[hikerchick]

Hi everyone. County me in too. I started lifting heavy things again (well heavy for me that is) the beginning of this week. I plan to lift 3-4 times a week and after tomorrow I'll start incorporating some interval cardio runs too. I find BFL ish eating to work for me so thats not a problem. I know my weight I have been scared to take measurements but I had better go do that.
37-31-39

legs 23 arms 11 and a half

Not as scary as I thought. I am so weak right now, its sad. I am hoping to change all that.

I weighed in at 153 today but I am not changing my ticker weight cause that's how I am. I have been eating very well so the weight is water from exercise. I am so much less concerned about that number. It's really what got me in trouble for awhile I "maintained" at 145 but I was slowly loosing muscle and gaining fat. Just being stupid but I am only human.

I had an upper body workout this morning and I am still sore from Sunday's LBWO. I'll get to abs this afternoon. I am wiped out.

[jamsk8r]

Morning, ladies!

I totally messed up Sunday and missed my workout. Not a great start. Can I just pretend I started on Monday?

Monday went better. Did LB lifting and running. It was a good leg torture workout. I tried some knee raises and decline twists for abs, but both just seemed to hurt my lower back, and though I could feel it in my abs a little, they didn't seem that good, so I won't try those again till I can try them on some real equipment at the gym.

Today is UB lifting and some kind of cardio. I'd planned a bike ride for today, but it snowed overnight and the roads are still covered, so unless it melts I'll have to come up with something else for cardio.

I tried taking my measurements on Sunday, but can't get the tape to say the same thing twice..I'm getting big fluctuations like an inch or two. Maybe my sister C can help me, since I think she's more experienced with the tape measure, having done a lot of sewing/making clothing in her lifetime. I seem to be tape measure impaired.

On the rice topic, I use a rice cooker. You can cook brown rice in it or any other kind of rice. You spray the pot with a light coat of nonstick spray or wipe it with a thin layer of butter, just on the bottom of the pan, to keep the rice from sticking. You measure out your rice and water, put it in the pot. Turn it "on" and flip the switch to "cook". It makes perfect rice every time, and shuts itself off when the rice is done. I just make up a week's worth at a time and keep it in a tupperware in the fridge. From there, you can nuke it to warm it up, or add it to soups, whatever. Since it's cooked, you don't have to nuke it long enough for it to change its texture.

[WaterRat]

Yesterday went well, including 1/2 hour of HIIT.

I had planned on doing NRLW workouts, but I just went out into the library and pulled BFL off the shelf. I'll look at the exercises at lunch and decide which to do.

I have heard good things about rice cookers, and looked at them several times, but I have no more room for another kitchen appliance on my counter or in my cupboard. I have a toaster, blender, a kitchenaid mixer, a food processor and a bread machine on the counters. In the cupboards, a George Foreman Grill and a slow cooker. Oh, and a stick/immersion blender on the counter too. I had a Pampered Chef party over the weekend. They make a microwave rice cooker which looks good too. I need a bigger kitchen! I do cook a big batch of rice and nuke it for later meals.

[dixied]

Originally Posted by jamsk8r

I tried taking my measurements on Sunday, but can't get the tape to say the same thing twice..I'm getting big fluctuations like an inch or two. Maybe my sister C can help me, since I think she's more experienced with the tape measure, having done a lot of sewing/making clothing in her lifetime. I seem to be tape measure impaired.

I have a "dressmakers" tape measure. It's got a plastic snap on one end so you can measure yourself almost with one hand. It's probably the best $3 I've spent fitness-wise. I got mine at Wal-Mart, the brand was Dritz, but I can't find a picture of one online.

Originally Posted by WaterRat

I have heard good things about rice cookers, and looked at them several times, but I have no more room for another kitchen appliance on my counter or in my cupboard. I have a toaster, blender, a kitchenaid mixer, a food processor and a bread machine on the counters. In the cupboards, a George Foreman Grill and a slow cooker. Oh, and a stick/immersion blender on the counter too. I had a Pampered Chef party over the weekend. They make a microwave rice cooker which looks good too. I need a bigger kitchen! I do cook a big batch of rice and nuke it for later meals.

I have both types of rice cooker (wedding presents), and they make much better rice than the steamed version I tried yesterday. I was just being lazy, although if I had to grab a bag of rice to fix at work, the frozen steamed kind would certainly be easier. It wasn't very frugal though, the steamed rice is 4 servings for $1, the regular rice is something like 32 servings for $2.

[michelle127]

Hello BFLL!!

Wow you are a busy bunch! I'm here with you, but I'm sooooo busy this time of year - I post when I can... I thought the food was going to be easy and the workouts difficult.... Both are hard! Geez Louise - I did the lower body work out WITHOUT weights!! Seriously - I counted up 48 squats and 12 other quad thingees and 48 lunges??? On each side!! **** I have to be careful or I could DIE.

I like to chop up tomatoes or add salsa to brown rice - then it's not so bad. I'm a horrible, horrible cook but isn't brown rice supposed to be chewy???

Sportsmom, what are swiss ball raises? Sounds er... fun.

I'm gonna check out the food thread - what a fabulous idea!

[sportmom]

Hi Michelle, it's where you take one of those large exercise balls, put it between your feet and take it from the floor to the ceiling and back down again. Crazy hard - I picked it bc it looked fairly easy! HA!

[michelle127]

Hmmmm it sounds similar to another killer abs routine - you place the ball between your feet and do a double crunch transferring the ball between your feet to your hands. Lay back down. Then up and transfer the ball from your hands to your feet, and so on.

[WaterRat]

Eeek! My abs are screaming thinking about it.

So today's food was spot on, but exercise. Well, I had planned to leave the office at 4, go to the gym for weights, go home to eat, and back to town for the city council meeting at 7. Good plan - until someone I needed to talk to/work with, came in the office just before 4. At 5:30 I went home, ate a little, went back to the meeting, got home about 8:30. I did a so-so NRLW workout here, but now I'm feeling crummy, so I'm off to bed. I made it through DH's 3 week cold without catching it. I WILL NOT BE SICK!

[jamsk8r]

Michelle, recently I've been looking for ab torture exercises. I will have to try that one! I'm doing shoulders/abs tomorrow for my crossfit day, so I'll get my chance then.

Pat, if you're primary looking for strength gains, I'd recommend the NRLW. If you want more bulge for your buck, do the BFL sets. Both are challenging and a good workout. NRLW is short and sweet, and my strength gains were pretty much constant, going up every workout. BFL workouts took me an hour, usually, but I could actually see my muscles getting bigger, which was nice, since that's part of why I wanted to lift weights, to have have muscles to fill out my looser skin.

Fran, on the SB raises, are you lying down, or standing?

Dixie, thanks for the recommendation on the tape measure. I'm still carless right now, but next time I'm at Walmart I'll see if I can find one.

I had a great UB workout tonight. Flat bench and BO rows were the main theme tonight, heavy sets to failure. I did 21s for curls...killer! I made it through 2 sets of those. Barely.

Tomorrow is crossfit day. I saved shoulders and abs for tomorrow, since I missed that workout on Sunday. I'm in love with handstand pushup progressions.

[4rabbit]

Hi BFLL,

Fran, midwife: I'm located in the netherlands. So indeed I post and read when you guys are sleeping.

Wow, what a lot of post in the thread!
I can report on yesterday: my day 3, and today, day 4.
Yesterday I did the threadmill for 25 minutes and this morning I did LB. I made stuff up because I still have not found my BFL book. I guess DS swiped it when he wanted to bulk up this summer. I might go for NRWL tough, as I kind of liked the workouts when I last did that. Also, I am doing BFL-lite, so I am not following the intense pyramid stuff and I do the workouts at home everyday while my kids are in the shower. that gives me a 30 min time slot before I officially start my day.

So yesterday I did treadmill: 4 intervals of 3 mins walking at 5-6 km/hr and 2 mins running at 8 km/hr. I am pleased to report that I am less out of shape than I used to be. Also, I like the interval format, it makes the treadmill less boring.
This morning is did a quicky LB workout: just squats, lunges and calves with 40 pd BB and abs crunches. I really need to find my BFL book bak. i have the BFL for woman but on re-reading it I think I prefer the original one.

Food is still a challenge. I'll report that in the food thread. thanks for the sugfgestion of the protein pancakes tough, they sound like something I could try. Oh, and I tried cc for the fisrt time. Actually it was not bad.

Till tomorrow,
Rabbit

[midwife]

Hi guys,

You all have been doing so great!!

This is a busy thread!!

Well, I sort of had a good day yesterday. Ran my intervals, ate on plan through the day, and then got home and binged. Why? Dunno, I'm sick, I was stressed, tired, hungry, it was there....I used to wonder "why" a lot but I guess the why doesn't even matter. I went to bed super early (8 pm) and slept straight through until 6 am. I guess I needed the sleep.....

Anyway, things I won't do: I won't beat myself up. I am human and therefore not perfect. I won't weigh today. Why torture myself further? I won't use it as an excuse to stay off plan.

Things I will do: push water like a fiend. Whenever I eat off plan I get super-dehyrdrated. I will stick to today's plan for food. I will lift weights tonight the way I had planned.

I will keep on keepin' on.

As for the bf % guys, I'm pretty sure it is all in my rear and stomach. I wish I had some in my boobs! But it is where it is and it doesn't seem to want to leave me.

[Tomato]

Originally Posted by midwife

.... I ate on plan through the day, and then got home and binged.

Anyway, things I won't do: I won't beat myself up. I am human and therefore not perfect. I won't weigh today. Why torture myself further? I won't use it as an excuse to stay off plan.

I am with you on this, midwife. I never beat myself up. I don't consider my occasional diversions from the on-plan-eating horrible. I guess I could say "I want to have my cake and eat it, too."
A grand case of emotional eating last night: I got home from Zumba and I was really stressed out by some personal stuff. I ate 500 ml of yogurt that has a lot of fat in it (is it Liberte? I think it's made in Quebec, dunno). 10% fat. Very yummy (very creamy - like having your Vermont cow ruminating right next to you in your living room) with some moccha flavour and oh God so delicious. I buy only rarely because I KNOW that I won't be able to control myself and have only half of it. Anyway, that's done, no regrets and moving on.[/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by midwife

As for the bf % guys, I'm pretty sure it is all in my rear and stomach. I wish I had some in my boobs! But it is where it is and it doesn't seem to want to leave me.

I wish my fat would redistribute itself, too. But do you know what's funny - I actually read "It's all in my EARS and stomach". I clearly need more coffee!

[Shannon in ATL]

I just read this thread for the first time today, wanted to take a look at what you guys are doing because I plan to start this program in a few months when I'm back on my feet.

The first post I read is from Tomato talking about eating yogurt that is like having a Vermont cow ruminating right next to you in your living room.

I was a little out of sorts coming back to work after being out a week - thanks for the laugh to get me back on track! And, now I quite desperately want to try that yogurt!

[sportmom]

Originally Posted by jamsk8r

Fran, on the SB raises, are you lying down, or standing?

Umm, lying down! Tell me how I could do it standing? Oh, or did you mean sitting? I could visualize that. and Owww.......

Man, my abs were killing me so much last nite as I was making dinner! You ladies will appreciate this, I felt like I was in frontal labor, couldn't completely void, or was losing my insides. It felt better after I stood up and started moving but I think a ton of water in my gut and c-section like feelings down there really made themselves known. Crazy, but good stuff.

Boy oh boy, last nite was ROUGH. I had a chicken breast, baked beans for dinner and was VERY satisfied. That was at 6:30 and I really felt like I could make it thru the nite. WRONG. Let me recommend to everyone that you eat all your minimeals, even if it means you are having your last one at 8:30 or 9. Because the alternative is worse. I don't think I have ever been as hungry as I was last nite. And we are not supposed to be hungry on this plan, right? I couldn't sleep. After watching bad tv on and off until 1 am, I had to go get a yogurt to eat. Yogurt and ham was supposed to be one of my snacks yesterday but I got off track on my schedule with dd's being home and trying to work so not only did I not have my last snack but I had only 4 out of my 5 during the day. The yogurt didn't cut it; I had to do some emergency sheets in the middle of the nite from my dd and while I was downstairs I had to have a bowl of cheerios with ff milk. Only then could I finally go to sleep at 3:30. Woke up starving again at 8:20 and made sure I got my first meal in at 8:30! (And I'm still hungry?? It wasn't enough - 2 eggs scrambled, tiny bit of ff milk, and 1 slice of lf cheese scrambled into the eggs.) I will definitely be eating again at 10:30.

So question - if you are still hungry after your meal, should you eat more? Or stop and just make your next meal earlier? I know this is just my engine burning my fat, but my goodness. I don't want to damage my muscle growth and at this point I'm nowhere ready to do my ubwo yet today.

So I think this all stems from not getting all my nutrition in yesterday. Rough price to pay. Ah well, at least we haven't lost power from the ice storm. Altho our street looks just like a skating rink - exactly like, the same sheen, etc. Some kids were trying to get to their friends house and they had to go down on all 4's to get down the street after falling a few times.

[sportmom]

Strangely, 2 hours later and I'm not starving anymore. So I didn't eat to fullness, but I guess the protein is doing its thing and filling my hunger. ???