Hi everyone! This is a support thread for bandsters who are approaching or maintaining their goal weight, whatever that may be. This thread will likely include monthly challenges for exercise and/or diet goals, which members can choose to join or not join at their leisure.

I read a book once called Passing For Thin, which was written by a woman who lost 150+ pounds through OA, yet never felt thin on the inside. That is one of the things thread is intended to discuss, as well as the other unique challenges and successes of a bandster who is now Passing For Thin. These issues could be related to food in the maintenance phase, upcoming exercise goals, self-esteem issues, relating to the opposite sex -- anything you confront in your new body.

Maybe in the course of discussing our issues, we will become thin on the inside as well as the outside.

Let the discussion begin!

I hate weights too and lost most of my weight without picking one up.

This is what I do to make it bearable and have gotten results and gotten used to it to the point where I'm probably ready to start a serious more traditional program.

This is my weights circuit.

Requires: treadmill (or skipping rope, eliptical, bike, whatever you like)

weighted barbell (I use 20kg, I"m pretty big and strong)

handweights of appropriate weight for you (I use 3kg)

soft surface for abdominal work, etc.

Get onto treadmill, set a brisk pace and a reasonable incline, walk 1km using handweights in following sequence: 32 biceps curls at controlled pace. Switch both barbells to one hand for heavier weight, do 16 biceps curls, 16 curls at top half of range, 16 curls at bottom half of range (ie. half way up), then do with other arm. If biceps arent burning, use heavier weights!

With handweights do 3 sets of the following: 10 upright rows, 10 lateral raises, 10 shoulder presses. If shoulders arent burning, use heavier weights, lol.

Your kilometre should be almost up, decrease incline, up the speed and run the rest of it.

At 1km, hop off, pick up barbell, put on shoulders. Do 30 full squats, followed by 10 s-l-o-w squats, holding for count of 5 at bottom of the range, then 20 lunges each leg. Your heart rate will probably go through the roof. Hop back on treadmill and RUN 250 metres.

Hop off, do 20 more squats with barbell, followed by 30 dead lifts and 30 barbell rows (where bending over you pull the barbell into your navel by squeezing shoulder blades together). Hop back on treadmill and RUN 250 metres.

Hop off, do 20 pushups, brief rest, 20 more pushups. Hop back on and RUN 250 metres.

Hop off, do 20 triceps dips on a chair, brief rest, 20 more triceps dips.

Run 500 metres

Hop off and do an abdominal sequence - I either do 20 full sit ups holding a 10kg medicine ball followed by 10 sit ups where I stop at half range, and by twisting side to side at mid range, tap the ball on the floor at each side of me, followed by 5 planks held for 30 seconds. OR I'll do a five minute routine on the ab roller, or just make up various crunches etc to try to target all the abdominals.

Hop back on treadmill and do an easy 10 minute run.

Get off and die.

It really does work and I've worn my heart rate monitor to make sure it remains aerobic, I can hold my heart rate over 140 the entire time. So its cardio plus weights combined and I've certainly had toning results. Its all over and done with inside an hour and really makes weights bearable for me. But its a very general body program, targetted at muscle groups, not building of individual muscles.

I kinda like my treadmill so maybe combining the two would help. That seems FAR more doable than weights alone. I never even considered that before.

Thanks!

I still think weights are EVIL!

Me too. I cant think of anything I'd less rather do than traditional sets and reps, I hate free weights with a passion. Machines I can cope with but I simply dont have room for a Bowflex or similar.

With the circuit, if you know lots of exercises, just mix it round every few weeks. But bodyweight exercises liek pushups and triceps dips target multiple muscle groups at a time and are really a lot more convenient than 10 different exercises to target every muscle in the shoulder and rotator cuff, your pecs, biceps and triceps.

There's also loads of great gadgets you can buy like doorway chin up bars etc that make it easy to do that stuff at home.

Doug and I often do the circuit together too and just swap between the weights work and running, and sometimes we get out the boxing gloves and add boxing intervals.

Oh and my routine is I do the circuit 3 x per week and 3 days a week i head outdoors to run - one loooooong run of 10km or so (which I'm gradually increasing) and 2 short runs of 5kms.

I ran a 10K today with my SIL. We had such a good time! 10K is my distance -- long enough to be a challenge, not so long that you can't function the rest of the day. Woohoo! My time was 10:20 per mile. Pretty good for me!

Becky - you hit it right on the head! I'm going to be 68 years old in a couple of months..............it's about time I accepted the good stuff! Thanks for keeping the important things in our faces!

Bubble - I hate weights also................but, I do belong to a gym and yes, I'm one of the oldest and least fit..............I've found that if I do a class - at our gym we have strenght and conditioning and Group power classes - it goes fast and is sometimes (????) even fun!

I've been unfilled for a couple of weeks now - it's very hard! I have no restriction - I can eat anything - I've got an appt on Monday to get filled up again..............can't wait - I neeeeeeed this band!

Boo - I have this image! Kate Winslet? I must be right, right? Great talking to you!

I just told Boo on the phone that I've been thinking of putting off my re-fill.................it's sort of nice being able to eat what you want! I'm going off with some friends next week and wouldn't it be nice not to worrry about what I can and can't eat!.......................I've decided not to put it off! I need my band filled! This is a first for me since April 06.....and it's been an awakening (all over again)! The band made me feel "normal". Without the band I am not "normal"..........This is the way a normal person eats (oh!).

Bubble, I think you should join a gym. When I go in the morning around 9am, there's mostly senior citizens there and it doesn't bother me to work out around them. The gym should give you a orientation to teach you the machines and how much weight to put on each one. My thighs are rock hard and that's from the machines. I can't pinch any skin on my thighs. I have lost 3" in my thighs and that's from the weight machines.

When I was in AZ one time for a few weeks, I went to a gym by my dad's house and I loved it. It was so much better than my gym here. The people were really nice and I got a free training session.

Ohhhhhh I love this thread! I am 24 pounds from a "normal" BMI and can identify with so many of the issues addressed here! It is so good to see that I am amongst others experiencing these.

I hope y'all will let me jump in and join you guys!

Lisa

OK, I just realized my ticker and my normal BMI goals are different. Let me clarify...initially I had a goal of 138....which I still may do, but my current goal is to be at 150...which would put me at a BMI of 24.9. Either way I am healthier!

Bubble, I think you should join a gym. When I go in the morning around 9am, there's mostly senior citizens there and it doesn't bother me to work out around them. The gym should give you a orientation to teach you the machines and how much weight to put on each one. My thighs are rock hard and that's from the machines. I can't pinch any skin on my thighs. I have lost 3" in my thighs and that's from the weight machines.

When I was in AZ one time for a few weeks, I went to a gym by my dad's house and I loved it. It was so much better than my gym here. The people were really nice and I got a free training session.

I just can't, I can't join a gym. I have this huge issue about others seeing the "fat girl" working out. It's a head thing of mine. I was thinking about finding a personal trainer and someone that would be able to manage it so we work when nobody is there. Probably not possible, but I'm going to try.

Maybe I'll just buy a bowflex. That would solve the "in public" thing. But the thing is, I don't know how to use the darn thing!

I am hopeless, absolutely hopeless!

"I just can't, I can't join a gym. I have this huge issue about others seeing the "fat girl" working out. It's a head thing of mine."

Bubble, I had this same issue (ah, just another to add to the big list of issues). Try and join with a friend, that helps. If she's another "fat girl" that's even better. No fat friends? Go to Salvation Army and look for the largest old tee shirt they have. I'm talking about a 3-4xl. It will swim on you. Put it on and march proudly into the gym.

Know what people will think: wow, that woman's lost a TON of weight. Good for her. Know what those skinny girls in the spandex crop-tops will think? Who cares!

When I first started going to the gym I never made eye contact with anyone and pretended I was invisible. Very mature attitude for a 50 year old adult, right? Let's face it, fat people are invisible anyway. We're much more self-conscious than we need to be. People ARE NOT watching our every move and judging us. They're far too self-consumed to care. Maybe they give us a passing thought or glance. But really, they're much more worried about their own needs and images.

Try the gym with a friend once. It may surprise you how motivated you feel.

MC

Bubble you need to do a reality check. You've lost 83 lbs with only 19 to go to goal. You ARE NOT still the fat chick and obviously you are not completely hopeless either. You've lost all this weight and are exercising like crazy. You've done a great job and should be celebrating your accomplishments. If you want to join a gym you should. Everything that MarieCarmen said is so true. Other people may give a split seconds thought to what we look like and then they are back focused on their on stuff. Anyway, I'm confident that there will be someone bigger than you at the gym. Most importantly, try to remember that it is a waste of your time and energy to worry what someone else that you don't even know thinks of you.

Guysis, good for you! Such a smart decision - you inspire me to do the right thing instead of the easy thing. Becky

I am in right along with everyone else. I have thin and fat days . I try to go and buy some cloths on my thin days,that way everything looks good. But lately I have been having my fat days when I want to lose another 20 lbs. When I go to my docand tell him I need a fill he usually asks why.He said that his goal for his patients is a bmi of 29 or lower. and as long as you are there he is ok with you weight. I kinda think that its ok for him to give a bmi range rather than a weight range.

I would love to join an exercise challenge.I work a 10-12 hour day so getting my butt to the gym can be hard but if I need to report in I would drag myself there.