tillypops89

Hi everyone,

My name is Tilly and I am new to this site; I just signed up today.
I am quite a big girl - currently have an obese BMI and weigh 18 stones exactly (252 pounds). I am also very tall, so my ideal weight is somewhere around 13 stones.
I have 5 stones to lose and I am determined to reach my goal by Christmas day 2011. I have already lost a stone since I began to eat healthily and stop drinking fizzy drinks/alcohol. I feel so much better for it and I am not looking at this as a 'diet' - this is a total life change for me.
I am currently consuming around 1500 calories per day but aside from walking to work I haven't started exercising yet.
I am very nervous about exercising because I feel awful jiggling about all red and sweaty at the size I am now! I used to be very slim and went swimming/played basketball, but I gave those activities up years ago. I am VERY unfit now but I LOVE exercise....just hate the way I look.
If anyone has any advice to offer to help me get going and get fit I would really appreciate it!
Tilly x

wildbeanerz

Congrats on getting started! I know what you mean about feeling all jiggly, red & sweaty. What I do is work out at home. If you don't have exercise equipment you can make do with things around the house. Get some DVD's and give that a try. Any bit of movement is a positive thing. And hey, if you can't do actual exercise....clean the house. Double benefits to that! Today I am moving my couches, dining room set and tv in the family room/dining room so that I can vaccuum under them. That should be a nice caloric burn especially since my hubby wants to go out to eat tonight!

Welcome! You have made the first few steps towards a healthier you! Now keep it up!

camilleca

I know what you mean about the jiggling, being around that size myself. I think you could work out at home, if you have the space. Walking outside is an excellant form of exercise and something I plan to start doing myself.

almeeker

I started out at about the same weight, only I'm quite a bit shorter. I totally hear you on the jiggly, red and sweaty part, only I was past red to purple after most workouts. About 18 months ago we bought an elliptical machine, it burns calories like crazy. When I first started using it, I had what I called the "triple jiggle", every step echoed through my fat about 3 times. Then after a while I went down to a "double jiggle", and that's when I knew it was really working. Now I'm at just a single bounce for every step, that could certainly use some work still , but it's a whole lot better than it was. Another workout I really like is the EA Active II. Ours is for the Wii, but I think it's available for other gaming systems. Anyway what I like about it is that it schedules your workouts and expects you to show up and do them. The first couple of weeks it seemed sort of hokey and like not quite enough exercise, but now that I've been at it for 3 months, the workouts are fairly hard and I still get red and sweaty 4 mornings/week with my cyber personal trainer.

changeisgood29

EA Active 2 gets my thumbs-up as well (I use the PS3).

Almeeker - I started with the medium 9-week program and am about halfway through the hard 9-week program. I love the programs, but I'm afraid that once I complete the program and am left to my own devices, I'll rather conveniently leave out the exercises that I don't like but are so good for me (like mountain climbers) Have you started to make your own workouts or use the trainer-generated ones? If you have, would you mind terribly letting me know how you use EA Active after completing the program(s)? I don't mean to hijack the thread; I just haven't seen much info about what folks do after the programs are complete, and it's been on my mind. Thanks, and my apologies to the OP.

almeeker

I have 2 more workouts left in the 9 week program (hard) on the EA Active II. And I went right to that after I finished the cardio kick start. I'm sort of thinking about doing cardio kick start again only up a notch from the first time through, while I work out my own set of workouts. I've written a couple, but I would like to have a total of 20 so they don't get old right away. I'm afraid of the same thing, boredom/slacking/picking the easy workouts. However I think I might set my goals for workouts on MWF and then make a paper calendar of which workouts I'll do on T-Th-S and see if I can stick to it for 30 days or some such. My biggest problem in getting motivated or having a plan is that I start my workout at 5:00am, I'm not awake and I don't want to be bothered with having to think. I just want to throw on my clothes and get to it. So I think that by having a paper calendar with a plan on it that I wrote while awake, with some definite direction will help me. If that doesn't work I'm buying P90X. I'm also thinking about going on-line with the EA Active II and seeing if there is a local workout group with challenges or something. I know that there are people that have in this town, because some of my friends bought it after I recommended it. And if there isn't a workout group, maybe I'll form one and then nag everybody to join me.

BTW I don't mind mountain climbers, but please God save me from ever having to do another "Split Squats with High Knees" or "Split Squats with Jumps". Good grief those are so painful for me it's not even funny.

Sorry for high jacking too. But the OP did ask for help on getting back to exercising. EA Active II would be a good start, especially for someone that has been in good shape and needs to get back to it.

changeisgood29

Thanks, lady! I appreciate it. I was thinking of doing something similar - I definitely need to have a plan so I don't have to fool around for 10 minutes or more coming up with something every time. Let me know how it goes.

almeeker

Change, you can go to the "workouts" part and scroll through a whole bunch of pre-set routines, including the ones that are in the Cardio Kick Start and the 9-week program, so really you don't have to make up your own workouts. So what I'm thinking about doing is look through them and then putting that on my paper calendar.

rmdaly

Walking to work is impressive and most of us don't even do that, so I wouldn't put it down. There is something about just being outside that seems to make a difference.

I have exercise equipment at home, but I don't stick with it. What I tend to stick with are classes. I meet people that I only see in the classes. Some of my best friends have come from classes. Just today, I felt tired and like I had a cold coming on so I texted someone in my class who gave me the push to get there. I am glad that I got some exercise. You might look around for a lap-swimming group or a water aerobics class. Go to an aerobics class. You might get some judgemental looks, but I bet more people will be impressed, especially if you stick with it. Who knows where some of them started?

Good luck.

taubele

Hi Tilly!

What, you mean you don't like the red beefsteak look?

I find that what helps me a lot, as I do go to a public gym and am quite jiggly, is to get music in my ears and just blast it. It was hard for me to work out without music, I was just TOO aware, but if I get some of my rockin' in my ears I just stop thinking!

Or, I'm thinking something like "&%($%@ WHY am I doing interval training!?! *&%^%*% there goes the hill again...."

Honestly, most folks in the gym don't care about what you're doing or how you look, they're too focused on their own bodies/routines, but I totally get it. You've got some great suggestions for at-home workouts. You can DO it!