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Low Carb Diet Rules
Exercise Plan?
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Organizing Your Kitchen
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Insulin Resistance
Book List: Learn to Lose
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Insulin Resistance
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Cinnamon Helps Type 2       Diabetes WebMD

Exercise? Oh God, don't make me do that too!

I'd rather spend my time using the computer and watching television. My whole life has been spent in front of one screen or the other. Inactivity was a big problem for me, and still is. In the summer of 2007, doing what I loved to do was making me an invalid. I choose stores that had grocery carts so I could walk for twenty minutes without exhaustion. Climbing stairs was a struggle. In truth, I did not walk for he first month of my low carb diet and i still lost five pounds a week.

I was tracking my weight loss progress and I noticed a slight slowdown in weight loss after a few weeks.

Exercise Plan

Walking:

My physical condition was so poor in the beginning, I knew I had to walk. At first I struggled walking five minutes at a time, so I set a goal of sustained walking for five minutes a couple times a day. I parked my truck farther from my office and avoided the elevator. Ever so slowly, my strength increased. From my reading, I learned that exercise can decrease insulin resistance. I didn't need any special equipment other than a pair of comfortable shoes. The second goal was to walk 10 minutes of sustained walking, three times a day. Eight months into the program, I have so much energy, I can easily walk for an hour without being overtired. This spring I plan to start riding a bike, in addition to my daily walk, because I have enough energy. I've learned I have to set new fitness goals each month in order to keep losing weight.

Strength Training:  

My weight loss began to slow once again in the third month. I read that strength training helps preserve muscle tissue and maintain fat metabolism and I knew I was losing muscle tissue along with the fat loss. I decided to add free weights to the weekly regimen. Now I try to lift free weights 2 – 3 times a week, weight bearing exercise with free weights or machines to keep the weight loss going. I found a good weight training book, bought several sets of cheap free weights at a department store and got started.

Benefits of strength training

• Raises your metabolism
• Muscle tissue burns more calories than fat
• Strengthens bones
• Makes you stronger and increase muscular endurance
• Helps you avoid injuries
• Increases your confidence and self-esteem
• Improves coordination and balance

Which Exercises?

I have no special expertise in exercise physiology. You may need learn how to do free weights. It helps if you find a book with lots of pictures to teach how. Some great videos are on the market that show how to do weight training. Below, I've linked to a web site that shows sample exercise routines for beginners. You should choose about 8-10 exercises, which comes out to about one exercise per muscle group. The list below offers some examples from: http://exercise.about.com/library/blsamplechest.htm

• Chest: bench press, chest press machine, pushups
• Back: one-armed row, seated row machine, back extensions, lat pull downs
• Shoulders: overhead press, lateral raise, front raise
• Biceps: bicep curls, hammer curls, concentration curls
• Triceps: tricep extensions, dips, kickbacks
• Quadriceps: Squats, lunges, leg extension and leg press machines
• Hamstrings: dead lifts, lunges, leg curl machine
• Abs: crunches, reverse crunches, oblique twists, pelvic tilts
  

Newest Exercise Routine

Ohio winters are pretty cold and blustery, too cold for outdoor walking. We had stored a Schwinn rowing machine in the barn and it had gathered dust there for years. Our weight loss has slowed down this winter and we decided we needed more exercise. We brought the rowing maching down from the barn and put it to use.

Spring fever builds during long cold January evenings. Spring could not come soon enough. To prepare for warmer weather, we took our regular bikes into a local bike sales and repair shop to get them brought up to safe use with new tires and such. While we talked to the bikesmith, we spotted a Schwinn Airdyne Upright Exercise bike.

We went home and thought about the pros and cons of buying an a piece of equipment. There is always a risk in buying something we didn't use. Would we use it excercise faithfully or would it become a clothing rack. After much discussion, we decided that buying one would help us excercise in the winter months. Wh did a search on Amazon and found the bike for $540.00 dollars. A reader comment told me that the bike came unassembled via Amazon,

so the idea of spending a little more from my local retail store made a low more sense. After three days of using it, I find this bike is sufficiently strenuous. My arm muscles are even a little sore after using it for only fifteen minutes. That's a good sign. I want a little muscle soreness and fatigue, then I know I'm doing some good.