More Consumption

Part of my web shopping lately has included some new walking DVDs, and I'm amazed to be able to say that I've actually been able to keep up my exercising to a certain extent, even with the new job. In fact, I even managed to get rid of 1/2 lb of the 4 1/2 that I took on during the holidays.

The DVDs are part of a package I got off of QVC: Leslie Sansone "Walk Slim" 5 DVD System with Firming Band. They had a New Year's Day special. For about $25, I got 5 DVDs, some weird elastic band thing, and a little diet booklet. So far, I've done the DVD pictured above. It says it has 1, 2, and 3 mile routines, but really the 1 and 2 are combined to be really 2 miles. They tell you when you've hit a mile, and I guess you can stop at that point if you want. Any way, if you are a Sansone fan already, this is a good DVD. The music is a little more contemporary then some of her previous DVDs, and the tempo is pretty fast, so you get an excellent workout. I started with this DVD since the longest routine is 3 miles but hope to work up to the 4 mile ones soon.

The band DVD I'm not sure about. I guess it would be good for firming, but I'm not big into gimmicky stuff, so we'll see. The diet book includes a10-day menu where you eat three 600 calorie meals a day, and you do the 3 or 4 mile routine every day. She claims in the booklet that you end up almost burning off one of those meals a day. I'm not sure if I buy into that. I could see burning maybe half of that, but more than 300 calories, hmmm...not so sure about that.

Free Pilates

Well, it's free to me at least...My sister is downsizing to a smaller house, and among the many items her and her family of six are having to find new homes for (which also includes a pool table and about 2 or 3 dozen - no lie - bikes) is her old Pilate machine, or reformer as I've just learned they are called.

She originally got it from QVC, but of course, some how lost the DVDs that went with it, so I'm winging it a little. I've seen it demoed on TV before and I went by YouTube and found a ton of videos, so I've getting a routine down. Like the mat work I've been doing, it's a butt kicker! I'll probably get a DVD for it eventually.

I'd love to take a class, and in fact, a new Pilates studio opened up around here recently, but talk about expensive! Dang! I got on its web site and was looking around thinking maybe I'd check them out. I saw something on the home page that said "$249 membership" and thought, "Hmm..$249 a year? That's not that bad." When I read on, I discovered it was $249 a month! not a year! Yeah, needless to say I'm back to my home DVDs!

I mean...honestly! Who can afford that? I grew up taking dance lessons until I hit about my late 20s, early 30s, and I've taken a lot of yoga, and neither of those are cheap because of the training involved for instructors and studio space you need, especially for dance, but come one! Is Pilates only meant for rich people?

Muscle Mamma

While I use hand weight when doing my Walk Away the Pounds - Leslie SansoneDVDs, that's about it. They are just your basic 2lb weights. I don't have her idiotic looking weighted balls or wacky belt thing she uses in one of the other DVDs I've got from her, but I definitely notice a difference when using my hand weights. It bumps up the intensity of the whole exercise. That said, the other day, it occurred to me that I'm probably at the stage where I can add on to the whole weight thing, especially considering my age and the issues we old ladies have with osteoporosis. This was confirmed when I spoke with a friend of mine, CM, at my CLJ who does personal training on the side.

I was telling her about how C. is not only struggling to get those last two before the holidays pounds off but that even with that off she's noticed that her hips are an inch larger than before. Two pounds obviously aint gonna equal an inch - no way - no how.

CM asked me if C. was working out with weights at all because she said that this would make a difference since cardio can burn fat but if you aren't careful you can burn muscle too. Weight training will tighten up areas and build the muscle she needs to squeeze back into those size 6s.

Armed with this new information, I called C. that night and reported. Come to find out, C. had not been doing weights over the past few months until she realized just a few days previous to my call that she'd been doing that before the 10lb addition. Just with all the traveling she'd been doing, she wasn't able to do her weight routine. Then once back at home, she had spaced and was just trying to do cardio like a mad woman. She also cut back to 1400 calories a day.

I argued with her a little about how she's always on me about keeping calories too low and how it can f-up your metabolism, but she is so desperate she just can't stand not wearing her clothes and she will not buy any size 8s. She's got one pair of pants she got at Chicos and a few dresses and that's it. Fashion be damned!

This whole story brought home the idea that I'm ready to take on a little weight training, and I mean little because while my *ss is huge, my arms are pretty much sticks still. Wiggly sticks, but still very little meat on them, so I'll have to take it slowly. However, I plan on my errands/groceries day to stop by Wal-fart and pick up some 5lb dumb bells. Hopefully, I can manage to carry them out of the store without hurting myself.

Back to Normal!

Finally, I think I'm over this stupid cold. Yesterday was the first day I really felt "normal." I did my Leslie Sansone Walk Away the Pounds - Walk and Kick DVD and felt really good.

This is actually kind of a weird DVD because the first 10 or so minutes seem way too easy and I start getting kind of cocky: "Hey, I could do this for at least an hour. I'm not even breaking a sweat!"

Then somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes into the thing, I'm feeling it big time. I still think I could handle more than the 30 minutes on this, but it's a good workout just the same.

Today, I also managed to get in 30 minutes of aerobics before heading off to the library, so now I need to concentrate on getting back to my 2xs a day routine. If it weren't for the fact that my DH had a beer ready and some burgers on the grill when I got home, I might have made it too. But, after having literally 70 patrons up stairs in the Reference Department five minutes after we opened today, well, let's just say I really needed the beer and burger!

Tempted by Pilates

I came this close this weekend to buying a pilates machine.

QVC had a really nice one on sale for about $300, and it included lots of extras. I had my credit card in my hand. Hey, I have Christmas money I haven't spent yet, and I'm too fat to buy clothes, so why not spend it on something that might help me get into some new clothes? Plus, I've been so good about exercising lately. Heck, I deserved this.

But then I had a thought - how many calories would I actually burn with this type of exercise? It was definitely what I liked to do - lots of stretching - no jumping around - but would it be intense enough for my new diet strategy - exercising like a maniac?

So, I went over to Self.com, which has a calculator for this kind of stuff, and checked it out. I plugged in 30 minutes and the results? 100 calories! Yup, that's it! 100!

I burn 3xs that with my walking DVDs, so that sobered me right up. I felt so cheated though. I was so ready to buy that puppy. I zipped over to Amazon.com and ordered some new Leslie Sansone DVDs (and a book of course...I can't help myself....almost as bad as French fries).

I'll let you know how my new DVDs are once I get them, but for now, it's back to Leslie Sansone - Walk Away the Pounds for Abs - 3 Miles.