Yes, I'm still exercising for at least an hour every day. I figure Id drop in and show you a progress picture. This is what my shoulders are doing:
See that hole in the center of each shoulder blade that looks like a set of boobies? I HATE that! Nobody else's back muscles curve like that. I call it my "broken wings" because that sounds better than boobie back lol. Hey, remember when I called my back dimples back crack? I really am my own worst critic. I've talked to my physician as well as an orthopedic nurse about it and both say that it's not weight loss, but muscle gain. Being at my plateau weight makes me a bit scared that I'm going to start burning muscle in my cardio. My home scale still says I'm 110 and my dr's scale still says 117. Honestly, I'd like to see that number go up because I want more muscle tone and less body fat. Who doesn't, right?!
I'm not doing crunches because they hurt my neck and back way more than they benefit my abdomen. Instead, I sit on the floor and lean my back and legs out like a V. I try to balance myself so that my legs almost touch the floor. Then I slowly raise my legs back into a crunch or do bicycles. I can feel it in my stomach, but not my neck and back like I would in a crunch. Maybe crunches are not good for people who have short torsos? I will do crunches eventually. There was a time when I couldn't do one squat and now I'm all over the place with them like a champ. I'll get there when I'm ready. I'm sure that, once I build up my tummy a bit more with super easy tummy exercises, I'll be able to do crunches too. I'm just not there yet.
I can do 8 push-ups per set now and I love to do retro inverted push-ups. That's where you use a stool or chair to elevate your feet above your head level to do push-ups. I've been very attentive about doing push-ups and they've become a normal part of my sparatic stretching while watching tv. They've been great for my dorsal muscles and biceps, but you know I want more. I'm planning to buy a weight set and bench for Easter. I figure that I'll be fine using it alone as long as I'm lifting what I can handle for maximum reps. Right now, I'm using two 5 pound hand weights on an old coffee table and it's really hard on my elbows and shoulder blades even with such minimal weight. I really need a weight bench.
Buying the elliptical machine really did amazing things for me in losing weight because it's a machine that I can use every day for a set amount of time. Even if I'm only on it for 20 minutes, I do a little something every day. I'm hoping that buying a weight bench will do the same for my muscle tone. It's going to cost $200 outright and you know I'll have to buy more weight eventually, so I will really want to get my money's worth. I can't wait to buy it.