I can’t believe that it’s week three and I still haven’t gotten any closer to my goal. I’ve gained and lost weight but have only lost the weight I’ve gained since starting the exercise program.
Ugh! I’m beginning to believe the conventional wisdom that it’s harder for a woman to lose weight when she hits middle age. But I know it’s not impossible, so I decided to get help. I purchased the Abs Diet for Women. It’s written by the editor-in-chief of Men’s Health magazine. I just started reading it and I’ll let you know if it helps. One of my problem areas is my abdomen, it’s the first place that expands when I gain weight and it’s the next to last place I lose.

Putting walnuts in my steel cut oatmeal has been a huge benefit (one of the things they recommend in the abs diet is more fiber in your diet in the form of fruits and nuts) and is one of the reasons I started to lose the weight I had gained (if I told you why, it would be TMI as my daughters like to say 🙂
I’ve decided to add a new routine to my workout that I read about in Men’s Health magazine. You work out for 2 minutes at a heart rate of 90% and then you rest for 1 minute repeating it 4 times. If you do it three times a week it will increase your stamina and be a better cardio workout than if you walked for 45 minutes on the treadmill. I thought I would try it on the rowing machine but continue walking the other three days and see if I see an improvement.
I need to do something because I can’t get any further on the treadmill. I tried upping the incline of the treadmill to 5 but my leg started hurting so I suspect I’ll be at 4 for a while and I’m still at the same speed (3.6). If I go up to 4, I’ll be jogging and I don’t want to jog (I’m really afraid I’m going to fall while I’m on the treadmill).
I didn’t fare any better with the weights this week and suspect that it’s because I don’t stretch enough before I lift weights. I intend to stretch longer tomorrow and see if that helps (I plan to go tonight but only plan to do a 30 minute walk and work on my abs).
But even though I’m not closer to my goal weight, I have tightened the muscles in my abdomen. So, when I went shopping for a bathing suit yesterday, it wasn’t the disaster it could have been 🙂 I was actually able to find something in my size that looked half way decent. I bought a two piece for the first time in years (no, not a bikini :-). My bathing suit is ancient, I think I’ve had it for 10 years but I could never find anything I liked. I had to get a new one this year because the elastic started to degrade at the bottom.
It was really hard to find a bathing suit made for the more mature figure. Like I really want to reveal to the world the effects of gravity on my body. And it’s not really necessary for my fellow sunbathers to see the ravages of childbearing on my body. And though I’ve seen many other women show off their stretch marks and even accent them with a belly ring, I’m just not the bold.