[teawithsunshine]

Jamsk8r-- Oh noooo, I didn't mean to sound critical of you, lol!! I know you had nothing but the best intentions in mind!!

Is Tiki short for tikanique? Regardless, welcome!!

*** In the July/August FitnessRX Magazine, Jackie Warner is a cover story. She has a new dvd & book coming out at the end of this year/Jan 2010. She also has a half hour circuit training program in the magazine (that you can also see at: http://www.fitnessrxmag.com/articles_view.php?id=228 too.)***

For once, I had a great day working out both cardio & weight lifting at the gym. My knee felt a bit funny after my cardio part of my workout on the Stair Master was done, so I decided better to be safe than sorry and avoided doing lower body workout today.

You ever find it annoying when the only pair of dumbbells you're currently working with for biceps (in my case, 17.5 lbs) is around, and someone else is using only ONE of the dumbbells, meaning it takes twice as long to really do your biceps with only one dumbbell? Don't get me wrong, I had a great workout doing it that way, but it takes longer sometimes....

Came back to the house after some grocery errands for the 4th of July holiday, and spent half an hour ripping up weeds and overgrown grass from the garden before I called it a night

It's the first time in awhile that I've been able to feel energetic even after an intense cardio/weight lifting session. I'm also thrilled that I'm finally beginning to feel/see some muscle in my biceps here, lol. Took long enough!

Now, if I could only see the same results on the scale.....

Have a happy 4th of July everyone!

~ tea

[tikanique]

Thanks for the welcome T-Sunshine and yes, Tiki is the shorter version or even T when I'm being really lazy - :-) Congrats on feeling muscles in the biceps!!!!

[jamsk8r]

Morning, all.

Our CF gym is closed today. I thought about doing a workout at home this morning, but I'll be skating some and walking at the waterfront today, and could use the extra recovery day, so decided to skip the CF torture this morning. Maybe my shoulders will actually have a chance to recover fully, for once.

I've been watering the gardens and topping off water for the critters outside. It's going to be another scorcher, I think. I've got one dog going home this morning, then the boy and I will pack a cooler of food, our skates, and go hit the festival at the waterfront. Not sure if we'll stay for the fireworks. We may come home early if we decide we've had enough festing for one day. Happy 4th to all the US chicks, and happy summer weekend to everyone else!

Tea, you posted before I could get this sent. Thanks! On the biceps work, have you tried something like incline curls, or preachers? Those seemed a lot harder, to me, than say, standing or seated curls. Just wondering if you could sometimes use those, maybe with 15s, to work biceps, when your faves are not available. When I was doing BFL, I'd be so exhausted by the time I got to biceps, I'd be busted down to 10 lb DBs for preachers, lol.

[tikanique]

Your day sounds excellent Jamsk8! I am so envious of anyone that can stay upright on skates. And it is an excellent cardio workout so yeah, let your shoulders get back right.

[Tomato]

HAPPY 4th of JULY
to all you Southerners!

P.S. Mel, I forgot to say congrats on the adorable kitty! What's his/her? name?

ALena

[Lifeguard]

Thanks for the warm welcome back.

Cheryl - that is a LOT of weedwacking?! And wow on the pull-ups!

I didn't get on here yesterday but had a decent workout in the morning yesterday. I was so NOT into it (in fact another lady commented I looked like I was ready for a sleep not a workout when I was getting my shoes on - sigh). But I got 'er done & was even happy with my 500m row at the end of my workout (I have a serious mental block for 500m).

I was looking around the gym while on the treadmill yesterday & was really impressed with my little gym. There were 4 men & 5 women (including myself) working out. Every single person was using the free weights! Everyone was focussed on their workouts & pushing hard. Everyone was dressed appropriately (no fancy hairdos or inappropriate skimpiness in clothing) & everyone was putting their equipment away when they were done! It's a small gym in the basement of a local hotel but has pretty awesome atmosphere!!!

I'm not back with my trainers - yet. I'm too embarassed right now at how far I've slipped - sigh. I worked out right until the end of my pregnancy but feel I backed off too much too soon. After I gave birth I ended up basically in bed for 2 months healing, then we had visitors for a few weeks, then travelled ourselves, then it took almost 3 months to complete our "emergency" move back to Canada. I'm totally unhappy with how long it's taken me to get back into things but I suppose better now than never.

[silverbirch]

Morning!

[jamsk8r]

Morning, Birch! back at you! I'm still on Saturday night, myself, and off to bed soon.

LG, it sounds like you've done the best you could, with the bedrest and moving, etc. I'm impressed, anyway! I was having a mental block on the 2K row we did this past week. My form went to crap the last 600 meters or so, and I just didn't care...I just wanted to finish!

Alena, thanks! I spent the day helping out at the rink's booth down at the big festival down on the waterfront. 6 hours or so of skate dancing, plus about 6 miles of walking, and my feet and legs were fried! Rest day tomorrow will be welcome!

Tiki, thank you. I do enjoy the skating, and getting to call it "exercise" is just a bonus!

[Mel]

Cheryl- your exploits may land me in the hospital! Now I want to put on my roller blades that I haven't used in 2 years and try roller crashing again I sure you don't take up strong man competitions, for that would surely kill me!

rest day here, though I may do a short treadmill session to shake off some of last night's indiscretion

We are going out to look at bathroom tile and fixtures- big makeover planned. We really need to look at finances first, because this is a good way to head down a slippery slope.

Mel

[jamsk8r]

Mel, I wish I could give my bathroom a makeover...it's got all brown fixtures. Makes me want to smack whoever picked those out, lol. Roller crashing...I used to do that, when I was young and immortal, and would skate with a dog pulling me. I'm past that stage, at least with the roller skates on (now, I do scooter crashing with the dogs, instead). Strongman, yes, we're doing it, Mel! Well, assuming I can get my lifts up where they need to be. I've got a way to go, yet, so your family has time to beef up their life insurance policies on you.

My shoulders are sore today. Not sure if it's DOMS from Friday's workout, or something I did yesterday. I want my mommy! (well, at least for getting the tea bags down from the cabinet over the stove, since it hurts to lift my arms overhead...hahahaha..er...nevermind).

I've been looking at my progress in the weight loss/inches department this past month. Not too impressive...maybe 2 lbs if I squint my eyes and don't count the number of times the scale has bounced right back up, not enough movement on the waist measurement to tell a difference. I'm going to seriously dial in the food, no more cheat anything, even if it fits in my cals, and see if I can cut back on tea (because I am not ready to drink it without sugar and milk), drink more water instead.

I'm wondering if I should put some longer evening cardio sessions back in, though how I'd manage that and still survive the CF workouts in the mornings, I have no idea. Maybe I can, though, since I do okay with the skating in the evenings. I'm just thinking, maybe some longer runs and/or cycling would help kick the fat burn up a notch.

I'd just like to get leaned down to 155-160, and see how that feels. That would put me in the right weight range for the strongman thing, and I'm pretty happy with my clothing sizes now, so I think that would be a good maintenance weight for me. I'm getting serious "weight loss burnout", though, so I'd like to get it over with as quickly as possible, without losing strength. If you peeps have any sage advice on the subject, I'd welcome suggestions!

[Tomato]

Originally Posted by Mel

Cheryl- your exploits may land me in the hospital!

They may land you only in the hospital (as an out-patient at most), Mel, while they would land me right in the ICU.

I had a nice workout planned for today and when I got to the gym I found out that the upstairs (i.e. the weights) is closed off because local TV was shooting some fitness segment. I completely forgot about it. Blech. So I spent 45 minutes on the elliptical (according to the machine I burned measly 200 calories - hardly worth it - but my shoulders are feeling it).

Oh yeah - I forgot to add that I didn't go to the gym straight from the house, I was downtown so I had to bring my gym clothes to change it. After I showered I realized I had forgotten to pack a clean pair of panties and I really didn't want to pull the sweaty ones on. So I thought .... I'll risk it. I am only 5 blocks from the gym so I went commando. LOL I drove very carefully so that the police had NO reason to pull me over. hehehe

Alena

[jamsk8r]

Alena, all I can say is, ! Thanks for the laugh! (I'm pretty sure we'd all choose that, over the sweaty underpants option, but it's still funny!)

Well, my post-holiday carb/sugar-cravings day is almost over, phew! I barely survived OP today. I'm going to bed a little early, just to make sure, and also to make up for being up so late last night, with the bombs going off till almost 2 am.

Crossfit in the morning. I'll be glad for life and food and exercise to get back to normal!

[Shannon in ATL]

I'm on my husband's computer and hit the back button on the unfamiliar mouse after typing an entire post... Growl...

Mel - bathroom remodeling, fun! Enjoy! It is a worthwhile expense, but can get pricey... There are a lot of energy efficient upgrades that you can do right now and get tax credits on, wonder if any could help you out in the bathroom project...

Cheryl - You could probably do some cardio in the evenings and be fine, maybe some 20-30 minute HIIT sessions? Or, more skating. I used to love to skate, but can't use roller blades to save my life. I still have to use the classic four wheeled skates...

Alena - at the commando drive home... I find myself commando more than I should admit... Lets just say I put off my laundry too long sometimes... I always hear my great grandmother in the back of my head talking about car accidents when I do it, too...

Lifeguard - sounds like a great gym!

Tea - bicep muscles are cool!

Silver - Hope you had a good visit with your friend!

Tiki - Hi there! I don't think I was posting here when you were last, I was just lurking. I remember reading a lot of your posts, though. Welcome back!

No formal exercise for me this weekend... Some elliptical HIIT on Friday, then spent all day yesterday hanging ceiling fans as my AC is apparently out again and can't get a tech until sometime next week. We've needed the fans anyway, no AC just gave us the motivation to get it done. Climbing up and down ladders with heavy fans in the heat felt like exercise to me, though! Today I was pretty lazy - slept late, ate lunch, napped, ate dinner, vacuumed, about to go to bed.

Have a good evening everyone!

[Mel]

Alena! I had a friend who drove her kids to school once in a very skimpy night gown and her car broke down.

I'm sore this morning and had to really push through cardio. I think it's more my seemingly fruitless search for a comfortable mattress rather than workouts

Legs at lunch

Mel

[Tomato]

Originally Posted by Mel

Alena! I had a friend who drove her kids to school once in a very skimpy night gown and her car broke down.

Oy! I feel for her - much worse than jeans & commando!

Shannon,
I think you got quite some exercise with the fans. I have one and it was a PITA to install it and we didn't get it right so now it's more a nuisance than anything else.
I have a question for you about HIIT on the elliptical. I do realize that's it's hard to discuss ellipticals as each is different. What I do (at the gym) that I choose "Total Body" as my workout option (I think other options are "Manual", "Random Hills" and one more which I can't remember - maybe I should the Random Hills one day but I feel the Total Body is quite intense). THen I choose difficulty (1-Begginer, 2-Medium, 3-Difficult - I go for #3) and level is anywhere from 1 to 20. I am doing level 6 and here and there increase to 7 (for as long as I can, then go down to 6 again). Do you think I should try 5 and then perhaps increase to 8 so that there is more difference?
My heart rate was pretty high, about 145 when I was at it for 20 minutes already.

P.S. Cheryl, Mel, Birchie- thanks for your replies re the rowing machine.
Birchie - how's your garden today?
Mel - you didn't say what's the kittie's name?