Friday workout?

Exercise tally so far this week (and some excuses):

Sunday - 1 1/2hr yoga (the tough kind, not a meditative class)

Monday - none (felt sick, called out of work, slept a lot and drank lots of liquids)

Tuesday - 55 minutes (aha!) cardio, which included some time on Precor, Elliptical, and the rower; also some ab work in AM

Wednesday - none (long day at work)

Thursday - 45 minutes on Elliptical xtrainer, plus 2 sets of squats, lunges, and a variety of arm free weights

So, the question is, will I get 4 or 5 days of workouts in this week? Five means I need to work out tomorrow, Friday, which is tough. I'm drinking a glass of wine now, so it's unlikely that I'll get up in time to go for a run (which i've been neglecting of late), but after work, co-workers will want me to go to happy hour. .... Stay tuned.

55 minutes of exercise - 5 days a week

A new study came out recently that says you need 55 minutes of daily activity five times a week in order to sustain weight loss.

Reality check: How many of you get 55 minutes (not counting the walk from the car to the office) every day? yeah, me neither. I try, and some weeks I hit that, but lately it's been more like four.

"A new study has found that for overweight and obese women seeking to lose weight, fifty-five minutes of exercise a day, five days a week is needed to lose 10 per cent of overall body weight over two years," a CBC news report says.

The study was done by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh. Read more here.

this ENDS now

So I moved from LA to NYC about a year ago and some months. I had gone through a major breakup (aka, we were together 5 years, on marriage track, he became a union organizer, blah, blah, blah), and since then I've gained 15 pounds. 15 pounds!!!! That's two sizes in clothes, a new hairstyle to try to better frame my round face, and a whole lotta extra belly and boobs.

How is this even possible? Everyone says, oh, you'll lose so much weight in New York. Everyone walks; there's no way to be fat. And it's true. I walk everywhere, up the subway, down, up the apartment, through the park, to the train...everywhere, right? Not only that, but I'm a pretty regular exerciser. I ran the Brooklyn half-marathon in May, I'm a decent yogi and I go to the gym a few times a week.

How then did this gut develop on my 5'4" frame? OK, I'm not going to say I'm fat or huge or anything. I'm a 28yo, 135-pound, generally healthy chick. The problem is I don't recognize myself anymore. I don't look like me, I don't feel like me, and this has got to end - now.

So, my plan (and I've had many plans over this last year), is to finally get rid of these 15 pounds I'm carrying around. I don't know how yet, but for now I'm heading to the gym, and I'm giving up grains for a while. It's summer anyway; I can live on fruit.