That's.....great? However, if it's something sweet you are looking for or sour, there's plenty of other alternatives to get that into your system. When it comes to eating right, I think the goal is not to deprive your body of your wants, but to find healthy alternatives.



Let me know if you need help finding some, I'd be glad to assist.



Taylor

Honestly, don't feel so bad Mikaela. Push ups use your pecs are your primary drivers and not surprisingly these are the muscles that we tend to use the least in our day to day activities. When do you last recall pushing a heavy object away from you?



So starting from square one is not something to be distraught over. Also, to work out these muscles, you don't have to limit yourself to just push-ups. There's other fun ways to work out these muscles.



Searching google for "pec exersizes", I found an interesting menu of choices.



http://www.exrx.net/Lists/ExList/ChestWt.html



When you work out, incorporate 1 exercise which will work out the different group of muscles which comprise of your chest. This will insure you get a well rounded workout of your chest instead of just a push up which limits your chest workout.



And keep it up!



Taylor

Nike+ is annoying if you don't have Nike shoes. However, there is a fix. See, I feel Nike shoes run too narrow at the end, crunching up your toes creating uncomfortable feeling during long runs. I now have a pair of Asics that I love. But I still wanted to use Nike +. So if Nike shoes are no good for you, but you still want the benefit of Nike +, you can buy a conversion kit online, or with a little sewing and velcro, get the Nike + sensor on your comfortable shoes. I followed these instructions online and the sensor has stuck with me since.



http://podophile.com/2006/07/14/shoe-hacker-nikeip od-sport-kit-shoe-mod/



Great hack.



Taylor

Here's what I've learned. First off, Sandy, if you're starving yourself and not giving yourself the appropriate caloric intake for your body to survive, your body is going to go into self-preservation mode. It does this by storing more of an abundant energy source in case of famine. This energy source is fat. Fat is there for a reason. It's in case you ever start to starve. And if you starve yourself, you're just training your body to save more fat.



The key to weight loss is to first un-train your body to no longer store fat for a forthcoming famine. This means eat 6 small meals a day instead of 3 large ones. Make sure your meals are nutritious and full of great stuff (french fries are a no no people). You basically tell your body, "Hey, relax. Nobody is going to starve."



When it comes to exercise, resistance (strength) training helps to increase your metabolism and seriously burns up energy quick. Initially your muscles use the carbohydrates stored in your muscles as it's primary source. Once that's drained, it's off to using the energy storage you have in other places, which includes fat. The great thing about resistance training is that once you've done your workout, your muscles are in repair mode. This also takes energy. People can have up to 48 hours AFTER they have done resistance training just burning calories/fat just by sitting there and repairing their muscles. And hey, for every pound of muscle you gain, you have to burn more calories just to maintain that muscle. And that means eating more healthy food.



Cardiovascular workouts (running, swimming, biking, etc) is great to increase cardiovascular health. This means everything pumping your blood. Your primary muscle, your heart will improve. The goal for cardiovascular workouts is to to make your heart work less when providing your needed blood flow. The other great thing about cardiovascular work outs is depending on the amount of work you put into it, the more interesting ratio of carbohydrates to fat you lose. One problem to cardiovascular workouts is that I think people should keep them short enough to still gain the benefits of increasing their cardiovascular health but to reduce the downside. The downside is after completely using up your carbohydrate store, cardiovascular exercise can begin to eat up your muscle tissue as energy. Keep it light.



So honestly, it's a true balance. Resistance training isn't going to help if you're still eating garbage. And if you start starving yourself and you start working out, you're just going to put your body into a bigger famine-alert mode.



BTW, just joined traineo. Hope to make a few friends. Contact me and we'll get fit together!