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First 12 Week Plan: Aerobic Component This page describes the aerobic component of my first 12 week plan.  The general purposes of doing aerobic are:  burn calories to lose or maintain weight and improve cardio-vascular fitness. So, when I come up with aerobic plans, I try to consider both purposes.  In my first plan, I was more concerned with calorie burning to lose weight.  Yep, vanity was my motivator!  The complete aerobic plan is described here. If you don't already own cardio equipment, you can get what you need at MegaFitness.com  Superstore. They have pretty much everything! Creating the Plan When creating my aerobic plan, I knew a few things about myself. If I gave myself a ridiculously ambitious plan, I would quit!  From past experience, I know that I tend to be tired and cranky if I suddenly start exercising too much. Plus, I get sore.  My husband doesn't like it when I'm tired, cranky and sore.  So, I needed a plan that avoided the risk of over exertion if I wanted his moral support. (I mean, isn't too much to expect moral support for something that makes you cranky?) I wanted to start burning 1000 calories a week pretty quickly.  I also wanted to challenge myself to eventually burn more. I was not fit enough to burn 1000 calories the first week. I had a very open schedule with lots of free time from April to July. So, I didn't need to accommodate a hectic schedule. So, I considered these factors when making a plan. I could have decided to burn 1000 calories the first week.  But you know what? I knew I couldn't. If I planned that, I would be tired and cranky.  My husband would be irritated. Finally, I would quit! So, instead of setting my goal to 1000 calories a week, I decided to exercise once to determine a reasonable target exercise for the first week.  I got on my Nordic Track Ski machine and figured out that I could stay on comfortably for 20 minutes exercising fairly slowly.  The read out indicated I burned roughly 150 calories. Based on my first exercise trial I decided that I would be able to burn 450 Calories the first week by burning 150 calories on 3 different days. I read some exercise books that claim the body responds pretty quickly to aerobic exercise.  So, I decided that I would burn 900 Calories the second week.  I wasn't sure this was feasible, but I made it my goal. I figured that I wouldn't be able to increase my exercise level as quickly after the 2nd week. So, I decided I would increase my target exercise level to exactly offset the plateau effect I noticed in my previous analysis.  That means, I increased my planned exercise level at a rate equal to 37.8 Calories for every 1 lb I expected to lose. (Naturally, that meant I had to calculate how much weight I expected to lose each week if I stuck to my target. I expected to lose roughly 1/2 lb a week.) Why 37.5 Calories for every pound lost? Well, remember my "weight loss factor" was predicted to be 5.4 Calories/day/lb. For a full week this works out to 7 days/week * 5.4 Calories/day/lb = 37.8 Calories/lb/week.  So, I would need to increase my exercise at this rate to keep my weight loss steady over the long haul. I came up with this exercise plan; the number of calories I would burn if I followed my plan is shown by the green line. You can see that I planned to start at 450 Calories a week, increased to 900 Calories/week, and then increase slowly.

How I did.

Right away, you can see I exceeded my goal. So, I did great, right?

Must have been easy, right?  NO.  Here is a week by week account.

Week 1:

I dragged myself to Nordic Track skier 4 days the first week.  Even though I could reach my target of 150 calories for the day in 20 minutes, I figured I'd stick it out for 25 on the first day.  That way, I could exceed my threshold; I figured that would give me a buffer in case I ran out of steam later in the week.. I'd huff and puff for 25 minutes. I looked at the calorie read out constantly just waiting for the 25 minutes to be finished.

Oh, and by the way, I was huffing and puffing even though I did not reach 60% of maximum heart rate level like a person is "supposed to" to improve their fitness. (I know I didn't reach the 60% of maximum level because the exercise machine also has a heart rate monitor. )

Those of you who've read zillions of enthusiastic exercise book are asking: "Did you experience an "endorphin high"? NO. Was I eager to hop back on each day? NO.  I didn't enjoy huffing and puffing.  Only will power got me on the machine.  At least I wasn't sore! If I had been, will power would not have been enough.

Fortunately my plan called for a relatively small amount of exercise. The first day on the machine, I knew that if I got on and exercised until I accumulated 150 Calories, 3 times I would make my goal.  That would put me on the path to losing 10 lb. in 3 to 5 months instead of 15 months.  I did manage to get myself to jump on the machine an extra day.

I burned a total of 731 calories that first week.  Meeting my exercise goal gave me a big psychological boost.

Week 2:

Still, I had to motivate myself to stay on the machine.  I thought about the weight loss.  In my head I would often translate the number of calories I burned into "plateau weights".  How? I divided the calorie read out by my "weight loss factor" of 5.4!  I would tell myself: "Hmm, 200 Calories.  If I did this every day for the rest of my life, I'd weigh nearly 30 - 40 lb. less than I do now! " (I don't want to weigh 30-40 lb. less than I do now, but it's still motivating to think about the calorie burning this way!)

Some days, I motivated myself enough to stay on the machine 5 extra minutes. And guess what? I exercised every day that week. Total exercise expenditure? 1497 calories.  I was overjoyed to be well above my target.

Week 3:

Fortunately, I got a big psychological boost when I tried on a pair of old cut off shorts.  They fit again.  They had been just slightly to tight, and now I could wear them.  By the way, I would never have been able to tell I was getting tighter using a tape measure.  My hips were still 40".  What I could see in the mirror though was this: My butt was shifting up.  My thighs were tightening.  So, technically, my hips were still 40"-- but I no longer measured 40" from my belly button to half way down to my knees!

Week 4:

Week 5:

Week 6 & 7

Fortunately, the exercise room also had a treadmill, complete with a calorie read out.  I found it difficult to figure out how to run on the treadmill.  I guess that takes practice. Instead, I walked on an incline.  There were two problems with this.  First, it was difficult to work up a sweat walking on the treadmill.  I had to exercise longer to burn the number of calories I normally burned on my ski machine. Second, after three days, my achilles tendon was sore.  I suspect that was because I was walking up hill constantly, and I wasn't used to that. So, I switched to the exercise cycle and alternated walking and cycling.

The important victory: I did exercise even though I was on vacation.  Dad was very impressed.  Persisting with my goal during vacation gave me a feeling of control.
 

Week 8

Notice, I burned fewer calories during week 8.  But I met my original plan. I consider meeting the plan a victory.

Week 9-12

You know what else? Even though my exercise intensity has increased dramatically, I'm huffing and puffing less than I did during week 1!

I'm sweating a lot more though.  In fact, I'm sweating like a horse, but I've gotten used to that.  I've also learned to wet my scalp before I start an aerobic session; that keeps me cooler.  The fact is: if you burn a lot of calories, you are going to sweat.  Burning calories at an elevated rate generates heat. When your body gets hot, you sweat.

I now try to exercise at least 4 times a week. My normal aerobic sessions consist of 2 periods of 25 minutes. Sometimes I do a "light" day, which is one 25 minute period.

Even though I want to burn a lot of calories, I've learned to avoid exercising 6 days a week.  One day off seems to help me improve the intensity of my work outs. Checking my log, I see that all my intensity breakthroughs happen after a non-exercise day or a "light day".  Seems weird, but there you have it!

By the way, I'm starting to like to exercise. But exercise is still sort of boring.  In fact, I think all aerobic exercise is boring.  Some people think exercise video are the cure for boredom.  Me? I think they are boring too!

How do I beat the boredom? Since I exercise at home, I watch all sorts of horrible tv programs. I'm not sure I even want to admit what I watch, but I will.  My favorite choices are music programs on MTV. But sometimes I watch those awful court tv shows.  Sometimes I watch freak shows like Jerry Springer. Looking at the heavy guests does motivate me. I've watched informertials advertising exercise gimmicks. I like to think about how much money I'm saving by not sending them $100 for the worthless pills or gadgets.  I think about how much better I look.

Do I look better?

Oh, and by the way, although I lost weight steadily, the inches started to drop off during weeks 8-12. It's very bizarre! I would think my hip dimension would drop steadily. But no. From Week 1-7, the hip dimension dropped about 1" to 39". From week 8-12, my hips dropped down to 36 1/2 inches.  So, I lost 1" in 8 weeks and 2 1/2 inches in 3 weeks.
 

What's next?

I also know something else.  I spent a lot of time exercising during this first 12 week period. During the weeks, the aerobic work took me an hour if I include the warm up and cool down.  It took longer if I count showering and dressing.  I don't expect I will be able to budget an hour of exercise 5 times a week forever.

Fortunately, my initial analysis showed I only needed to burn an extra 378 Calories a week (or eat 378 fewer Calories a week) to keep off my extra 10 lb.. I do think I can exercise at least 25 minutes 3 times a week! At my current exercise intensity, I can easily burn 400 Calories a week this way.  That's enough to meet my weight maintenance goals.  I could even go back to eating those candy bars provided I add new snacks or make bigger meals.

I am thinking of cross-training using a jump rope. I'll need new shoes. Click to see where I shop for athletic shoes.

I'm currently writing up descriptions of the companion nutrition and strength training portions of my first 12 week plan.  You can also compare how much weight I lost to what I predicted using my equations!

Lucia

Created: June 21, 2002. Revised:
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