I Guess The Bottom Line Is

jillybean

jillybean

Cathlete
I have been thinking about this A LOT lately. I think that although there are common elements to lean bodies (exercise, clean eating, moderation) I think that the bottom line is - different things work differently for different people. For example, I have seen posts that say "I finally leaned out because I upped my cardio!" Another post that same day might say "I lost 7 lbs. by cutting my cardio!" I guess whenever I see a post about weight loss, I find compelled to follow what that forum member did exactly. However, I have to take about a million things into consideration. I am 5'7". Although I am not big-boned, I am zaftig (to put it nicely), hips, boobs, yadda yadda. I would have been popular in the 50's. Today I am considered chubby (and I would be the first one to call myself chubby). I have to focus on making my body the best it can be, not making my body into Cathe's or Aquajocks's, or Honeybunch's or Connie's (or many of my other heroes from this forum). Of course, I can strive to be as fit, positive, well-balanced and energetic as these ladies, but I will never have the genetic make-up of these ladies, so why should I try so hard to workout the exact same as them? Did this make sense? This all started when I read a particular post that referenced doing all of MIC as well as upperbody weight work all in the same workout. I automatically felt guilty because when I do MIC, that is all I do that day. Do the rest of you constantly compair yourself to other posters? Or is it just me?
 
Hey, Jillybean! Interesting topic - AGAIN!

I think it's almost impossible NOT to compare one's self and one's practices to others', especially when people are reporting good results. One of the neat things about this forum in particular, quite different from many other fitness forums, is that we can share ideas without cramming them down everyone else's throats. I know I often feel like I'm giving The Minority Report when discussing what has worked for me past and present, and unfortunately I get into the A-Jock-Knows-Best syndrome myself sometimes.

I think learning to trust one's own judgment, and follow one's own sniffer for what works best for her, is one of the most challenging parts of developing a sound, workable fitness and nutrition program. There are a million opinions out there, many of them bought and marketed and sold, and many of them conflict. I also think, in this hyper-consumerist, hyper-skinny-ist, and hyper-"expertise" oriented society, that we are actually discouraged AWAY from discovering what works best for each of us from the inside out. Instead we're constantly barraged with the notion that we have to rely on the expertise of others, often at a pretty stiff monetary cost, to get and keep us well.

That's a gasbag way of saying: I hope you continue with your quest to do YOUR best rather than someone else's, even if that "someone else" is someone you admire. You've flattered me by including me in your list here, but the only thing I could encourage you to emulate about ME is:

Follow your own sniffer, and see where it takes you workout and nutrition-wise. Sometimes it's a lonely path (you should see some of the arguments I get into when discussing aqua instruction with other instructors!), but at the end of the day it's the only one you've got since you're the only one who has to live inside your own skin.

Take care -

A-jock
 
Jillybean,
I had to smile at your post! I just spent the weekend going back through my old rotations and progress charts. I've decided I need to go back to long, moderate intensity or interval cardio to lose weight. I've been trying to give the Body for Life philosophy a try regarding the 20 minute high intensity interval training because thousands of people can't be wrong! :)
Well, I've managed to gain 7 pounds by the decrease in cardio> I could kick myself because when I first began to lose weight it was when I went from the 30 minute Tae Bo tapes to the 60 minute ones, as well as Cathe's step tapes.
I knew what worked for me, but let others opinions/experiences sway me. How silly! Now instead of being within 7 pounds of goal, I'm back to 14 away.
So, I'm going back to listening to my own body and my own experience. Hopefully I'll remember this lesson!
Happy Holidays!
Becky
 
No truer words have been spoken! :)

Talk about confusion when it comes to what will work for you, what won't work?
I get so jazzed up when I hear someone say, "I lost ..pounds from doing ...!" It makes me want to instantly jump up and change my whole rotation! But I've found it's trial and error and it's exactly what you've already said, "what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for others."

And as far as compairing myself to others, I don't suffer from that as much, but I do use it as motivation many times! Reminding myself that we all have 2 arms/2 legs, so if others can do it, so can I! That's how I originally forced myself to do Cathe in the first place. Everyone around me would have me believe that I was too fat and too out of shape to do advanced aerobics and weight training but that just made me want to do it more! I hate for anyone to make me feel like I can't do something based on my size, color, etc. (okay, issues coming out so let me move on! :))

But you're so right Jilly, and I'm still looking for what works for me, and still tweeking rotations trying to figure out the magic for my body. IF I ever find it, I'll let you know! :)
Til then, all I can do is keep trying to find what combinations work well for me, and hope I don't go too far in the wrong direction while searching!

Donna


Fitness~ it's a journey, not a race!
 
Yes, it's nice to be slim and beautiful. Some days, I would kill for a body like Cathe, other days I think I would like the voluptuous curves of Nigella Lawson, yet other days I think Kate Moss. It just depends on what's 'in' at the time and what gets men hot under the collar. I think if I could look like them then I would have more men chasing after me. Do you think women should think like that? One would hope not!

The point is, whatever your size the important thing is to make the most of it. You can have curves and look beautiful, you can be thin and beautiful and you have muscles and be beautiful. I much prefer the olden days when starlets come in all shapes and sizes, from Sophia Lorenz, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe. These women have their own look and no one can match them.

I sent the picture of Cathe and her crew to my friends for their opinion and one replied that she thought the women were tooooooo muscular and finds it unattractive. Just goes to show you can't win.

Just be happy with yourself and your body and never mind what others think.

Yen
 
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Dec-03-02 AT 12:44PM (Est)[/font][p]Yen,

You are so right - everyone men and women have a different view on what looks good or what is sexy!

I am on the thin but muscular side (not as much as Cathe) I am 4" taller than Cathe, too. But I have a friend (her husband included) who finds any muscle on a woman a real turn off. She claims her husband likes fat on women especially love handles and cellulite! Go figure that one! Well, my husband is the opposite, he finds muscle attractive on women - he is a real butt man and loves a tight muscular butt.

As long as I feel my husband is attracted to me then that is all that matters - when my friend tells me her husband doesn't find me attractive because I have muscle - I say who cares - I don't sleep with him.

One comment on Tae Bo - The 60 minute advanced series did a lot to clean off my love handles. I started doing Cathe in 1995 - when I started Tae Bo in March, 1999 that was when I noticed a big difference in that area. I do wear 2 pound hand weights when I do it. Some of his moves I do slower to get a more intense workout on my muscles too.

Cheryl
 
> when my friend
>tells me her husband doesn't
>find me attractive because I
>have muscle - I say
>who cares - I don't
>sleep with him.

Exactly!

Thanks for the tip on Tae Bo. Is it the Billy Blanks Tae Bo that you are using? I think I might get that.

Yen
 
I hear ya, Jillybean! In fact, when I read these posts about how incredibly hard people workout and the strict diets they maintain and the weighing every day...I think, whoooosh, I am really in the wrong place! For me, it is a struggle to get in 2 or 3 workouts a week right now because...BIG CONFESSION here...I don't really like to exercise! There, I've said it. It just so happens that the benefits outweigh the hassle, so I do it as much as I am able to make myself, but I am no jock striving for excellence! I'm just trying to do what is best for me right now. I would like to eventually get into a routine where exercise is more of an enjoyable, regular part of my life, and maybe that will involve some other activity besides aerobics and weight training, but for now that is the most convenient and efficient thing for me to do so I try to do it as much as I can, but it's not a fraction of the amount of time that other people put in.

Anyway, my long-winded point is, there is definitely a wide range of strength, endurance, natural talent, and motivation levels among the folks on this board (and I personally am near the bottom of that range!), so I just have to remind myself that, while it can be interesting and informative to learn about what other people are doing, I have to do what works for me!

Lauren :)
 
Jillybean,

Words well said........and yes I DO compare myself to other posters, you are not alone, and I am CONSTANTLY telling myself off about it. Recently I have been afraid to do too much Cardio, but it works for me to lose pounds so I am going back to it over the Christmas season.

And yes, for my height (5ft 8 inches), and weight (185#), I don't look so bad, just a bit wibbly-wobbly. I am not big framed, and I don't have huge hips, I just want to be able to walk into a clothes shop, try outfits on and feel good about myself. I am working on it ..............


Anna :)
 
Yen,

Yes, I do the Billy Blanks - I know alot of people on this website don't care for him - but I enjoy his workouts and have found my abs and love handles whittle down - when you think of all the side kicks he does it isn't any wonder.

I do think sometimes he goes too fast to get the proper form and outcome, then I do one rep. for his two. He has beginners and advanced. The advanced is 60 minutes and the beginners is 30 minutes.

I would recommend Tae Bo II volume one and two, the advanced.

Cheryl
 
It's not just you, Jillybean! :-rollen It can sometimes be very hard to read some peoples' posts and NOT compare yourself. I try, though, not to do that as much as possible. I'll only get myself into trouble. x(

Lots of good points made here already. I enjoy reading everyone's posts.

Hollie
 
Yes, I do compare myself constantly with everybody here! And the workouts some of you do, whoa!

But I know that since I have only been working out for about 2 years, and plan on being a lifelong exerciser, that more intensity will come later (or it will not). It is a discovery journey.

Yeah, I jumped on the BodyRx bandwagon too, but did not give up cardio totally (just lost some capacity and am now catching back up!) I learned about 6-rep sets from that and I'm glad I saw the distinction. It's great for strength.


This forum for me is like a social club and an on-line class-- post-graduate level, of course!
 
jillybean-
Wow. I was just thinking about this before I read your post. I was thinking about how little I do compared to the others in this forum and was feeling badly about myself. Then I went back and looked at my calendar and realized that I exercised 16 days out of 30 in November, often for almost 2 hours each time, and realized that for me this is amazing. Most of my life I was lucky if I could get myself to the gym once a week. If I want to compare myself, why not compare myself to the vast majority of Americans who hardly exercise at all, rather than a small group of incredibly fit people? Hey, maybe I'm not so bad....
-Nancy
 
Jilly: I'm one of those "needs the cardio" girls too. I know what Anna is talking about when she says it works for her, it does for me too. I learned that not enuff cardio and Edith is a few lbs chubbier very soon.

My next love is Yoga, Power Yoga.

I'm struggling with getting enuff weights in these days but am improving a lot.

Edith
 
Hey Jillybean! I just wanted to tell you that I'm right there with you. I too should've been born in the 50's. And I do tend to compare my shape to others. I have come to realize that there is nothing wrong with my shape and I will never have long thin legs or a size 6 body. Once I became okay with that I then realized that I am a very strong woman..so I'm going with that. I want to have a very athletic body. This goal has settled very well with me and has made me really stick to my routine. I currently still have a lot of weight to loose...but it's nice to have something to look forward to.. :) Good luck!
 
Tae Bo

Cheryl,

Thank you. I will see if I can get a cheap one on ebay.

I just purchased Cardio Kicks and did that one time last week. I really enjoyed it, but she moves around the room too much, but luckily, I have enough (just) to follow them. I am sure it would be frustrating for someone who's work out space is smaller.

Yen
 
Jillybean,
I am SO with you! Different strokes for different folks. Different approaches/intensities/etc. work differently for everybody, I think.
There are too many other lifestyle and genetic factors at work for it to be otherwise, IMHO. Another important thing is that different people also *enjoy* different things. For instance, I am aware that, for me, doing pilates and yoga many times a week will stretch me out so I *look* leaner, but that is not what I enjoy doing right now, musclular thighs and butt shelf be damned! It's all so personal and individual. The nice thing is that these different rotations that favor cardio or a certain type of weight training lets us all see how our individual bodies respond to a different approach to training, and thus we know our bodies better than before! It also does help shake you out of a rut if you are motivated to do a rotation with a certain focus.
Good post, thanks.
Kathy
 
You and me both! I know exactly how you feel. I am trying to reduce my cardio and add more strength for a month or two. See what happens.

I think, in the end, it's not how many cardio/strength that will get you there. I think it IS shaking things up. I think if you are already doing more strength then cardio then shaking things up will shock your system... make you lose weight, gain muscle, etc. Also, by adding a different workout, i.e. cross training (as somebody mentioned Tae Bo) is shaking things up. I LOVE cardio so it is harder for me to give that up. I got some kind of high from cardio!

Haslina
 
Lauren:

I salute you. Thank you for your honesty. There are more people like you than you might think!!

keep on being just you

Clare
 
You really got me to thinking, too, Jillybean. I guess we're lucky to have so many incredible people posting so many different ideas. This allows each of us to try different combinations, knowing it worked for someone, until we come up with one, or several that work for us. And I, for one, have learned a lot about accepting myself as I am. Great post.
 
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