How intense does cardio have to be?

[ksmom]

Ok atomic. I get what you're saying, it just feels a tad critical. You're saying that we shouldn't try to be "perfect" in our sway, but then pointing out that by looking at the number on a screen right in front of me (which pops up automatically whenever I hold the treadmill's handles), I'm not doing the exercise thing "right". Doing this much exercise this frequently for this long now, I can say it definitely gets BORING. I try to mix things up - I do the treadmill, exercise bike, sometimes a YouTube aerobic video, I listen to music or watch Netflix shows - but still that much exercise gets really dull after awhile! Challenging myself a little by intensifying my workouts, keeping my heart rate high, seeing tangible improvements in my fitness level - it all helps a little in keeping me motivated to keep doing it - and I do it probably for that reason more than for my sway. BC I likely have IR/PCO tendencies, it seems to me that the benefits of keeping up with my exercise routine outweighs the risks of having what I guess is a slightly "control freaky" aspect of the exercise.

It is what it is. I've been control freaky about several things in my sway - mostly my diet and timing attempts. I've also lost 40+ lbs, done the diet and exercise for 8 months, lots of coffee & alcohol, and Clomid - I've given it my all and yet I know very well it hasn't been perfect. I've struggled and cried and had good moments and bad. I've also had several non-controllable life stress factors throughout the past several months (including a m/c, family, money, & job issues), so at the end of the day there are all kinds of factors that are going to influence the gender of my baby and if control freaky heart rate checking is what's going to decide it, then so be it! Honestly I've done the best I can, but I can't totally change my personality and what I know works for me in order to sway and stay sane And after 8 months I can say that keeping myself sane is becoming a bigger and bigger factor now haha!!

Verena - ks and atomic really know their stuff so I'd listen to their advice over mine. Not only do I not know if my sway worked, I'm not even pregnant yet I was just trying to be helpful in offering my thoughts about what I've done, in response to your question. I'm on the exercise bike now typing this post so that's distracted me from checking my heart rate!!!! :-)

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I don't think Atomic meant for her comments to be a personal attack on you. She's saying all this because she doesn't want pink swayers suddenly deciding they must track their heart rate and then end up worrying about the small details that truly do not matter. You have a good sway going for you, please keep it up. She just wanted to warn that there's no benefit to tracking anything while exercising. Just simply doing that hour of cardio is great for pink. I think what Atomic is pointing out (and what I agree with as well) is that the whole needing to track little details or "check" things off mentally are what can ruin otherwise good sways because it feeds that competitive nature a lot of us boy moms have. It's so easy to fall into that trap and it gives us that false sense of security that like Hopefullmummy pointed out, makes us feel like our sway is a guaranteed success.

Regarding the boredom, I get it. I totally do. I did cardio for 11 months and I tell you, there were times I got so bored. In the first couple of months I kept thinking to myself "how the heck am I gonna keep this up?!" lol I got into the habit of watching sappy romantic B-movies lol because it was something to keep my interest while on my bike. It's just that the checking of calories burned, or heart rate, or speed, etc. that feeds the competitive side in boy moms. It's like a "I need to outdo myself if I want to better my sway." I'm not saying that's how you think or anything, it's just what checking things like that can do to a person. I've seen so many ladies here get so carried away with every little detail of their sways or worrying themselves silly over stuff that just. does. not. matter. and then they end up getting an opposite. A person can certainly get sway obsessed and still get a girl (I've seen it happen) but overall I feel like it does more harm than good. Like I said, none of this was to point fingers at anyone here. We just want people to get their desired gender. Seriously, it makes me so happy to see people get the boy or girl they swayed for. Many of us are just looking out for one another, that is all.

[atomic sagebrush]

I'm sure it does. I'm sure it feels critical to the person who has brought it up. I'm not trying to be critical. It is not personal, it is simply that the topic came up and I have to answer it. I apologize that it happened to be your post ABC, the subject came up and I have to respond to what is written.

After all these years one thing I do know is that I have to keep things like this under control, because these ideas spread like wildfire. People read the idea and if I am anything less than absolutely firm and crystal clear about not doing it and why then people think "well, that's kind of a good idea, and I can do it without obsessing" and more often than not I find myself getting blown off while everyone listens to someone else's idea. So I have to answer to the point of overkill the very first time I see it. And I run the risk (as has ahppened here) that then the person who posted it in the first place is like "hey don't pick on me" but I'm not trying to, I just use your post as a jumping off point to explain my concerns. It isn't personal, ever, and I apologize if it appeared that way.

Once my concerns have been voiced if you decide it's worth it to you to continue, by all means. Everyone reserves the right to have your sway, your way. I drank sugar in my coffee because I wanted to and didn't care how it swayed. But I still have the obligation to chime in when I see something I think is not going to give people optimal odds, that's all.

[Verena]

I had to think about this for a while because I felt unjustly criticised as well... But this point really made me change my mind:

It's just that the checking of calories burned, or heart rate, or speed, etc. that feeds the competitive side in boy moms.

You are not only describing my habits while excercising but me in every second of the day. I always say I like to optimize everything, but yes, the reason for this is probably that I have a really strong competitive side. This swaying thing is like a project for me and the reason I follow it with so much passion is not that I am so much wanting a girl. A girl would be nice but a healthy little boy as well. The reason is that there is so much to optimize in this project and it makes me feel good to do it right. I'll continue with swaying anyway because the result doesn't matter that much to me but I really have the feeling that I will get one of those "perfect sway, but too strong boy mom personality" opposites. Maybe it's a good thing that I started swaying so early before actually starting ttc, so that at that time hopefully everything will be routine and not something to optimize anymore. Any suggestions what else I could do?

For now I'll send that fitness tracking bracelet back that I had just ordered [emoji85]



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