wanking isn't the only exercise we get

Fitday question

2007-01-11T00:39:19Z

Hey all. I'm trying to get under that 200-pound mark and I'd forgotten that Fitday has a nifty tool where you can log what you ate. Kind of like the (long-dead) Dietwatch freeware but with a smaller food database. Or like Weight Watchers Online's tracker but with a smaller database and not in slow-loading Flash.

Only problem is I can't enter recipes in there like I could with Dietwatch and on Weight Watchers-- where you enter food items one by one. Is there a way to do this on Fitday? I saw some recipe-type entries on Fitday so I know it is (or was) possible. Entering recipes is pretty important to me since I'd rather eat soup I make than the sodium-filled higher-fat canned kind.

Soundtrack

2006-10-13T20:27:16Z

While I'm waiting to hear what you have to say about the best way to run an online fitness community, I thought I'd querie the masses: what do you listen to while you're moving and grooving? I've been playing with playlists to listen to while walking, and here's what today's looked like:

Rolling Stones, "Beast fo Burden"
The Clash, "London Calling"
Rockapella, "Zombie Jamboree"
Moxy Fruvous, "King of Spain"
The Ramones, "I Wanna Be Sedated"
Brother Ali, "Forrest Whitaker"
Nick Cave, "Red Right Hand
City High, "Caramel"

Your turn! What gets you moving?

Is this thing on?

2006-10-10T20:16:08Z

Hello, fandom_fit! It's been a while, yes? I'd like to revive both my personal fitness program and this community, with some changes to both.

Personally, my new fitness goal is to move for at least thirty continuous minutes, at least once each day. Walking and dancing are my two main choices at this point, as last spring's running program met with a bit of a knee SNAFU (in the GOOD knee, no less). I'm starting to see a really scary decrease in my overall health as a result of too much sitting on my ass, so I'm starting small this time. Thirty minutes of movement; more if I can swing it.

As far as this community is concerned, I'm open to suggestions -- perhaps a bit more committment involved? Sign up for either one day each week when we post ("check-in day") or each sign up for a week in which they make daily posts to share a related link or tidbit, gripe about their own plan, or make an open "how's it goin'?" thread? Some combo of what works for each of us? I'd volunteer to do weekly open threads, but I wanted to see if some sort of committment might help others as well. Let me know if any of this still seems useful.

What a day!

2006-02-26T03:53:04Z

Ok, for my fitness program I've been working out at the gym at least four days a week, and trying to add an hour's worth of hiking at least once a week. Since I didn't get down to the gym in time today (it closes at 11:30am on Saturdays) I decided to go to the Hoyt Arboretum in Portland, OR for hiking as it has lots of hills. I meant to only do one hour's worth.

Well, I got lost. I got really lost. And that one hour turned into about three hours of trying to figure out where the hell the Arboretum's visitor center is, as that was where I parked my car. The Arboretum is at the top of the West Hills (the only reason they aren't called mountains is that they don't have snow year round). So I was going up and down hills for about three hours (at one point actually crossed a 217 HWY on-ramp. Amazingly I was still on the trail).

It was fun, although very frustrating for the last thirty minutes. I was stupid and didn't bring any water so I was very thirsty.

Next week I'm going to make sure I have a better map and a better plan, and bring some water.

Kvetching

2006-02-21T02:09:20Z

I bust my butt three times a week on this silly couch to 5k, then wake up this morning after two days off to find that I can hardly walk because I wore something other than sneakers yesterday. On an off day. On which I didn't even walk, for heaven's sake. Anyone know any strengthing exercises for ankles?

Short of that, anyone have a success story that'll cheer me up?

wheeze

2006-02-15T21:40:23Z

I think *puff* the second week *gasp* will have to be *gulp* repeted, too. *thud*

Seriously, I'm thinking the Couch to 5k is best complimented with brisk walks on off days. Not that that's gonna be bad for me or anything:-)

How's everyone else?

(And really? I need a fandom-related fitness Icon. Any suggestions for motif?)

Week 1

2006-02-13T08:28:10Z

I'm calling Mulligan on Week 1. It started out fine for the first two workouts, despite the jelly-legs and the gasping for breath. I was all set to do workout 3 last night, but yesterday morning, while I was out in the middle of a river taking pictures of my husband fly-fishing, I took a bad fall onto a submerged boulder. It was either my knee or the camera, and I chose to save the camera. My knee thinks I made the wrong decision; we're still not on speaking terms.

So I'll be re-doing Week 1 of the Couch to 5k program this week, hopefully starting tomorrow night if my knee feels up to it. On the plus side, I've convinced my husband to workout, too, so I've got a workout buddy IRL now.

fandom_fit @ 2006-02-07T00:17:00

2006-02-07T05:30:12Z

A couple of weeks ago I decided that it would be nice if my jeans fit comfortably again. I've always hated running and I'm not keen on the idea of going to a gym, so I delved into my dusty collection of workout videos collected in the days of yore when I was a teen who thought her butt too big.

My props go to the Kathy Ireland Total Fitness Workout video. Out of a dozen or so various Buns of Whatever and early nineties model sellout-videos, this is the easiest and most effective workout I've ever done. The aerobics section is very easy to follow and non-strenuous, and the body shaping sections do the trick, although I wish there was a bit more for the abs.

For now my goal is to do the first two sections (thirty minutes of aerobics + twenty minutes squats and pushups and crap) for three days a week, and then the whole video ( aerobics + squats and pushups and crap + fifteen minutes of situps and leglifts ) two days. In a couple of weeks I want to push up to doing the whole video every day.

Anyone had any success with workout video regimines?

The Plan

2006-02-05T21:53:07Z

I'm excited about starting my workout plan tomorrow. I've decided to jump on the Couch to 5k bandwagon primarily because I like the idea of having a concrete goal in mind. My previous efforts at exercise failed, in some part, because my goals were too general and too long-term. "Lose 30 pounds" is something I really want to do, but flying by the seat of my pants isn't going to accomplish that. With the Couch to 5k program, I know that, regardless of whatever else might happen, I'll be able to run 5k in two months. I'm not going to think about losing weight at all; instead, I'll focus on that single goal of running 5k.

And then, I'll be able to move on to other things that I'm not fit enough to do right now, like going through a whole aerobics video without having to stop every five minutes, or going to the climbing gym once a week and being able to scale a wall without having to take a breather. Maybe I'll even get back into kung fu again; I had to give that up last year because I couldn't make it through the warmup routine.

I'm also quitting smoking tomorrow. (Note to self: go buy some Nicorette today.) Maybe in a couple of months, I'll think about working on my diet, but for now, quitting smoking and starting exercise are enough for me to tackle.

End of Week One

2006-02-05T04:55:55Z

Whee, I've made it through week one of the Couch to 5k! I have some residual soreness in The Knee, but it's the "ice me down, you fool, because I'm not use to this" type as opposed to the "please have surgery to remove the torn bits of me, kthxdie" sort. I'm happy to oblige, and certainly have enough ice packs around here to do so.

(Backstory for the none of you who care: five x-masses ago I was in a snowmobile accident that broke my tibia where my ACL is attached. There was no detachment, so I just had to be immobilized for two months and not put any weight on it. Last january, after exacerbating a tear in my meniscus (sp?), I had surgery to remove the torn bit. While he was in there the doc found that my tibial cartilege had been torn up nicely, so he cleaned that up as well. I have a pretty good chance of arthritis because of it, which makes being active even more important.)

Anyone else recovering from injury/illness? How are things going for you? Anything I should be warned about/look out for?

fandom_fit @ 2006-01-31T21:22:00

2006-02-01T02:26:21Z

As a lot of other people have said, this community popped up just at the right time. :D

I haven't done anything too drastic right now, except switching all the soda I drink out for a nice bottle of water. So far, it's worked since I've lost 10 lbs, but I'm still not quite eating the right stuff.

Can anyone suggest some good things to eat if one can't stand salads? So far, someone has suggested carrot sticks and fruits, which is a good idea, but otherwise...I doubt pizza is a good thing to eat everyday.

My plan

2006-02-01T00:10:27Z

Well, I'm something of a couch potato, and so is the rest of my family. I've been going to Curves, a woman's-only gym, for the last nine months as a way to deal with stress as well as get into shape. I've been slacking off lately, though. Also, my dad has it in his crazy head that he wants to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, and he wants to take me and my US Marine sister. I have never climbed any of kind of moutain before. I want to make it to the top, so it looks like I have to ramp up my fitness program.

fandom_fit @ 2006-01-31T15:08:00

2006-01-31T20:18:28Z

I may be in a bit of a different situation than most of you. I'm a university student still in the dorms until December (crosses fingers), so I pretty much have to eat whatever slop the cafeterias are serving. I've been eating a lot of salads recently, but since I'm in higher-level classes, I spend a lot of time at the computer working on papers or whatnot. Since I've started eating healthier, my goal is to walk a lot more. Fortunately, my college town is quite small, so it's easy for me to walk around town. There are several parks nearby too, and since I like to sit in the park when I write, that should motivate me to find exactly where they are and thus walk more. I've already lost five pounds since the semester started three weeks ago, but that was before I really started to get much homework. Anyway, I'm glad this community was created because, hey, exercising by yourself is no fun.

Unfit Wanker

2006-01-31T19:53:04Z

Hi, my name is Deoridhe, and I'm a wankaholi... wait, wrong meeting? ;)

I'm trying to get into a more active an healthy lifestyle, though I'm trying to focus on food and exercise to do so. Who knew vegetables were so hard to get into your diet. They keep doing this "getting mushy" thing. Opps.

Anyway, my current plan is four days of gym a week (1 hour on the eliptical, aiming for 4 miles or more a day) and push ups and sit ups every day I don't go to the gym. Last week I made it three days. I'm really bad at getting up and out after work; does anyone have any suggestions for how to motivate yourself when all you want to do is curl up in front of the TV with some doritoes?

Also, if anyone has any "vegetable dishes for the procrastinator of doom" suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

fandom_fit @ 2006-01-31T10:40:00

2006-01-31T18:42:00Z

Anything you ever wanted to know about weight training, written by a woman, for women.

Krista is amazing and I want to marry her.

Goals and Questions

2006-01-31T07:58:15Z

Hi everybody! I'm beginning to work on getting back in shape, and the timing of this community was great. My original was to just do crunches, pushups, and stretches, but I'm liking the sound of the Couch to 5k plan. Are there any thoughts about incorporating the two, like doing the crunches/pushups on offdays?

Also, does anyone have suggestions about where to find decent sports bras for larger cup sizes? I'm a D cup, and whenever I go shopping for a sports bra, it's usually lacking in support or it's outside my price range. x.x Is there any way to get through this, or do I need to just bite the bullet and cough up the dough?

My Plan

2006-01-31T05:47:32Z

As some of you have already read, today I started the Couch to 5k training program, and followed up with a short yoga practice. My goal is to be able to run/walk the 10k AIDS walk in May. So far, I've been surprised at how much the workout didn't hurt. I modified the program a bit for my first time out -- halved the running time in deferrence to my knee (thirty seconds, rather than sixty). It actually felt unnecessary, but I think I'll keep it up for the rest of the week, because the last thing I need is to re-injure the knee I had fixed last year:-) So I'm technically in week zero, I guess.

I hope to add Swimming to my program at some point, in order to get back the upper body strength I had when I was kayaking. If I don't get to that before spring, I'll try to just get out in the boat, though whitewater boats are really crappy on lakes.

Welcome!

2006-01-31T05:27:59Z

Here we are, at fandom_fit, your virtual YMCA Lobby. I'm your hostess, CJ. Feel free to suggest interests for the info page, and mousies, if your interested, comment to let me know and I'll institute a weekly Mouse Post where you can post your exercise plan and updates. Take a look at the info page and think about what sort of plan you'd like to get into -- and feel free to post links to recommended workouts or guidelines for activity. I'll post my personal plan here in just a mo', but wanted to get the welcome up right away.

Healthy vibes to you all,
CJ

PS If there's a consensus about which layout is most pleasing, feel free to suggest. I just picked one I knew wouldn't kill my eyes.