It's the Halloween countdown thread!

I was in a couple of drug stores looking for something yesterday and was horrified to find they had turned 85% of their floor space into a candy store.

My challenge for the next two weeks is to stay AWAY from all that- particularly peanut M&Ms!!!!

Cardio done, food packed, gym at lunchtime!

Have a good one.

Mel

I have to admit that Halloween is one of my least favorite holidays. It's not just the candy everywhere thing. It's that Halloween has no redeeming value whatsoever: it just celebrates gluttony & excess. With extra packaging. (I realize that for pagans and people who celebrate the Day of the Dead Halloween it has more meaning, but for most Americans it doesn't.)

Not much to report, really. Did shoulders & abs today at the gym, a light day for me. That's probably good, because it's only been about 14 hours since yesterday's workout, and as I age I find that I need as much recuperation time as I can get.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone.
Kim

I agree with you, Kim -- Halloween is my least favorite holiday of the year. I hate the celebration of death and the macabre. My candy strategy is to buy either juice boxes or one of the (very) few kinds of candy that I don't like (Mounds, Good&Plenty, Sweetarts )

I took nine days off from the gym while we were on vacation () and it felt so good to be back yesterday! I did my workout with this big ole dumb grin on my face. The interesting thing is that I didn't lose any strength at all. Matter of fact, I was feeling really strong from all the excessive vacation carbs. Thankfully, my one pound of vacation gain was gone by today.

Time to start focusing on my holiday strategy, now through the end of the year.

Meg, when I went to NM, I was surprised that I didn't gain after all the sopapillas I ate. Although I didn't eat any with honey so that might've helped. I also ran on the treadmill (hotel gym) or went hiking every day. TX was a different issue of which we won't speak but a little over a week later, I am down below what I was when I went to TX. Hopefully, I'll move my ticker by the end of the week, it has been stuck for so long

I did buy some halloween candy, even stuff I like, but I don't feel tempted by it, at least yet. Costco actually had halloween microwave popcorn which was an interesting concept.

As for me, I've been slacking on the weights and my diet is turned topsy turvy for the moment. I'm following a low fat, whole foods vegan diet for the moment. I know I need to do weights but for some reason I can't find the time. I do walk/run my dog every morning so that is something but I need to just force myself to do weights.

Meg, you may not have lost strength but I predict that you're going to be sore Especially if you were hitting it with that goofy grin as hard as you usually do!

I did a shorter, but very different leg workout yesterday and for the first time in months, am nearly crippled

Ooooo, sounds divine! Details, please.

My back rarely gets sore. The sorest part of me is my tri's from doing DB pullovers -- how crazy is that?

Shoulders and cardio tomorrow. It's frustrating because my right side is still weaker from the rotator cuff surgery.

Went to the doctors today and found out that my resting HR dropped by five beats per minute over the last year simply due to switching cardio from moderate, steady state to high intensity intervals. Interesting.

Hi Ladies!

I have to admit Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love dressing up and parties! The candy thing doesn't really bother me, I tend not to go overboard with it. This is the first year we're in a neighborhood where we'll likely get lots of trick-or-treaters. The weekend before is when Madison has its big street party, I haven't been since 2002 so I'm quite excited! I'm dressing up as Punky Brewster, DF will be dressed to celebrate St. Patty's day (he likes to recycle costumes I guess

nelie - I slacked on the lifting for a long while too. I know it can be hard to get back in the swing but you know you will feel better for doing it. I've only been lifting regularly again for a couple weeks and I can already feel a difference.

Meg - Glad you're enjoying being back at the gym. I love DB pullovers

Well, the weekend slipped by without any real exercise, I think I was still whooped from power pump class. My glutes were especially unhappy for days.

Got back to the gym yesterday, went for a run in the morning, UBWO followed by yoga class. Those lat pull downs are really killing me! The little bit of lifting I did at home during the time I didn't have a gym membership included nothing like lat pull downs or pull-ups, so those muscles seem to be in worse shape than almost anything else. The side planks that we held f-o-r-e-v-e-r in class last night might also have something to do with my soreness today.

Spinning tonight, power class in the morning.

Halloween's not a huge deal for me. I grew up in a very Christian household so I never got to do the Trick-or-Treat thing growing up. As I've become an adult, I think I've gone to one dress-up party? I kinda like the dressing up in costumes thing, but I'm not stressed over the holiday.

Monday I ended up not going to lift--I was having pretty bad hip pain and a Ulcerative Colitis flare up (they usually come hand-in-hand), so I took the day off. Yesterday, I went to my Cardio Kick class, in spite of a pretty sharp hip pain and had to leave 30 minutes in because I decided that if I kept pushing through it, I might hurt myself. Today, my hip's still a little sore, but not nearly as bad as it was. I'm going to pop some NSAIDs and go lift today. If the hip starts to feel awful again, I'll just focus on upper body. It's nice to note that for the first time in my life, I'm actually disappointed about not going to the gym and that I want to go!

Hope the rest of you are having a kick-*** week in the gym

Working through exercise induced soreness is one thing, trying to work through actual pain is another. You were smart to take a day off on Monday, and if the hip is still bothering you a bit today, you might be well advised to give it one more day. Listen to your body. If possible, move your Wednesday-Friday workouts for this week to Thursday-Saturday. In not possible, picking back up on Friday is the next best option.

Skipping a workout session due to real pain may be disappointing but it is SMART. This is something that I often have to be reminded about as well.

It's actually great that you are disappointed. This is when you know that training is now firmly imbedded as part of your lifestyle.

Azure: Great job taking a break even when you didn't want to. One of the things I have learned is that is that it is just as difficult to learn the discipline of taking a necessary rest as it was to get started in your fitness routine in the very beginning. Switching gears is just plain difficult.

Last week I did something to my "good knee". I could feel band like movement on the inside but not pain, just pressure. And, yeah, it made noise on the decent during sumo squats. Weird. The pain found me later that afternoon. I'm still recovering from this one. I did a modified lbwo this morning. The first set of squats with an unweighted barbell was a little dicey but the following working sets went better. Not okay, but better. I think I will have lay off of those for a few days as well. Running is certainly not an option this week. Looks like my cardio will be done on the elliptical again for several days. :sigh: It's so funny, I find myself envying younger gym members for their knees. Really. It's pitiful.

Shan: I"m with you. I love Halloween. It's the only celebration where family members are not insulted if you don't bring the children by for the whole day. We usually do an open house party for the neighborhood for two hours prior to trick or treat. Great fun!

Meg: Thanks for sharing the correlation between your HIIT and drop in resting heart rate. I do these too and am further inspired to know that its benefits are great beyond the heavy sweat and caloric burn.

Mel: Share that leg workout. I can always add it to my little black book of tricks.

You know how you know it's been a good workout? When you try to call your DH to tell him you're on your way home and your arm is shaking holding the little tiny cell phone to your ear! Hee...gotta love that!

Had a bad workout week last week so I'm back this week with a run (okay, I got a bad stitch but whatever), abs class, spinning and power class. And holy crap - they switched up the power class routine (as they do every few months) and it was hard!! Maybe I'll get used to it but Meg, I feel your pain. We did this tricep workout with the barbell that was a combination of pullovers, presses and skull crushers (or whatever else they're called). That was tough...and also seemed to stress my shoulder a bit so I stopped to take a break. After all that? tricep dips. Really now, are these people crazy?

We also did a lot of planks - side and regular and I just love them. I feel like I could hang out there all day!!

Azure - I hope take your much needed rest day...or two! Feel better soon!

Lydia - hope your knee is not giving you too much trouble.

Good morning! Cardio done, food packed.

I'll post the leg workout tonight or tomorrow- now my shoulders are sore.

My stomach is feeling queasy...not sure I'll make it through the day, but a back workout is on the lunch schedule. Pullups always make me sore, but I'm deliberately not doing heavy enough rows to get sore. My back is too big already It's strangely hard to lift lighter than I actually can. I do a lot of balance work while doing back exercises to make it harder without adding more weight.

Hi Elissa, Lydia!
How are you feeling, Azure?

Mel

Mel: I agree that it is more difficult to lift lighter than you normally do. There is the psychological aspect of it of course but I have found that my form is not as good when I'm lifting lighter. I almost have to concentrate harder on engaging the muscle because there isn't the weight to do it for me. For me this is especially true with squats. With no weight it feels a little sloppy but add another forty pounds and there is no where else to go but in a very controlled movement up and down. Well, there is always the falling over backwards...

Elisa: Unable to use a cell phone...that's too funny. Sounds like you are having some awesome workouts this week. My little experiment of only doing three to four workouts a week is failing me miserably. I will get things switched around here again soon before there is any real damage to be done during the holidays.

No workout today unless you count the two playdates scheduled to visit today with DS2. Lots of cardio there but it comes with it's own carbohydrate pitfalls. Grrrrr. Somehow I don't think I could convince them that hard boiled egg whites are as cool as their cartoon version snacks.

Have a great morning everyone.

elisa - Great to hear you're having such a good week. That is too funny about the cell phone, sounds like you're working hard! I had a moment coming down the stairs after yoga, guess my hips were a little too loose and my legs exhausted from holding lunges. I made it to the locker room without incident though. Got hit with side planks in yoga and again this morning, can't say I love them but they are definitely working.

Went to spin last night, power pump this morning. I think I'm doing a little better than I did last week, we'll see what the legs say tomorrow

Hi LWL,

Yay, the working week is over! I had a plan B week...regroup ....and I managed reasonably OK. I could not bike to work, so I missed a lot of cardio there, but I managed to put in 1 houe power class on monday, 1 hour cardio yesterday, and 1 hour yoga + 1 hour power today. So 4 hours total. Now if I manage to squeeze another c25k in over the weekend, I'll be at 4.5 hours. That is not great, but not bad either considering that it was a plan B week.

Have a great day all,
Rabbit