Pentagenarians & Beyond: W/B 4/7

My hair always gets weird from exercise and I need to keep a flat iron handy to smooth it out... but otherwise, I'd think a mid day workout opportunity would be great. I just don't care for early morning ones... anything after is fine. especially on this diet, I wake up starving and would need to eat first, coffee first, and then it's not early anymore.

Did a premix on the spin bike yesterday. It takes me forever to get the bike adjusted right and exchange the pedals. DH is not that much taller than I am and my inseam is actually longer than his but he raises the seat and shoves it way back... his torso is longer. I keep thinking I can eyeball it and get it right, but even a half inch makes a huge difference in comfort. this time I marked with a sharpie so resetting the seat should be easier.

I never ever did any of the dance programs. It is so unpleasant I wouldn't do it if it were the only form of exercise that existed. the goofy outfits didn't help either.

Deb, I'm not sure on getting that balance any time soon. I need to move faster to get my leg up... holding in a tricep pushup is very hard and balancing all that weight you need to move everything forward. instructor, of course, makes it look easy.
 
Hi Deb, Josie, Valerie, and Lori--

This morning I did disc 3 STS for legs (53 min.). A lot of moves that are not good for my knees--wall squats, forward lunges, raised back lunges, walking lunges. I just modify because I don't want to hear my knees making all that noise. I still felt like I had a good workout.

Lori, I had a set of Zumba dvds (I think it was Exhilarate) and did them for quite awhile. I love dance, and I thought these were pretty easy, so I hope you have some fun today. Pure Spice is definitely more complex, but I'm pretty sure I will do okay.

Deb, I did Jazzercise back in the 80s, and you're right--the instructor wore leg warmers, a thong over tights, and a big head band. But so did Janet Jones-Gretzky in the Firm 2, which I was also doing in the 80s. I think Cathe is wearing a thong over tights in one of her earlier step videos.

How was your night out, Josie?

Those balance moves sound really difficult, Valerie. Good luck!
 
Hi all!

Ran 3 miles on TM this morning. Felt great too. Then did Zumba at work. Was only the 20 min dvd but still worked a sweat just the same. Was only 2 of us doing the zumba today, however, once people realized we were serious more signed on.

Deb...yes it is actually called double wave pyramid and it is on her HIIT dvd. There are 3 workouts all about 30 minutes. All high impact. The double wave is my favorite. No equipment required.

Valerie...awesome that your husband spins! That is great. Sorry though that it takes forever to adjust the bike for you though. :(

Lynda...I have mega step blast that was produced in 1994. My first Cathe workout and yes they all have white lace lycra shorts with a thong body suit top!

Have a great night!
 
Lori, DH is in excellent shape. he has to be careful of his knees however... bowlegged people can have alignment issues. so he spins now rather than treadmill. he does a few STS meso 3 upper body workouts and cathe core workouts... the older disk with the 3 core workouts on it. I got totally sick of that one, did it too many times, but he doesn't seem to need variety and keeps doing the same ones over and over. I need to keep changing things up or I start skipping.

I haven't done treadmill much for a long time. I got out of the habit by using cathe's cardio and also my TV issue . I need to watch something while on the treadmill, and can't find anything to watch lately.

the pedal adjustment is a "given" because he wears bike shoes and I don't. the seat movement wasn't much when we first got the bike but we are going in opposite directions on adjustments and marking the spot to adjust to should speed this up.
 
Good morning and Happy Friday,

I had a terrible night's sleep, fell asleep at 10:00, woke up at 12:30 and could not go back to sleep. I went downstairs and read on the couch, really did not get much sleep at all. It will be an interesting day.

Valerie, I love morning workouts, Sunday is best because I get to have a couple of cups of coffee before the workout. Weekdays I use STOK shots. I am so exhausted mentally when I get home from work that I cannot even think of doing a workout, especially a Cathe one. I could maybe walk on the treadmill, if I had to. You need a second spin bike! Just kidding. Good idea to mark your spot with a Sharpee..

Garance, I loved Janet Jones Gretsky in the Firm 2! Ah...what memories..actually liked all of the first 6 Firms...then they went downhill. Remember how expensive they were for a VHS tape? Something like $50 in advance...I think the Firm was the first ones to do presales.

Lori, I didn't view those premixes on HIIT...I thought it was all low impact, because of the title I guess.

Hi to Josie,

Any fun things planned for the weekend?
 
a second bike would be extravagant ... even if I wore the dreaded bike shoes I'd still be fussing with the seat height and the backward/forward seat placement. his torso is much longer than mine. so I'll deal with it.. it adds about 15 min to a workout by the time I get done fussing.

Wow, sorry you keep losing so many nights of decent sleep. I ( and quite a few others) have had issues with ambien. I get sleep apnea sxs from it and a massive headache the next day.
benadryl makes most people sleepy and isn't risky. sometimes an Advil is enough to calm down minor aches and pains and helps me sleep. Aleve can be used the same way but I don't think it works as well. I keep a pill box by my bed with these meds and always a bottle of water. If I am certain of a problem night,like the night before a plane trip, I take half a Xanax early....works wonders. prescription only. however, for occasional use only.... not something you can take often or it loses its effect.

weather is wet this weekend, we may try a ski. getting to the end of season for us.
 
Hi Deb, Josie, Valerie, and Lori--

This morning I did All Out low impact HiiT with premix 1 which includes core 1 (49:23).

Lori, I still have Mega Step Blast and yes, that's the one I'm thinking of. I think there's another one--maybe Power Max--where she also has thongs over tights. Cathe and I go back a long way. I had her first step tape, and a lot of scrunchies on that one. She also has one (I think it's Cardio Step Blast) with a really cheesy beach background (painted waves, not real) and the microphones were set to pick up everything the background exercisers did--grunts, moans, whoops. I think that was the first one with Cedie, and she had really bleached blonde hair on that one. How did you like Zumba?

Deb, I did the first 6 Firms as well, and I still have some of the later ones, but I gave the earlier ones to our local library after I had done them a million times. They are now being remixed on DVD and selling again over at Collage. Yes--as I recall, $49.99 for one hour-long workout. I may go to a movie this weekend at the local art house cinema.

Hi to Josie and Valerie!
 
I'm doing things differently. instead of skipping around to various workouts, I'm doing one multiple times in a week. I did cardio trisets again this morning, followed by core 1 from x-train. I'm much better at the workout, having done it 3-4 times in a row, and maybe that's better than "random".
next week will mostly not be any workouts... not sure what kind of mess my mother's house is, but between her incontinence issues and pet accidents, I'm not spending time on the floor!
Also will push workouts to earlier in the day. maybe I'm not getting much of an afterburn effect if I work out right before dinner/nightly cocktail. I should be losing weight faster so I'm looking for less than obvious reasons. even the people who don't exercise at all on WW are losing better than I am. I know there are differences in metabolism, etc. One reason I was doing them right before dinner was it kept me from nibbling when I was hungry before dinner but will try something else and see if it works.

what do you all think?

there's a fabulous graphic over on open discussion showing the size of a lb of fat vs a pound of muscle tissue. very motivating.
 
Good morning ladies!

Yesterday was a rest day for me and I certainly enjoyed it. Today I am going to try running out side which I never do so this will be a challenge for me.

Deb so sorry that you have not been sleeping. I go thru that every now and then and boy it totally messes with your system. Hopefully it will pass soon.

Valerie, I like tons of variety and always need to be mixing things up. As far as time of day to workout out i always felt working out in the evening was the best for me. The problem is I can't always get to my evening workout so I try and run early a few times a week. Everyone is different though and I think you are good to switch the time and see if this works better for you. Wow you were right about motivation from that pix comparing fat vs. muscle! Amazing.

Garance...i have power max too and I believe you are right. I remember the old Firm tapes. I did buy one back in the day and yes they were like $50!!! Can't remember the instructor. She was tall, thin and long blond hair...susan harris maybe? I really liked the tape. I bet if I look hard enough I may have it somewhere.

DH is working so after run...laundry, walk chester and errands. That is my day today!

Have a great weekend!
 
I did another workout yesterday, xtrain back,chest, shoulders after cardio trisets in the morning. another possibility, if I do something in the morning, no reason I couldn't do another before dinner. unless I'm too tired or busy. some days it will work. DH got home early besides, but I squeezed it in half before dinner, half while dinner was in the oven. cardio trisets has some upper body work though so not the ideal combo.

Lori running outside feels completely different to me than the treadmill. the treadmill has a springy surface and outdoors feels hard and flat. We used to do it all the time but got out of the habit after buying the treadmill. we had issues with too dark and too early to run safely. not enough street lights here to go safely until it's light. I could do it now but liked watching TV while running. DH doesn't run anymore because of potential knee issues.

Deb, hope you got a decent night's sleep. that wears you down, loss of sleep is cumulative for me.
 
Good morning and happy weekend!

We went out for breakfast this morning, and I have Kylee's agility class at 11:00. Then it's HouseMax for me. It's cold and dreary here today, when will it ever be spring?

Valerie, I have never taken any pressription sleep meds, just because of some of the horror stories you read and hear about. I take a Benadryl at night, and it seems to help most of the time. The other night was a "work worry" night when your mind gets on one problem and it just keeps on it until I can actually feel my heart beating faster than normal. When do you leave for your Mom's? I hope things are ok there for you. I wish I could stick to a rotation...but like you, don't like skipping around, usually the workout that is up for a particular day is not one I feel like doing for some reason, so I don't and the rotation is all messed up then. Kind of dumb thinking, but that is what happens. I think early am workouts are the best...and I do them on an empty stomach, with just a couple of STOK shots. I don't remember Cardio Trisets..? is it a premix from one of the DVD's?

Garance, yes, I did those Firms a million times as well, they were really the first workouts that combined aerobics with weights...very pioneer for them..I actually have them in the original BETA format, as well as VHS. I bought them in VHS because they were phasing out BETA and I was afraid that if mine broke, or my BETA player broke I would not be able to do them any more.

Lori, I agree, everyone is different and whatever works best for you for timing on workouts is the way to go. I am so drained when I get home from work that a workout is the last thing I want to do. That, plus we usually have dog stuff at night.

Off to do some stuff around here before having to leave for class..

Take care,
 
Deb, cardio trisets is from the LIS series. it's a little shorter than some of them .. about 41 min but then I add in the Core 1 workout so it's an hour. it's the one with the slow mountain climbers and uses disks. no step in it either! If I keep switching workouts, I never learn any very well. so I'll try doing the same one several times a week, and then move to another and repeat. my version of a rotation.

Would you be able to brisk walk during your lunch break at work? I'd have a hard time getting up early to work out if I had to leave for work too. I also am too hungry. work sure does interfere with fitness, doesn't it?

I don't like taking sleep meds.... ambien is weird. used it several times but it does something to my breathing and I get an awful headache and snore. plus, I've read stories too, about people "sleepwalking" through driving etc.
I use Xanax when I'm really stressed out, like before a trip. I am very careful with it and make 30 pills last 2+ years. it's rx and inexpensive. it's actually an anti anxiety med which is exactly what I need when I get stressed out about traveling. but it's not something you should take several times a week. wish there were more choices. I leave early Monday morning. the flight isn't until 9 but the drive to the airport will be unpleasant and I need to get up very early. once I get going I'm OK, but the night before I get stressed and it's time for half a Xanax so I can get some sleep. happens before our big driving trips too.

Had a Kathy smith step workout I bought on VHS. could not do it at all...threw it away with a vengeance. terrible feeling so uncoordinated. we never had beta, just VHS. still have lots of old movies on vhs but they are fading into nothingness.
 
Hi Deb, Josie, Valerie, and Lori--

Housemax for me today. Yesterday was, I hope, winter's last gasp. A really ugly day--slush falling from the sky and a howling wind. Sounds like next week may be really more spring like.

Valerie, I think you mean Cardio Supersets. The trisets workouts in LIS are weight workouts. Hmm! I may ask for a Xanax prescription for when I travel. I turned down a speaking engagement in Australia because I knew I'd go crazy on such a long flight. I had problems when my plane was stuck on the runway in Detroit, too.

Deb, since I retired from teaching I sleep wonderfully well. In the past I would do what you do--go over a bad class and worry about how to fix it the next time. Sometimes a class was just not fix-able because of the particular group of students, and I would anguish endlessly and hopelessly over what to do. Deb, you shouldn't feel bad about not doing a rotation. I think there are some exercisers who just wake up and like choosing whatever is most appealing on that morning.

Tomorrow I start week 2 of STS. Are you still with me, Lori?
 
Lynda, you're right... cardio supersets. I have the disk sitting out because I'm reusing it and I haven't looked, just load it and go.

Xanax is a wonder drug for me. try it ( trial run ) to make sure you don't react strangely to it. It lets me sleep when I'm anxious. when I wake up I feel rested, and no drug hangover. comes in various strengths. I take a half a pill when I go to bed and sleep without anxiety. it will lose its effectiveness if it's used too often. I use it before travel to quell the anxiety.

also, I am re-starting my search for new jeans. Lynda, I know you had a suggestion before, but I don't remember it. I want a store where I can try them on... I think I'll be hard to fit. petite inseam. flare leg. not too low rise. Suggestions? everyone please feel free to make suggestions. I won't be answering until later next week.
 
Hi Valerie--

Try "Not Your Daughter's Jeans." They are kind of expensive, but I found a bargain pair at 6pm.com. I think they sell them at quite few of the major dept. stores. Maybe you could try them on there and then see if you can find a bargain online.
 
I just checked at 6pm.com, and they have a bootleg flare in any size, petite, summer weight, for 72.99, regularly 120 dollars. They are definitely not a low rise.
 
I will need to try jeans on.... otherwise if I had half a chance, I'd dp mail order. muscular "thunder thighs" .... plus being short.... makes jeans a challenge. thank you. I'll try Macy's first. Nordstrom possible too, but they're usually way pricey for standard jeans and I want normal, comfortable, every day jeans. there's a Gap, J.Crew, Levi's store too, I think at the outlet mall. Costco carries Gloria Vanderbilt, but I can't get my legs into her stuff.

It's funny, I've lost in my thighs this time, but probably not enough to make jeans fit better than usual.
 
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