Legs and butt

[elle]

Hi Cathe,

I have been doing your workouts and love them. I am tall and thin, but have one problem area that I can't seem to change. The backs of my legs have some celulite and an area of extra cushion on the side of my leg below my butt. I guess some people call them saddle bags. It is not huge, but I don't like it. I am 44 and want to get in the best shape of my life. I really can't afford to lose weight (I am 5'9" and 127lbs) and the rest of me is in really good shape. I do Butts and Guts, Gym Style Legs and another leg dvd that has a step workout on it too (forgot the name). I may not be able to change this area, but if there is a way I am willing to work very hard to do it!!! What do you recomend? Thank you very much!!

 

[gettingfitmom]

not cathe, but what is your diet like??????

 

[elle]

I actually eat very well. My worst thing I eat is Edy's 1/2 fat Ice Cream (one bowl most days), sometimes animal crackers, Prezel Goldfish and baked Lay potatoe chips. Everything else is good. I have a lot of will power.

 

[Reese777]

My diet is my downfall - but even though you eat relatively well, you may have to go VERY clean to get the results you want. (I'm writing this while I eat an ice cream sandwich though, so please don't think I'm preaching...:7 )

 

[nenita]

Hi elle,

I saw your post, and have had the same problem areas myself. I am not as tall as you are though - I'm only 5'4" and store my fat in my lower body. One thing that did help me is doing Cathe's lower body rotations using Gym Styles, PLB, and B&G. My thighs have gotten really strong, my butt lifted, and my saddle bags are gone. In addition to Cathe's workouts, I walked 2 miles 5x/week and I gave up all bad carbs and sugar. I have to say that when I gave up the bread, pretzels, goldfish (as much as I love them), and even the low fat ice cream is when I saw the benefits of the exercises a lot more quickly. I hope this helps you.

 

[elle]

Thanks for your response! Very encouraging. What is PLB? How did you do the rotation? Did you do upper body too or just focus on lower? I run 2x week and bike 3x week (1 hour). I am doing lower body 2x, upper body 1x and a combo of both 1 time. I am almost at the 3 month mark. Seems like it takes along time to get all this working out in. I don't want to give up cardio because it is a great release for me.
Also, I am 44 years old. I don't know if that makes a difference in what I can expect as for results?? What did you replace those last few foods with? Sometimes you just have to have someting crunchy and quick to snack on or something sweet! I have triplets and just need to grab a quick bite somethimes with no time to prepare something. Thats where pretzels come in!

 

[DParker]

Hi -- I'm also not Cathe, but I have the same problem areas so I was reading your post..."PLB" = Pyramid Lower Body. If you use the "Search" feature to explore all these forums, you can look up "Acronyms"...very helpful in learning the local shorthand!

If you look around in the "Video & DVD Rotations" folder, there's an index to all Cathe's rotations. Each one has a slightly different emphasis:

http://69.0.137.118/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=7&topic_id=7577&mesg_id=7577&page=

You might also read some of the posts about freestyle training, which I've read a lot of good things about:

http://69.0.137.118/dc/dcboard.php?...ic_id=32004&mesg_id=32004&listing_type=search

That's a link for a long discussion of freestlye, which I found to be a good starting point. Good luck!

 

[nenita]

Hi again,

Here's what I did that I thought helped me. I just tried things that worked for me and stuck with it. Believe me I have a lot of times that I do fall off the wagon and I end up working twice as hard to get back on. First, I did Cathe's January 2007 (I didn't have CTX Kickbox so I subbed Kick Punch and Crunch). I took a week off but still kept my 5x/week walk. Next, I followed Cathe's August 2007 Lower Body Solution in addition to my 5x/week walk (I can't run because of my osteoarthritis and knee cap problems). I rested 2 weeks this time because of an ankle sprain when I fell at a park. I just started Cathe's December 2006 rotation.

As I mentioned, not eating all the other things I used to eat really made a big difference. The best way I can describe it is that I could feel the muscle underneath, but I couldn't see them because of the way I was eating. Once I got rid of the foods that I think were not good for my lower body, then I started seeing my thighs and my butt tone and firm. I replaced the pretzels and goldfish with a 1/4 c. raw almonds for morning snack with a cup of grapes, and 1/2 apple w/ 30 pistachios for my pm snack. For dinner, I had a lean meat and lots of veggies or a big salad. I stopped eating bread (this was hard because I love bread). Another snack that I would treat myself to every now and then was a snack size low fat popcorn. I drank a lot of water too (66 ozs. minimum/day depending on my activity and the weather). Like someone else said, eating clean really makes a big difference. This is what worked for me though so you'll probably have to play around with what would work for your body and what would give you enough energy, especiallly having triplets to care for. For having triplets, it sounds like you're in good shape already. Take care, and sorry if this was so long.