On Again - Off Again

Last week I went in to my chiropractor's office for my weekly adjustment. I mentioned to him that I started walking on my treadmill again. It was here that I thought he would say something like, "Good for you!" or "That's great!", but instead he gave me a line something like this: "Running and walking won't do much, if anything, to help you lose weight. What you need to start doing is lifting weights." With that, he left the room and left me feeling discouraged and a bit angry! After all, it took quite a bit of getting myself psyched up enough to start walking again-- he really knocked the wind out of my sails and I haven't been back on the treadmill since.

However, I am even more discouraged about this weight that I've gained and I know that I've got to do SOMETHING. So, with his "words of wisdom" still ringing in my ears, I've decided to do a bit of research to find out what I can do to make a change. Going to a gym is entirely out of our budget, so my goal was to find something I could successfully do here at home.

I am learning that it's best to combine Cardio exercise with strength training to get the best results. Strength training, in particular, is important to keep my bones from thinning and becoming weak as I get older. Also, it will help with balance control and reduce or eliminate falls in older years. In the past, I probably wouldn't have paid much attention to the balance aspect, but as I'm in the caregiving practice now, I see balance issues with older people all the time.

I'm also reading that strength training is crucial to weight control, because individuals who have more muscle mass have a higher metabolic rate. Here's a quote from WebMD.

"Muscle is active tissue that consumes calories while stored fat uses very little energy. Strength training can provide up to a 15% increase in metabolic rate, which is enormously helpful for weight loss and long-term weight control."

During my research, I think I've found a product that can help me obtain much of the ideal strength training I need, while helping me to target my core muscles at the same time. It's called the BOSU Balance Trainer. If you'd like to know more the BOSU, this website briefly talks about it.

I won't be able to get one right away. It will take a bit of time before I can save that much. We are are on very tight budget and what little I've been able to set aside is going into buying seeds for this summer's vegetable garden. This by no means is a bad thing. After all, part of getting fit, is eating properly. You can't have one without the other, right?

In the meantime, I will continue to read and yes, I will get back on the treadmill. I probably won't get back to it until this Sunday. For me, starting at the beginning of the week rather than the middle or the end of the week makes much more sense.