I think we have two people, Cathy and Dawn, who would LOVE to do interval training but will start a few days later. And I am totally okay with that.

Well, I did it. I went to the gym. Zina, you are right. The time just flew. I was watching minutes and was done so fast.

My stats:
warm-up 3.8 MPH
moderate pace for 4-minute intervals 4.0 MPH
speeding up, almost jogging 4.5 MPH
I was pumping my arms while speeding up and it helped. It was not hard really but I felt like I worked out really well after I was done. I need to check out the music for interval training that Sandy recommended.

Don, I think we can commit to 30 minutes a day of interval training. It's a new habit in addition to miles we walk anyway.

Speaking about walking. I walked 11 miles today according to my pedometer. My legs are tired.

Ok Gang....I got exercise in today. I did 30 minutes with Leslie Sansone...walk and jog. I didn't write down the exact time of the intervals, but there was:
warm up
4 segments of jogging
4 segments of walking
I don't remember how many segments of walking and arm work
cool down
In all it was 2.5 miles

Then I did a 20 minute power walk with 2 # weights.
Total: 55 minutes, 3.5 miles

So you did interval training with Leslie? COOL!!!!

Welcome Cathy.

Hello Walkers,
I am going to the gym early to get my 30 minutes done. What a chore! I need to pay attention and count minutes. No more mindless walking... It's a workout.

Well I am done work 2 hours early. What do you think I should do??? Yeah I know I am going to work out and walk... It's storming here so it will have to be on the treadmill.
How is everyone doing with the intervals??

For those who don't know already. Angela's daughters were in a serious car accident. Please keep her and her family in your prayers. Drop her a note if you can too. Let's show some buddyslim support...

Well day 2 is done. 30 minutes intervals and 3.5 miles of regular walking on treadmill. I lost a pound this week. I would have to say the weightloss is more from the healthy eating (fruit and vegetables this week). My calories have been low too.

I may not be on here too much this weekend. We have alot of graduation parties Saturday and the bike race is Sunday. I promise to still walk. I'll have to get up early both days to get the 30 minutes intervals in though. Then walk during the day some how. Sunday will be easy as that's all we do at the races is walk. Saturday may be a bit of a challenge between parties.

Zina, I did my walking too. I will be away this weekend as well but I will be walking.

Don, where are you? And Tiffany, Gale, Cathy, and Dawn. Are you still walking?

It's so hot in Seattle. But it's a beautiful day.

I lost one pound as well. No binges and regular exercise. I am on a roll.

Hi all,
I'm here, but I am struggling a bit as of late. I am binging a bit (especially at night) and am generally down on myself about the whole losing-weight scenario right now. I realize I've lost nearly fifty pounds in only 9 weeks, but I have such a long way to go that it's hard to not get bummed when looking at the big picture... the reality is that even if I manage 15 pounds a month from here on, it'll still take me a year to lose the weight I want to lose.
I'm sure it's a struggle for everyone to go throught this lifestyle change, but for me to do it the way that I do, I have to immerse myself into it... it's pretty much a full-time project. I go to sleep thinking about my morning weigh-in and get up in the morning planning my meals and exercise. I make meals for everyone in the family, and THEN start my own meals preparation. I get tired. I'm worried whether I can do this, uninterrupted, for another year or more.
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OK, enough whining.
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WARNING!! I USED MATH IN THIS POST

I did a LOT of reading on the web yesterday, trying to educate myself a bit more on the whole interval training methodology. What I gathered about the theory behind HIIT (high intensity interval training) is that a workout is intended to cycle your body back and forth between High Levels of Exertion for Short Bursts and Moderate Levels of Exertion for Longer Periods, bracketed by a Warm Up and a Cool Down period. It appears that "High" and "Moderate" levels are defined by heart rate, primarily.

I couldn't find a single set of numbers that everyone agreed to, but it appears your heart rate should reach about 85-90% of your max heart rate during the High Exertion portion of the workout, then drop back to about 65-70% of your max heart rate during the Moderate Exertion portions.

I'm 46. Therefore, my max heart rate (MHR) is equal to
220 - my age
or
220 - 46 = 174 Beats per Minute

So, during my High Exertion Bursts, my heart rate should be somewhere between:
174 bpm X 0.85 or 148 beats per minute and
174 bpm X 0.90 or 156 beats per minute.

During my Moderate Exertion periods, my heart rate should come down to between:
174 bpm X 0.65 or 113 beats per minute and
174 bpm X 0.70 or 122 beats per minute

To do this HIIT properly, it sounded like I needed a heart rate monitor, so I bought a wristwatch-style model for $40 from Big 5 Sporting Goods. I spent the day playing with it and discovered the following:

• My rest heart rate is around 65 bpm
• During Warm Ups (45-48 rpm) my heart rate goes to around 110-115 bpm
• At my Moderate Exertion speed (53-55 rpm) my heart rate climbs to around 130-135 bpm
• At my High Exertion Rate (58-60 rpm) my heart rate climbs to 150-155 bpm
• After dropping BACK to Moderate from High, my heart rate takes almost the whole 4 minutes to get back down to 130-135 bpm.

So what have I learned??

My rpms for the High Exertion portion are good.
My rpms for the Moderate Exertion part is too high still. I don't think I can comfortably go any slower, so I may have to try dropping the resistance a little... I use Level 5 normally, so maybe dropping a couple slots might help.

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Finally, I completed today's workout. 30 minutes total for 2.5 miles. I also did another 30 minutes this morning using my OLD method.

Don, I am glad you researched more on interval training. I think we are allowed to start slow, it's our first week. You can see that interval training progresses over time to reach optimal heart rate and get all the benefits of stressing the body out of balance.

I understand about bingeing. In fact, I understand more than you can imagine.

That's why I started the thread on binge eating, to come and post WHEN you are tempted to eat, especially at night. It's hard to talk about, the bingeing stuff... it's easy to talk about achievements and successes. But recognizing the downfalls is a part of success.

For me, I stopped binges since last Monday BECAUSE of the thread that tells the whole world about my problem which is very liberating and lifts the shame from my shoulders. I lost 4.4 pounds this week.

And remember, when we started the serious walkers challenge, you were only doing 1.5 miles a day... it was difficult and challenging to get to 5 miles a day for 21 days... interval training is another challenge... hard at the beginning...

I think of our team as Big Losers team because we are challenging ourselves big time. Do you know a person who walked 110 miles in the last 3 weeks? Do you know a person who does interval training every day? We are really serious and committed.

Don, you have a lot to lose but look how determined you are and how fast you are losing.

I really admire you. You challenged me in so many ways.