Hey everyone - thought it was time for a new thread - the last one was getting pretty long...

Since we have a sticky with the basic BFL info up at the top of the forum, no need to repeat it here...

Moxiegirl - you sound like you're having a great challenge! One more thing I wanted to add to Mox - I HIGHLY recommend posting (or at least reading) to Tall Jen's (TJ's) weekday menu thread. TJ is incredibly helpful in getting the eating part of this to work for you. I find that if I need new meal ideas, I can find them just by reading the thread - I'm always learning something new!

Well, for the past couple of days, I've had some sort of shoulder trouble - Sunday and yesterday morning I could barely lift my arm to the side. What I think happened is that on shoulder day, I probably lifted too much while doing Arnolds and shrugs. Yes, sometimes even I get a bit carried away when I see the musclehedz in my gym lifting humongous amounts of iron! Yesterday was leg day so no problem there - but today I just did cardio and abs. My arm is feeling better today, I've just been slugging down the glutamine...I think by tomorrow (Back/Biceps) I'll be okay!

Saturday in my riding lesson, pretty much all we did was 2-point at the walk/trot/canter along with lots of posting and sitting the trot without stirrups...ow! My inner thighs just stopped aching this morning. When riding without stirrups, you really need to use your leg muscles to hold on. Needless to say I took a hot bath right after we got home!

I have a ton of work to do right now - more later!

Hey MrsJim
Just thought I'd pop in to say hi and to tell you that the cottage cheese/pudding mix thing is great!

I'm doing great. I had some physical setbacks (long story, won't go into it) and am unable to lift heavier weights at this time but I'm still lifting the small ones.

I constantly see you all over this board and you have been giving great advice along the way. Keep up the great job!

BTW, I saw your picks from the Lift and you look fantastic girl

~~~Sil
137/124/120

Thanks, everyone, for the good advice. Well, I'm on day 3 of my first challenge - so far, so good, although I have a bit of a headache today. It may be caused, though, by the fact that I'm trying to cut down on my coffee/caffeine intake.

I have an exercise question -- I did the leg workout today, and on the quad machine (the one where you sit down and lift with both of your legs), the skin on my lower shins kept rubbing on the machine lifting pad whenever I lifted and lowered my legs. (I hope you can follow this -- I don't know the technical names for the machine parts). Anyway, this really hurt! I think I had the pad positioned correctly (per the book) -- not resting on my ankles, but not too high on my shins. Am I doing this right? Do people use a towel or something to cut down on the rubbing? (I ended up using my bandana, but that only helped a little bit). Any advice much appreciated.

Two other questions, now that I'm at it:
1. When you do the sit-ups (ab crunches), how do you get to a 10-level of effort? Do you use weights? (My last few sets this a.m. were a little tough, but I don't think they were 9s or 10s.) and
2. How do you deal with friends who say that all of this weight lifting will cause me to bulk up (which, as a woman, is presumed to be a bad thing)?

Now, back to some work. Thanks, Mox

Mox-

When I do leg extensions, I *do* have the pad right over my ankles; and make sure you have your feet pointing straight out too (parallel to the ground). It shouldn't be uncomfortable.

I do ab work without weights, but very intensely; slowing down can make a huge difference.

Just tell them you don't have the right hormones to bulk up! Amazing how ignorant people can be

Laura

Mox - I can't think of a better answer to your friends that what Mistress Krista says on her website. I've posted this before but what the heck, it's been awhile - this is from her aptly named "Crap List" on her site at http://www.stumptuous.com/weights.html I agree with Laura - slow down on the crunches and FOCUS on the ab muscles (in fact, that's a good rule of thumb when you're training - FOCUS on the muscle at hand - don't think about the news or the weather or the cat. And when you get to the top, SQUEEZE the muscle (you get the idea I hope?) I always try to push my bellybutton down into the floor, ya know? If you still feel you aren't working your abs hard enough, grab a medicine ball or 5-10 pound weight and hold it either to your chest or above you with straight arms. And try different ways of working abs - I love the captain's chair and roman (decline) chair!

When I do leg extensions, I have the pad right above my ankles and when I'm at the top of the movement, I SQUEEZE and hold for a count of three. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person at my gym who does that, judging from the other folks I've seen on the leg ext machine next to mine. They go whomp-whomp-whomp and whip off 10 extensions - using momentum - in the time it takes me to do 3!

HI LAURA!! How's it going on BRX?

Sil! good to see you! Key Lime cottage cheesecake is now my nightly staple (with a piece of fruit - right now it's nectarines). Instead of mixing 1 packet of lime Jello with 1 cup of CC, though, I mix a packet into a 32-oz tub, adding a 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract and 2-3 tablespoons of FF/SF instant vanilla pudding mix and blend the crap out of it until it's smoooooth, then stick it in the fridge...YUMMMERS! Of course I will never let Jim know how good it is otherwise he'll eat it all and I want it all for MEEEEE!!! GO,GO,GO!!! MINE, MINE, MINE!!

Mrs.Jim I was just about to send you a message asking HOW you creamed your curds! I just checked in here recently to see how everyone was doing. I'm glad to read that you changed the Sparkster's diet, you'll be surprised at what a difference it makes in his fur. My cats are now getting Dream Coat (udos for critters) and I'm happy about the results.

I still lift weights 4-5 times a week and do a lot of walking. I may try BFL again at some point.

My best to all here. It's a great program.

Ooh. I wanna get some of that Dream Coat - do your kitties like the taste?? What do you think about his food? www.breeders-choice.com - so far he hasn't barfed since we changed his diet. He's eating the Pinnacle dry food and the APD Canned Feline Sensitive Formula and seems to like it.

BTW right now we're calling him Spartacus!

Lick Your Chops Lamb and Brown Rice (canned) and Z/D (bought from the vet) dry. One of them has a possible food allergy, so their diet stays the same. I did hours of research online before I selected these two. There are a lot of good foods out there, I'm sure Sparky's is one.

Now I'm off to try that CC thing you make.

We are going through some scorching days here in the Bay Area...and they're taking their toll on me

Kitty isn't nuts about the hot weather either...he's been laying around like a bearskin rug. We keep the fan on and all the windows open. When we got home from work yesterday he was lying right in the path of the fan's air and could hardly be bothered to mew at us!

Not that I don't love warm weather - I do! I just can't sleep when it's hot. Since we don't have air conditioning, it's still very warm at night. The last couple of nights I couldn't fall asleep until 10:30 - 11 pm! And that is LATE for me! Taking a cool bath helps some...but y'all know I like getting up at 4 to work out and it's been tough. Today I was up at 4:30 and managed to get my chest/tri workout in along with a 20 minute cardio HIIT session.

Yesterday I didn't wake up until ALMOST 5!!! So what I did was a cardio session, followed by a calf workout in the morning; then at work, I did shoulders/abs at the gym there.

Thank goodness for cottage cheesecake - I don't have to heat up the kitchen...

It just occurred to me that we should be hearing from Susanje soon. How's everyone else doing? Thunderheart - hope everything's going okay...

Anyway - time to hit the shower and get ready for another day at work (fortunately it's air conditioned there)

Hello girls,

On wednesday I FINALLY finished painting the window frames... 15 windows....whew, seems it took forever... But I'm done, and yesterday, thursday, I crashed, I did my LBWO in the AM but it was a weak one, could not lift heavy at all, was not motivated either... but I did the whole thing... then I washed the kitchen floor when I came home, and that was it... Daughter and I had lunch at Wendy's had a baked tater and salad... salad was not good...I wasn't hungry yesterday for some reason, I felt like I was tired of eating... I could've eaten junk, BUT I DID NOT!! Because junk wouldn't have taken any thinking... Instead I put my thinking cap on, and thought about my pro/carb intake... I snoozed most of the afternoon tho I was totally lazy, I am PMSing too so that may have a factor in my laziness... One thing that kept me going, and this may sound really stupid, but I saw my butt in the mirror, and it wasn't looking too bad, so I stayed on program... Whew thank goodness for mirrors at times.... Guess what? I almost weighed myself one morning this week, but when I took the scale out the battery was dead... Really I think it was an omen...I may have been discouraged by the numbers...Because they do LIE those DARN scales...

Mox - the HECK with what everyone says, specially the women who lift 2 lb. weights. I usually explain to them that women CANNOT get big like men because of the testostorone, and then I tell them, I would much rather be big and MUSCULAR than big and FLABBY....

The weather has been just gorgeous here, no humidity at all, just sunny and bright with a breaze, gorgeous... I can relate with the cat becoming a rug Mrs.J, our cat did the same a few weeks ago during the high humidity we got. She gets into a doorway and doesn't move over for NOBODY, it's pretty hilarious.... Her name is ChloetheCat, yes that's what we call her, all in one breath...

Mrs. Jim, your cottage cheese cake doesn't seem to work for me!! Tried it twice and only got water... 1 cup of CC, 1 cup of water, packet of Lite Jello, to no avail... but I drank it anyways it was very tasty...I may try adding a packet of plain gelatin to it, I have some...

Anyway, I have to go shower I promissed the kids to go out for lunch, if they did all their chores.
When I promise them that, I become like a General in the army..... "Do this, Do that!!" and they do it ALL... They are such good kids, I can't complain... BTW son is 14, daughter is 12 in September (she's going on 21 tho, I swear)

Well gotta go, have a good weekend everyone..

Lana.....

Lana - DON'T put water in the cottage cheese!!!! That's why it's not working - here's how I do it:

32 oz tub of cottage cheese
1 packet of lime sugarfree jello powder(the big box)
2-3 tablespoons of SF/FF vanilla instant pudding powder.
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract (I have to add this if I'm using fat free cottage cheese).

NOTHING ELSE.

Blend blend blend until smooth!!! Then stick it in the fridge for a while until it gets firm. YUM. Actually you can eat it right away but it's much better if you let it chill for a bit!

Okay, I just looked at Pam's recipe (that I posted on the thread) and saw that she puts in a cup of water. No wonder she uses a whole packet of jello in just a cup of cc! Try it my way - works for me...although now I'm curious to try her way with water...

Whew, you're right about the heat, MrsJim, it's been hot in the North Bay.

Well my verdict is in on the 100 reps, 1 set with lighter weights.
A big thumbs down! It was supposed to burn lots of fat. I did lose 2 inches during the 4 weeks which is a little less than average for me, but now I feel much weaker and my muscles look smaller.
So now I am back to 3 sets of 20, heavier weights, but not as heavy as I think they should be, because I think I lost some strength. but no big deal, it was an experiement and I will get that strength back.
Next session, I plan on doing 5 sets of 12, 10, 8, 6 and 10 and varying the weights. I just like to keep changing to keep from getting bored.

TCW-you probably know my friend that works out at Fitness 2000, she's a wild woman, probably one of the oldest women working out with weights, works out almost every day, blond curly hair and blue eyes.

Have a good weekend

I'm a big cottage cheese/jello pudding eater, so I tried to shake it up a bit and do strawberry jello instead of the pudding. I mistakenly put in the whole packet of jello for my 1 cup of cc! It was like I was on strawberry overload! I ate it all because I didn't want to waste the cottage cheese, but man! That was the fastest I have ever eaten it in my life! YUCK.

Hey Hotty! Would your friend's name happen to be Joan?

Mrs.Jim do you dump the cc etc. in a blender? I tried mixing this sludge yesterday with a hand blender and it made a horrible mess. It tasted pretty good though.

Details, please.

What I do is use a hand blender the way I saw Jana and Pam doing it at LFTC. You put the cottage cheese in a #8 size rectangular Servin' Saver and the CC blends faster and more efficiently than just sticking your hand blender in a deep container or bowl. Once in awhile I'll use a spatula to scrape the sides down a little and make sure the Jello is mixed in with the cottage cheese - otherwise you get these icky Jello lumps

Oh I also fold the ingredients together with the spatula by hand before blending - keeps powder from spattering everywhere and everything blends together more equally

See you later you guys - it's hot here...water water water!!!