OptiMystic, it's so funny, because you keep coming up with the same advice I give my clients all the time. I'm a certified personal trainer, and high intensity interval training (never saw that acronym before though) is a commonly known method of inducing weight loss when you get to that plateau. Thing is, you don't need to be at a plateau to exercise that way all the time. It's a tougher workout, for sure, than steady state cardio, which is why most people, unless they are under the guidance of a trainer or attend interval training classes, don't push themselves enough to keep that higher heart rate when switching to the strength segment of the workout. Even with my clients, when I try to have them do this sort of workout on any given day, they want to rest after the cardio part. I keep telling them the workout won't be as effective, but they complain they're too tired!

Anyway, thanks for the reminder of this really great way to exercise, and keep up the good work!

Hi belle vie -- don't know about keeping it to words of one syllable or less (what would be less? grunting?), but I'll try to answer your question. But let me start by asking you a question: what do you do in that one minute in between your sets of high intensity cardio activity? Just tread water and let your heart rate come down? Because if that's the case, that's fine, though what I advise my clients who really want to jump start their metabolism into burning more fat is to use that "resting" period for some strength work. Anything weight bearing is good, such as using dumbbells to work a different body part each time, or even just body weight, such as working full-arm plank or forearm plank, isometrically challenging the core muscles. Actually, that's probably the best bet for you, considering you're using the arms and legs pretty actively already while swimming. Though getting out of the pool every couple of minutes to do your planks might look even odder to those at poolside!

Another question for you now: why do you continue to do that additional 45 minutes of swimming after the interval sets? That's what you were asking about originally, right? If you're supposed to keep the higher work rate for your steady state cardio. Well I just answered it, didn't I? The 45 minutes at your regular pace is a steady state cardio workout, usually at like 55-70% of max, a different sort of workout than the HIIT workout. So in essence, you'd be doing two types of workouts in one day, not necessary. Altenating the workouts on different days is a good idea, if you don't want to completely forgo your regular swimming (which you shouldn't). HIIT is in its own a workout, so you should view it like that. If you finish it too quickly for your taste, then either add more segments, or make the segments longer. Though I'd advise that if you make the segments longer, make the rest part be a strength interval as opposed to just rest. Or maybe even a combination of both: swim, 1 minute rest, 3-4 minutes strength, then back to swimming again (lather, rinse, repeat ). Play around with it, see what you like, and what works best for you. You're not going to do a workout that you hate, that's a no-brainer. That's why I don't swim, not for me.

Hope that helped a bit, and keep up the good work!

PS -- About the nuts, they're my downfall as well. What I do to try to curb my snacking is the rule of you're only allowed to eat a particular food once a day. So if you've had some nuts already by midmorning, that's it, no more again until tomorrow. I do that with the intention of forcing myself to plan out my eating, even the "bad" stuff. And that is the key to eating properly, isn't it? Mindful eating. Now if only I could stop myself from making the midmorning snack last until late afternoon....