Well good golly Miss Molly ... I get to start the weekly thread.

My week is off to a terrific start. I had one of those mornings at the gym in which I could do no wrong. I was able to increase the weight on several exercises; my shoulder didn't hurt; the cardio was smoooooooooooth. I just love mornings like that.

Lately I've been doing total body workouts, and loving them. I can see now that previously I had been trying to move to splits too fast. I do a 30-minute circuit and 30 minutes of cardio, and I'm feeling really really good. For now, the goal is to stick with this routine but to increase the weight slowly and to mix up the specific exercises every 4 weeks or so.

And that's all the news there is here in central Indiana where there's rain on tap, but the weatherman is promising mid-50s. We like that.

Good Morning, Robin! Good to see you Thanks for starting the thread. Slow start here, chez Mel. I'm sick, sick, sick. Managed a whole 15 minutes of slow cardio on the recumbent bike. Now I'm headed to the gym to go reinfect my clients who gave this bug to me in the first place. Hopefully my boss will take pity on me and NOT have afternoon clients of his own, and send me home!

It's supposed to be leg day- HA! I think I may do a light full body circuit just to keep the joints oiled and call it quits. This may turn out to be a light sort-of rest week.

Hope everything went perfectly for FRU!

Later,
Mel

Hi all!

I love my elliptical! It arrived Saturday morning, shortly after DF and I finished cleaning out the room that will be our home gym. I used it 3 times on Saturday, 2 times yesterday and once this morning. DF used it 2 times on Saturday and 2 times on Sunday. I really like the heart rate programs, which is something I never liked at the gym but the heart rate chest strap is more accurate than measuring through sweaty palms. The elliptical is kicking my butt. My legs are sore, sore and more sore. I haven't been sore from an elliptical workout in many years. I really do think its the best investment I ever made Plus, I realized I can dress skimpy while on it because no one but DF will see me. To sum it up: I love it.

Besides the elliptical, this weekend wasn't too exciting. I did some cleanup at home plus worked on my homework for school. I am trying to get ahead of my homework so I won't be stuck next week trying to do final prep for the wedding and also doing homework.

Last night, I did an UBWO which I can certainly feel so both my lower and upper body are sore. This morning I also showed a drop of 2 lbs I'd like to drop another 2 lbs before the wedding but that may be a bit difficult, but I am happy where I am at for the moment.

Hi LWL,

Hrbabe - thanks for the pool advice, i will look into it.

FRUS ??? Did he make you a decent woman after all???

Mel - Get well soon!

Hi airregirl , good to hear you are doing well.

nelie - glad to hear you are so happy with the elliptical! Smart move to make some time for your wedding!

I did not get to post yesterday because DS has discoverd the graphic card on this computer is much better than his!
I am getting back into the exercise groove: I did 20 mins treadmill and a stability ball DVD yesterday. This evening another power class. What i noticed is that I am hungry, and consequently have not been eating well: too much of everything, and the scale went up. I have put a notobook in the kitchen, to note down everything that I eat. Hopefully this will bring me to my senses when I want to eat again. The problem is I use food as a solace for everything...if I am tired, I eat. if I have to do something that I actually do not wwant to do, I eat, because then I can postpone it. All in all this is a bad thing, so I hope the notebook will help.

Have a great day all,
Rabbit

I'm an all around eater too Rabbit, celebratory, bored, lonely, etc. Blech! But not anymore!!

Nelie, congrats on the -2! I love watching your little turtle ticker.

Meg, the answer to insomnia is in the food. I had my day off yesterday (but not day pig out), and my calories are up with a very nice breakfast out and then a lunch/dinner combo of grilled chicken and sweet potato with salad and I slept like a BABY last nite. It was heavenly!!! Fell asleep to a dvd and didn't awaken until morning! I definitely will attribute the restless sleep to calorie deficiting, and my dh reminded me that I had told him years ago about having read that somewhere. Hmm, but I miss my sleep and want it back!

Good morning gals!

Thanks for the b-day wishes - sorry not saying so sooner, but last week was very hectic at work, and then I had lots of social events around my birthday. Needless to say, food was not great, and so today I am working on getting things back on track.

I feel like I'm getting a bit of a cold myself - so Mel, I can sympathize! Hope you feel better soon!

Nelie - glad you like your elliptical so much. And you're right about the lack of dress code - I usually just wear my sports bra on top, and I love that!

Busy weekend of raking leaves and other outdoor stuff here - the weekends of decent weather are few and far between, so I really tired myself out doing yard work yesterday.

Have you guys seen the new iPod Shuffle? It's only about 1x1.5" and is a clip on! No screen, and the songs either play in order or shuffle, but I'm thinking of getting one for my workouts. I would love the freedom of something that tiny!

Also in the market for a new digital camera - one of the small ones, I think. Anyone have any suggestions? This will be my Christmas present from DF, so I have a bit of time to figure out what I want.

Hope you gals are all having a great day!
Cindy

Fran- That's strange about the food and sleep. I don't sleep at all if I eat too much or poorly- too many carbs or sugar and I'm tossing and turning until I give up. This is depsite prescription meds which I've taken for 15 years because of an inability to get into REM state sleep.

Ugh- no one can take my afternoon clients. I'm home drinking chicken broth for an hour. I don't think anyone is getting their money's worth out of me today but from the very few times that I've canceled a client, they get more angry than if I'm only 3/4 there mentally. As "consumers" what do you all think?

Mel

Mel, I think even if you had to sit by them in a chair and "croak" commands at them to get them thru their routine, it is better than being canceled. They probably like that you do the routine with them, but I've never had anyone do that with me, they always just watch me and spot me on technique. I could see where you canceling could mentally spin them into canceling and giving up that workout, so that's probably why they freak out if you cancel.

Oh, to clarify, my day off yesterday was still healthy. I didn't overdo on sugars or deserts. I had scrambed eggs for b'fast with a treat of french toast and hash browns, but only drank water all day and then had the meal mentioned earlier for lunch/dinner. I think the difference in my sleep was probably from for the first time all week, not waking up in bed hungry and dealing with my stomach growling all nite. SO I think for me it was probably in having consumed the right number of calories or over my daily metabolic need just slightly and not being in deficit mode. Just a guess - who knows for sure!

I got a quote for you gals ... right after Daniel Kirschenbaum declares that 1/3 of men and 2/3 of women over 74 can't lift a gallon of milk, he says ....
Aging, however, does not cause these declines in muscularity. Disuse and sedentary living causes this weakening of the muscles.

Three cheers for weight lifting. Where else can we post that???

Had a good treadmill workout last nite that felt pretty easy, so I'm enjoying seeing my cardio capacity increase. Did a 30 minute workout of varying resistance; got my highest incline up to 5 and my highest speed up to 3.7, both increases over my old 4 and 3.5 levels. Wasn't terribly harder, so maybe I'm actually ready to go up more than I thought! Actually made the workout more fun and made it seem faster to have a harder challenge built in!

ROBIN - When Monday works that well, the whole week is going to be a great one.

MEL - Break the cycle, get better soon. I personally would prefer to reschedule a training session than to be sneezed or coughed on or more importantly, I would want to respect a person enough to have them take care of themsevles so that they would be able to give me 100%.

NELIE - you are the elliptial queen now, sounds like. The idea of exercising at home is nice, you are so right about the dress code.

My legs are finally recovering from the new routine of last week. On Saturday my cardio day, I thought a good HIIT plan would be to jog/run the length of the football field and fast walk the width, for 30 minutes. It was a good workout but on top of the LBWO on Friday, may have been over the top. I rested on Sunday, and then on Monday did another Cathe Friedrich LoMax, which is cardio and felt some tightness but not enough to make me unhappy.

CINDY - Also in the market for a digital camera, but DH always picks out things that are way too complicated, with features I will never use and that need odd batteries. I am trying to figure out a scaled back version for myself. Leave the high tech to him.

SUSAN B- I am right there, use it or lose it, muscle needs to be taken out and exercised often.

Off to do a school tour this morning, then some cardio and an ab workout, maybe yoga if I am so inclined after voting.

DD has requested our election day tradition of steak not really sure where that came from but it is easy and tasty.

Liza

This morning was so hard! My upper body is super sore from my workout on Sunday, my lower body is sore from doing the elliptical, my midsection is a bit sore, I was tired this morning and it was cold! I still dragged myself out of bed though and managed to do 25 minutes on the elliptical. I then did 15 minutes of abs and various stretching. After my elliptical workout, I was doing my stretching and I laid on the floor to do some crunches but I didn't want to do crunches. My wedding dress is hanging in our workout room so I looked at it and said to myself that I was going to do some crunches! So I did.

I also decided to bring cottage cheese back into my life. I haven't been eating cottage cheese for a few months but I've been so hungry lately that I need something that has good quality protein and isn't too calorie rich. So today I brought two seperate servings of cottage cheese with me. I may get sick of it soon but I think I need it.

Mel - I agree with hrbabe. If I am revved up to go workout and then get cancelled on, I think my motivation would be a bit deflated. I would understand though if someone wasn't feeling well and didn't want to workout while I was working out. As long as they were there helping me feel motivated, I'd be happy.

Cindy - I believe the Ipod shuffle is actually coming to its end for apple. I don't think it did too well. Here is a website that might interest you for an inexpensive shuffle. They are refurbished but cheap
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...nclm=Certified

Hi everybody. Anyone remember me? I'm not really "back" as I don't have time for message boards anymore but I wanted to drop by and say thank you to all of the LWL ladies. I learned so much from all of you!

I'm at "normal" now on the BMI charts for the first time since I was a teen and am really eating right- well, most of the time. I'm getting married soon to a really healthy and active guy who's into whole foods and is a vegetarian like I am. (And he cooks!) I consider my dumbbells an important part of my life and will never give them up.

Thanks you guys! And good luck for the future!

Nelie - there's a brand new, clip on Shuffle - very cool! I've been eyeing one myself since I keep popping my Nano (in an armband) off when I flex my mighty biceps.

Meg - I just went to the apple store not too long ago and didn't see that! I thought my nano was insanely small but that is crazy!