Fitness and being Healthy

[Nikachelle]

1.5 weeks of the worst stress (resulting in almost a complete loss of appetitie) I have ever experienced in my entire life and I dropped 8 pounds. Not healthy, certainly, but I hit my first goal weight because of it. Heh. On to the next ten pounds. That's 36 total pounds down since I started this calorie counting business.

[Skye1013]

Congrats! Even if it wasn't quite the way you expected to get there .

[Aubade]

Mmm local YMCA did a no-join fee weekend....girlfriend and I signed up. We're not going to be working out together due to work schedules but I'm excited to get back into the fitness game. Gained a bit of weight this holiday season =[.. I think I'm gonna start out with some swimming workouts!

[Nikachelle]

That's awesome. I've always had really positive experiences at the Y. I used to have a membership in my hometown (Ottawa) and had one as a student in Toronto as well. I'm also trying to hold out for a no fee signup weekend because I'd like to get back into the gym as well. If only for the classes!

[Nikachelle]

Not really sure where else to post this and I didn't want to make a new thread. Enough fitness/health junkies post in here so I figured this was the best place.

I'm trying to figure out what the heck is wrong with my friend. She had a bunch of blood tests lately and it came back that she's got something that's attacking her red blood cells and her white blood cells are on the decline. She needs to get regular blood infusions over the course of the next months in an attempt to "fix it". She said that what she has can also lead to nerve damage, amongst other things. She has to take a bunch of prescription pills as well. I realize this is all incredibly vague, but she will not tell me what the heck she has. She is a regular anemic as her body just doesn't retain enough iron. So I was thinking it was some form of anemia, but googling was a bit like searching for a needle in a haystack.

The reason I'm curious is that we both had the exact same symptoms that lead us to go to the doctor for tests. Mine all came back clear, but clearly hers did not.

[Fenrìr]

So I'm taking a rather large step out of my comfort zone and entering into a Body Building Comp in late April with a couple of guys from work; one of which has done this before and is, in a way, our coach. However, my main problem I foresee is my addiction to caffine. I'm not particularly looking forward to the migraines I'll be getting once this kicks off on Monday.

Any tips on how to keep them to a minimum until my body has adjusted?

[Arnock]

What's wrong with caffeine? It can give you a nice kick before a workout, and I've been told (potential broscience here) that the stimulants can help keep your metabolism up?


At any rate, what I've done in the past that's helped me reduce caffiene for awhile is to start drinking black tea instead of coffee for a week or two, then dial it down to green tea, then caffiene free coffee/tea.

[Fenrìr]

Mostly because I don't drink good caffeine. It's from cokes and such.

[Kanta]

Ugh, time for me to get healthy. Or something. The doc had me on a statin and was concerned about me being prediabetic. I brushed off the prediabetic part because I figured the Monster I drank 5 minutes before walking into the office probably threw off the blood glucose levels. Fast forward a few months (I'm bad at follow-ups) and I go in for another test. This time I don't drink anything for 24 hours except water and I stop eating ~10 hours before the blood draw.

Doc calls me a week later and My blood sugar is fine, and the doc is no longer concerned about me being pre-diabetic, and my total cholesterol levels and LDL are fine, but my HDL goes down further each time I visit. He's recommended exercise and a Mediterranean diet. Guess I will go back to lifting and see where I end up on a diet heavy in fish and chicken breast (doc said low carbs too)

[Nikachelle]

When a doctor says "start exercising" my first thought is to get into cardio, not lifting. Maybe someone else can shed some light on that?

[Amirya]

I'm not real clear on the why, myself, but I can confirm that since I joined the gym about 6 weeks ago, I'm doing more resistance/weight lifting with the trainer than I am cardio.

[Arnock]

Unless you're out of shape to the point where you get winded doing every day activities, weight/resistance training can have a better effect on overall health and quality of life than tons of cardio.


Building muscle helps burn calories quicker than cardio. Having a stronger core and greater bone density from weight training can make you less prone to injury. Being physically stronger is frequently more useful in day-to-day activities than being able to run long distances.

[Fridmarr]

When a doctor says "start exercising" my first thought is to get into cardio, not lifting. Maybe someone else can shed some light on that?

Cardio is great at improving cardiovascular health which is often a priority for doctors. Plus I think the value of strength training has been undervalued a bit because a lot of people don't like to do it and doing it wrong can cause injury.

[Ruldar]

I have been having a lot of success at weight loss recently. I'm your fairly standard office worker with no real exercise in my day to day life with lots of diabetes, heart disease, and blood pressure issues in my family medical history, so getting some weight off is a real concern. Especially with how much extra weight I've been carrying.

Started going to the company gym a few years back, but I never made much progress just doing that. What has made the biggest impact is when I started using Libra for weight tracking just over a year ago and (to a far greater degree) when I started using My Fitness Pal at the beginning of January. Since I started going to the gym I've upped my time on the bikes and elliptical machines from about 30 minutes 3-4 days a week to an hour and a half 5-7 days a week, and since I started using it I've been holding myself under a 2+ pounds per week weight loss diet plan in My Fitness Pal. I'm down 25 pounds since the start of the year and should be near my weight goal by the middle of the year.

My Fitness Pal has been a godsend.

[Nikachelle]

My Fitness Pal has been a godsend.