Weight Training vs. Cardio

Another question:

"Thanks for the post. I have one other question when you first started out did you strictly do cardio and how long? Do you know incorprate weight traning into your fitness routine?"

My answer:
Cardio burns more calories than weight lifting but lifting weights spikes your metabolism for about an hour after you're done exercising. So after you're done with the weights, your body continues to burn calories more than cardio.

The benefits of Cardio are vast. It improves your heart, lungs, stamina. You get a "runner's high" (a rush of endorphins and "happy feelings"). When you're very overweight, cardio is the way to go. It's better to build up your stamina and ease yourself into a program so you don't hurt yourself.

After lifting weights, immediately eat protein. I suggest cottage cheese or a protein shake. Lifting weights replaces fat in your body with muscle. After you lose a lot of weight with cardio, switching to a weight program is ideal to get your body leaner and lose the FAT.

While I was losing 110 pounds I did only cardio. Cardio is fun and easy for me. I could do the elliptical machine for hours if I wanted to. Weights, on the other hand, were harder for me. I don't know why it's not my first choice.

Since I am pretty close to my goal weight, I'm finding it harder to lose weight because cardio doesn't have the same effects it previously had. I started going to a personal trainer periodically to get ideas. He had me doing a cross training program that included a lot of weights and resistance training. It REALLY made a difference. I got over my plateau and started losing weight again.

Now, I try to incorporate weight lifting into my routine as much as possible. Since I'm training for Reach the Beach (bike ride) and Hood to Coast (running), I do a lot of cardio. I need to have the long distance stamina to complete those things. But when I go to the gym to do my cardio, I try and end with weight lifting. I do about 20-30 minutes on the weight machines.

HOW LONG?
When I was trying to lose weight, I did about 45-70 minutes of cardio (usually the elliptical machine). Now my routine is a bit different:
RUNNING: Running at lunch I do about 35 minutes. Mostly because I don't have time to go longer if I want to shower and eat before heading back to work. On the weekends, I do longer runs of about an hour.
GYM: I do about 45 minutes on the machines (elliptical or stair-master) then go do weights for 20-30 minutes.
SWIMMING: 45 to 50 minutes 2 or 3x a week.
BIKING: When we go for bike rides it's usually for several hours.

It's race weekend! I'm excited and nervous. Good luck to http://slowlybutsurely2010.blogspot.com/ ! :)

DISCLAIMER: I am in no way a personal trainer or nutritionist. I'm just passing on what worked for me. :)

Weigh In & Measurements

Today I weighed in for the first time since December. I am NOT happy with the number I saw.

I weigh EXACTLY what I weighed in December. What?!

*I've stopped taking a medication that I think is responsible for some of my weight gain.
*I've stopped drinking alcohol for over a month, and when I do drink it now I limit it to one or two servings once in awhile.
*I've been counting my calories again and being diligent with my food.
*I've been working out even harder to train for the upcoming Shamrock Run.

So what happened? I have no idea. Perhaps I have hit a plateau and need to be patient. Perhaps I am not eating the RIGHT foods. I need to sit down and look back at my food diary and see where I'm lacking. I've plateaued many, many times before in my journey to lose 100 pounds. I think this current Plateau is my body telling me that I need to have a better relationship with food.

"When our relationship to eating and food is out of balance, it is easy to be overcome with negative emotions. We may feel aversion to the sight of our body in the mirror, jealous toward people who can eat 'anything they want,' or anger towards ourselves for our inability to end our struggle with food and eating. What can we do to counteract these unhappy feelings? [Mindful Eating, pg 117]"

When I weighed 143 (my lowest weight), my life was very different. I ate a very limited diet and counted my calories. I ate a lot of Lean Cuisines. My diet was plain and boring. My exercise routine was swimming and the elliptical machine at the gym. Now I swim, run and do a weight routine. Perhaps the weights are adding weight to me.

UPDATE: Tonight after swimming I measured myself. Here are the numbers:

From 12/30/09:
Chest: 38 inches (which is weird since I wear a 34 bra)
Waist: 36 inches
Hips: 39 inches
Thighs: 22 inches

From 3/8/10:
Chest: 38 inches
Waist: 35 inches
Hips: 38 inches
Thighs: 22 inches

So I've lost about an inch around my middle section. That's something! :)

Weight Loss and Happiness

What Makes YOU Happy?

When I was 250+ pounds, I was very depressed. I thought "if only I weighed 150...I'd be happy like everyone else." It took a lot of hard work but I reached 150. 143 was the lowest my weight got, and I didn't stay there very long.

I've previously mentioned that I put on about 15 pounds this year. In a few weeks I'm going to go back to weighing myself once a month again. While I was losing weight, I weighed myself twice a week. It was a good thing to keep me in check and when I lost weight it made me happy! Seeing a 2, 3, 8 pounds loss made me ELATED! On the flip-side, seeing no loss --or worse--a gain, I'd be depressed and beat myself up for what I ate. I didn't take into account that I was a woman and certain times of the month we can gain around 5 pounds due to PMS, bloat and water retention.

The reason behind weighing myself only once a month is because I don't want to get obsessed with the scale. I went through a phase where was I was. It's an easy trap to fall into but it's not healthy.

The hard part is learning to love your body no matter what weight you are at. Find joy in losing 5 pounds, being able to walk a flight of stairs without panting, running a mile. I struggle with this every single day. I have good days and bad days. I'm not worried about being "heavy". I'm athletic and will never be "skinny."

If you're having a bad day about how you feel about your body, take a few minutes to look up pictures of professional athletes. They are NOT skinny (well, maybe the marathon runners). My favorites are Michael Phelps and Serena Williams. Serena Williams is a massive woman. Have you ever seen her THIGHS? Dang! But you know what, she's healthy!

It's a hard thing to accept sometimes. Athletes aren't skinny. You need food as fuel. Simple, right? Then why am I so hungry all the time?!

Every woman's fear

So this post is pretty personal for me, but I think it's important to share in case it can help another woman. Almost two years ago, I felt a lump in my breast. Of course, I panicked. Long story short, it was not cancer or a tumor. It was a fibroadenoma.

"A fibroadenoma is a non-cancerous benign lump that is found in breast tissue. When felt under the skin, the lump may feel rubbery and easily moveable within the breast tissue. Fibroadenomas are commonly found in young women during their reproductive years."

The reason I'm posting this is because it can happen to any woman. I asked my surgeon if I had had the fibroadenoma for a long time, because it was fairly large (it FELT like the size of a golf ball). He said I had probably had it for awhile. He was aware of my medical history and that I had lost a lot of weight. I asked him if I was only just now feeling the lump because I had lost 110 pounds. Of course he couldn't say for sure, but he said it was possible.

I was so heavy that my chest was very large. Losing weight, I also went down many, many bra sizes. The reason is that breasts are made of fat tissue.

Luckily it wasn't cancer. But what if it was? I never would have felt the lump if I hadn't lost the weight. The above photo was taken 2 months after I had my surgery. I have had no problems since then.

How to Stay Motivated

Vegas before....and after! The picture on the right was taken last summer in Vegas. I was the skinniest I'd ever been. I gained about 15 pounds this last year. I hate it. I felt like a failure after losing 110 pounds! Part of it is muscle because I really changed my work out routine this year (added a weight program and started running). The main part of that is medication I took for a year. It was nasty stuff. I'm off it now and hope the weight starts to come back off. I want to get back to that Vegas weight.

I think most people start exercise/diet programs with the best intentions but it's difficult to stay motivated. Here are a few tips I've learned along the way:
*Listen to music while at the gym. Or talk radio. I recorded a few radio shows I liked but couldn't hear at work and it helped me stay on that elliptical machine longer.
*A few gyms now have mini television screens attached to the machines. I've been known to get sucked into an HGTV program and all of a sudden I've been on the treadmill for an hour!
*Choose an exercise that you enjoy.
*Get a buddy! Having someone to work out with keeps you motivated because it's fun and you're accountable to each other.
....And the most important for ME:
*Have achievable goals!

Achievable goals are less overwhelming. Want to run a marathon? How about making your goal to run a half marathon instead? It's less stressful and overwhelming. Sometimes when I run, I start to feel overwhelmed, tired, or bored and want to stop. I tell myself, "I'll just run to that next light post" and once I get there, I usually keep going. :)

While I was losing weight, it helped immensely to have goals and specific dates to reach my weight loss. Here is an example:
1. I wanted to lose 50 pounds by my brother's wedding.
2. I wanted to train for my first 5k run.
3. And currently, I am training for Reach the Beach and Hood to Coast.