in the know..........

did you know at Amazon.com you can buy diet and fitness journals? They are called Diet Minder and Fitness Minder. They run about 14-20 dollars.

In these journals you can record your food intake, your exercise performed and minutes and so on, you can insert before after and goal pics, you can record just about anything. On the bottom of the pages you can record feeling and inspirations. Or what ever. They are no bigger than a day planner and I believe they hold 3-4 months work of entries.

I highly recommend these to everyone....I have 2. People do not realize their intake and output until they record it honestly and regularly.  If these are out of your reach financially then get a binder and some sheet protectors and notebook paper. You can find all kinds of info on the net.....go to MYFITNESSPAL.COM and it is wonderful.....the protein intake seems kind of off but follow your Dr's orders on meals and just use the site to log in your fitness goals.

If anyone has a fitness question I can probably find out info in my school books and also in my weight training guides for women....sorry STEVE....I only have female weight lifting books. It is important to add some weight training to your routine and resistance training. Our muscles go quick when they are not used and we need muscle to burn fat and muscle needs protein to build up. Don't worry ladies it takes 6 months of hard dedicated weight lifting to become Arnold Schwarzenegger......maybe 6 years if you really want to be Arnold

For those of you who fear weights then get some resistance bands at wal mart for about 12-20 bucks. There are 3 bands and each is a different color and thickness which provides different levels of resistance basic instructions included. If you chose weights, start slow and low weight until your ready to increase. Do sets and reps...for instance 3 sets of 12 reps with a short breather in between each rep....short means seconds not minutes. Also ladies....buy some weight lifting gloves to avoid callouses.....I have soft hands....I am an indoor girl...hehehe...
with weights....never lock elbows or knees and make sure all movements are smooth aand easy. You can pull hamstrings, damage rotator cuffs blow out your acl......so remember......when extending the arms and legs never lock the elbow or knee, never over extend the thigh or twist the knee. Your rotator cuff is in your shoulder.......so make sure movement involving the shoulder is smooth and within range.....baseball pitchers injure their rotator cuff......

Anyhow...don't forget your cardio.....get your heart rate up and keep it up consistently and stay within range. There are fitness watches on the market.....some are on 30 bucks.....mine was 150 and it has a strap that goes around my chest under my bra....this is linked to my watch...and also most gym equipment......it monitors my heart rate, time, cals burned and so one. The more costly the watch the more it does. Mine logs my weeks exercise......You enter your age and weight and go from there.......once again...log info......that's the key to attaining success.

I hope this info helps someone.......I am sure some people don't care about what I have to say. But I am training to be a personal trainer.....I am just sharing my info.....this may help someone who is a lurker and afraid to ask questions.......

have a good day
Tammy

Thanks so much for the excellent post, Tammy!  I didn't know you are getting ready to be a personal trainer.  I'm so glad you're posting more these days, I'm sure I'll have lots of questions for you before my big race in October!

It's so hard to find info on what we post-ops should do as far as nutrition, etc, when we cross past what would be considered just recreational exercise.  Do you have any favorite resources?  I read quite a bit on the Exercise & Fitness board, and it seems the consensus is the further you get from sedentary, the more you need to eat like an athlete -- some of those guys eat 2000-3000 cal/day but they're exercising at a high intensity multiple times per day, too.  It seems to go against what we're told pre-op, and it's scary to think about eating that much, but I guess it's necessary...

there are some really good book on weight training.....not bulking up like a body builder..

strength training for women
&
lift like a man look like a godess

are 2 I would suggest.

My resources have come from trial and error. I have been fighting regain on less than 1000 cals a day...it is possible. Yes a trained athelete needs more cals and pro intake due to their muscles. Most of us who are farther out should take in 1200-1500....sometimes more or less each person is different and we all exercise differently.

When lifting weights at about your 10th repetition you should feel a burn,,,,,,thats what you want. Your body (muscles) use up the stored glycogen...that depletes in 20-40 mins depending on the work you are doing.....that burn you feel is the glycogen going bye bye......muscles need a day to recover.....when we lift weights we are causing rips and tears in the muscle fibers....so do not work out all of your muscles each day.....

example......

monday do legs/glutes
tuesday do arms/chest
wednesday do legs/glutes
thursday do arms/chest
friday do legs/glutes

throw some abs too like on the leg days  in there BUT always do cardio to get the heart rate up daily.
you do not have to work out 7 days a week but it is beneficial if you do just remember to alternate muscles groups.......
you can use machine assisted weights or free weights.....I suggest machines to start.....I do not use barbells only dumbells right now......

gotta run....will be back in a few
tammy

drink protien shakes after the work out to help with the muscle recovery process.