Lose Weight 36

ScarlettMcCain

Hi Cookie - I haven't been to a personal trainer myself but I do have a couple of friends who really recommend them - is there any way you could see them with your friend to cut the cost? Or, could you look into any of these alternatives?

- general chat/ review with one of the instructors at your gym, if that's where you're cross training (hopefully free!)
- logging on to My Fitness Pal (free) to track everything you eat and drink - it might be more than you think?
- running instead of cross training - I found that helped me lose more weight, especially running outside
- joining a local walking group - these are usually very cheap, if not free, so you could do some more challenging walks?

I completely sympathise, seems very unfair when you've been making such an effort!!

cookie02

Rubyslippers77 wrote: »

Hi Cookie - I haven't been to a personal trainer myself but I do have a couple of friends who really recommend them - is there any way you could see them with your friend to cut the cost? Or, could you look into any of these alternatives?

- general chat/ review with one of the instructors at your gym, if that's where you're cross training (hopefully free!)
- logging on to My Fitness Pal (free) to track everything you eat and drink - it might be more than you think?
- running instead of cross training - I found that helped me lose more weight, especially running outside
- joining a local walking group - these are usually very cheap, if not free, so you could do some more challenging walks?

I completely sympathise, seems very unfair when you've been making such an effort!!

Thank you, Rubyslippers! My cross trainer is at home... I was trying to avoid a gym as I'm really not ready for exercising in public IYSWIM .

Thanks for all the great tips, especially the running and info on MyFitnessPal... I will try it. I've just found out that there are free guided exercise walks in my area so I am going to see if I can join them too.

It's a bit tricky for me to share the trainer costs as I work different hours to nearly all my friends. I don't mind paying if it will help but just think I should be able to do this myself. My mum and sister have both been doing similar levels of exercise (including the gaps between 30DS!) and diet (complete with us sending each other photographic 'evidence' ) and they have had been steadily losing weight so it is frustrating. I am going to keep trying though and really appreciate your ideas, thank you!

White_Rose_Tight_ThaKnows

cookie02 wrote: »

After a period of mainly STS, I seem to have put everything on at once and am +4lbs this week .

This is despite me doing the cross trainer and 30DS (admittedly, I am on repeats of the first couple of days and have gaps between the DVD due to really awful muscle ache). I've also been walking far more than usual for the last two months and my diet has been relatively healthy and I'm eating much less overall.

I talked to a friend who has lost a lot of weight and she suggested talking to her trainer who gave her a plan to do herself after they worked together. A trainer doesn't seem a very MSE thing to do. I am getting very frustrated though and I'm wondering whether to try it and if it might make a difference as maybe I'm doing the wrong things.

Have any of you done this and, if so, would you recommend it? Thank you .

Reading between the lines (aka not exactly answering your question!) it seems to me the issue is the general plateau and someway to kick start the exercise?

What I did was for a few weeks was, I wrote down about 50 or so different exercises I could think of and that I could do and was practical to do; i.e. walking, jogging, running, sprints, dumbbell and barbell stuff, crunches, planks, press-ups, etc. etc. then I took an old computer keyboard and pulled off all the square keys, made little numbers for them which corresponded to my list and played bingo! Alternatively just put the exercises on little bits of screwed up paper... my point is you draw as many as you want and then do that exercise. Random dandom!

cookie02

Still with the +4lbs but I think I reported late last week so not sure the 4lbs made the charts, sorry ).

Exercise: 2 hours on crosstrainer. so far this week. I forgot to check distance though.

White_Rose_Tight_ThaKnows wrote: »

What I did was for a few weeks was, I wrote down about 50 or so different exercises I could think of and that I could do and was practical to do; i.e. walking, jogging, running, sprints, dumbbell and barbell stuff, crunches, planks, press-ups, etc. etc. then I took an old computer keyboard and pulled off all the square keys, made little numbers for them which corresponded to my list and played bingo! Alternatively just put the exercises on little bits of screwed up paper... my point is you draw as many as you want and then do that exercise. Random dandom!

Thanks for the idea, White Rose! I will try it .

ScarlettMcCain

-1lb for me this week - at last the scales start moving in the right direction again!! I've lost 2% body fat too, but that won't have been helped by last night's scoffing of fish and chips (well, it had been a terrible day at work!). But now I know that the running + less carbs = weight loss, which will hopefully make it easier to stick to.

5hrs 15 mins exercise

Cookie - glad the ideas helped - I go running very early in the morning with no-one to see (but then it is round a local estate, so safe!) but honestly if there is a reasonably priced gym near you, go along and have a look, you might like it!

Svenena

I'm extremely relieved to report that I'm -2lbs this week. I weigh myself every other day, and have been fluctuating a lot over the past fortnight (hate seeing the number go up!), so I was really worried I'd have to report a gain, but fortunately it had suddenly dropped this morning. I've also had a horrible week diet-wise, due to temptations being in my way which I couldn't avoid.

I'm doing well with my walking though, and have done 17km since checking in last week. Haven't been out for a couple of days because I've been too busy at work, but I hope to get out and do a couple of miles at lunchtime today.

Also very pleased to report that I am now using the next hole along on my belt Small victories, eh?

Svenena

cookie02 wrote: »

After a period of mainly STS, I seem to have put everything on at once and am +4lbs this week .

This is despite me doing the cross trainer and 30DS (admittedly, I am on repeats of the first couple of days and have gaps between the DVD due to really awful muscle ache). I've also been walking far more than usual for the last two months and my diet has been relatively healthy and I'm eating much less overall.

I talked to a friend who has lost a lot of weight and she suggested talking to her trainer who gave her a plan to do herself after they worked together. A trainer doesn't seem a very MSE thing to do. I am getting very frustrated though and I'm wondering whether to try it and if it might make a difference as maybe I'm doing the wrong things.

Have any of you done this and, if so, would you recommend it? Thank you .

You've had lots of good advice above, but I just wanted to emphasise the importance of diet in weight loss - you often hear that it's 80% diet and only 20% exercise.

Exercise is of course really important to health, and we should all do more, but to put it into context: to lose one pound you need a deficit of appx. 3,500 calories - if you were just just relying on exercise that would mean you'd need to run or walk 5 miles every single day to lose 1lb a week. (Running and walking both burn appx. 100 cals per mile on average, although it will be more than this if you're heavier).

I know you've said you're watching your diet too, but it's really easy to eat more than you think you are, even if you're eating healthy foods. I second the recommendation for myfitnesspal - and it's free, so very MSE :beer:

Good luck for next week - fingers crossed you see a loss (your 4lbs gain might just be a blip after all! Remember ToM, etc can affect your weight).

stebiz

No change for me this week. Still happy with 20 pounds loss in 2 months.

dannie

STS since last Wednesday. Ate more last week so I expected to have gained but have been fairly active biking and gardening. Yesterday, nearly scoffed a lot, so staying the same weight doesn't seem so bad.

Tiglath

+1lb for me this week - not surprised.