Lyridia

I bought the elliptical since it is low impact and I have bad knees and recently broke my ankle. Doing 20-30 mins on that doesn't hurt nearly as bad as just plain walking does, and I do plan on starting some strength training in the near future. I have been looking for beginner, low impact exercises to start with. It is good to know though that I don't have to worry about the heart rate as much, thanks for the link

Saturday October 5, 2013 - Stats 1799 - Calories None - Minutes on my elliptical 6 - Cigarettes 0.5 - Liters Soda 2 - Water Didn't get any exercise in, went to sleep really early, was so tired all day yesterday.

Also, if you like celery, celery is one of those "empty calorie" foods. It takes more calories to digest it then you get from eating it.

I have been using different forms of meditation now for over 15 years. Of all of the different ways, the two I use most often is: Quiet Time: A time of reflection, and your positive thoughts and images of the future. Take care to not let any negative thoughts barrel their way in during this time. When able I like to take 20 minutes of my day for this. Either at the beginning of the day, or at the end of the day. Sometimes both, it just depends on what that day has in store for me. Distressing: If your life is as crazy as mine, this may be the thing for you. Most days I cant stop for 20 minutes uninterrupted, as my kids are always wanting something. So, I use this 4 step method I found several years back, for a quick way to regain my senses and gain control of my emotions, and the situation around me.Gentle breathing: Close your eyes and focus on your breathing. Try not to let thoughts pass by, rather than pondering on them or daydreaming. Tense and Relax: Make a fist with your right hand and tense all the muscles in your forearm. Hold the tension for 5 Seconds and then relax your muscles for about 10 Seconds. Now do the same thing for each part of your body. Tighten each group of muscles, hold the tension and then relax fully. Visualize: Next, try to recall a place or time where you felt content and relaxed. Use your imagination to reconstruct the place and how you felt when you were there. Let yourself become totally immersed in the scene. Let Go: Once your mind and body are completely relaxed, let go of your stress. Visualize a stream of light or energy pouring through your body and washing your stress away, or imagine the stress leaving your body with each breath out. Picture yourself getting through the rest of the day without stress by trying to anticipate any potentially difficult situations. Thinking about how you can get through them calmly will help you put this into practice. Note: This technique is not my own, I clipped this from somewhere a long time ago and keep it in a book of clippings. I do not remember the original source though. Some other things that may help you relax: MusicFresh Air: You would be surprised how opening a window or going outside for a few minutes can really lift your mood. Hope this helps you

Yes, a little but not really, no, and my muscles felt.. hmm how to explain it, rubbery, afterwards. P.S. Off topic but, Love your Avatar. â¤T.A.R.D.I.S: Time and Relative Dimension in Space⤠November 23, 2013

Friday October 4, 2013 - Stats 207.8 - Lbs. 2264 - Calories 20 - Minutes on my elliptical - 2 miles 7 - Cigarettes 2.1 - Liters Soda 0 - Water Learned that my target heart rate is 114-161 and finally figured out the definition of "Reps" and "Sets". I could never figure out which one was which. There are a lot of changes I would like to make in my life, and unlike so many tries before, I am ready to take initiative and stick with it no matter what. I have finally learned that having a bad day or two is not a good enough reason to give up. I love this site, and how it takes real life and turns it into an RPG. Best idea I have ever seen. So I am going to start by making a few small "Noob Quests" (I put it in quotations because I feel the term "Noob" is used as a demeaning term in some games. We all have to start somewhere. I always get upset when my lvl 3-4k friends on Mabinogi start picking on people and calling them "Noobs" like its a bad thing. Sure I'm over 2k lvls myself, but I remember being new.) Track everything for two weeks straight - Calories, exercise, what I do with my time, mood, how much I smoke. Everything, and I'm going to say this is not complete until I am able to do it for two weeks without missing a day. Trying to build a habit here. That way I can see what changes I need to make to "Level up my life". (I love that term) Now, just from the first day of tracking everything I already have things I want to change. Quite a few in fact so I'll list these quests here. Stop Smoking - It's bad for me, plain and simple. I have known this for years. It's bad for my family as well. I have tried patches, gums, electronic cigarettes, and even tried quitting cold turkey all with the same results. The withdraws make me extremely irritable and angry. Making me snap at everyone around me. (At one point my family bought me a pack and said, "Here, we are safer when you have these." So, my newest approach, will be to try to smoke one less cigarette every other day. Stop Drinking Soda - Yesterday I noticed that nearly half my calories were from soda, it made me go "WOW, really?" I could lose like 3 lbs a week by just cutting them out all together and not changing anything else. Kinda scary. I know I need to start eating more, eating healthier, and drinking less soda. I get caffeine withdraws as bad as the nicotine withdraws so I am going to wean myself off of it as well. My approach will be to drink a little bit less every day.Drink more water - To be honest, I rarely drink any water. I know that is terrible, and I am going to fix it. My goal is to get up to 8 glasses a day by Christmas.Start Exercising - I am a stay at home mom/gamer, we rarely go and do anything because of my husband's work schedule and the fact that I am always tired. I know that with exercise I can build up my strength and energy back up. For right now, my goal is to do 2 miles on the elliptical every day, while I continue to figure out and build a routine that I am able to do without hurting myself.Eat Healthier - No brainier, I know. Something I have been working on for a while now. It is difficult in my home to find healthy food to eat. My husband and children are all very picky and do not like "Healthy" stuff. I plan of attack here is going to be to add a new recipe, probably a side dish of some kind that is healthy to every meal. Or maybe I'll try to do a full healthy meal once a week to start off and if they refuse to eat it they can "Fend for themselves" Not quite sure how that is going to work out. Any stories or suggestions you would like to share about this would be awesome. Recipes too, if you have any that are healthy but have minimal fruit/veggies in them for my family to try. (On a side note, I love fruits and veggies. I always try to buy some when we go shopping, and I do sometimes, but I usually can't eat them all by myself before they go bad.)Motivation - I need to remember to do something fun, or find something inspiring every day. I get so caught up in homeschooling, cleaning and taking care of the kids that I forget to take time for myself. So, I'm adding it to my quests to find or do something every day to get me motivated. Something fun. (IE. Listen to music, find inspirational pictures and add them to my wall, play a game, etc.)Learn - I want to learn something new about the lifestyle I am working towards every day. (IE. New recipe, new exercise, etc.)If you read all of this, sorry for my insanely long post. I'm anxious to read everyone's thoughts and make friends here. I need all the support and motivation I can get, and hopefully, with these posts, I can inspire someone else as well.

Wow, just wow! Yes, I feel this way, a lot actually. Nice to see I'm not the only stay at home parent that feels this way sometimes.

So, yesterday I learned that my target heart rate for burning calories is 114-161. Last night when I was doing my workout my pulse reader on my elliptical showed a very erratic heart rate, 97-173 and I was pretty much going the same speed the entire time. I also thought I could go faster but didn't want to push my heart. If any one could give me info on this, it would be great.

I have been looking into getting a Fitbit Flex, from all the reviews I have seen it is the best one of it's kind on the market. If it works as well as they say it does, it will be less guesswork on how much I have worked out for the day. Will allow me to put more focus on other things. If I get it, I will post results on my daily battle log.

Motivation: Anytime I see something that motivates me, I'm going to put it in this post, keep it all nice and organized and easy to find. 10/5/13 - "What we mean when we say we need a break" (Saw this in another part of the forums here and it hit home, putting it here so its easy for me to find again.) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amanda-king/stay-at-home-parent_b_2558642.html 10/6/13 -

First and foremost I would like to acknowledge @alienjenn . This is what she told me last night. I loved it! ⤠Told her I was going to steal it. LOL So, the title of my Daily Battle Log is from her. First person I met here at NF. Good start I would say.

Thanks for the App recommendation I'll definitely check it out. Currently I'm using a combination of several tracking methods. Trying to find the one that works best for me.

Where to start.... Well, I'm Lyr, 30 years old, married, and have three kids. I have always been out of shape and have tried again and again to get motivated to no avail. I downloaded and read the, "15 Mistakes Newbies Make When Trying to Get Healthy", last night. Actually I spent most of the night reading on this site. I have to admit most if not all of those have applied to me at one point or another in my life. It was like a slap to the face seeing it laid out like that. I have never tried to reach out to a forums community for support or motivation before, I am hoping to make friends here and find the support I lack here at home. So, my first step is to track everything. What I eat, what I drink, what I do... Everything for a week. Got to know where I'm at before I can figure out what to change. While doing that I'm starting to figure out what my exercise routine should look like. I am a stay at home mom, have not worked in 3 years, was put on bed rest when my youngest child was born, she will be 3 in December. To top it all off, I broke my ankle and 5th metatarsal in March. It is fully healed now, but there is still joint pain and muscle loss there. I know that is not an excuse, I'm not trying to make excuses. Just with all that in mind, I want to find a workout that will make me stronger, without pain, and without equipment. Hmm... I wonder if there is a place where I can start a thread on here where I can make regular updates and ask any and all questions, just one thread, I don't want to clutter the forums up. That's something I'll look into next time I'm on the computer. For now I have to go and cook dinner. Looking forward to meeting you and talking to you and getting to know you. ~Lyr~