Hi LWL,

Mel - I hear you on the back to school warfare. My kids are OK, but the scedule is kind off killing me. Dead tired again, and it is only wednesday! I definitely need to scedule in more time for resting, I feel like I was in a fog for the entire day.

Kaw - ogled ??? Visible muscle ??? You probabely look a lot better without the shirt than these men do! I can imaging how you felt and that you put that shirt on back pronto. I also hate it when people stare at me and I feel especially self consicious at work and in the gym. I worked out at home for a long time, and I really have to mentally adjust to work out in a gym with other people around.

Shan - Looks like a great wedding !

Nelie - Wellcome back !

Have a grea day all,
Rabbit

Nice pics, Shan! I especially like the one of you and your fiance -- you look fabulous!

I did have to laugh at the picture of the groomsmen in the ties and shades. The beer in a can is SO Wisconsin. In my admittedly limited experience, you can count on beer (usually canned) being served at virtually every type of event imaginable in Wisconsin. Fish fry? Beer. Work conference? Beer. Wedding? Beer. Fancy-pants reception? Beer. BBQ? Beer. Funeral? Beer. Meeting with the Pope? Let's see, um, oh yeah: beer.

Kim

Shan- You look fantastic!

kaw- what do you do that you seem to have lived everywhere?

Nelie :wave: Welcome back! Stop turning to jello and pick up the weights again now that you've unpacked. Dog walks are nice, but won't keep you in shape.

I got LOTS of stares today:dizzy: I was practicing some Olympic lifts progressing from a long, light dowel to a full bar. My gym (where I workout, not the one where I work) is a very spiffy fitness country club. Not what I really wanted or needed, but it's location 3 minutes from my office was a huge factor. I getting used to getting stared at, and have noticed "my" exercises showing up in some of the trainers' repetoires. That's OK, I've kept my eyes open too and borrowed a few new tricks for my clients :)

Yesterday I was starved and "munchie" all day. I ended up eating about 5 dill pickles in the evening for a total of maybe 15 calories and a week's worth of sodium :faint: I'm so puffed up I can barely get my rings off!

Mel

Mel,

I know I know!

For this past month, I've woken up with sore legs almost every morning. I figured it was the walks but it can also be the fact that I am constantly going up and down my stairs at home and my body isn't used to that.

This morning, I did upper body weights and a brisk walk intermixed with running/jogging :)

I felt so weak when I was doing the weights though. I miss the old days of going to the gym and being able to put some of the guys to shame.

Mel: I work in higher education. Beyond this, I'd rather not be more specific: my job has a semi-public face, and I don't want to have to worry about my 3fc posts spilling over into my work life. Please don't be offended!

I can say that my job is driven by a national labor market rather than a local one. Career advancement often entails long-distance moves.

Kim

nelie - Way to get back on the hoarse with the weights! I need to do the same.

Kim - You're right, we serve beer for every occasion here in WI. :D My fiance and I stocked the limo bus with tall boys of PBR, MGD, and champagne. Several of the groomsmen were double fisting beer cans and champagne bottles. Fun group, I tell 'ya!

I am back to eating my regular healthy fare and it's kind of hard, and I'm getting hungry far more easily than I'd like. I was off my regular eating for a week and this is what I get? It shouldn't be so hard. :(

Oh nellie don't worry about keeping up with your former self. Start where you are now and go from there. Your body will remember and you will be back in it in no time.

Shan! I am going to cry. Did you get married for real? I don't remember your date being so early.

I am up to my ears in beginning band. So my brain is mush. I did 2 and a half chin ups today. And a bunch of horizontal ones and push ups. I am kind of doing bare minimum while I get my head screwed on straight with new job and ran 2 miles. Lost more weight though. Funny enough 135.8 this morning. body fat stays the same. I am not meaning to do it this way. I would rather have the body fat go down and weight stay the same but I am just not up it ....yet.

kaw - you're smart to be a bit careful with your posts. A month or so ago I had a horrible experience with a shocking PM here from someone who "found me" here and felt compelled to send me an "i think you need to know this" type of message. I won't get into the details but it really made me re-think my privacy thing. I almost changed my screen name at the time and still think about it sometime.

On to happier/on topic stuff...my eating has been a bit better but it's still been a "hungry week". I just get like that sometimes. I've been keeping up the workouts and trying to eat the best I can so the scale hasn't punished too badly! ;)

Shan - they were great pictures. Loved the ties!

I'm going to be out of town again for a couple of days and that never leads to clean eating...that's life I guess. I'll just try to keep the damage to a minimum and know that I'll at least be getting in a lot of walking.

Have a great weekend everyone!

:D

I was chatting with one of the gym monitors about the dearth of women who lift at my gym - the only one with deadlift platforms and real power cages -- and how this ratio seems like it's become even more skewed in the past year. She said she's noticed the same thing, and mentioned that she's overheard other gym monitors, who should know better, talking about my gym as "the guys' gym."

We agreed that the next time either one of us heard crazy talk like this, we would bounce a medicine ball on the offender's head.

Elisa822 or anyone: Can screen names be changed, other than by killing one account and starting another? (There's probably a better forum to ask this question, but I thought you might know off the top of your head.)

Mel: No worries at all. And, thanks.

Kim

hiker - Sounds like you've been busy! I'm not married just yet, our wedding is scheduled for May 25. This was the wedding of a couple good friends of ours from college. Now I really have to get cracking and find a dress and start thinking about the details!

Food is slowly coming back to "normal", I just wish I weren't so hungry all the time!

This weekend I will get some quality exercise! And sleep.

Happy Friday.

I did some upper body weights this morning and then took my dog for a walk. We did some running along with walking.

I'll be travelling next week, so it should be interesting on what I'll do for exercise. There'll be walking and a gym I can use but we'll see.

Shan, I am busy and it makes me a total space case.

Nellie, way to go on getting out there.

I haven't had time for posting the past week or two but I'm still here. Week before last, I got in only one workout and it was pretty lame. This week, I've only done three so far. Bleh. I feel like such a lazy slob. So here I am again, hoping the "public" pressure will motivate me again. LOL

Oh, I did change up my workout at the beginning of the month and I love the change. My abs are dying from this exercise in particular: http://www.shapefit.com/abs-exercise...-pull-ins.html Holy smokes! It doesn't feel bad at the time but the next day? I can barely get out of bed. :o And I wussed out of lunges again but I did beat myself into adding the single leg split squats and reverse lunges. While both do suck in a major way, I find them much easier than regular lunges. For whatever reason, I fall over when I try to do regular lunges. Doh!

You didn't wuss out!

There's no rule that you need to do a forward, dynamic lunge. The only reason these are just often referred to as "lunges" or as you called them "regular lunges" is because many people just do one variation of an exercise. Split Squats (AKA static lunge), reverse lunges, they are all great and they are all lunges!

Give yourself credit for doing two great exercises. If after awhile, you find you are ready to add more lunge variations in your workouts, then you can revisit the forward lunge or other variants. Until then, as long as you are progressing in the split squats and reverse lunges, stick with them and enjoy them. ....well enjoy might not exactly be the right word. Well, enjoy the benefits of them anyway.

hi LWL,

Hi shan, hiker, nelie, depalma, good to see all your posts.

Still tired around here, and I have sore arms.
So far after wednesday I went to the gym on thursday & did machines. I'm still learning how to use them but the trainer that made up my routine for me (he is very cute) also shows me what to do if i go up and ask him. I almost finished the scircuit on thursday. The yesterday I went to yoga class, and i wresteled with a potted plant that was bigger than I am to a) get it out of the old pot b) get it downstairs and c) put it into a new pot. And todauy although I did no formal exercise, i painted the shed for 4 hours, mowed the lawn and took a dive in the ppol. I'm sure it counts for something.

No further news from here. I am battling negative inner voices again that tell me I'm no good etc. I know this is untrue, but I guess I had a lot of negativity over me when I was at home, and afterwards from XH, so I'm still hearing this in my head.

Have a great weekend all,
Rabbit