Good Morning LWL!

How did everyone fare over Easter? I hope no one got run over by swarms of peeps! I read in the paper yesterday that 1/3 of all the peeps sold (shich was a staggering amount) are used for decorating or craft projects. Which is where they ought to be, IMHO! Chocolate bunnies are a whole 'nuther story

Today is going to be crazy. Lat day of spring break for my son, an eye doc appointment and orthdontist appointment to take him to, a full client load for me, and trying to work in my cardio and chest workout. I don't know how all this is going to happen

Hope everybody's colds and sagging motivation is GONE this week!

Mel

Good Mornin' Mel !! Your day makes my head spin .... ....

I had a good Easter weekend, not too much food, no chocolate... a very good 10k Easter morning run, it was ... ... Brother and SIL and my parents came over for supper, all was good...so what more could a girl ask for ?! Not much in my book !

I will go to the gym later and do legs and probably some bike cardio !!

Other than that it's a very dull rainy day here I'm hoping that the rain will clear the snow...

Hope everyone is well ... TTFN

We, on the other hand, had 6" of SNOW for Easter! My eating was like yours Ilene, a reasonable portion of ham, baked potato and spinach salad. No candy, no appetizers, and just a little dessert. Since we were at the neighbors, no leftovers either.

I am about 90% recovered, and thinking about going to the gym this afternoon. No telling how much cardio stamina I have lost but the only way to go now is UP. I think the weights will be okay. I'll have to look at my cheat sheet, but I think today is legs (which is to say, I did upper body last). Have a good day all.

Pat - glad you're starting to feel better. Hope everyone had a good Easter.

DH and I ended up going out to brunch but otherwise it was a pretty normal day eating-wise. It rained again which is depressing but it's not at the moment.

I messed around with my lifting splits a bit, so today's leg day! (is that supposed to be a squat?)

Hi all,

Been doing mostly lurking, but working hard both at work and at home on staying on plan. I loved that comment about the Peeps. yes, they are definitely better for crafts than consumption. I tried them once but they didn't taste like anything and IMO they were actually too pretty to eat anyway.

Tiki.

Easter's just another day to me. But I'm glad you all enjoyed it.

I had an excellent exercise day on Friday. I felt strong going in, that heady "I really want to do this!" feeling that I get sometimes, but not that often. Spent 40 minutes on the elliptical with no trouble, and got through my lift routine easily. Still adjusting to the higher weights I set last week on some of the arms, but there are a couple of them where I am thinking of adding about 10 pounds. I lift tonight, so I'll see how it goes.

Fun things from this past week. A coworker, who knows that I've been lifting, handed me a small bottle of pepsi that was giving her problems, saying "Hey, get this for me, Muscles." I had no trouble at all cracking it open quickly.

The other fun thing? I went grocery shopping Saturday, and bought some wine along with everything else. The clerk asked if he could see my ID. My response was something like "Yes. Wait....really?" Yes, really.

I am 40. I had to fight the urge to give the guy a tip.

Well I had a plan for Easter but didn't stick to it. I woke up depressed (really missing my DD & GDD and ended up not focusing, just feeling sorry for myself. But that was yesterday and I weighted in this morning and it didn't change my weight so I guess I didn't damage myself to much.

I'm probably not going to fit my workout in today, there is a memorial service this evening for a co-workers spouse and several of us will be attending. I know myself well enough to know I won't feel like working out once I get home. And I'm dressed up enough that I don't want to get to sweaty by walking during lunch so I'll just take it as a rest day and enjoy working out tomorrow.

TTFN,

Well hello all, thanks for the comments on the abs and the comments about my questions. Hope you all had a great Easter weekend. As for me, I worked all weekend long and took Saturday as my free day from the gym and my free eats day. Not too bad, though since I ate well for my two morning meals and then skipped lunch since I had intentions of going to the gym but skipped it so we could make it to the movie. So I had some popcorn on my free day with butter of course and some Reece peices then we went to a Ponderosa for supper, had a small peice of steak, baked potato, and salad with some dressing. So I guess my supper could have been worse but the popcorn with butter was really bad but what are free days for.
So Sunday came and when I finished work, my husband decided I needed to take a shower and go for a drive since it was Easter so i missed my cardio session and we ate out for supper so pooey for me there.
But the good news is today is a new day and I ate pretty well, did a good cardio, did lower body and abs of course. Decided to do cardio 6 times a week now to up my fat burning.
Which now brings me to the question of the day........
My dilemma, I am a pear shaped woman, whose legs bulk up quite easily. So I have been doing the 12, 10, 8, 6 thing in BFL for my upper body with heavier weights,
but for my lower body have been still doing the 12, 10, 8, 6 thing but trying not to lift too heavy because I read that it is better to do more reps and less weight in order to keep them from getting too bulky. So the question is, should I be doing like 12-15 reps with the same weight or continue doing the 12, 10.....thing but just increase the weights a little to challange but not as much as say my upper body?
Now if this helps, my goal is to lose fat, but also change my shape by lifting weights. Now I know that I can go quite heavy on top because I could use a little bit of bulk on top to balance me out, but how heavy is too heavy to lift on bottom and how light is too light?
Thanks for all the help in advance.....

Jen- No one can give you absolute numbers regarding what is too heavy for you. If you are doing BFL and this is your first challenge, why not do it pretty much by the book and go for failure at the end of the set? I can understand adding more cardio; personally I don't think 20 minutes 3 times a week is enough for most women to lose fat. But it's unlikely that you are going to significantly "bulk up" your lower body by lifting heavy if you are new to this. It took me about three years of lifting superheavy before I decided that my legs were getting bigger than I wanted them to be. I realize that everyone is different in our ability to build muscle and where we carry fat, but you might as well take advantage of the window of opportunity for muscle building that the first several months of a training program offers. If you don't like the way your legs look (and most women get smaller!) you can always switch training methods later. Believe me, muscle disappears in less time than it takes to build

LOL on getting carded, Tealeaf!

Tiki!!!!!! Drop in more--- we miss you! Had a good winter in the motor city? How is your shoe collection doing these days?

Pat, glad to here the cold is getting better. Ugh, more snow. We got about 5 inches of rain today and all I could think was FLOODING? FINE! At least it's not snow! Take it easy at the gym coming back

Susan- Your poor knee! Knees and shoulders are so frustrating-- very poorly designed joints, IMHO The card party sounds fun. Keep us posted on the knee.

Hi Laura, Ilene, Evangeline, LURKERS and lost LWL'ers!

Time to hit the hay and start over tomorrow.

Mel

Hi LWL,

Good to hear from you all! Everyone seems to be out of the rut and ready to go for it once more.
Same here. I weighed myself this morning and found out that I seemed to have gained 3 POUNDS !!! over easter. Fortunately after my cardio already 1 pound was gone. I hope the other pounds are also water weight, but for this week i WILL go all out; as Ilene and Meg and Mel say: squeaky clean eats, go with the 2 l of water a day and keep up the cardio and weights.
Excercise for today: 20 mins row, 35 mins jog, 20 mins bike. I had to guess at the intensity because the battery of my heart rate monitor is flat, but i sweated enough to need a headband to keep it out of my eyes.

Have a great day all,
rabbit

Mel, very funny!!! The winter sucked. All the snow melted right after groundhog day and I thought "Yeah, the snow is over for the season" and then WHAM, it snowed again, and again, and again. Heck it snowed last week. However, the thermostat is finally on the rise and we are seeing hi 50s this week. The shoe collection is going fine. I tossed a BUNCH of them in January and committed to buying a new pair each month. I haven't picked up my shoes for March yet, so will have to buy two pairs this weekend! It will be a hardship, but I will manage....somehow!

Tonite, Lord willing, I will finally get the weight machine put together. I am not really liking going into the gym. I run so much between cheering, gymnastics, and all star cheering that I just don't feel like running around for me as well, (unless its shopping ) so I am doing my cardio at home via Tae Bo or my exercise bike and using my dumbells. However, my legs need more weight since they are my strongest muscle group and I need the machine for that.

Tiki.

Hey there, LWLers! Definitely seems like everyone is in better spirits this week than last, despite Easter Candy Avoidance Efforts (TM). Luckily, my husband decided to steer clear of the Reese's eggs this year, so I didn't have to fight that particular temptation (*anything* with peanut butter--including a spoon--is my downfall).

Had my first leg day independent of the trainer on Sunday. I did body weight squats, a ton of lunges, and these weird glute things she taught me holding onto a big metal pole or the railing. I definitely am feeling it, but in a much healthier-feeling way than the last few weeks. Could be that I didn't push myself as much as she did, my legs are adjusting, or the Glutamine is working. Whatever it is, it's nice to be able to walk without my legs buckling but still to feel that familar "toilet squat pain" (TMI, Ilene? Ha!)

Today is upper body day. Still haven't split it out into smaller muscle groups, but I'm going to have to do that soon, as the workout seems to be taking longer and longer every time! (Any suggestions appreciated!)

March has been a really good WL month for me. I've lost 10, which doesn't sound like much, but at my recently-reduced rate of loss, I'm thrilled. The only problem is that it seems I'm down a size every 10 pounds, when it used to be much more! Not so good on the budget -- thank goodness for Old Navy!

I don't remember another year that I wanted spring more than this one (maybe I say that every year, but I think I used to freak out about the threat of revealing summer clothes). NY has a spate of days in the 50s ahead of us, so that's something!

Glad to hear everyone's doing a little better this week. Tealeaf, congrats on the carding! I'm just 31 this Thursday, but it already thrills me to the core to be carded!

Hee hee. I'm a pear too and while I do lose/gain first in my hips, my boobs are always close behind. I wish I was a little more sturdy though and didn't fall quite so often!
I agree though, lifting heavy with your legs will only improve appearances, smoothing everything out etc. Although I also like to work my shoulders to balance out these hips a bit. If I look around the weight room the trainers and other serious LWL are VERY slim & trim in the legs and slim-hipped (if only...), not bulked up despite the impressive weights they do with the lower body