Me too, Pat!

27 egg whites per day would do me in, tho. I've finally given up on buying actual eggs and just buy the liquid whites. Sure speeds things up!

I did the world's fastest chest, back and shoulders workout today. I've had 2 doctor's appts this week for me and one for my son, and weight workouts have been what suffered. Managed 2 HIIT sessions this week after work on Monday and Wednesday in addition to my daily elliptical session. Tomorrow I'm taking off from work and skiing, so there is my workout :D I hope I don't freeze into a Melsicle :dizzy:

This Sunday we are having my ds's Eagle Scout ceremony which involves a buffet meal for about 35 people :faint: I'm trying to keep it simple, but have given up on super healthy. At least half of the attendees are 16-20 year old boys and I figure big trays of meatballs, a salad, BREAD, and dessert should do it. I may make a giant pot of my turkey breast black bean chili and stick to that and salad for myself.

Shannon- personal question- is it hard to get used to suddenly being a different shape? Is that affecting your balance?

Stay warm,

Mel

What Fran said...I couldn't afford to buy that much food! Luckily, I'm an easy keeper. I just look at food and gain a pound. Wish it was a pound of muscle! I have been exercising every day, because I wanna keep losing fat, but I am wiped after a few days. I tried a heavier calorie day (clean) and felt better the next, so maybe I am just not getting enough cals. I'm not really losing consistently on the cals I'm on, though (1600), so I'm not sure what to do. For now, I'm keeping it as is, and doing a recovery workout when I feel like I need a "rest day". I'm going on the assumption that it's a temporary fatigue related to upping my exercise output. If it doesn't get better in a few weeks, then I'll try more cals.

I did squats at the Y last night. I'm still not used to using a barbell for squats, having just had the dumbbells at home. My usual heavy DB squat is more like a front squat, more upright. I got up to 85 lbs with the barbell for the back squat and couldn't go any higher, because I was already having trouble getting full range of motion at that weight, so I just kept that on for my last 3 sets. It was hard to keep my form straight. The mirrors are SO distracting to me. My max weight for back squats is less than it is for bench press. I don't know if that's funny or just pitiful. :dizzy: I'll keep studying and practicing.

Ennay, I didn't know you changed gyms. What's the new one like, besides no squat cage? How did it turn out with that trainer? Good, I hope.

Mel, the pull-ups weren't that bad, just sets of 12. I just kept switching between pull-ups and dips. As long as I didn't stop, it was okay. Mine are still on the assisted machine, too. I can't even do one at my bodyweight yet.

Everybody else, :wave:. I've got to get off the 'puter and actually do something useful. Sitting here typing ain't burning the calories!

Mel - I'm pretty sure it is the new shape throwing off the balance. I've always been small, so this is totally different for me. I was doing step-ups last night and realized I was rolling my shoulders forward and that + the extra weight was throwing me off balance. I've paid more attention today and I'm actually rolling my shoulders a little forward almost all the time. I've worked on keeping them back today and the center of gravity seems to be back where I expect it to be. :)

Back to routine today. My weekend was a food fest and my pants can attest to that! Ds had his Eagle Scout ceremony and we 40 adults and teen age boys here for the ceremony and buffet dinner. Anyone want some left over meatballs and desserts?

Clean eating is going to be a shock to the system, but I know I'll feel better by tomorrow.

Back and chest at the gym today...cardio done!

Mel

Mel: Congratulations to your DS and you and your husband for making it to Eagle Scout! :high: As the mother of Cub Scout I know the dedication it takes from all family members to help achieve this goal. :dizzy: In our case, DH gets all the credit. He is the current den leader helping our fifth grade cubbies receive their Arrow of Light. I wish you a smooth transition to the land of clean eating.

Ugh....I've fallen and I can't get up! Some one point me to the path of clean eating :o

On the other hand, I sure could lift heavy today! :p

Mel

Originally Posted by Mel:
Ugh....I've fallen and I can't get up! Some one point me to the path of clean eating :o

On the other hand, I sure could lift heavy today! :p

Mel

Man I was sure paying for SuperBowl today. I went in on the Monday after superbowl and lifted enough to up my weights on nearly every exercise. Then thursday the kids were sick so I didnt make it to the gym and today was my first non post food fest day at all the new weights. fuuuuuuuuuuudge. Only I didnt say fudge.

Hey Mel, I hope today is a little easier. It's like a cycle isn't it? Once its out of the system it get so much easier but until then...:devil:

Mixed up my workout a little bit and it's just started to settle in. I had my orientation yesterday to the new gym. They have a warm up routine that involves medicine balls. Lets just say I'm not very coordinated. I realize now how little diagonal cross body talk my muscles do. Truly, I don't think the left and right side speak the same language. :lol: Anyway, I survived.

OOOOhh Lydia, what did you have to do with the medicine balls ? i would love to emulate it to see how my cross coordination is (I'm notoriously bad at such moves, but I'd love to try)

Please tell,
rabbit

Me too!

I wonder if it's similar to what they did to the kids at swimming one nite. They were doing wall squats and the coach went up and down the line tossing the medicine ball to them, they had to catch it and toss it back. It was kinda fast, so they had to concentrate on how bad their thighs ached and also anticipate the rate at which the ball would get tossed from the person next to them back to them. Was amazing to see how many of the swimmers are clearly swimmers only - all thumbs when it came to ball skills! But anyway, it looked like fun.

I did some great HIIT today and got my run up to being 50% of my workout! :eek:

Went to Costco recently and saw that they have this personal trainer in the store now if anyone is in the market for some home gym equipment. It looked pretty good with enough room to slide a bench into it.
http://content.costco.com/Images/Con...uct/363920.jpg

EPIC CTS – Compact Training System

150 Lb. Cast-iron Weight Stack,
15 Vertical Workout Settings

Item # 363920
Be the first to write a review.
$999.99

They also have adjustable dumbbells for $399 - they go up to 50 lbs on each side. I know someone was looking for those.

The exercise that challenged my coordination was the diagonal woodchop with a med ball. Don't laugh. Seriously. Once I figured out to do it on one side then he said, "Great. Now reverse it." Say what?! I just couldn't get the other side to do it. I was thinking way too much about it. :lol: Here you go

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyxv3...eature=related

We also did a wood chop kind of movement with the ball between our legs and pass the ball around the centers of our bodies from hand to hand. There was also a figure eight movement with the ball. I kept getting lost in my figure eight. :crazy: It was too much for someone who usually only moves up/down or side to side. :lol:

Fran: I like the squat and ball through back you described. What a great way to challenge a group all at once. I bet the coach had to be quick to keep it going too.

Lydia,

Thanks for the info, I'm going to look into it.

About getting lost in the figure 8: This is how my friend & I landed at the power class at the gym...We were regulars at the aerobis & steps calsses but got way too confused from the choreography. So when my friend came up with weightlifting ("very simple choreography...if the weight is up you move it down and when it is down you move it up") I immediately fell for it. We are still sticking to the class, I believe it is the 3rd year now.

have a great day,
Rabbit

I don't have a medicine ball, but tried it with just the basketball. Interesting! I might put that in my warm-up.

I had a fun and killer UB and abs workout today. I've been mixing it up a lot. Warm-up was deadlifts, handstand push-up practice, and the crossfit warm-up: OH squats, push-ups, dips, etc. Then I did UB lifting and more abs with lighter weights, higher reps, circuit style, no rest. By the end I was busted down to 8 or 10 reps per exercise. Fun! Then I ran 20 mins to finish it off.

ETA: Sorry, Alena. Here's the decoder ring:
UB=Upper Body (weight lifting)
OH squats=Overhead squats with a barbell (or in my case, a broomstick with 20 lbs on it, lol)

rabbit - I love my power class too! It's not the same as when I do my own strength training workouts, but it's a nice part of the week. No thinking, just lifting, and there's other people around to keep me motivated!

Mel - how's the food going? getting any cleaner?? Some days (or weeks ;)) are just like that...more of a struggle than others.

Lydia - I like the woodchops...do you think it's at all a shoulder exercise? I'm wondering if it would bother my shoulder at all. Speaking of which though, and it's too soon to say, but my shoulder has been feeling a lot better lately in yoga. The downward dogs used to just kill me so either my form is better, or my shoulder is stronger?? who knows, but either way I'm liking it! And hey, how do you know how much a medicine ball weighs or which are heavier. And don't say just pick it up and see! ;) Are the colours uniform for different weights??

Last question for all you HIIT kids. Any idea what your HR is at the high point? I'm only going by the treadmill HR monitor and it takes a few seconds to kick in when I go down to the walking speed but it looks like my top end is around the high 160's...and I'm breathing hard. It drops about 20 beats in about a minute and a half and then I start speeding back up again. I know it's partially age based, I'm just wondering if anyone else tracks their HR during their HIIT workouts.

Slightly OT, but I'm still wondering how people would feel about merging the BFL with the regular threads? Doesn't matter too much to me, I'll pop in and post wherever but sometimes I'm not sure where to "find" people these days. Personally, I don't mind if half the people are talking specifically BFL, and half aren't. We still all have basically the same goals. JMO.

:D

I'm a big fan of cross-body training. I like to have people squat on the mushy side of a bosu and toss a med ball at them. Another fun exercise is have two people each on a bosu throwing to each other- high, low to the outside, soft, hard, etc.

Cardio done, and I'll have to lift shoulders at home tonight. I have a lunch meeting in Harrisburg :p about an hour and a half from here.

Trying hard to clean up the food!

Mel

That sounds fun, Mel! I would probably fall off the bosu more often than not---which means it is probably exactly the kind of exercise I need to do!

Last night I was sort of feeling sorry for myself---woe is me, too sick to exercise, and resisting all sorts of temptations at a yummy mom and pop greasy spoon (although what I had --chicken fajita meat w/ the veggies, red chile and a little guac was yummy), stuck to one piece of cake, didn't even grab a forkful of leftover cake when we got home, etc., etc., etc., BUT! I was rewarded by the scale reading 151 again this am.....no water retention or anything from the sugar in the cake.

So it is hard but worth it, so clean up your food Mel and Lydia and whoever else is struggling! :drill:

** this drill sergeant is brought to you courtesy of the 3FC butt-kicking team and is yours to pass on as needed, especially when I will need it in the future---and I will....

Morning - with DH gone I've slipped into my old morning TV news habit. I shouldn't, just gets me riled up. :lol: I also shouldn't have the laptop open and on when I should be getting dressed... Above zero - just - this morning, and cloudy. Forecast is for mid-20's later in the week.

And I just heard postage is going up another $.02 in May. Grrrrr.

Yesterday was a lousy day. Let's just say worked late, made poor choices, city council meeting that went on and on and on.... Today will be better!

Hi chickies,

I am way behind with reading (hopefully I will catch up later) but here is an article about eating for a six pack from CNN: Clicky

That's a lotta eggs!

Alena :wave:

Originally Posted by :
I would probably fall off the bosu more often than not

I've just discovered the bosu in my gym - it surfaced when they rearranged stuff. I've not tried to anything but stand on it so far! :) I really should, as I can always use some balance improvement. I was reading that it's something everyone should work at as they age - it's a skill that goes away when not used. There's actually a whole book about it Balance: In search of the Lost Sense by Scott McCredie which was very interesting and had some exercises to do, starting with very simple and working up - stuff anyone can do around the house.

Wow, I'm way behind on this thread.... Will have to come back later and read a little more in detail. Did want to answer Elisa quickly, though...

Originally Posted by elisa822:
Last question for all you HIIT kids. Any idea what your HR is at the high point? I'm only going by the treadmill HR monitor and it takes a few seconds to kick in when I go down to the walking speed but it looks like my top end is around the high 160's...and I'm breathing hard. It drops about 20 beats in about a minute and a half and then I start speeding back up again. I know it's partially age based, I'm just wondering if anyone else tracks their HR during their HIIT workouts.

I target between 180-185 for the high points right now, before my surgery I was targeting 190-195 - some sets got to 200, but not consistently - but can't get there yet. I drop it down to about 150 in a little under a minute, then start winding it back up slowly. Last night I did four interval sets got to 181, 183, 185, 186 (for only a few seconds before back to 185) - so, not the same each set. I sometimes worry that I'm going too high...

Originally Posted by elisa822:
Last question for all you HIIT kids. Any idea what your HR is at the high point? I'm only going by the treadmill HR monitor and it takes a few seconds to kick in when I go down to the walking speed but it looks like my top end is around the high 160's...and I'm breathing hard. It drops about 20 beats in about a minute and a half and then I start speeding back up again. I know it's partially age based, I'm just wondering if anyone else tracks their HR during their HIIT workouts.

Yesterday on my new highest peak, I got up to 191, then quickly recovered to 165, 145, 121 in the 3 minutes following. I thought 191 was crazy high until I read Shannon's!! And dh had been telling me, oh we're not supposed to go higher than the 80% mark that's listed on the treadmill! I said, nope, that's 'old school,' we're supposed to do HIIT now which is waaaay above working at 80%.

Fran - I'm glad to see your 191! My DH has been telling me the same thing. I stopped telling him where I was going with my heartrate, as it wasn't causing me any trouble, even! :). I had to go for an ECG & a stress test in October because of a newly detected leaky heart valve causing a murmur, and the cardiologist told me I had great VO2 levels and that my resting and exercising heart rate were excellent for a woman my age , not to change a thing. (Man, I hated hearing that phrase 'woman your age' though... :) ) And, that was when I was regularly hitting in the 190s. Heart murmur is minor and doesn't impact it at all, either.

Well, not being a woman your age, Shannon, but one much older, I hit around 160 on some of my intervals. That's above what the 220 minus your age formula has for my 100% and my heart hasn't exploded yet. :lol: THere's a book called Ultimate Fitness: the quest for truth about exercise and health by Gina Kolata that - among other stuff - discusses the "accepted" formula for maximum heart rate. It's quite interesting. It's a 2003 book, so you can likely find it in in your libraryl

Thanks for all the HIIT answers! I think I need to wear my real HR monitor for the true answer. The treadmill takes quite a few seconds to "kick in" and I'm not sure if it's reliable. I also ignore the treadmill suggested HR's! I think, according to them I should max out at 140 or something silly like that!!

I know I could get my HR higher but I'm not sure I could sustain it for a full minute, which is what I'm trying to do right now. Something to strive for, that's for sure. Makes the treadmill a little more interesting anyway.

:D

Elisa - I had to wear my HRM to get my heart rate during HIIT, the elliptical & treadmill couldn't keep up, and I didn't really trust either of their results.

Pat - Thanks for the book tip - I'm going to look for it. And, hand it to DH the next time he says 'your heart is going to explode if you keep at it like that!'. I thought it was funny that you used that same phrase! :)

I just worked out using some of the LB Swiss ball exercises from one of Lydia's posts in another thread and the Swiss ball hamstring curl just about killed me. It took me five tries to get the stupid ball to stay under my ankles and feet before I could even try the exercise, but wow could I feel it once I got started!

Ha, Shannon. Sounds like me with the ball jack knife exercise.... :)

My elliptical tells me my heart rate is 95 when I'm about ready to keel over :lol: When I was doing spinning and wore a monitor, I would occasionally break 190 without exploding and I'm a LOT older. I think I need to buy a new monitor and see where I am now!

Mel

Pat: Thanks for the book tip. I will look for the book at my library too. I'm still trying to get my HR monitor to work correctly. Perhaps it needs a new battery. It has a difficult time keeping the reading. I have to hold the watch up onto the chest monitor to pick up the reading. I'll play with it a little more today.

Yesterday was my orientation to the Freemotion equipment. I have had access to and used the same equipment at my previous gym for four years. I even had an orientation to the equipment when I was a new member there too. But wow, the difference between the two are night and day.

The trainer made a point of describing that it was a two part movement in many of the upper body exercises. It is important to pinch the scapula together and down in the back in order to activate the rhomboids and lats. The is also important to have more of a curve in the lower back which pushes the chest much further out and wider than I'm accustomed to using. Then....then...you implement the movement such as the chest press or shoulder press etc. Trust me, it was a little more challenging than just moving the cables forward and back and up and down. It really causes you to put your mind into the muscle and then the movement. Overall a really good session.

This morning I'm taking the day off. No, I"m not sore from yesterday. I am experiencing some lower back pain. It's been troubling me a little since last spring and is somewhat becoming more progressive. It's better when I'm up and walking around for a few minutes but when I sit down and get back up again it's really stiff. I may just need to give it a few days of rest and see if it improves.

I have a session with my trainer again on monday. This should be interesting. I've been making great strides on my own and I almost hate to waste a workout with the trainer. He talks too much.

GAH - I used to think I wanted to be a trainer when the kids got older but I am definitely reconsidering. There is a woman in where I workout on Thursdays and she whines non-stop. Excuses for what she did or didnt do since she saw her trainer last and then complaints about how heavy the weights are, how much she hates this particular exercise its not fair, on and on. "well I couldnt workout because" "I had to eat the dessert because"

I would pull a Jillian on a client like that which would probably not go over well. How do you gals deal with a client like that.

I think being a trainer would be fun but I've accidentally killed too many friends. I'd take them to the gym with me, load them up with weights and then they'd complain they couldn't walk the next day "oops". Yeah excuses would be tough to deal with plus the hours. I thought I'd like to do real estate because I love well real estate but the hours majorly suck.

I'm listening to a webcast from Tom Venuto right now, pretty cool. He'll have the link up on his website tomorrow for the replay. I almost missed it bc I didn't see the original email earlier this week, but luckily they sent a reminder tonite.

Hey all, just checking in. Still staying OP with the workouts and eating. Having fun with the workouts. I'll second the vote for combining the BFL thread and this one, because I just end up repeating myself. :dizzy:

I'm still reading the new Tom Venuto book. It's much more geared to the "average" person rather than hard core gym rats. I'm not sure it would be my solution if I were starting out. He's preaching moderation, moderation, moderation. I KNOW that doesn't work for me. I haven't gotten to "the plan" yet, or the ending emotional eating yet. Maybe there will be some nuggets of help there.

Being a trainer is like any other "people" job- you have some great clients and some that you really don't look forward to working with. But their time and money is just as important to them, so you give them all that you can. In my experience, the whiners either cease to be whiners when they start seeing results and "get it", or they cease to be clients because they don't get it and therefore don't see results. You can lead a horse to water....

I managed a whole dy clean yesterday :) I'm astounded my clothes still fit. :carrot:

Cardio done, balance and core at the gym today.

Lydia- I sometimes take a break from nothing but free weights and do the free motion machines. I do like them. Do you have the free motion functional trainer? Except for legs, I can do entire workouts on that. I love it.

have a good one,
Mel

Originally Posted by Mel:
Do you have the free motion functional trainer? Except for legs, I can do entire workouts on that. I love it.
Mel

I do have access to that too. That was my plan for today. Just to go over the equipment again using the reminders he gave me. I'm taking the deadlifts and backsquats out of my program until the stiffness from my back releases. I will also focus a little more on back and abdominal exercises. I've kind of let these slip in the last few months and only hitting them a couple of times a week. Obviously not enough.

I really think a little rest is what I need. It feels much better this morning after giving it a little attention yesterday. Just one of those "better listen to your body and not your ego" kind of things. :^:

Have a great morning everyone! :coffee:

Morning, ladies! I have no idea who Tom Venuto is. I'll have to look that up when I have some free time. Going dog scootering with some friends this morning, along the Carbon River. I'm low on good groceries at the house, so I'm leaving early to pick up a banana and some other kind of survival food, to get me through lunch time. Mushers are junk food junkies, so I need to have a packed lunch. They are likely to want to stop by McDs after the run for a chat. I'm not tempted by the sodium burgers, but need to pack some food, because I will be hungry after running dogs. Wish me luck!

Cheryl, that sounds like fun. Is it different than mushing dogs on snow (other than the obvious - it's not on snow :lol: )? Do ou use sleds on wheels or some other vehicle? How many dogs? THe dog mushers here run their dogs in the off season usually pulling something on wheels. It's more difficult though because the trails are not as free of obstacles as they are when covered with snow. OUr big race - the Iditarod - starts the first weekend in March.

Okay guys, I had another piece of cake and some ice cream for my dd's sleepover birthday party! Ack! But, I didn't have seconds or finish my son's cake or have a burger or fries or pancakes or bacon or soda. Was POP otherwise and the calories should be okay.

Today is good so far. I've sworn off cake, candy, chips, soda, etc, all the stuff hanging around the house. I'll be at the hospital tomorow, so less temptation with any luck.

I did run today. Woohoo! And I'm going to head out to the garage to lift some weights. I usually lift with my trainer but I missed a session last week due to my cough. I'll go check out what all my DH has amassed out there and do some deadlifts, bicep curls, shoulder presses, anything that strikes my fancy.

I think DH forgot V-day---he was a little surprised when I sprang the treats on him and the kids today. But that is actually really fine with me! I wouldn't want to spend the $$ for one, and if he would have gotten me candy, ACK!

Dinner will be roasted butternut squash and grilled shrimp. Maybe some polenta too. Mmmmmm!!! And I'm boiling up 18 eggs for the week to come.

Midwife, I can relate about the junk food in the house. Usually, I'm fine, but sometimes, usually when I'm working out and hungry, if my boy is sitting there munching, I have to tell him to take the junk in his room, because it's giving me cravings like mad! Sounds like you did well, considering! :hug:

Pat, it's the same, but many of us just have one or two dogs, so we use mountain bike-style scooters instead of a 4 wheeler or heavy musher's cart. With the lighter rigs, you can run one to three or four dogs (depending which dogs), and the scooters will fit on a bike back or into a pickup or mini van. Some of our club members also run dogs on snow, race, or whatever, but some like me just do it for fun, and to exercise the pet dogs. Here's a good "before" pic of me running 3 dogs, that shows what the scooter looks like:

I'd be scared of having my dogs pull me :)

Today was an all out day. I made brownies from scratch, then I made potato, spinach and black bean enchiladas (carb heavy but fairly healthy). We also ate out at lunch. Goal is to not have any brownies after today :) I probably also won't have any enchiladas or just a little bit. Which just means lots of leftovers, most of which I don't want to eat. Its ok because husband loves brownies and loves the enchiladas.

Cheryl, you look so different! :bravo:

The dogs are gorgeous too :)