Weekly Meeting Topic Week 4 : Start Moving! Keep Moving!

Sorry that this post is a week late!  Week 4 actually ended last Saturday and I did go to my meeting but I never felt like getting online to share my notes from the meeting with you.  But I suppose, better late than never!

Week 4 focused on activity, which I know I have talked about before in the past.

Activity is crucial to weight loss and maintenance, yes you can loose weight without exercising.  However are you really going to get the body you want in the end?  Exercise has so many physical benefits four our bodies and psychological ones too.

Benefits of Being Active:

• Helps Weight Loss
• Critical for weight management
• Tones the body
• Allows us to eat a little more and still loose
• Improved health
• More energy
• Better sleep
• Increased metal focus
• Encourages us to make better food choices

On the Weight Watchers Points Plus program we earn "Activity Points" when exercising.  The number of points is based on current weight, duration of exercise, and perceived intensity (low, moderate, high).  Its very important when starting an exercise routine to start out slowly.  If you do too much too fast, you can end up discouraging yourself and quitting, or even worse injuring yourself (my constant fear, I've had a bad injury and I never want to go back there).  On the PP plan it is recommended to start out trying to earn 2 Activity Points per day and work up to 6.  The beauty of AP's is that you can choose to eat them or not, also you don't have to eat them on the day you earned them either.  However, AP's don't roll over to the next week, you either use them or loose them.

Another crucial point to moving more is that you do need to eat a little more too.  When you do a lot of exercise and don't re-fuel your body, you may not loose any weight despite all the hard work you're putting in.  In the past I've been absolutely crushed when I know I've worked my ass off at the gym, running, or Taekwon-Do earning over 30 AP's a week only to have a gain at the scale!  It seems to be a tricky balance, exercise and food consumption.  So if you're hungry and you need to eat something, go ahead eat a few of thos AP's!

As we are calculating our AP's on a perceived intensity level I personally suggest not eating all of your AP's each day.  Sometimes what we might think is a high intensity activity may really be moderate, and if you eat the points you think you earned you could be affecting your rate of loss.  My suggestion is if you're going to eat your AP's eat only 1/2 of them.  The only way you can really know the true intensity level is to wear a heart rate monitor, I don't know about you but I don't really want to shell out the money for one.

So what do I do to earn my Activity Points?  On an average week (and the last 2-3 weeks have not been average for me) I go into the gym 2-3 times a week.  Two of my gym visits will consist of a 10-15 minute cardio warm-up, 30-40 minutes on the weight machines, then 21 minutes of running followed by 8 minutes of walking.  If I go to the gym 3 times in a week, one of those visits is taking a spinning class (which earns mega AP's!).  Usually at least 2 times a week I take a 60 minute Taekwon-Do class.  On a good or average week I'm earning well over 30 AP's.

So if you haven't done it yet, go find an activity you love!

My meeting leader ended with a great quote I wanted to share with you :

"There are only 2 options, there is progress or excuses the choice is up to you."