Cardio is 20 minutes of interval cardio training. Meaning that you use different intensities throughout the 20 minutes to challenge your system completely. It's only 20 minutes but it's not that easy.

Seems we are all posting at the same time

No sooner do I post than more notes are added!! Terrific!!

Sil - I hate to say that I rarely pay attention to the stride rate - more to my heart rate. One time when I was on a incline level of 20 and resistance of 18, I happened to glance at the stride and it was somewhere at 110-115. If I'm at, say resistance 9/incline 12, I can push it up into the 200's.

When I first started using the Precor a couple of years or so back I was NOT that good at it. Could only push it up into resistance level 10...I haven't been biking as much as I used to but I am a pretty strong climber (looking forward to seeing my leg-muscles once the fat melts off them!!!).

Livein - I have to second what Susanje just posted - plus add that the exercise and the eating plan work hand-in-hand. It was difficult for me to get in the six meals at first - but you get used to it very quickly, believe me! And do check out the Hussman/EAS site. It's a LOT of reading but he goes into the depth that Bill Phillips doesn't in the book. I especially like what he quoted Bill as saying regarding meals: "A meal doesn't mean you have Mom lay out a napkin, and put a fancy plate of food out there. A meal simply means a portion of protein and a portion of carbohydrate. So a meal for me may mean a protein drink and a piece of fruit."

Meal #4 for me usually means a MRB at work or a Myo Lite shake (at home). Meals #4 and #6 were the hardest for me to get accustomed to - because at 4:00 I'm usually up to my eyeballs in some project - and the last meal - I've been so used to the old maxim "don't eat 2-3 hours before bedtime" that it was hard for me to get over that. Now about 1/2 hour before bedtime, I have a Myo Lite shake and have had no problems sleeping!

Food plan and workouts:

The food plan is complementary to the workouts. The food plan is designed to increase your metabolism and feed your muscles. The workouts are brief but intense and the food plan is designed to feed those muscles and burn that fat. The Free Day is the reward for the discipline of all week, and has a psychological and physical advantage: You are not feeling deprived and your body is not thinking it is starving and therefore your metabolism will not slow down as it does on so many plans. You can't have free day if you haven't earned it by "eating clean" six days a week.

If you "tweak" the program, your success will be jeopardized.

Eating six small meals a day gives you incredible energy, keeps your focus OFF food (you never think about it), your cravings to a minimum and gives your muscles a good supply of fuel to help burn that fat. The food plan is really essential to the success of BFL. You can do the BFL workouts but you won't be doing BFL and if you're not feeding your muscles properly the workouts probably won't be as effective.

Hey Everyone! I see many of you are online right now! I just finished a shake (frozen coffee with chocolate Now)-delicious!!

Question- Do any of you eat popcorn for a meal? I've been having a bowl of air-popped (no salt) and having 2 egg whites for protein. What do you think??

Livein-I'm on my 9th day and love it! My cardio today was a 2.8 mile jog (with intervals of faster running.)

Today after my mere 20 minutes of cardio (plus a five minute cool down), I did my Ab Boot Camp on a decline board...THEN just to try 'em out - hanging leg lifts!!! I could feel it in my abs, but unfortunately also in my hands (I don't bring my weight-lifting gloves with me on cardio days).

Next Challenge - going to work on chinups!!

Susanje - I don't know about the Bowflex - doesn't seem to me that it would give as good a workout as the old fashioned dumbbells, barbells and bench combo - maybe you should ask for opinions at L&S?? I'd be interested to know myself. They ARE expensive!! I'll bet you can pick up one secondhand for a decent price!

I posted your query on the Lean & Strong message board (tip - if you want a quick answer to questions, that's definitely the place to go!). Shannon of L&S replied as follows:

"No nutrition in popcorn
and 2 eggwhites? 7 grams protein?
Oy Vey "

Basically I believe that's why popcorn isn't on Bill Phillips' 'authorized' list - there's just nothing there except calories...and you need the nutrients you would get from, say, brown rice, potatoes, oatmeal, etc. to fuel your workouts.

As for eggwhites, she's saying you need a LOT more than that for your protein portion. Definitely not a palm-sized portion at all! It's really important not to short yourself on your eating on BFL. You've GOT to keep that bod fed if you want it to build muscle and burn fat!!!

I think of it as similar to feeding a fire in the fireplace - if you don't keep throwing fuel in, the fire will go out. But - if you throw a HUGE log on the fire, it won't burn and will be stored as fat. So in my mind anyway, that's why we have six small meals - to continously feed the furnace and keep the fires burning!

I only eat eggs on my Free Day and with Joe's Special, but if you look at the sample menus that people post on L&S, you will see that many of the women eat SEVEN eggwhites and one yolk in a protein portion, while the men eat anywhere from 8 to 11 egg whites. Personally I prefer Egg Beaters myself. Much easier to prepare IMO...

Thank you all for your meal ideas. Day one was a success. Today's cardio workout was intense! Shelley, I work out at home. I have a treadmill, weight bench and some free weights. I'm going to have to expand my free weight collection. I'm looking into possibly getting a Bowflex down the road (maybe it'll be my reward for completing C1). I love working out at home. I get up at 5:00am and exercise. My days are sooo packed that the time I save buy not having to travel to and from the gym, packing my gym bag, etc... is precious. I've tried joining a gym before and hated it (too much hassle for me). Julie

I believe I asked about Bowflex on L&S months ago and someone said that one of the more successful L&Sers used Bowflex exclusively (though with the expanded rod set). I was interested in it because I can put it away when company comes.

However, if I get the Bowflex, I'll also add free weights and a bench and cancel my gym membership.

I'll have to review that video.

Mrs. Jim- Thanks for posting the question @ lean and strong. I read the answers there also. I just LOVE popcorn. It fills me up. I didn't realize that 2 egg whites wasn't enough protein. I normally have 4 in the morning with my oatmeal.

I printed out all the pages from Hussman.com and read everything. It definitely helped me to understand the program. I like his different ways of tweaking it.

Just got back from buying a carton of vanilla cream Myoplex. I was hoping to be able to just purchase a couple of packets, but Vitamin World only has it in the full box. It was 29.96 for 20 packets. I guess that's not too bad, considering that I didn't have to wait for snail mail. I want to try the root beer float using the vanilla.

For my 3rd meal today, I had a sandwich with lower fat ham (2 pieces at 45 calories each) and a slice of FF cheese. I used 2 pieces of Italian bread (no wheat in the house) and 1 banana. Do you think it was okay to add the banana? I am feeling very guilty over eating it.

After all, this is your first week. You're still in a learning phase.

What I did the week prior to beginning my Challenge was READ the book carefully, cover to cover (not too difficult to do as I was stuck on a plane going from San Francisco to London - even in business class with lots of movies and stuff, you still have loads of time to kill in 10+ hours each way!). I made a photocopy of the Eating-For-Life Authorized foods list and used it when I went to the grocery store the first few times. Now I know what to buy and just get my staples - which pretty much consist of frozen boneless/skinless chicken breasts in a big bag; brown rice pilaf and brown & wild rice mixes; a couple of potatoes; whatever fruits and veggies look good; a pound of extra lean ground beef and a carton of Egg Beaters. I bought a TON of Myo Lite early on so I have plenty to last me well into Challenge 2.

Another good thing to do - at least at first until you get a groove going as far as food - is to plan your meals ahead using the Eating-For-Life Daily Progress Report (which you can download from the www.bodyforlife.com site and photocopy). I did this for the first few weeks - every evening I'd write down what I planned to eat the next day. You'd be amazed how helpful that is! Now (as I've said before!) I basically eat the same thing every day. Sounds boring but it works great for me!

I also do what Bill Phillips recommends and go shopping on my Free Day - when I'm less likely to pop something in my cart that isn't authorized.

As far as bread goes, the first few weeks I did allow myself bread and low-carb whole wheat tortillas, but I've since eliminated them from my pantry - I was just nibbling them. I save bread for my Free Day.

In retrospect, and especially after reading some of the messages on L&S, I wouldn't tweak my first Challenge too much - I mostly use Hussman's recommendations for supplements (Vitamin C, glutamine, creatine/Betagen) but I think I did too much cardio this challenge - for the rest of it, I'm just doing the 20 minute HIIT right out of the book.

Hi, there, BFL team!
Into week 5 - tried not to weigh on Sunday, but sneaked a peak at the scale at work - which weighs 10 pounds heavier than mine at home - knew that wouldn't get me too excited! So I really have NO idea what I weigh! I'll remeasure after week 6.

Realized today that it's time to up my cardio workout - wasn't hitting 9s and 10 on the bike settings I was using last week - which means I'm ready for more, right? I may try the treadmill on Thursday. I was using a treadmill last year and loved it, but had some surgery on my foot in March and it's still not right. I'm going into the doctor Thursday after my workout, so I think I'll use the treadmill just so I can really tell her what's hurting and where!

I have weights and a bench here at home for my workouts, but no cardio equipment - so I go in early to the gym at work on Tues and Thurs...I'd go in every day because I do have a great set up there, but I have to run my labmonsters and work them out first, so it's more convenient to do the longer workout here at home. My bench has a extension piece, but it doesn't fit me right - I can't get it positioned right for my legs. So I stick with the squats and lunges (I HATE lunges - I guess because I need them the most!)

Got my "ultimate pack" from BFL/EAS yesterday - I used the Betagen and a couple of the BetaLean tablets...hesitant to take as many as they recommend - it makes me nervous to have them warn you not to take it more than 5 days a week - sounds either addicting or too hard on you. I didn't feel speedy from it, but I wasn't wiped out after a big presentation I had to do today which normally would make me comatose. So maybe it did perk me up a bit! Here I got sucked into this ultimate pack to get the free book for my firend and they're back ordered on the book!! And another friend told me they were 40% off at Barnes and Noble. Cheez...I could have saved a lot by just buying her the book and going to vitaglo to order my supplements!!!

I'm going to try out the Cyto-whatever tomorrow. Mrs. Jim and Susanje - how soon did you feel any difference from using the glutamine supplements?

Check in with ya'll later.
Cris

Somebody Just Shoot Me!!!! I can't stay off the scale. I have weighed every single day since starting this plan, and now my weight shows a 1 lb. gain. I hate this! Why does it call my name every morning??? When I was on the Slimdown, I kept myself from weighing, but I can't seem to do it now. It may have something to do with me trying to wean myself off Prozac, which I have been on for about 5 years for stomach problems (ulcerative colitis.) I'm beginning to get O/C again.

Mrs. Jim-Thanks for all your response. It is great! There was another answer to the message about popcorn on L&S. You are such a great inspiration!

Today was UBWO. Did great, and feel wonderful!!

Today my goal is to eat more protein with my meals. I don't think I am having enough. I added 1 more egg white to my 1st meal this morning. I plan on having the vanilla Myoplex for my 2nd meal. When I have my last meal, I am going to throw in some Myoplex with my yogurt to make sure I am getting enough protein before I go to sleep. Last night I added cottage cheese to the yogurt and hated it. We all have our own tastes--that's what makes each of us unique!!

Talk to you later!

GET RID OF YOUR SCALE!!!

Put it in a box, toss it in the closet, loan it to a friend. Just get rid of it, girl!!!

Then go to L&S's Transfomation Gallery and Profiles and take a look at Pam B - she is at 164 pounds and look at her!!!

I probably haven't lost 10 pounds in scale weight but my body fat is down, and all my clothes are baggy. Use the "pants-o-meter" - a much better indicator than that stupid scale that has controlled so many of our lives.

Remember...MUSCLE WEIGHS MORE THAN FAT but TAKES UP LESS SPACE and BURNS FAT...the more muscle you have the more fat you will burn and the better you'll look!!!! If you want to succeed at BFL, you need to get out of that 'scale' mindset. I can't stress that enough.

Labmom -- I do feel a difference from l-glutamine - I really feel that it helps me recover faster (I also take it after horseback riding lessons - makes the soreness go away that much quicker!)

See ya!

C2 Begins TODAY!!!!

I am psyched. It will be so good to go to the gym and eat clean. Free Week was a horror show.

Shelley, GET RID OF THE SCALE (have ya heard that before?)

Seriously, I was so depressed my first six weeks of BFL because I hadn't lost a pound or an inch. I dropped inches at the end of week six but still now pounds and that was it for me...I threw the scale away because it was making me nuts.

When I got back on it during week 11, I had lost 12 lbs. It was so great to see the scale move THAT MUCH since the last time I saw it.

Many people who have a lot of fat to lose typically see more results in the second half of the Challenge. In fact, I had a gain in week 5. It was me building muscle but not letting go of the fat yet so I expanded for a week. Talk about "shoot me"!!! It's so hard to keep going through that but the extra added aggravation of the scale is enough to drive you completely around the bend.

Throw away the scale and just hang in there, no matter what. If you workout and eat clean you will have magnificent progress in the second half of the challenge and maybe even before then.

Susan