Exercise

[forward]

Breton, OK, lets address the ABS first. If you want a 6 pack, you have to let the sweets go! LOL Its not going to happen without doing that. Second, DIET I recommend you eat 6 small meals per day. It will boost your metabolism and help you with binge eating.

<I don't have to have a six pack, but reasonably flat would be good. How long will this take if I cut back on sweets (which I am not that bad with in the first place, really) and am exercising 20-30 minutes 3-4x week? I mean, I am a single mom here and I do not have money for babysitter or much time to myself at all!>

3RD Cardio ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY! Breton, there is no magic pill, sorry to say!

<Yeah, well, if you had that answer, you would be a billionaire.>

LOL On the other hand, cardio doesn't have to mean running all the time, you can walk, do yoga, areobics, lots of different things.

<Well, are we talking 45-60 minutes of reasonable exercise here or does this have to be heart-pounding? I love yoga, but does that really count as "cardio?" >

Weight trainng with no weights. Chellenging but doable! Start with pushups, situps, chair dips, squats, lunges, step-ups. I have several lifts I can set up for you any of them will help tone you. I would start out with a plan like that until you built enough strength to handle weights.

<How much of this before I can have reasonably muscular arms? I don't care for chicken wings....>

Breton, if you will exercise, I promise that back pain will go away. It might hurt initally, but you will strengthen your back and it won't be an issue.

<Well, that is not 100% the case, because I tried and it most definitely did NOT help. It was sort of like making a machine work when the parts are not in the right place (I was out of alignment--one leg was actually shorter than the other)--it just wears incorrectly on some parts. Working harder just caused me more pain--it was awful. Once I had the RIGHT exercises to do, it pulled me back into alignment and things got better. But I am surprised by how easy it is to run into problems again...>


Any other questions, please feel free to ask! I will help you anyway I can!