Would like some advice on exercise :(

[indelible]

Hi guys,

It's been a long time since I've posted on MTF. I've been trying to get on with my life, building up my confidence and getting used to the various meds my psychiatrist is insisting on pumping into me.

Long and the short of it is this: my current levels of anxiety and social phobia make it near impossible for me to go to the gym, or out and about, not for want of trying; I tried to go and managed half an hour before I had a panic attack and threw up all over a running machine! Not fun... I basically got "banned" from the gym (and I have put in a complain about this) as one of the advisors said that if I couldn't go later in the evening when there were less people around, I shouldn't go at all. Quite embarrassing.

I'm not too unhealthy at the moment, but I am slightly overweight and highly undertoned. I'd really, really, really like to drop about 2-3 stone and tone up. My GP gave me Alli, but I've reeled against taking them (due to reports of "stains" etc..).

Basically I'm wondering if anyone knows of a good exercise regime that doesn't require some kind of overly expensive diet (As I'm currently surviving on £20 a week for food...) and/or a horrific amount of equipment. I'd like it to be a regime, something that I can build into my daily routine (as that's part of my current treatment scheme), and allows me to pursue a healthier lifestyle.

If anyone has any advice, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks for your time in advance.

[coffee]

Not so much a set regime, but I have a couple of the cheaper home exercise items that I use to help me get a little fitter. I picked up one of the mini exercise cycles for £1 and a stepper for £5 on ebay. I am currently bidding on a little set of weights that I can use while i'm on the stepper to help tone my arms a little (at the moment I am using cans of beans!) and one of the sit up thingies. I would love to have a running machine or a proper exercise bike but at the moment I don't have the space

I also try to go up and down the stairs (I live in a first floor flat) a couple of times a day, this also helps with my anxiety cos I have huge issues even getting down then on occasions and the more I go down the easier I find it each time.

[mummychickpea]

Hi Indelible
I sympathise, and I have the same amount of weight to lose

It is very hard, specially on a budget. I am ok in public with some moral support, and this morning started attending a fitness session (women only bootcamp) nearby. Husband will drive me there and back early in the morning twice a week. It's a big thing for me. It helped my mood this morning.

I had money from a relative to pay for it.

Now, for you - look online, there are videos of exercises so you can check your technique. Pick a few - lunges, squats, push ups, crunches and start slow, getting your technique right. Build up to doing intense bursts (2-4 minutes or doing sets of lunges, squats, push ups for example - 20 reps each? then after 2-4 minutes, stop and rest). Apparantly that is the fastest way to lose fat and speed up metabolism.

Forget about leaving the house to walk etc until you are ready - people are always pushing me to go out when I can't and they can piss off, I do go when I am ready

Diet is very important - the way it works for me, eat protein at every meal (an egg, a bit of cheese, a few bits of chicken - drumsticks are cheap, I just roast in the oven, no oil nothing. Covered loosely in foil for 15 minutes, uncovered for 15 more minutes, fairly hot oven like 200 degrees. Or a tin of sardines or tuna. Frozen boits of fish work too, cheaper than unfrozen. Eat the protein with 2 servings of veg or more - salad, leafy stuff, broccolli and cauliflower - again, often I find the frozen stuff works out cheaper and tastes ok. Butter is fine, slap a bit on your veg. Avoid stuff like bread and potatoes and pasta for a while - get back to it when you have lost a bit. Have small amounts of pasta, bread etc if you have some at home (cost saving) but a lot less than before. When I am skint I eat a lot of eggs - cooked any way at all, it doesn't matter if its always a fried egg. I eat a lot of frozen spinach and rice too - cook the frozen spinach with a bit of soy sauce, it's yummy.

Eat fruit if you like fruit, but make sure you have more veg than fruit and always have the fruit with meals, not alone as a snack. A few nuts, peanut butter with some apple or celery, or a yoghurt (healthy as you can!) makes a good snack, but I tend to start this sort of eating with 4 meals a day, every 5 hours or every 4 hours and play it by ear. The idea is to start eating less eventually, and to eat things that won't mess with your insulin levels, which means they wont mess with your will power and energy levels (and moods). Cutting out things that are not nutritious (junk food) and sugar is what it comes down to. For example - 4 meals a day could be - Breakfast: 2 eggs fried, a yoghurt which is low sugar and has fruit - maybe even a plain yoghurt and fresh or tinned fruit, frozen fruit even? In a smoothie even?, early lunch: tin of sardines and a lot of green leafy veg, maybe a few butter beans from a can thrown in, tomatoes and cucumber, a few carrot sticks. An apple, maybe even a banana too or some grapes. About 4 pm if I am hungry again, maybe I'll have a leftover chicken leg or some cheese or some leftover sausages from a previous meal, another piece of fruit too. 6:30 or 7 pm dinner - main meat or eggs thing with husband - maybe it's fancy, maybe it's something cheap from the freezer - fish fingers or birds eye chicken stuff, kievs or whatever. Maybe a piece of ham and an egg? 3 or 5 or 7 oven chips even? Some cabbage or greens or leeks or spinach. Served with some rice, or quinoa (once I worked out how to cook this it was really good). I only have 2 spoonfuls of rice. Two heaped dessert spoons.

Maybe a little chocolate or a hot chocolate at bedtime.

Nice!

it's boring, but eating just those things means I can keep the budget small and I really do lose weight.

What do you think?

[Boris]

At 19 your body will adapt quickly to exercise, which is a good thing. Losing weight is easy, in that your output must exceed your input. To put it another way, eat less, and exercise more. On a weekly budget of £20 for food, I`d imagine your choice of foods is extremely limited. Housework is an excellent way to keep active, and will burn loads of calories, plus you will see the results of your work, both on yourself, and also your surroundings :-) Your daily housework routine, can focus on different tasks, areas, so that it doesn`t become too boring or repetitive for you. If you`re looking to tone your muscles, you need to fatigue the muscle groups you want to build, and fatigue them further, while still putting maximum effort in. I do this by doing 3 sets of one exercise, with a 3 minute break between each set (15, 10 and 10 reps), and then move onto the next exercise. My work out goes like this:-
Bench press or close grip bench press (if you don`t have a bench you can lay on the floor, or maybe adapt a piece of furniture), 15 reps, 3 minute break, 10 reps, 3 minute break, and 10 reps, 6 minute break, then
Curl, 15 reps, 3 minute break, 10 reps, 3 minute break, and 10 reps, 6 minute break, then
Front press, 15 reps, 3 minute break, 10 reps, 3 minute break, and 10 reps, 6 minute break, then
Concentration curl, 12 reps, 3 minute break, 8 reps, 3 minute break, and 8 reps, 6 minute break, then
Squat, 15 reps, 3 minute break, 10 reps, 3 minute break, and then another 10 reps. I do this twice a week.
I would normally rest then for 3 or 4 days, and then next session you either up the weight, or the reps. Start light, and build the weight or reps up gradually. Each session you need to push yourself further than the last though, and those days of rest are key (this is where those muscles you worked repair themselves, and grow). Some people like to pyramid the weight (start on a smaller weight, and increase it per set, rather than the reps). Either is fine, and both will work. For me I find my way works best for my body.
If you don`t have access to weights, you could improvise by using house bricks, or other suitable objects.

[Angels]

Well when im at home theres diffrent things to do, weights, dancing, push ups, and other exercises even using the nintendo Wii for fitness.

[mummychickpea]

Oh I forgot to say, I was on Alli for a couple of months - since then the Nurse wants me to lose weight without it. Am cross in a way as I had just worked out how to use it properly .... the Alli website helped me work out how many calories and how many grammes of fat to eat each day, and sticking to that I managed to avoid issues like pooing my pants or leaking horrid oily crap.

Gross.

It worked well when I learned how to use it.

[Sarahcjx]

Hey Indelible
If you want to do an exercise regime you can build around your everyday lifestyle, you should try putting something together called a P.E.P (personal exercise programme) I did one last year for my P.E gcse and although mine was for a sport not weight loss, i found it was really useful because if you construct it properly it's really easy to stick to. Bascially what you do is pick a target which you want to achieve, a time span, what resources and facilities you can use, any setbacks which might get in the way and the kind of training you want to use. You can make the answers to these questions as easy or complex as you want. After you've got an answer to those questions you can then move on to choose what you want to do, the days you want to work on, the exercise you want to do and for how long, and the heart rate you reached, this shows if you have worked hard enough and helps to show improvement, then you create a table for you to record all this information in. if you want an idea of what a P.E.P is supposed to include go on google and search something along the lines of 'P.E.P template' most pages that come back from this result do show how to make quite complicated p.e.p's but if you read up on it a bit you should be able to find a simple template. Or you could maybe try going to a doctor or leisure center and ask there if they have any exercise programmes you could follow at home away from people due to your circumstances
If you're looking for an easier or quicker fix to the problem you could try finding a hobby which is physical but also individual so you could do it with just you and an instructor, such as private kickboxing sessions or something along those lines.
Another suggestion i have is, although it sounds like you struggle doing exercise around people, i would definately recommend finding a friend who might want to join you on this, it's a big motivation having someone to work out with, as it makes you more likely to stick to it because you won't want to drop out on your friend, and of course, it makes your workout more fun. I have 2 workout buddies and even if i'm having a lazy day i've not dropped out on them yet. Once you've found someone to workout with, pick a type of exercise you are good it because if you dive into it and just pick the one which is best for losing weight but you aren't very good at that exercise, it might dishearten you a bit, so go for one you are good at and enjoy then slowly progress at it (it could even just be watching an exercise DVD 3 times a week if thats what works for you, everyone is different) for example if you're good at cycling do that, whether on a cycling machine or an actual bike, then slowly increase how long you work for.
I do have a few more suggestions for getting into exercise and finding one you enjoy so if it doesn't sound like any of these would work for you, feel free to send me a message and i will be willing to throw some more ideas out there for you
Hope things start looking up sometime soon

[daffy]

Like a lot of people i have a spare bedroom full of expensive but idle pieces of exercise equipment (All by far too advanced for me).Was reading thru the Argos catalogue for a folding exercise bike to keep downstairs but they all looked a bit flimsy. Then i saw the Davina Macall folding exercise bike and it looked a lot more solid. It had excellent reviews but at £70 was a bit dear for me. But i got one as new on Ebay for £30. It is an excellent beginners cycle and folds neatly into a corner of the lounge. I start off on the easiest level or 5 mins then gradually increase the resistance on it. I would start to exercise when a half hour programme was on that i liked. I am now doing half hour four times a week and am beginning to see results.

If you are going to buy exercise equipment i would advise read up on it first to see that it fits your requirements i.e. not too advanced, so u dont end up with a room full stuff you never use

[middleagedmaninlycra]

Cycling is an excellent form of exercise and I am using it (to great effect) as part of my own therapy. There are many, many examples of people who have disorders of varying natures that are using cycling to fight back. There's my own blog (www.middleagedmaninlycra.com) and on there I've a link to one guy called massive mountainbiker who has lost lots of weight over the past year and a bit by using a bicycle. He rides to work, rain, sun, snow, whatever. Then there's Phil (also linked on my blog) who is battling diabetes while exercising on his bike.

You can pick up a second-hand bike for very little, there's no other special equipment required, no need for a personal trainer and no need to pay a subscription to a gym. It can also be a lot of fun. Give it a go!