After years of skipping the gym, a woman in her 40's enrolled in an aerobics class. On her first day she was dismayed to walk into a room full of younger women. To ease her nervousness, she told the instructor, "I'm here to do my postnatal exercises." "How old is your baby?" the teacher asked. The woman replied, "Twenty-two."

*shuffles to her feet, meekly raising her hand* Hi my name is Liz. I'll be 40 in August and my baby is 16. I'm here for my postnatal exercises....

(I've made links to posts pertaining to elements of this dialogue to expand the depth of conversation and so I bloody well can remember where they are!!)

Actually I began the journey back to shape when my baby was 12. Serious yoga for 18 months. That and a new found LC WOE I went from 150 and one twinkie from a 12 to 130 and a svelte size 6. Then a grandbaby came along and kinda put the kibosh on much personal time. Well, 2.5 years and another grandbaby later and I'm finally back in the swing, so to speak. No time or money for a gym, although someday I hope to be able to do some weight training, so for now I have my own body to use as resistance, unfortunately in more ways than one.

I began power walking a few weeks ago, and working out in our pool. I'm down 4 lbs from when I began and at least 3" over all to my estimation. So I will go forward from today. I filled out the my bodycomp.com and it told me I need to loose inches from my abs. No duh, but it seems I'm on the right track. Har she blows!!

Height 65.00 in (1.65 m)
Weight 136 lbs (61.80 kg) Goal: 125-128 (with normal flux for water retention)
Neck 12.99 in (33.00 cm)
Shoulder 40.00 in (101.60 cm)
Chest 32.99 in (83.80 cm) Goal: 34"
Waist 27.99 in (71.10 cm) Goal: 26"
Abdomen 32.99 in (83.80 cm) Goal: 29"
Hips 37.99 in (96.50 cm) Goal: 35"
Thigh 22.01 in (55.90 cm) Goal: 19.5"
Knee 14.02 in (35.60 cm)
Calf 15.00 in (38.10 cm)
Ankle 7.99 in (20.30 cm)
Arm 12.01 in (30.50 cm)
Forearm 9.49 in (24.10 cm)
Wrist 5.75 in (14.60 cm)
Activity Level Active

(Any gains in muscle oriented areas is just gravy IMO.)

Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) 1,296 cals/day
Total Calorie Burn (TCB) 2,138 cals/day (Not that calories count to me. I tend to obsess too much over things. Not enough calories is not a problem. My goal here is to stay away from junk and make healthy choices.)
Waist to Hip Circumference Ratio 0.74 (ratio of .80 or less is optimal)
Lean Body Mass (LBM) 95 lbs (43.02 kg) Goal: 100 lb.
Fat Mass (FM) 41 lbs (18.78 kg)
Body Fat Percentage (BF) 30.39 % Goal: 25-28%

So there it all is in black & green; where I am now and where I want to be. They're not unrealistic goals, I've been there and smaller, but I wasn't healthy then. The goals are healthy ones. I'm getting older and I know every inch is going to be a fight, but I have longevity for women in my family and I wanna be one hot mamma when I'm 95!!

I will post what I do the days it's done. Any suggestions are welcome. I figure having a gym log will guilt me into keeping up my program, nothing like a little shame as a great motivator!!

Today: 1.5 miles power walk in 20 minutes. 10 minutes of stretching after. Off soon to scope out a longer path. Goal: do 5K in a respectible amount of time.

wohooo a Gym log Good timing on the power walk!

I should have known you'd be the first one here!! Thanks for stopping in!!

A gym log!!!!!! Wooo hooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!

cripes now I BETTER do my workout

And the two workout goddesses have graced me with their presence. I am humbled!! No walk this morning, DH had a late shift then the dog got sick so no sleepy for me til 2am!! Aiming for an hour in the pool this afternoon. And seriously considering the Matthews Method for my abs. I'm tired of this Weeble a$$!!

Hi Galatia!! Nice to meetcha!! I'll pop by your place for a proper how do you do!!

I made myself go out. It was so hard...92 degrees and a pool like bath water from the torturous midday sun beating down on the overflowing verdant water!! These last rains we've had fill her to the brim and dissipated all the chlorine leaving a lovely layer (sorry Mil I typed lawyer! ) of algae on the bottom. Just gave me more of a work out brushing it all down before I got out.

Down to business: 1 hour in the water. (the pool is 18' long)
10 laps breast stroke, arms no legs (my pool noodle keeps me afloat)
10 laps backstroke, arms under water, not the out of water reach, no legs
4 laps frog kick, no arms (inner thigh workout from hell!!)
2 laps full back stroke, arms and legs
countless laps pulling 30lb granddaughter in a pool toy
20 minutes brushing the bottom of the pool with a 2' wide pool broom. Talk about resistance training, push that thing back & forth underwater while maintaining full contact with the bottom. (I was in the pool while sweeping, not standing on the edge) Great upper body & ab workout!!

Hoping for a great hard walk in the morning.

I want your current measurements. That is all

Sweetheart I had but one thing keeping ME from being 200lbs. Food allergies and unstable blood sugar. Certain foods would make me horribly ill and sweets in anything but small quantities would make me . The 150 before weight is just the highest I saw on a scale. It could have been as much as 160 at one time. I saw your beach picture . You'll get there again!! Before all this WOE began I was squeezing my butt out of a US 12 and frankly I think they were vanity sized at that. I'll have to try to find a full body shot. There aren't many for obvious reasons.

It's called the "20 minute aerobic solution" and it's a BFL technique. I used it to pretty much get rid of my exercise-induced asthma. I truly never have a problem anymore as long as I keep doing 20 MAS a couple of times a week.

Here's the illustration of it from the BFL site: http://www.bodyforlife.com/cardio.shtm

Here's some more info about it, with better explanation of the intensity levels: http://www3.hpu.edu/kalamalama/arch...ifestyles03.htm

As you can see from my log, I do it on the treadmill, increasing the speed for each level. (But those speeds are kilometers per hour, mind. If I tried to run that fast in miles per hour, I'd end up in the hospital or the morgue.)

walk/power/walk/JOG! 1.5 miles (2.4 km) 20 min flat. I need to map out a 3k route!! Off to drown myself in water and stretch. Then to the chiro to snap me back together!!

Thanks Em!! mmmuuuwwwaaahhhhhhh!! (I doubt I'll have those sentiments after my first 20 MAS!!)

Thanks for asking the 20 MAS question. I figured one of these days I would hunt down what it was... Now dont have too!

Cheers!

Jumped in the pool with the kids for an hour before dinner on a VERY empty stomach. Much flailing about, some frisbee fun (pool skimmers), drug a 20 lb grandson around in a floatie (7 mo. old) while preforming Mathewsesque ab contractions and got a couple of laps breast stroke (full arms & legs) in to boot.

I appear to have a slight sprain in my back right shoulder. Just pulled out my anatomy book from college, but it doesn't hurt nearly as bad as yesterday, so I'm not sure which muscle it is. I'll see how if feels as the day wears on, but just to be safe I'll not bear any weight on it for a day or two. I see some yoga and Matthews Method ab work before lunch today. I'll stretch it out, but no press downs today.