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It's been six days since I last weighed in, which is OK since the prevailing wisdom seems to be that once a week is enough since there are daily fluctuations due to water weight, etc. I've been preoccupied with trying to keep my exercise room comfortable in this heat and humidity so I stay motivated to exercise.I'm still on my Pilates six days a week and dumbbells three days a week. I was going to go from 45 minute sessions to an hour on the dumbbells but I read that 45 minutes is optimal in the book I'm using. Just as well since I tend to set overly rigorous goals and then collapse after a while.
Years ago, I used to have an evaporative water cooler AKA "swamp cooler" which I used in an apartment that had no AC. I ran it faithfully but it never seemed to do that much cooling. What I didn't know at the time is that evaporative coolers only work in areas where there's little humidity. All that time I was blowing in the wind, so to speak.
I recently saw a DIY/home-brew AC unit for people who just want to cool a small area. Take a cheap styrofoam cooler, cut out holes and insert a fan and a couple of dryer vents, and fill the cooler with bottles of frozen water. I used to see those styrofoam coolers for sale everywhere. Of course, when you want one... I went to Kroger and all they had were the hard plastic ones. I may try CVS or Walgreens next. It occurred to me that maybe I was overthinking this so I tried putting a couple of blue ice packs, one large and one small, on a towel (to catch the condensation) in front of a small fan. To be honest, it didn't seem to make much of a difference. I may have to up my game and freeze some bottles of water but I've got to clear out part of the freezer compartment first, which involves eating the contents... It's always something...
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157.2 lb
Lost so far: 7.0 lb.
Still to go: 27.2 lb.
Diet followed reasonably well.
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losing 0.2 lb a week
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 Comments
Sounds like a plan, eating to make room however , not such a good idea. Good luck, and let us know how it turns out. :)
14 Jun 14 by member: SherrieC
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Most of it is fruit, bean burgers, and veggies so I hope my waistline won't take too big a hit. :-> I did have two soy patties today which was probably one too many.
14 Jun 14 by member: ChrisComedy
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We don't have AC either and its hard to excercise when hot. I take a small soft/flexible ice pack, wrap in a wet wash cloth and put on my head or neck to cool me before, during and after excercise. It really helps.
14 Jun 14 by member: dclaytor
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Thanks for the tip, dclaytor. Lowe's sells a towel which you soak and then wear which supposedly cools you off but I haven't gotten around to trying it yet.
14 Jun 14 by member: ChrisComedy
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I tried the frozen water a\c thing about a month ago. I saw it on YouTube. I didn't work, so if you get it to work, please post. I did a plastic bucket and a styrofoam cooler. The air was maybe 2 degrees cooler coming out than just the fan, but after running for hours, there was no improvement in the bedroom. WalMart has those coolers in the sporting goods dept.
14 Jun 14 by member: pmjeff21
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I know they wear those towels in iraq and afghanistan. You can google it. I saw a website where they volunteers make them for the army. I think they put cooling beads in them. I know somone who used to put those plastic ice cubes in them. It strange that it really woks.
Just wondering...do you do the original type pilates which is all matt work or a newer type version?
14 Jun 14 by member: ny_shelly
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Sorry for all the typos...yikes...hate typing on those tablet keyboards.
14 Jun 14 by member: ny_shelly
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ny_shelly, I'm doing what I assume is the original Pilates on the mat, using a book called "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pilates on the Mat" by Karon Karcher, a trade paperback I got at Barnes & Noble. The author cites Joseph Pilates frequently so I assume she's being true to his teachings. I would like to see more information, if there's any, on the scientific support for the benefits of Pilates.
My own observations: On the plus side, I've lost a pants size and more but I don't know how much of that is Pilates and how much is weight loss. I used to get such tension in my back from sitting at the computer that I would have to lie down and that has markedly diminished. I used to get muscle spasms that were pretty painful and those have gone away.
On the down side, my core strength hasn't improved as much as I would have liked but maybe that takes more time, maybe I'm not doing the exercises correctly, maybe my expectations were too high, or the book oversold the benefits. A lot of the Pilates exercises start with leg lifts with can get boring after a while. I gather you're supposed to concentrate on the exercises so I don't listen to music, which doesn't help with the boredom factor. Also, I seem to have hit a plateau which I've read happens with dumbbells if you just keep doing the same exercises over and over again. I have a booklet on gentle core exercises by the Harvard Medical School that I may switch over to and see if that makes any difference.
15 Jun 14 by member: ChrisComedy
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ny_shelly, I forgot to mention that my plantar fasciitis was aggravated when I switched to a standing desk but the stretching exercises in Pilates have helped quite a bit with that. As for the plateau, it occurs to me that maybe I need to educate myself more about Pilates. I thought about taking classes but those can be pretty expensive. I may ease into it by getting some more books and/or DVDs.
15 Jun 14 by member: ChrisComedy
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Thanks for the info, pmjeff21. Do you know the name of the brand that sells at Walmart? Like you, I've seen a lot of DIY styrofoam cooler and five-gallon bucket versions on YouTube. It occurs to me that if the homebrew versions worked that well, you'd see them selling in stores everywhere. Probably why I don't see evaporative coolers selling around here. I will let you know if I make any progress but I admit some of the urgency is gone after my experiment with a fan and a couple of ice packs didn't seem to make much difference. Maybe the urgency will return when it hits 100 degrees as it's predicted in a couple of weeks. :-) My latest experiment was to hang a space blanket over the bedroom window which kept a lot of the heat out but the light as well, so I had to turn on the lights, which of course made it hotter. Oh, well...
15 Jun 14 by member: ChrisComedy
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Hi chris, you may bust through your plateau if you keep your carbs in 100 - 150 g range.
15 Jun 14 by member: ny_shelly
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ny_shelly, thanks for the tip. So far, my main focus has been calorie restriction, or just plain eating less, to get rid of the spare tire. The next step will be to transition to a better diet, one I hope won't involve the biscuit that I just ate. :-0
I think I found the cooler that pmjeff21 was referring to for sale in Walmart's sporting goods. It's called the Koolerator. Based on the one-star reviews on Amazon, it doesn't look worth getting.Thanks to Corifeo for providing links to studies on the benefits of Pilates.
15 Jun 14 by member: ChrisComedy
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