Preparing My Weight Loss Program for the week...

I teach water exercise. You have to work harder to move in the water, so water ex is becoming more popular it seems. Also, it's something of a massage as you work, from the water pressure. I'm pretty much in maintenance stage now.

My plan for keeping it off is to maintain strength and muscle tone. I also do some salsa, some step aerobics, and some yoga.

Because I am a Stage II breast cancer survivor, I have to keep my arms toned, in particular my left arm. I am at risk for lymphedema (swelling in the arm because of lymph node removal) if I do not.

I'm pretty careful to balance front ab work with some work on the back muscles. It's easy to get bad posture and a constant flex at the hips because of too much sitting. There are a number of yoga poses designed to correct this.

I lost 30 pounds by getting dumped out of my 28-year marriage. He liked to cook, and I guess I ate to be polite.

Do you do intervals? If squats work for you, you can do enough to get slightly out of breath at different times of the day. If you do them on one leg, you will likely gain lean muscle mass in that leg. It takes more fuel to power lean muscle mass, so your metabolism goes up. Plus, it is nice to be strong. If you do them without holding on to anything, you are exercising the balancing part of your brain as well, and your core muscles have to carry that out. The brain uses enormous amount of glucose if you make it work really hard. Your body will take it out of fat if that's where it has to go to get it, so long as you have eaten enough complex carbs to fuel the process. It'll take energy out of lean muscle mass too. Diet is important to prevent burning lean muscle.

Watch out for working out too hard after eating a lot of protein. One of my water exercise students got into hypoglycemia--really low blood sugar. She is not thin, and she is not diabetic, but some people are susceptible to this, including me. Eat complex carbs before exercise. The body uses carbs to help metabolize fat.

Congratulations on losing the weight.

Congratulations Mary for losing weight (30 pounds) and working on your weight maintenance!

- I agree with you about water exercise. I love it. I feel more pressure when doing arm exercises in the swimming pool.

- Glad to see you have a "specific weight loss maintenance."
Strenghtening muscles is great. Losing weight is one thing, but keeping that fit look is another. Weights and strength training help tone the body with a firm look. Dancing is a great cardio exercise workout. I love salsa too!

- Balancing your abs exercises is important. Bad abs exercise technique can cause back tension. I do intervals with my cardio exercise and weights/strength. Squats are one of my favorite, especially when I am watching TV.... I can maximize my time by doing both.

- Protein.. yes... you are right. Protein should be taken within 30 minutes after working out. I usually have a protein shake (27 grams).

I am so happy to see how well informed you are about weight loss. GOOD FOR YOU.

I hope you find my weight loss tips helpful.

I don't know how old you are but my skin still hangs on upper arms and stomach I do 4 abs exercises 3x a week . I'm 54 and I've lost at least 60lbs or more of fat I have gained weight and gotten smaller so I know I've built muscle. I do leg press at 315 lbs (understand i weighed 298 lbs so this is not a great weight for me) The thing is I don't think my abs will be flatter until I've lost some more fat. I can feel tight abs under what is left of fat and lose skin. Also if I hadn't started with weight training I would have never been able to do anything Arobic. If you have time please read my artical it would be nice.

Hello Vivian,

Thanks for your comment. Congratulations for losing 60 pounds! KUDOS!!!

I am 46 and after losing 80 pounds from 230 pounds, I'm working on maintenance, toning, and getting a flat stomach.

You are right, we cannot get flat abs until we get rid of stored body fat. In the meantime, abs exercises help toning the abdominals, tightening.

Upper arms "jelly beans effect" requires different arm exercises. You can workout your triceps, which is the "hanging spot."... You might read my arm exercises article.

All the best with your weight loss plan.

Hey Angela, do you have a weight loss plan for this week?

What is your goal? lose weight? exercise? maintenance? toning?

Today is Wednesday. Just finished my arm exercise routine to tone my triceps and biceps. I did my weights arm exercise while watching the tennis match from the Cincinnati Masters Rafael Nadal v. Juan Monaco.

What a better inspiration than seeing the extraordinary toned arms of Rafael Nadal!

Unfortunately, Nadal had to retire from his second round match due to a left wrist injury.

I will do later my 45 minutes cardio exercise in the elliptical to burn fat and continue building lean muscles with my weight training.

PS: Yesterday, I did not do my cardio exercise because I ran out of time. It was just a hectic busy day.

I have an elliptical and have been increasing my minutes but I am no where near 45min.!

Doris, the main thing is to start with few minutes and slowly increase your cardio exercise. Start with 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and you will reach 30 minutes. The results will be wonderful because you will be burning calories from stored fat not just body water.