I hope that you all don't mind that I started a new thread. We were already onto page 3 and Susan won't be around to start one for awhile.
First off, I want to say welcome to the newcomers Melris, Chynna and Colleen
Boy, I don't check in for a few days and this place gets hopping. I just got caught up and want to address some things that you all mentioned.
I'm one of the over 40 gals (48 next Feb.) so I can relate to the things you were talking about. I have been having a WONDERFUL time lwith peri-menapause lately
As far as body fat: I use the Accu-measure callipers that I got from Netrition (free with an order over $75 ) and I use this site to plug in my numbers;it calculates it for you. www.enforcergraphics.f2s.com/bodyfat.htm
On the issue of scale weight: The bottom line is that you need to weigh yourself at the beginning of the challenge and at the end ONLY. Using these two weights ,along with your body fat %, will tell you how many pounds of fat you lost and how many pounds of lean muscle you gained. Weighing yourself at any other times is up to you. The less the better
Many of us ladies here and at Lean and Strong use the site at FitDay to log our food. Our journals/logs are public (most of ours) and this is a great place to see what others are eating. My Fitday journal can be seen by clicking on my profile at L&S or by clicking this link: http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJ...l?Owner=silbar
I don't know if anyone remembers me but I started BFL last summer with great results for my first 8 weeks -- to end of august and then hit a brick wall. I KNEW this was to be expected but I just didn't push through and before I knew it it was Christmas, I hadn't worked out and gained back 10lbs of the 15 I lost during that challenge.
I have started C1 again (as I never completed it the first time) and am currently on C1W1D7. I am extremely sore from an incredible LBW the other day (still feel it ) but am so committed to completing these 12 weeks.
I have been lurking these past few months and am just thrilled with peoples progress so far! Mrs. Jim -- I am amazed at your perserverence and dedication, I would love to have half your energy and willpower!
I just have a couple of meal questions as TJ hasn't posted yet on L&S about the meal plan thread. Rolled oats: How much should I eat? the Quaker ones state that 1/3 cup uncooked is 20grams of carbs. But I've seen that some people eat 1 cup cooked. I thinking that is about 40 grams carbs or so? For those who eat oats (with yummy eggs -- which is what I'm having today) what is the amount you allow yourself?
I'm on W1D5 so we are at the same place. I slacked off on my 2nd challenge but I am determined to give this one 100%, if not more. Together, with all of the support here and at L&S, we can it!
I eat oatmeal, and the box does say that 1/3 cup uncooked is 20gms. But this same 1/3 cup uncooked then becomes approx. 1 cup after cooking. So it's still 20 gms.
Keep this in mind with other things that bulk up once cooked like rice, barley, pasta, etc.
This is where using FitDay really helps.
I also had a great LBWO yesterday and am still alittle bit sore. Nothing like last week when it hurt so much that I could hardly walk down the stairs.And I've been taking my glutamine: don't forget about that. It does help in muscle recovery.
Acck! This morning I overslept and didn't get to the gym until 5:30 am - it was already packed - the 'resolution rush' has finally begun in earnest here (I think a lot of people took last week off and decided to wait until this week).
Fortunately I didn't have a cardio workout on the agenda - today was shoulders/abs/calves - didn't have time to do abs so I'm going to do them at home tonight - if I can clear space on the floor (I need to get one of those balls to do ab workouts on).
Speaking of oatmeal - I believe Sil is right on - incidentally there was an 'oatmeal' thread yesterday at L&S about that same subject (portion sizes). I confess to NOT eating oatmeal - not that I don't like it (I do!) but I'd rather have my Myo Lite in the AM. My next challenge (C4!) I will probably be including oatmeal and Cream of Rice a lot as carb choices though, and trying to cut down on the dairy as I get closer to the contest date as dairy causes bloating.
Hey! Have you gals seen the new ENERGY magazine yet?? I finally found it yesterday at Draeger's. GREAT mag and TERRIFIC article on Pam B - including her current workout routine. I've already sent in the subscription card on my way to the gym this morning. If you haven't seen it yet, the magazine is well worth the search...I bought two copies, one to read and the other to send to Pam to have autographed as a keeper!
Speaking of Pam, don't know if you saw this post today titled "Who/What are you doing this for?" I can really relate to it, since I really enjoy spreading the word about BFL myself! Here it is:
Quote:
When I first started the BFL program, I have to admit, I was doing it to win the money and the recognition.
Then I realized it was making such a difference in the way I felt and looked that I was doing it for my health and my appearance.
Then I realized that my confidence was increasing because of the mental strength that I had achieved.
Then I realized that what I was doing was inspiring others to do the same. WOW! What a reason to keep pushing on!
I still strive extremely hard so that I can be healthy, so that I can look better, so that I can inspire others, but recently I have figured out that I am finally doing something that Pam wants to do. I am not entering this Body Building contest for my husband, for my parents, for my friends, for my buddies at the gym, no, I am doing it for me. Believe it or not this is one of the few things in life that I am doing for me.
I got my engineering degree because my dad thought it would be the best thing. I have done MANY things that others wanted me to do (which is fine too), but finally I am doing something for me. I have gotten to the point where it doesn't matter what others think about my desire to build muscle and get lean.
Do this for you, for your mind, for your body, for your health.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't be motivated to do this to help inspire others and to help others in their quest (because personally, that is more gratifying than most areas of my life). That is my new "life's passion" to help others do what I have done. I am just saying that you have to want this for yourself too.
Michelle - yes, I remember you! Glad to see you back, gal!
ThinBytes - I'm going to do the star thing next Challenge - I started it at the beginning of this one but kind of kept forgetting to put the stars on. Someone gave me a gorgeous horse wall calendar for Christmas and I'm going to hang it in my kitchen so I'll ALWAYS keep the star rewards in mind...last time I had printed out a calendar from Outlook but didn't keep it in a prominent place.
I'm amazed that we are already at thread #30! So many popular threads here at 3FC are pages and pages long - I'm glad that Susanje and Sil are taking the initiative to begin new threads as they get over 2-3 pages in length. At this rate, though, we'll be at thread #50 by the time summer comes (not that it's a bad thing!).
Anyone who happens to be lurking here and wondering what the fuss is all about - you can easily access the old BFL threads here on the Diet Plans board and see our past posts, or feel free to post your queries here. All are welcome!
Yes, i did get my copy of Energy and am very pleased with it. Loved the article on Pam~as always, she is a great inspiration, and I can't think of a better person to include in the first issue of the New Year. I think this magazine is well on it's way to being the best muscle/fitness mag for women. I still get Muscle and Fitness Her's and my hubby gets MM (I read it, also). So I think we have it covered in that area.
I'm keeping up my Fitday Journal, are you???????
MrsJim~Wait till you see the QS2002 challenge site that Sarah developed for us. It's a great way to be accountable on food, nutrition and water (smiley faces).
For those who have not checked out L&S, do so. And look into joining the Quad Squad. They are a great bunch of gals/guys!
I had a great cardio WO today at the gym. I did 20MAS this time. I may do a HIIT next time. My legs are still alittle sore from yesterday, but I feel GREAT !
~~~Sil
Hello all- Did my 20 minute cardio this morning. Definitely hit the highs, but it still feels likecheating to me to only do 20 minutes! I know- get over it! Triceps are sore from UBWO yesterday, as well as lats. Can't beleieve the difference from my "mindless" lifting.
Tried to configure a LBWO for tomorrow, so if I'm not stuck under my bar from trying to max on squats, I'll let you know how it goes.
2BFIT1- What's HIIT? What's the quad squad? have seen it mentioned on L&S, but nobody answered me there....
Quad Squad is one of the 'teams' at L&S. Kind of a mini-message board. I'm a member myself but don't post a whole lot (I do lurk quite often there though). Sil - I'm not starting C4/QS2002 until 21 January...Sarah quite nicely sent me the password info for me to use that day.
HIIT = High Intensity Interval Training. 20MAS=20 Minute Aerobic Solution (from the BFL book). An example of a HIIT routine would be 10 one-minute all-out sprints alternated with a one-minute walk/jog between sprints (recovery) as opposed to the 20MAS as laid out in the book. For the most part during this Challenge, I have been doing 20 minute HIIT sessions three times a week, alternating between the Precor EFX and the treadmill.
I don't often use Fitday, I did at one time but I really prefer using the Progress Reports and planning my meals the evening before if I'm having problems with food/water intake.
I agree with ya, Sil - I really believe that Energy is going to be great! One of the things I really like about it is no 10-page Hydroxycut "special features" which is the main reason I don't buy Oxygen.
Mel - I hear ya on the cardio - took me weeks to get over that cardio bunny disease. Just keep working at it - you'll get over it, I promise!!
Well, I'm on D3 today and feeling like I'm figuring it out. I've been lurking on a couple boards and picking up great information and inspiration. It's amazing!
Thanks to everyone here for all the great tips!!! Sil, I'm going to check out those jounals because I really need help with the food. I'm just not sure how much to eat. For instance, I know the palm/hand size, but as far as carbs and proteins, are you supposed to try to hit 20-25 protein and 25 carb in each mini meal? And what about calories?
Another question you all might be able to help me with is this. I build muscle very easily. Because of that, I don't want to use heavy weights. 8 and 10 lbs. are my favorite. Now, how can I do the UBWO and follow Bill's sets without adding more and more weight? I wanna hit the 10, but how do I do it without the threat of monster arms when I'm done?
Oh, and one more while I'm at it...what's Udos? I see it mentioned, but no one says what it is.
Thanks to everyone who is so willing to help us newbies along!
UDOs is a particular blend of oils used by some as a supplement. Others use flax oil.
As far as building your arms, I think that's part of the program. But I'll let the experts respond. I'd try Lean and Strong. Personally I hope to have arms like Xena.
The Krista Smash! site says it all - she does a great job of 'smashing' some pretty big female weight-lifting myths (you can find this TERRIFIC site at http://www.stumptuous.com/weights.html ):
Quote:
You don't have to go far in the average gym to find someone willing to give you bad information. People are full of ideas and advice about women and weights. The other day I heard the most ludicrous thing yet: that cardio work was bad for you because it built muscle that pushed the fat out farther. Yep, I guess that's why marathon runners are all so obese---duh. Anyway I've compiled a list of some of the most common myths floating around like the alligator in the sewer stories. The difference is, of course, that there really ARE alligators in the sewer. And snakes that pop out of your toilet, heh heh.
LIE: Weight training will make you huge and masculine.
Probably the worst lie ever. People look at women bodybuilders and say, "Ohmigawd, they're huge and if I lift anything heavy I'll look like that too." Nope. In general, women are not able to build monstrous muscle mass in the same manner as men, due to a number of physiological factors. It's a rare woman that can become a competitive bodybuilder, and to get that big she has to combine genetics, extensive long-term training, strict diet, and supplementation (legal or otherwise).
If you enjoy watching bodybuilding, have a look at the tested (natural, i.e. steroid free) shows versus the untested (anything goes) shows. You will notice a great difference in the builds of the women onstage. A natural female bodybuilder is lean, almost wiry, and certainly not the mythical monsters whom exercising women fear resembling (have a look at my reader letters page to see some examples). Also, women bodybuilders do not normally have the low levels of bodyfat that they do while in competition. Low bodyfat makes muscles stand out, and it changes the contours of the face, making jawlines and cheekbones prominent, which contributes to a rather unnatural look. Bodybuilders about to go on stage for a competition look quite odd, actually, due to dehydration, extremely low bodyfat, and deep tans. During the offseason, competitors' bodyfat is higher, and in clothing, most wouldn't stand out as unusual in any way.
The average woman (that's you) cannot achieve a masculine monster look simply through strength training. You're not going to wake up after a workout and be huge. You don't believe me? OK, then, try to get huge. Just try. And see how far you get.
LIE: Men train, women tone.
To be serious about strength training, eliminate the T-word-"tone"-from your vocabulary. Lifting a tiny weight for a hundred reps is a waste of time and energy, plus it never really stresses your muscles enough to make them much stronger. As the good Sgt. Robo says, "More isn't better, better is better." In fact, according to one study in which men and women trained the same muscle group 3 days a week for 20 weeks, "the women made significantly greater relative increases than men in strength." (MacDougall et al, McMaster University)
Women and men have exactly the same skeletal muscle composition. It would not be possible to tell biological sex from muscle tissue alone. But more importantly, there is no such thing as "toning". There is muscle mass and strength gain, and fat loss, and that's it. In purely technical terms, "tone" refers to the ability of the central nervous system to provide passive muscular resistance to being stretched. What you probably think of as "toned" muscles are merely muscles which are not hidden by a lot of bodyfat. In other words, there is no reason why you should waste your time on the stupid little weights when you could be getting tough and strong.
LIE: There is a difference between toning, sculpting, and firming.
Please don't write me asking how you can tone but not sculpt, or firm but not tone, or whatever. There is no such thing (see the next lie). There is only building muscle mass and losing bodyfat, nothing else.
LIE: Muscles grow different ways depending on how you work them.
This school of thought says that if you lift heavy, you'll get huge, and if you lift light weights with high reps, you'll just "tone". AAACK! The T-word again! Muscles only know how to grow one way, and just how big they get depends on gender and genetics.
Okay, this isn't exactly the whole picture. A helpful reader emailed me recently, encouraging me to clarify this point. We have several different types of muscle fibres which respond to different types of training. BUT nevertheless you won't be able to get freaky big unless you try very, very hard and you have one-in-a-zillion genetics. And ultrahigh rep training is a complete waste of your time.
LIE: You can change the shape of your muscles.
You hear a lot from nimrods at the gym about which exercise is better for reshaping your muscles, or for building big peaks on your biceps, etc. Sorry, but the shape of your muscles is genetic. Muscles are attached to bones and joints in a way that is specific to each person's body. As an example of this, look at the bump of people's outer thigh muscles above the knee. You will notice that some people's quads make a bump almost right at the knee, while other people have their quad bump higher up, sometimes quite high above the knee. This is merely an individual variation in muscle attachments. So, no matter what exercises you do, you're not going to change where your muscles attach, and you're not going to change their individual shape. You can, however, make them bigger and stronger.
LIE: Women shouldn't work their leg and butt muscles, otherwise they'll get too big.
Once again we have the fallacy of the "big muscles". Have a look at women bodybuilders' butts and you'll see this isn't the case. The truth is this: by building muscle, we can speed up our metabolism, resulting in more effective fuel (calorie) consumption. In other words, more muscle means less fat in the long run. And where do we find the largest group of muscles in a woman's body? Why, her legs and butt, of course! Neglecting these means neglecting the best area for building calorie-burning muscle. In addition, women tend to have much better lower-body than upper-body strength, so it's very satisfying to work the lower body and see some great results!
LIE: Women should stick to machines and stay away from free weights.
This is another heinous myth. In fact the opposite is true for a variety of reasons. Have a look at the article called "Don't Fear the Free Weights."
LIE: If you build muscle, it will just push the fat out more and make you look bulky.
Sorry to burst the bubble girls, but you're not going to wind up like the Incredible Hulk, ripping through your shirt with the massive expansion of your muscles. The amount that muscle contributes to visible size is negligible compared to the bodyfat.
About the food thing. I urge you NOT to stress about grams, weighing, calories, etc at this stage of the game. If you stick to the 'authorized' food list in the book and use palm/fist measurements, you can't go wrong! Honest! The only exception I can think of to this is stuff like cottage cheese and eggs. Especially DON'T stress about calories. Remember that there is a LOT of research behind BFL - Bill Phillips spent 10 or more years researching it - keep it simple - I mean, I did all that stressing over weighing/measuring/ calories/fat grams back when I was doing Weight Watchers and it got me absolutely nowhere except to drive me completely bananas!
I always think of the first Challenge as the 'learning period' for BFL. Don't think of this as 'just' 12 weeks - what you want to do is make this a permanent healthy lifestyle change, albeit in 12-week increments. Like Pam B said a couple of weeks ago - if she had to think about weighing, measuring and counting calories, she would've been back at Wendy's ordering a cheeseburger and Frosty every day!
Mrs. Jim, thanks for the info. I used to belong to a gym and did weight training three days a week. My arms and legs got so muscular that my husband didn't like them. I was even approached by a group that was in there looking for new bodies to train for their body-building competition. They asked ME! They said I was one of those "special gals" that can build because I'm very muscular. I don't wanna look like Popeye
Yeah, you're right, this is a learning time. I just realized that the reason I'm hungry after meal one was because I screwed it up. I thought the palm/fist thing applied to everything. So I cooked up a little box of Egg Beaters (8 oz box) and then divided it in thirds. I just learned over at L&S that I'm supposed to eat the whole box!!!
I am drinking TONS of water and am exercising and eating better than I ever have, so I know I'm on the right track.
Hi,
Did my first LBWO this morning, don't think I hit 10's on anything. I may have to join a gym, cause to get to peak with free weights and no spotter, I may get killed. Like squats. With hubby spotting, I can squat 85 pounds, 12 reps (probably sounds wimpy to the quad squad, but took me FOREVER to get there). But alone, I can't get more than 50 lbs into position. Any suggestions? The nearest gym sounds expensive, but cheaper than buying my own smith machine! And dumbbells heavy enough to do my legs any good hurt my shoulder joints! Very frustrating. I'm going down to talk to the head weight trainer at the gym tomorrow to see if I want to join. He managed to tell me 3 times in a 5 minute conversation that he's a 3 time grand masters champ. OK, I'm impressed. (yes, I really am, but EGO? Are his biceps as big?)
Mrs Jim- you sure are right about looking at the first challenge as a 12 week learning curve. I can't seem to get anything right yet. Still craving cheese that's not cottage cheese.
I took my pics this morning. What a hoot! Luckily I have a really cool new digital camera that has a lense that swivels 360 degrees so I can take my own picture with the self timer and see it in the LCD screen. I haven't owned a 2 piece bathing suit since 1981 so used my red Victoria Secret Undies. I can definitively say those pictures are NEVER going anywhere! YUCK! I didn't expect to look like the 20 year old babes in the catalogue, but I'm pretty sure if VS saw me, they'd confiscate the underwear and ban me from the store! And that's after having already lost 35 pounds of FAT FAT FAT! So those pics are just for me, and hopefully the 12 week ones will be better! And I won't wear underwear
Chynna- I build chunky muscles too. I always figure I'd rather have big muscles than big fat. And over the years, Ive found that even if my muscles look big when I've been lifting heavy, my overall size is much smaller because it's lean muscle mass and not puffed out or covered by fat. Check the Krista Smash site that MrsJim quoted. The whole site is great and she has lots of fun links, too!
Gotta go back to work,
Oh, girl, you crack me up!!! Thanks for the laugh; I needed it. Lucky you to have a digital camera!
Yeah, I'm going to head to that site Mrs. Jim mentioned. I'll get this thing tweaked yet.
Now I'm going to get brave and try a new shake recipe that uses cottage cheese...I HATE the texture of CC, so I'm hoping I can blend it REALLLLLLLY smooth.
Body For Life #30
) but am so committed to completing these 12 weeks. 
Good morning all!
