Shamus36

Muscle gain is possible, but unlikely to account for all of the weight change. Water retention in the muscles is also possible if you are doing new exercises. I can understand your frustration with the numbers on the scale not changing, which is part of the reason I would recommend you set that thing on fire and throw it out the window. A scale is quite possibly the most useless thing for gauging health and fitness. You sound like you are being healthy and active, so overall weight stagnation could well just be fat content slowly going down, and muscle mass slowly going up. A scale will never give you that answer.

This is really more of a surprised observation than anything else. I understood that that eating better would translate in to feeling better, but I didn't realize how much of an impact it could have. To be sure, I hadn't eaten all that poorly over the last few years, but I definitely was eating too much. For a little over a month I set out a meal plan, ate a better ratio of macros, and consumed a proper amount of calories. Even being in a slight caloric deficit I could feel my energy levels improve over the first couple of weeks. That improvement was snapped in to sharp focus this week, when I spent several days visiting with my in-laws, eating bad food, and way too much of it. By the early afternoon I was feeling lethargic and drained. At 3pm I felt like I normally do at midnight. Back home now (still with my in-laws, however I have control over my food intake again), and back on schedule. Hopefully I'll start feeling normal again soon.

I checked, but didn't save the links for the sites I used when looking up running form. I can at least talk to what changes I had made, based off of what I read. 1. Stand up straight and look down the road (I had been looking at the road just in front). 2. Shoulders back (had been slightly hunched). 3. Arms held at 90 degrees at the elbow, hands forward - not too firm, but not flopping around either (I had been clenching my fists). 4. Shorter strides when first getting in shape - you go more slowly, but I have found you can go farther. Strides have lengthened as my endurance and muscle strength has improved. 5. Keep feet as close to the ground as possible with each stride (lifting my legs higher was just wasting energy, and seeing as I have legs like a rugby player, that's a lot of wasted energy lifting a lot of extra mass). 6. Proper breathing was the most important change I made. I had been doing a series of short in and out breaths. Changed to a rhythm of slow and deep breaths - as deep as was comfortable. I have seen many suggestions on breath timing versus running strides, but found it more comfortable to just go with what felt right. I haven't counted lately, but it is likely somewhere around 5 strides on the inhale, and 5 on the exhale. It's enough of an impact that if my mind wanders and I stop breathing properly, I can feel the energy in muscles drop.

I don't have much to add, as Benbear has covered most of the basics. I would just underline proper form a few more times. Improving my form took me from shin splints, knee pain and lower back pain every run, to none of that almost over night. I've been pain-free on runs for a few years now after years of assuming that was my lot in life. And through the decrease in stress on your body through better form, it will make it possible to squeeze more out of yourself. Proper breathing would fall under form as well. If you muscles aren't getting enough oxygen, they can't run at peak efficiency, and you will exhaust much, much more quickly. The only other thing I would emphasize is not "pushing through it" this early in your training. As you progress more, your body will better be able to bounce back from new and more "aggressive" activities. Above all, listen to your body.

Absolutely! Any gains are gains to be proud of. Always forward! If you can continue doing anything positive for your body, and not quit, you have already won most of the battle.

It's not something I've ever experienced, and I've put my body through quite a bit of abuse in the past. Muscle shakes, yes, vibrating, no. A medical or sports doctor might better be able to answer the question of normal, as they would have a good collection of people coming to them over the years with their health problems. Though it sounds like you have your answer through this recent diagnosis. If your doctor feels you are still ok to exercise, I would stick with it.

What are you finding happens to your breathing at the start of the run? I don't have much of a rhythm to speak of, other than just breathing in as deeply as I can for a few strides, and then out again with roughly the same pacing. I haven't made it a hard and fast number as to the number of strides per breath, but rather I go with what feels comfortable. My breathing control gets top billing as far as my order of running concentration goes. I've really started to notice a strain on my endurance if I don't pay proper attention to how I'm breathing. My biggest sin is letting my mind wander, and then I start breathing like you would while just sitting down. I'll suddenly find myself straining for air.

There was definitely a lot I was doing wrong. My breathing was the worst culprit. I used to do a series of more shallow and rapid breaths, instead of slow, deep ones. I clenched my arms in front of me, instead of keeping them at my sides at 90 degrees. I looked at the ground in front of me, instead of straight ahead. I hunched slightly forward, instead of standing up straight. And lastly, I lifted my legs far too high with each stride, instead of keeping them low to the ground, and thus saving energy. The best part of changing my form though, was that my shin, back and knee pains all went away almost immediately.

Had ADHD when I was younger, but the H went away as I moved into my teen years. The rest is still there. I hear you on the procrastinating part - I love woodworking, but the move to take my workshop from the garage to the basement, has been stalled for months. I come out of the gate strong, but lose interest and momentum. Mainly I find it difficult to elicit positive emotions when associating with many things I often enjoy doing. There are a few things that are starting to work for me when it comes to exercise/staying healthy. Firstly I avoid things I have failed at in the past. I have an idea of what I feel I "should" be like, but trying to be like that is just a recipe for failure. I find it best not to fight my nature. Secondly, I let people know what I am up to. I am finding this does a better job of keeping me accountable. If I know there are expectations of me, I'm more likely to keep going. Lastly, I try to find social means of staying fit, from skiing, to soccer, to running with a friend. I hate letting other people down by not doing what I say I will, and the motivation to want to be dependable, is stronger than my desire to cocoon and give up.

I don't normally like to mention (to anyone) any accomplishments I have made in the physical health realm, but was so shocked when I looked at my stopwatch at the end of my run today, I figured, what the heck, I'll post. Because my time may not seem like much to the habitual runners here, I just want to put things in a personal context. I stopped doing any running to speak of in my early 20's. About 5 years ago (I'm 37 now) I decided to try and get back in shape. I picked the distance from our house to the local school, as my running benchmark. It's 4.6km, according to Google maps. That first run took me a little over 42 mins (I'm 5'7, and was 186lbs). A few weeks later, and via some research along with serious revisions to my running form, that number dropped to 35 mins. I have been on and off with physical exercise since. Last year, after a winter of skiing, I posted my best run for that distance, at 00:26:10. Stopped running again, but picked up skiing once more over the winter. My best time this Spring had been a frustrating 00:26:56, though the cold air while running was at least partly to blame. Today I was bound and determined to drop my time below that elusive 26 mins. Imagine my surprise at the end of my run when I looked down at my watch and saw 00:24:14 staring back at me. New possibilities...new goals.

The chips are out of sight, though they sometimes creep back in to the mind. They aren't mine, but are eaten by my wife and son. Thankfully they are the only thing in the house I would consider along the lines of garbage food. Before I started tracking my calories, I was eating pretty healthy food - just too much of it. We thankfully haven't pop, cookies, ice cream or anything else of the sort. Fruit is normally my sweet treat, in the form of a banana in my smoothy. Things will more than likely get a lot easier when I go back to work in a little over a month. We live in the country with no public transportation and one car which my wife takes to work. I'm by myself at home, most days of the week. It's a lot easier for the mind to wander to cravings when it isn't otherwise occupied.

I'm a week and a half in to trying to take better control of my diet. I've counted out the calories and balanced out the carbs/healthy fats/proteins. It had turned out, unsurprisingly, that I was consuming too many calories. Over the first few days of eating better, I was hungry more often that I am used to. I'd normally graze whenever I felt a wisp of hunger. I was a bit surprised that after several days I seemed to get used to the food changes, and the hunger now seems to largely have passed. However, an new issue has cropped up - cravings. Despite not feeling hungry (and indeed right now I have just finished a dinner of chicken, rice and broccoli), I am craving both sweet and salty. It doesn't help that there is a bag of chips in the cupboard not 10 feet from me. As mentioned above, I've counted out the macro calories, and I have also made sure I am getting sufficient amounts of micro nutrients as well. I'm also drinking lots of water, and getting plenty of rest and exercise. My body should be getting everything it needs, but the cravings are still there. Aside from drinking the water, I've been consuming more herbal teas to try and curb my urges. I've even got a tin of small hard candies that I take a couple of each day, when the cravings are feeling strongest. I have will power, but I can see why people throw in the towel and stop eating properly. Does anyone have any suggestions of something else I might try? A tea? Craving curbing supplements?

Cheers!

You are too kind. It's a bit of work to look after, but worth the effort. I'm lucky in that I have a wizard for a barber, a job that is fine with me keeping it, and a spouse who insists I never shave. The last one is crucial, as it has been my experience that women who appreciate a good beard are rare gems indeed.

Just found their power rack video. I went looking for it thinking, I know a bit a about metal working, so I'll see what they have in mind. Low and behold, their power rack was made from wood - I used to run my own small woodworking business. Never even thought to consider wood as a medium for a home gym. That will get me everything I was looking for, and for a fraction of what I thought I would have to pay. Cheers!