else that a lot of people recommend that I am still working on is eating smaller meals more often. I think one of the big advantages to this is that you never get *that* hungry because its never too long since you ate last.



I like Tim's technique of putting down the fork between each bite. I'll have to try that.



With a bad back it sounds like running might be out of the picture for a little while but walking is great and if you have access to a pool then swimming may be good for you. Try something that's new to you. The novelty should help keep things interesting and you may find something you can really get into. Yoga and martial arts are great because they improve flexibility and balance which only help most other sports. Around here we have yoga classes specifically geared for people with back injuries.



There's lost of choices out there don't be afraid to taste as many as you can.

You may still be able to juggle.



From page 2 of http://www.foreworks.com/howto.html



If you cannot grasp

First you must learn to place and balance a soft beanbag (or mesh footbag) on your hand or forearm. Keep it there while doing other things, until balancing it and catching it when it slips is automatic. Then switch to your other hand or arm. Then begin the warm-up. If you can't hold on to one bag while tossing the other, start with two in your non-favored hand, toss the one in your favored hand, and immediately load your favored hand with one of the other two. That's the hardest part. Now begin the "How To" steps.

I don't have a specific recommendation on DVDs but consider one on yoga.



You would be surprised how much of a workout laying about and stretching will give you! On top of that yoga will help with flexibility and balance which in turn will not only help just about any other kind of exercise, it will help prevent injury.



Also consider bike riding, it can be a lot of fun and its possible for many people to commute to work on bike. If you're looking for some inspiration for weight loss from bike riding, check out this thread on bikeforums.net (or maybe this thread which is specifically for athenas )

This may sound a little silly but how about juggling? Its fun and doesn't require strength. It should improve your hand eye coordination and it can provide aerobic exercise. Take a look here.

One idea would be to try a flavored protein powder. I almost never drink coffee though so its hard for me to imagine how this would taste.



Let me know if you try it though.

Egg whites are a good source of protein 17 calories 3.6g of protein per egg white. I think most of an egg's calories are in the yolk. I often have a slice or two of turkey for breakfast. 30 calories a slice and 5g of protein plus I love turkey.



I picked up a bag of vanilla flavored whey protein powder from Costco this weekend. I haven't tried it yet but I'll probably try my hand at smoothies soon. I've also seen protein powder in Whole Foods. Of course you also go to GNC (though I admit I feel funny about going there since in my mind its a place for buff muscled up types and I'm nowhere near that)



A bunch of these look pretty good. I imagine in many of them you could add protein powder.

Another idea which may help with your motivation would be to sign up for an event. Like a run or triathlon. It doesn't have to be a marathon or an ironman just an event that you know you can attend in the future which is realistic for your fitness level and you think might be fun. I'm doing the 'Bay to Breakers' this year.



Once you've picked your event work out a training schedule. Again depending on your fitness level there are a variety of programs that you can find online with a Google search even a 'couch to 5K'. A training schedule should give you hard short term objectives like running X miles a week. Seek out the community for this event. There are really great communities out there for pretty much every sport. By the time the event rolls around you should have a good idea if your lifestyle over the preceding weeks was one you can and want to maintain.



If you're naturally a competitive person then the event will provide a lot of motivation for you to continue and improve. But at very least if you enjoyed yourself you can plan on making this an annual event and work on improving your personal time.

I understand your reticence to start a martial arts program and then be forced to quit due to your relocation. But so what? I mean yeah you'll be leaving so I wouldn't make any long term commitments but you can be upfront with your teacher and explain that you're trying new things and this may or may not be what you actually get into and that either way you're leaving in 3-4 months. Around here there are lots of 10 week classes which is a great way to start something and learn enough to determine whether or not its somewhere you want to invest more time.



As far as having a class with a bunch of kids in it, ask the teacher what age students they usually get. I tend to pick classes that run in the morning. I just have more energy at the start of my day so that works best for me. As it turns out I have never seen a kid in a morning class.

If the skin on your ankle is fully healed and you can submerse it, you could try swimming "pulls" (i.e. using only your upper body, no kicking) in a lap pool.



If you can put some weight on the ankle, try inclined pushups/pullups. Pick an incline that will reduce the effort and go for lots and lots of reps. Unless you're in really top shape, regular pushups and chinups will not be aerobic.



How about juggling? Wikipedia tells us As exercise, juggling is a highly aerobic activity, increasing the heart rate and respiration. Juggling helps one to develop good hand-eye coordination, physical fitness and balance.



That's just off the top of my head. But now that I read that wiki entry I think I am going to learn how to juggle!

Working with a doctor is absolutely a good idea. In fact if the one you see is not familiar with your type of injury try and find one with a sports medicine background.



Given the situation you describe swimming does sound like a good idea. If the biggest obstacle is breathing in the water get a snorkel. It might sound a little dorky but this is something triathletes do to focus on their form. As you get more comfortable with being in the water you can work on breathing techniques, but take your time, your focus is on getting some low impact exercise not to become a master swimmer.



One thing I would recommend is that you try acupuncture. I have an ankle that I sprained very badly and didn't heal right. It has been a sporadic source of pain for years. I've been having acupuncture sessions and it has helped tremendously. My ankle feels great and I am exercising more than ever. Acupuncture has also raised my energy level overall and its been a great stress reliever. I have a friend who suffered a great deal from carpal tunnel syndrome he found that acupuncture really worked for him as well.

I really like a lot of things about dailyplate. But I don't like their estimates of calories consumed from activity. It seems off to me, so I don't enter my workouts there at all and just use it to focus on my calorie intake.



But entering my diet into dailyplate has made me more aware of the caloric content of everything which helps me cheat less. This was a big deal for me. Another thing that has happened is that I have a much better idea of how much my diet was biased towards carbs and when I'm not getting enough protein.



I also find myself using dailyplate to plan out my meals. Its nice to go to work with a couple of apples in my bag and know that I can munch on those for a snack and still be able to have a nice dinner later without worrying about not being able to hit my calorie targets. I probably could have done all that on my own, and I was tracking my food in a diary for a couple of months, but daily plate makes much of this easier for me and so I find myself using it more.

Phil,



I just reread your initial post and noticed that the only beverage you mentioned was tea.



One of the first things I did, before I even got my eating habits under control, was to drink more water. LOTS of water. I drink about 3 liters a day now. I used to be a total soda fiend. I was having 2 or 3 cans of soda with just about every meal. It was hard for me to get off the stuff, in fact I had tried a year earlier only to fall back strong as ever after months of giving it up. When I gave it up the sudden decrease in sugar in my diet made me miserable and lethargic. But surprisingly soon my body started to respond and when I think about it I was pretty lethargic when I was drinking soda. I don't know exactly why but a little while after kicking soda my normal everyday energy level shot way up. Which of course makes hitting the gym that much easier.



Water is also great as a mild appetite suppressant. I try to drink a glass of water at the start of every meal so that I feel full sooner. When I am tempted to have a snack I have a drink of water and wait a little bit to see if I still want that snack. Its possible to drink too much water so don't go overboard, especially in one sitting.

I think the best exercise in general is going to be the one that you can do consistently. Bear in mind that its not just your physical state but your mental state that comes into play here. If you absolutely hate a particular kind of exercise chances are you'll find a way to avoid or sabotage it. Try a bunch of different things that are either less physically stressful than running or make use of different muscles.



I mentioned martial arts before because it is somewhat social and you usually improve balance and flexibility which not only will help your running but will also help prevent injury. The social aspect (as long as you like your group) will help motivate you to partake regularly. Just to try something different I took a JiuJitsu class and I loved it. I took TaeKwonDo and learned that it wasn't for me. I start QiGong tomorrow and I've heard great things about this class and the instructor.

I think its definitely worthwhile to track your actual calories. I noticed a big difference when I was just 'eating healthy' to when I was tracking everything I ate and how many calories I was eating. KM suggested fitday.com, I like dailyplate.com. I input my weight and provide a weekly weight loss goal and the site provides me with a daily calorie target. As I input what I eat, I get a countdown of how many more calories I can have and still meet my weight loss goal.

It may be worthwhile to have someone examine your running technique. If I recall correctly, endurance runners land predominately on their forefoot not their heel. Supposedly this has a big influence on the stress placed on your ankles and knees. One way to work on this is to take shorter strides when you run. But I really know very little about it, so its probably worth while talking to a running specialist. Orthotics may help or maybe even some barefoot running.



The other thing of course is that maybe you are running in the wrong kind or at least sub-optimal type of shoe for your foot/gait/weight.