Hello all!!!
Wow am I ever glad I found this forum website. My name is Sharon and I 'm a newbie lo carber and a recent re-introduction to exercising, weight training. Ages ago I used to work out 5-6 days a week with a variety of activities and of course, fell off the bandwagon, once nursing school and work got to be too time consuming. Mistake. Needless to say, many pounds heavier and years later I've finally gotten myself back into the swing of things. The one thing I've discovered is that I forgot how much fun working out can be. I love the feeling you get after a great session and I love seeing the subtle (but in my mind big) changes your body goes through when working out. Maybe it's because I'm older, or even wiser, but I feel more relaxed now with working out. I used to be so self conscious at the gym (being of course one of the heaviest there, all the time it seemed) but now I'm just proud of myself.. Too many years spent hating myself has really been non productive. I was an oncology nurse for 2.5 years (just left to work for the VNA) and spent many hours with women my age, and older who were dying from all sorts of gynecological cancers (mostly ovarian) and I guess the most valuable lesson I learned is that we have one life and one body and we deserve and owe it to ourselves to love it and respect it and treat it as best we can.


Currently my workout routine is this. About 5 days a week. I do 30-40 minutes of cardio to start (love the recumbent bike and the treadmill) then about 30 minutes of weight training. I use mostly free weights, for arms (I have no upper body strength, this I have discovered) and I do the leg press, the hamstring machine (it works each leg seperately so you can't cheat if you have a weaker leg!) and another machine that has you squat horzontally with weights. I had a few sessions with a personal trainer and he emphasizes stretching, stretching, stretching. I do ab work (my abs have gotten so weak!!) and lowerback exercises. I finish up with another 20 minutes of cardio after I've stretched. I vary my body parts for strength training. I do arms one night, legs the next and I always do abs. I'd love some suggestions from anyone, really, advice is a great thing.

wow, I just wrote a novella!!
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My best wishes to everyone out there. Remember, when it gets tough, you are giving yourself a wonderful gift, the gift of better health!!!

Sharon