Exercising When You Don't Want To

This is going to happen. You've been really good and working out regularly, maybe 5 maybe 3 days a week, but now you just don't feel like doing it today. If you've been exercising for a couple of weeks or more, you know how much easier it is right now compared to when you first started out. Don't sabotage the work you've put into building up your stamina. Just do some kind of workout.

Maybe you don't want to do a crazy intense 50 minute workout. That's fine, just do 10-20 minutes of kickboxing or maybe do a light jog a couple times around the neighborhood. But in the beginning it is very important to keep going with your routine, change it up if you get bored and do a different physical activity, but don't stop.

You are doing this for you. Give yourself this time to focus on yourself. You want this for you now, and the future you to come.

Let's be honest, there are going to be legitimate times when you are unable to exercise, like when a cold lays you low for a couple of weeks or you've twisted your ankle running and have to be gentle with it for a few days. Give yourself that time to heal and get better, you don't want to make yourself worse and end up being sick longer. You might still be able to do things like crunches and maybe some floor work, but don't overtax your system and push too hard.

Eventually you'll be in great shape. It usually takes just a month or two for things to shift the other direction. No longer will you feel like every workout is a painful struggle, those weird twinges in your body will start to go away. Instead, you'll feel more energetic after a workout. And shockingly enough, exercising  will end up being a stress reliever, you'll actually feel more relaxed afterwards.

The beginning is always the hardest, just get through it and it will be loads easier. And being that we are all physical beings, you might end up liking it as well. But just get pass that wall.

Weight Loss Competitions at Work

We tend to have weight loss competitions at my work every few years. And we take it pretty seriously. A couple people will resort to sabotaging and bringing things in like donuts in the morning, or maybe giant containers of pretzels, etc.

One of the competitors has completely stopped eating sweets and fried foods since January. I find that pretty hardcore, I keep eating chocolate but I do try to eat healthier. A few of my coworkers do Weight Watchers and their point system, actually I've seen whole departments use this system. There's a few of us who mainly focus on exercise, which is the camp I fall into.

The competition usually runs from January - June or July, so 5 to 6 months, and we calculate the weight-loss by percentage to make it more fair. (Weight lost in pounds divided by beginning weight.)

I've been thinking about doing a two week fast this spring, although my husband has done a 24 day fast before. Usually I continue to exercise and do my general routine during that time. But if you plan to do a long fast definitely ease back into eating solid foods, you don't want to cause your digestive tract any undue stress.  :)

I'm hoping to lose 50 pounds by July, which would be awesome. Posting a before picture is something I really want to do, but I might wait until there's an after picture as well.

Candida Overgrowth

I have a friend who I think might be colonized by Candida, which will be verified by culture. I actually know a couple people who've had a yeast overgrowth problem. Both of them had horrible allergies to the point they got those allergy shiners, and they had the whole swollen belly, sick all the time, brain fog feeling. One of them, his eyes were so swollen and weird looking, I told him he looked like death.

Candida albicans is the most common yeast to cause disease in humans. It's able to survive through our digestive track and ends up colonizing our intestines. Yeast in general can be normal flora of the digestive track, it's in the environment and yeasty breads. But then something causes the yeast to take over, usually it's when a person is on antibiotics which kills off the normal bacterial flora, leaving Candida to become an opportunistic pathogen.

One person I know was able to get rid of his yeast overgrowth by doing a parasite cleanse, this was a couple months ago and now his allergies are totally gone and his belly is no longer swollen. The other one, he's in the midst of a Candida cleanse and he's completely quit sugar and carbs, hopefully that'll work for him otherwise he'll probably have to go on diflucan (antifungal).

Sometimes a person may think they have an ongoing stomach bug that just won't go away, but oftentimes it can be caused by Candida overgrowth. A culture could verify this, but the doctor would have to specify the lab to look for yeast because they might disregard it as normal flora.

I've started a parasite cleanse when I began my new workout regimen. I thought it was a good idea since we live in the south, and they have problems with the water around here from time to time, and I know a few people with issues like Candida.

Usually my tummy is the last place to trim up when I start working out again, but I noticed that it's diminished a lot in just a couple of weeks. Not that I've lost any weight or anything, maybe actually gained a couple of pounds. But it's hard to say what can be causing the sudden stomach shrinkage, maybe its the types of workouts, change in diet, or change in seasons. Who really knows?

Intestinal Guard by Healths Harmony is the cleanse I'm doing. Can't really tell if it's working or not for what it's intended, but I can say without a doubt it gives me the raunchiest garlic breath known to humanity. Shoulda known since garlic is the first ingredient listed. Aw well, I've been carrying around tick tacks and gum to counteract those affects.

Exercising with Your Children

It's hard, but there are things you can do to make it easier. Running with children in a stroller is a good choice, they have awesome running strollers now, those three wheelers that are easily steered with one hand. And if you have rough surfaces you like to run on, there are strollers with big wheels that help with that. I have loose/weak ankles that I'm always trying to build up by running on uneven surfaces.

We've been having a really wet almost spring, so I've been doing little 10 minute kickboxing stints with my kid indoors. The kiddo also loves doing yoga and step aerobics, we just share the step and from their perspective, that step must be the greatest invention ever created. The secret, I think, is to do short little workouts with them, so neither of you will have time to get frustrated.

Crunches are easy, I just have them sit on my feet while I do leg lifts with the crunches. Loads of fun, just don't go too high and tip them over.

So there are definitely little workouts you can do with your toddler. But I have to admit, my main workouts are done before we pickup the little one from preschool. It's important to have long workouts to build up your endurance, plus you'll see results faster that way.

Does Working Out Cause Pimple Break Outs?

Yes. Especially when you are just starting to workout. Hormones control your metabolism, the building up and breaking down of tissues, hydration, etc. Your body is going through a lot of changes as it tries to cope with this new activity that you are now participating in. Think of how your body is reshaping and remaking itself when you exercise, hopefully it's breaking down fatty tissues while building up muscle. These changes are controlled by hormones that your body has to produce, and with these shifts in hormones there may be some side affects.

So, I'm in the middle of bad a break out. (Gotta love it.) The kind I used to only get during my monthly menstrual cycle when I was younger. The breakout is actually close to the level I associate with puberty. Sure I have a couple monster pimples on my face but most of it is on the back of my shoulders, something that hasn't happened to me since I was a teenager. But to be fair, this is the heaviest I've ever been and I'm pretty out of shape on top of it.

I do shower immediately after exercising, but that doesn't seem to be helping. Hopefully everything will settle down once my body gets used to a regular exercise routine.

Toxins released due to the breakdown of fatty tissue is a whole separate thing. That unexplained persistent rash, depressed immune system, etc. we're all carrying background amounts of toxic organics in our bodies. (Organics in this instance is just the chemistry term for carbon containing compounds.)

People associate exercise and dietary changes with the breakdown of fatty tissues or adipose tissue and the release of toxins that your body has been sequestering away. Usually it's difficult for your body to excrete these organic toxins that in most of us stem from industrial manufacturing and farming. To assist your body in the removal of toxins it is important to first try not to ingest it, the whole clean food clean living mantra but sometimes these chemicals are just in our environment and it's difficult to control, so second it's important to consume lots of fiber. Once your body starts breaking down fatty tissues or adipose tissue during exercise, it's important to eat enough fiber to aid your body in the removal of these chemicals from your body.

Even if you weren't breaking down fatty tissues these persistent organic pollutants, for example dioxins,  would still be released into your body from your fat stores. Dioxins are toxic and they're found in breast milk and human adipose tissue all over the world, they're everywhere. The highest concentrations are found in soil and in food, specifically meat and milk products. They're so toxic in humans, agencies all over the world monitor levels in our food supply, each industrial country has their own monitoring system and the WHO and UNEP compiles data worldwide, which is why you get those massive recalls on meat, etc., in America we have the Toxic Substance Control Act under which the EPA does studies.

Can You Lose Weight by Just Exercising and Not Changing Your Diet?

Yes. You can lose weight just by exercising and not changing your eating habits, it'll just take longer to lose the weight. You can also lose weight by improving your diet instead of exercising, but again it'll take longer.

I do both. The first thing I do on the road to better eating habits is to stop going out to eat. I make all my meals and take all my lunches to work.

For breakfast: I'll eat yogurt with homemade granola and frozen fruit like blueberries or sliced strawberries. If I'm eating plain nonfat yogurt, I'll add honey because I find it fairly unpalatable without it. I also eat things like oatmeal with a bit of brown sugar and I add milk if the oatmeal is heavy and too thick. When it starts getting warmer outside I'll probably switch to fruit smoothies for breakfast, which usually consists of frozen strawberries, frozen pineapple, canned peaches or canned mixed fruit, blended with soy milk. Just a word of caution, blueberries blended with soymilk tends to gel together, so if you don't drink it right away you might have to eat it with a spoon.

Lunch: My husband or I try to cook something on the weekends for lunches during the week. Maybe spaghetti with ground turkey and tomato sauce, roasted chicken, omelets filled with mushrooms or tomato and cheese, etc. I just make sure to include two vegetables with my meals and no, mashed potatoes don't count if you're using milk and butter to make it, and if it doesn't include peels because that's where all the nutrition is. My omelets are usually filled with vegetables that I sauté separately, so I usually just eat them with rice or salsa.

Dinner: For the last meal of the day we try to eat light and early, at least 3 hours before we go to bed. Things like baked bean burritos that we make with nonfat refried beans which we eat with salsa, light soups, or ramen soup with shrimp or sliced hard boiled eggs and leafy green vegetables, etc.

Snacks: Dried fruit, apple with cheese, strawberries, orange, bowl of cereal, bowl of yogurt, etc.

Working Out Everyday versus Taking Breaks

I much prefer to workout everyday, in the beginning of trying to establish a regular exercise routine, rather than have "rest days".

Why you might ask? I'll give you a list:

1. You'll be less sore. (Reason: Working out the next day will move the lactic acid out of your muscles, which was making you sore, and into your cardiovascular system to eventually be processed by your liver.)
2. You're trying to teach yourself the habit of regular exercise, so not exercising is kind of doing the opposite of creating a habit. (You can do something different, so you don't get bored or hurt yourself with a repetitive strain injuries. Or just do a light form of exercise if you're tired. But my choice would be a different form of hard exercise.)
3. You'll see results faster. (This is very important for me. I'm competitive with myself, and I want to see my body changing.)
4. Your skin will look awesome. (There's something about exercise and how it changes your body chemistry, so you practically glow. Maybe it's the sweating and pushing out the oils and impurities. Or maybe sweating is forcing you to bathe on a daily basis. This might actually be me. Ewww. No way. Yes.)
5. You can detail your workouts to your coworkers, whom you are competing with in a weight loss competition, as a way to demoralize them so you'll win. (Which is ok, because they've been sabotaging your diet by buying donuts "for everyone".)

Gaining Weight When You're Just Starting to Workout

This happens to me every time when I'm trying to get back into exercising again after a long hiatus. For the first couple weeks to a month, I either gain weight or my weight stays the same, even if I'm working out like a madman.

For me, it's due to gaining muscle mass, which weighs more than the fat I might be burning. As I gain more muscle mass, I'll reach a critical point where the amount of muscle I have and the aerobic exercises I'm performing will just start to melt the weight right off of me. This is because muscle uses a great deal more energy just to maintain itself, and when you have enough muscle it'll start using up your fat stores and excess tissues. Because to be honest, muscles aren't too picky about where they're getting their energy from, be it from your protein stores (muscle) or your fat stores.

Which brings me to another point, whether you're body burns fat or muscle depends on the amount of oxygen you're consuming, which depends on the exercises that you're doing. The fat burning stage requires you to reach a deficit in the amount of oxygen you have available to your muscles, you're muscles need to run out of oxygen before they'll switch to fat burning.

That's why they say there's a fat burning zone, it's when you're working hard but your heart rate isn't too high and you're not breathing too hard. When you're in that zone, you're not actually taking in enough oxygen because you're heart rate isn't fast enough to carry oxygenated blood to your muscles in the amount you need to maintain protein metabolism. So you're body switches to fat burning. You can tell when you reach that point because you'll have more energy, all of a sudden you feel like you can workout longer and harder.

It takes longer for runners to reach the fat burning stage, which they call their second wind. You're arms and legs are pumping, helping your heart get that blood loaded down with oxygen to your muscles, and you're feeling that good burn in your lungs as they're sucking in as much air as fast as possible. (Sprinters are different, the explosive amounts of force and energy involved in sprinting utilizes fast twitch muscles versus the slow twitch muscles that other runners use.)

That's why it's easier to get those pretty defined abs and deltoids when you mainly weight lift, your body's working hard but your heart and lungs aren't racing, so you burn fat and your muscles pop.

I prefer aerobics and running. The whole lungs burning and heart pumping hard, yeah that's my cake. But my body is naturally made up of more fast twitch muscles which work well anaerobically, which means I gain muscle mass easily (bulk up) and I'm a good sprinter. So instead I focus on building up my endurance/stamina aerobically because it's harder for me. Who doesn't like a challenge?

With aerobic exercise my body focuses on protein metabolism through the breakdown of muscle, so I stay trimmer while still keeping a nice fat layer.

Starting to Exercise Again

Now that my kid's older, I've actually started exercising again. Because for the first few years, kids really don't want you to have a life outside their existence, and they have to be involved in every little thing you do. But we're finally pass that point. Yay.

So on January 15th my workplace started a weight loss competition, and the person who loses the most weight by July 15th wins. I ended up getting a respiratory illness in January, so couldn't start exercising right away. But luckily the long extended illness curbed my appetite, and it was very easy to start eating healthier as well as less. Yay?

I already do a form of strenuous activity which is mainly comprised of me sprinting from the employee parking lot to the time clock. But in reality, I'm fairly sedentary, overweight, and out of shape.

So my first form of actual planned physical exertion was 10 minutes of kickboxing last Monday, February 12th. It's from a program called 10 Minute Solutions: Kickbox Bootcamp. Shocking, I know. There's 5 different routines with most working on different body parts, each in 10 minute increments, and when you combine them all together you get a full body workout. It's pretty intense for a 10 minute routine, I ended up using this workout for Monday and Tuesday. The only bad thing is the lack of stretching.

Yesterday and today, I did 55 minutes of aerobics, the advance section of Jane Fonda's "New Workout". I thought I was going to die. It's fun hyper dance aerobics involving lots of hopping and kicking during the cardio section. There's also lots of stretching, an abdominal section, floor work, and buttock tucks. I don't do the section of floor work that involves kneeling because I have hardwood floors and it's hard on my knees and lower back. The only thing that gets me through the abs and floor work is knowing that I get to do buttock tucks at the end.