Hello everyone!
I hope all of you are doing well. I have been giving it a lot of thought and realize that my weight of 200 lbs is not going away all by itself. Yesterday, I signed up on this site & I have read so many inspiring things here. I know what to eat & what to do...seems doing it & eating it are my issue. I atleast KNOW what needs to be done I think! Anyway, yesterday I went out & bought a body ball. I used it a bit last night & my legs are kinda sore today. I also bought some weights to strap onto my ankles or my wrists while working out. I am pretty limited on cash right now and I don't have all the necessary foods in the house that I should be eating, but come next Friday, I will be more prepared. For now, I will just do my best with what I have I suppose. I see 200 Lbs & wonder HOW I let myself get this large! I have never been this size...even at 9 months prego! Anyway, any comments or suggestions would be helpful. Do any of you use the body ball? How is it working out for you? What about the weights...they are only 2.5 lbs each..but I thought something was better than nothing. Do any of you use those? I would like to use those weights while using the body ball...not sure how that will work out!! Thanks & take care of YOU!
Rhonda

Hi Rhonda,

Welcome to JSF.

I use a body ball for some of my ab work, but nothing else. Maybe someone else can offer you opinions there. I think it's an excellent core stability/strength tool, as I can feel all my auxiliary "helper" muscles working hard when I use it.

I would recommend you do a little reading online about weight programs. You'll be outgrowing those 2.5 lbs weights very quickly, and you may want to prepare yourself for the next steps. Some resources that I find very helpful include:

Krista's site for some women-specific advice on lifting and training (http://www.stumptuous.com/weights.html)
An online directory of exercises to help you build a programs (http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html)
Hussman's Fitness Site to help you understand nutrition and caloric deficit (http://www.hussman.org/fitness/)
Skwigg's "Stuff to Read" page for good information and general insanity (http://skwigg.tripod.com/wow/id24.html).

As for not having good food in the house, do the best with what you have. I had to travel unexpectedly for a family emergency earlier in the week, and while my nutrition suffered, I made a point of eating as well as I could within the circumstances. Any progress is better than no progress.

Keep asking questions. Lots of very informed and very buff ladies are here to help you out (and lots of very informed and very buff gentlemen, as well).

:gl:

The best thing I ever did was write down my workout plan for several months.
I've never done this before, and have never stuck to working out (or seen results) like this before. It got me past a lot of doubt and wasted energy...unlike before I had a plan, I now don't have to (or get to) think about what kinds of exercises I'm doing to do, how many reps, how will I pick how much weight to use, etc. etc.

Rhonda,

Just remember that fitness and nutrition are a process. The longer you perservere the better off you'll be...changes don't happen over night, but they DO happen! We all believe in you, and want you to keep your motivation alive! I encourage you to post to us if you ever feel down, and we'll be there to point you in the right direction. Its all got to start somewhere, you know?

My advice to you is to set little goals along the way to help you get to your larger goals...for example: when I first started I said I wanted to work out 90 days in as short a time as I could (it ended up taking 101!) but in between I just said "I want to work out 6 times this week." or "I want to make sure I fit a workout in tomorrow before I have to study/work/whatever." That kind of thing. The same thing works for food. I started with the big goal of, I want to have a diet that helps me lose fat. My little goals were things like "I want to eat breakfast everyday." "I want to count my meals at the end of each day this week and have no less than 6." The little goals got me through the hardest moments, and helped me succeed at my bigger goals!

Consistency and perserverence are the two most important aspects of fitness. Its not about going all out all day everyday, its about keeping up with your goals, finding a way (when it seems there isn't one) and believing in yourself. I dont' even know you, and I have confidence in you to succeed...if a complete stranger believes in you like that, how could you not believe in yourself? :tu:

Good luck!! I look forward to reading your posts and hearing about your success in the future!!

-Andrew

Wow...you are all so helpful. Thank you for your time in writing your thoughts! It is nice to see that people are not ALL bad! My next question I suppose would be...Do I work out EVERY day even though I am sore or should I let my body rest in between? Yesterday, I used that body ball & WOW what a workout! So today I was thinking that I won't use the ball & I would go use the treadmil instead...what do you think?
Thanks, Rhonda

Don't workout muscles that are still sore. Soreness is a result of the muscle rebuilding itself and making itself bigger and stronger. Like you said do some resistance training one day, and some cardio (like your treadmill) the next. Thats a good plan. Also, think about the different muscle groups. One day do your upper body (arms, back, chest) and the next day do your lower body (abs, thighs, calvs, hamstrings). Personally I do something really similar: 1 day cardio, 1 day upper, 1 day lower, repeat, one day rest. Its important to take a rest day once a week, especially at first. It will help to prevent you from overdoing it and it'll give your body some much needed rest so you can give it your all the whole next week!

HOW OFTEN TO WORK OUT: When I started seriously working out, how often to workout was more of a psychologically question for me than a physical one. I have a really busy schedule and a lot of other things (besides working out) I could and should be doing. What worked for me at the start was setting a 3 day schedule. Basically saying to myself, I was going to work out on 3 days no matter what. I only had to be disciplined 3 days a week....only had to pressure myself 3 days a week....didn't have daily anxiety about being so busy I couldn't workout.

Eventually (after about 4 weeks) I added extra-workouts-when-I-feel-like-it to my stratagy.This REALLY worked well for me, too. I didn't feel pressured to do them, which for some wacky reason made it easier to do them.

Now I have a 4-day a week weight training plan and 2 to 3 days a week of cardio.
If because of work I'm only able to do 3 days a week I feel dissapointed, but don't feel like I am going to quit (I use 3 days a week as my worst-case workout scenario), but that doesn't happen often. I've started to get up earlier so I can fit extra workouts in.

To make a short story long, my personal recommendation is to use 3 days a week for 4 weeks to get yourself into the habit of working out. Forget about what kind of results you see...the only result you care about is the habit. Measure your workout success not in terms of changes in your body but in terms of sticking to the workout.

Then, over the next 4-8 weeks, focus on getting better at working out, better at eating, and you will start to see results.

Then, for weeks 12-3,542 focus on living well...eat well, read well, do well, think well.

Hope this is helpful.

This is very helpful! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with me. I need all the opinions I can get at this point. 3 days per week sounds very doable! I will make up a plan to do just that. I think that perhaps if I have the workouts IN my schedule, then I will make it a priority! Again, thank you so much!
Take care of YOU...Rhonda