I recently had a follow up appointment with my doctor and he said im doing great. As of today I am 5 1/2 months out and have lost 76 lbs. But I told him my weight loss seems to be slowing down. He asked if I am getting my protein, which I am. Then he asked how much I'm exercising to which I responded everyday thinking that it was a great thing but he said no you have to take 2 days a week off from exercise. He said no one should exercise 7 days a week. Muscle is built during rest. He strongly recommend I start strength training. More muscle will speed up my metabolism and help burn fat more efficiently. His advice was that I spend two days of cardio, two days of strength training, and 1 day of interval training with 2 days of rest per week. I haven't strength training before so I set up appointment per his recommendation with a trainer for her to set up a program for me that I could do at home. She was very nice and gave me great advice she said you should never strength train two days in a row. Always drink your protein shakes after you exercise on your strength training days so your body will not take from the muscle you've already built. She also said that my rest days I could practice stretching or I could do yoga or palates if I wanted to do something. So I stared all this 5 days ago and have lost 2.5 lbs since then. I never thought I would say this but I really like the strength training and look forward to learning the palates and yoga. I am learning about my body and I was greatful for all the help and advice so I thought I would share the advice I received. Hope it is helpful to someone.

Congrats on the loss. That strength training at home sounds like great advice I am starting cardio at the gym tomorrow but the machines intimidate me. Can you share your at home strength training regimen? Thanks.

Sure! The trainer gave me 2 circuits to alternate because she said I should try to confuse my body so I don't stall. The first one is inner thigh press with rubber ball, lunges with medicine ball, yoga bridge, leg lifts, crunches with medicine ball, hammer curls with dumbbells, dumbbell pull ups, and flies. The second one is 24 alternating lunges with bicep curls, 20 plie squats with dumbbells straight out, 2 45 second planks, 20 alternating reverse lunges with dumbbells straight out, 20 squats pressing dumbbells overhead, 1-3 minutes of cardio, rest 1 min and repeat whole circuit. I use 8 or 10 weight now but of course you should always build up and check with your dr.

Thanks a lot for the info. I started sweating just reading all that