Sunday, August 17, 2008

Shift My Focus







Daily, I walk past my "home gym" room that usually doubles as a storage area for laundry (see the ab cruncher). Most of the time, I shut the door because I don't want to feel guilty about my cool, new elliptical that I have used maybe 6 times. I even have an excellent ipod stereo. Have I used it? NO! I knew I needed to get a grip, so I emailed Lynn Bering (one of my personal heroes). I asked her about the idea of waiting to exercise until I reach a plateau to I could rev up my metabolism. She had a very wise response. Lynn does not equate exercise with weight loss. She sees it as two separate issues. Lynn looks at exercise as a major component to health. That makes so much sense! I want to be a fit, healthy person. I eat mainly organic, non processed, sugar free food. If I can do that, I can take the next step and get on these dusty machines!
The other concept that I read this week was from Mr. Low Body Fat's Blog about "Are You An Exerciser Or An Athlete" by Charles Stayley. I don't know if it is the Olympics that are getting to me, but I would rather train, than exercise. I have set the goal that I will take tennis when I get under 200. Now, I am going to train for that day. My goal this week is to train three days. I will keep you posted on my progress. Thanks for checking in on my blog! I love your comments.
Joy

4 comments:

debby said...

Hi Joy, it is great to see you making such huge strides on this 'journey of change.' I completely agree with Lynn. When you hear stats on how much you have to exercise to make up for eating so little (ex: you have to walk the length of a football field to work off the calories in one M&M!) you can see why you can lose weight without exercising, and why people who try to lose weight through mainly exercise are always frustrated by their lack of weight loss. When I started, my thought was that there was so much to do and think about in changing my eating/food that that was all I could take in. As time went on, started learning more, I decided to walk to try to rev up my metabolism.

Most experts say that exercise is not essential for weight loss, but it is a key component of weight maintenance.

I love your idea of training for something specific!

Mara said...

Good for you Joy. Set a lot of goals and take each one as they come. I set a lot of goals for myself and each day I look forward to achieving at least one of them. Keep up the great work.

Mara
http://24stepstogo.blogspot.com/

Pubsgal said...

You go, girl! I agree with the idea to view it as a means to fitness rather than weight loss. For me, exercise helps tremendously in managing Type 2 diabetes, so I view it as a way to help my blood glucose numbers stay in line than as a way to lose weight. I find it motivating to train for something too, rather than just looking at an eternity of jogging laps around the neighborhood. We have a local 5K fun run in October, and I'm training for that. There are lots of web sites with gradual training programs for running; perhaps there are some for other forms of exercise that you like, too?

My husband (overweight like me, but thankfully without diabetes) is waiting until he loses more weight to start exercising. I think he'd feel so much better even if he just went for a half-hour walk in the evening, but like any habit change, he has to want to do it himself.

FatGirl said...

I don't think I'd have lost 20 lbs in less than 2 months without exercise! I'm a big believer in getting up off of one's rear end and being active. On Saturday I burned 500 calories on the elliptical; it helps me keep up a calorie deficit for the day without being hungry. I'd have to eat so little food without the exercise to help me out that I'd be starving and then I'd cheat.

Plus, exercising is helping to lower my resting heart rate and blood pressure, both of which have had dangerously high readings at the doctor's office...readings I cannot reproduce at home...but even if I'm simply nervous my BP should never ever be 172/120!!!!