NSV's = Non-scale Victories

1212224262733

Replies

  • JMarcella57
    JMarcella57 Posts: 1,902 Member
    chamblisk wrote: »
    Ditto...ran into a former teacher who left the district about a year ago. The look on her face when she recognized me was priceless.

    Love it!
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,522 Member
    This year, I've worked my swim up to 2250 yards total, with the first 1500 done without breaks. I've also done a few 1 mile open-ocean swims (in Florida...).
  • chamblisk
    chamblisk Posts: 296 Member
    Excellent!! Nice to know another swimmer in the ranks! I try to get a mile in but because of limited pool times, I don't always succeed. This month I have been working on doing the fly without dying....it gives me a good HIIT with alternating backstroke laps. I must look like Shamu having seizures but no one is watching (hopefully) and I have managed to smooth out quite a bit. Certainly gets my heartrate up.
  • UncleMac
    UncleMac Posts: 13,725 Member
    I might have to up my game. My coworkers, Mike and Patrick, are overweight like me. Although there isn't a formal competition, each of us checks in with the others. Patrick is the youngest and he took three weeks off for vacation…Mike ran into him at the gym… Apparently Patrick is hitting the cardio hard and looks like he's lost 20 lbs. I'm not sure that sounds like a healthy weight loss but Mike could be exaggerating.

    Regardless, I've been stuck around the same weight for the past couple of months. I need to refocus my efforts!!
  • marekdds
    marekdds Posts: 2,232 Member
    You right Kathi, feels so good!
  • E_Brault
    E_Brault Posts: 362 Member
    Good News and Bad News: all my size 14 suits are too loose, so I went to Dress Barn for my favorite Jones NY separates and a size 12 pant is too loose also. Bad news: size 10 is a little snug - so I have to wait. I hope all my problems next week will be this trivial.
  • robertw486
    robertw486 Posts: 2,399 Member
    I just have to mention.... every NSV I see in this thread shows me how positive this group stays! I enjoy every one of them and find motivation in them always. New clothes, longer swim distances, trying new things, the monster lifts at the gym, a healthy food change... I find something in all of them.


    For me, a most recent find.....

    A long term goal of mine has been to get my cardio ability up to the levels I was out when I got out of the military 26 years ago. I set this goal knowing it would be hard, and knowing I might not reach that level, but would try harder if I set a tough goal.

    I am using my elliptical equivalent miles for the running goals, as it saves my back and knees from the impacts of actual running. But having run a few times, I am certain the elliptical miles are just as tough otherwise.

    I'm still falling short on my 3 mile time, but working on it. And I realized that since we didn't time or score longer runs in the military that might be harder to compare. But then I remembered that I had a race time from a 10k I ran with some coworkers. I knew I had my time and finish position in a newspaper (ha! that dates me!) clipping from the race. So the other day I got digging through photo albums and found it.

    And when I looked at my time, I quickly got my phone to look at my 1 hour times recently, and did the math real quick to equate my 10k time. And not only have I matched the 10k time, I have slightly bettered it!

    My last competitive 10k race was in 1988. And I finished the race just outside the top 10 percent. This NSV for me was huge, and it just motivates me even more to keep going.



    Maybe that is an advantage we have in this group. We tend to compete against ourselves more and set our goals, rather than compare to the most fit, thin, whatever else people in the world. And we've been around long enough to enjoy whatever NSV's we come across.
  • d_thomas02
    d_thomas02 Posts: 9,055 Member
    edited March 2016
    @robertw486, Great NSV!

    Guessing if you were doing 3 mile runs in the military, your branch was the Marines (pull-ups, sit-up, and 3 mile run).

    I've been using the Army Physical Fitness Test (push-ups, sit-ups, 2 mile run) as a way of challenging myself and measuring my progress. My PB on the APFT some years ago was 235 out of 300. Last week I scored 208 so I still have a ways to go.
  • E_Brault
    E_Brault Posts: 362 Member
    @robertw486 You are absolutely right! How motivating it is to see everyone's NSV - some even inspire me to push my own limits.

    My new nutritionist has challenged me to hit 10,000 steps everyday, except weight training days. Yesterday, I had to go to work. I didn't have time to take my customary 10 minute or so break in between miles. So I took the treadmill off my 9.5 incline and did 4.5 miles straight thru.

    Happy Easter, all.
  • Montepulciano
    Montepulciano Posts: 845 Member
    @robertw486, Great NSV and some nice insight into the group. The best NSVs come from doing more than I thought I could, at least for me.
  • Farback
    Farback Posts: 1,088 Member
    Congratulations Robert.
  • Farback
    Farback Posts: 1,088 Member
    After 18 months I've pretty much squeezed all the gains I can get from the novice powerlifting program I've been doing, and it's time to move on. I did some research using the programming manual from starting strength.com, and decided on the 'back-off set, older lifter' program. 60 in May, so I guess I qualify. My workouts drop from three to two a week, but they're a lot more complex with nine sets per exercise. It runs on a four week cycle with the max lift set increasing each week. I should see the tonnage increase slowly by being a bit more scientific about it.



    kfyjo8aumkwp.png

    Today's workout:
    Intermediate Workout A
    Week 1

    OHP
    45/5
    45/5
    70/5
    85/2
    95/1
    105/1
    115/3
    90/5
    90/5

    Bench
    45/5
    45/5
    100/5
    120/2
    135/1
    150/1
    165/3
    140/5
    140/5

    Squat
    45/5
    45/5
    125/5
    145/2
    165/1
    185/1
    205/3
    180/5
    180/5
  • E_Brault
    E_Brault Posts: 362 Member
    Farback wrote: »
    After 18 months I've pretty much squeezed all the gains I can get from the novice powerlifting program I've been doing, and it's time to move on. I did some research using the programming manual from starting strength.com, and decided on the 'back-off set, older lifter' program. 60 in May, so I guess I qualify. My workouts drop from three to two a week, but they're a lot more complex with nine sets per exercise. It runs on a four week cycle with the max lift set increasing each week. I should see the tonnage increase slowly by being a bit more scientific about it.



    kfyjo8aumkwp.png

    Today's workout:
    Intermediate Workout A
    Week 1

    OHP
    45/5
    45/5
    70/5
    85/2
    95/1
    105/1
    115/3
    90/5
    90/5

    Bench
    45/5
    45/5
    100/5
    120/2
    135/1
    150/1
    165/3
    140/5
    140/5

    Squat
    45/5
    45/5
    125/5
    145/2
    165/1
    185/1
    205/3
    180/5
    180/5

    That's one heck of a spreadsheet - you've got there. Did you set it up once and only make changes every month or so? Or is this off the dot com you mentioned? Any suggestions for dot coms for women's fitness. I just don't see me stopping in between sets to log. I use UnderArmour's app for recording my workout - it syncs with my watch. It just tells me how many calories I've burned for my height, weight, gender, age and recorded heart rate - while I workout. So it also gives me a ranking for effort expended. The UA Record app has glitches.

  • Farback
    Farback Posts: 1,088 Member
    Thanks. I've worked as a machine automation programmer and use spreadsheets a lot. I just update the top line once a month and it all updates. I log in a text file, so for the workout I just open the sheet on the iPad and lift for the week and workout.
  • E_Brault
    E_Brault Posts: 362 Member
    Thanks @Farback. Pretty impressive numbers!
  • Farback
    Farback Posts: 1,088 Member
    Did my 'B' workout today on my new program. I certainly won't be doing these more than twice a week. It's a lot of sets and a lot of tonnage moved. I did find out my cable machine was misleading me, the numbers on the weights are only 15=150 if BOTH stacks are moved, so my 320 Lat pull downs and 150 tricep extensions are actually 160 and 75. More reasonable, I had a hard time believing this old fire chief was pulling down 320. Oh well, I'm still moving more than just a few of the young bucks here.

    Intermediate workout B
    Week 1

    Squat
    45/5
    45/5
    125/5
    145/2
    165/1
    185/1
    205/3
    180/5
    180/5

    Deadlift
    45/5
    45/5
    150/5
    175/2
    200/1
    225/1
    245/3
    200/5
    200/5

    Rear Lat pull downs
    160/5/3
  • E_Brault
    E_Brault Posts: 362 Member
    Monstrous!
  • d_thomas02
    d_thomas02 Posts: 9,055 Member
    edited April 2016
    My resting heart rate is creeping up these last three weeks since growing season has started. From 58 bpm to 62 bpm.

    Guessing that's a result of less deliberate cardio workouts(?). During of my current workdays, my heart rate rarely rises above fat burn (95-130).

    On a brighter note, I've all most doubled my "Active Minutes" (see link below) from 300 minutes per week to over 750 minutes per week. This last week, my FitBit Charge HR showed 965 active minutes for the week.

    http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/PhysicalActivity/FitnessBasics/American-Heart-Association-Recommendations-for-Physical-Activity-in-Adults_UCM_307976_Article.jsp#.VwEToqQrKhc
  • E_Brault
    E_Brault Posts: 362 Member
    Great link!
  • marekdds
    marekdds Posts: 2,232 Member
    Yesterday, I weeded and tilled the soil for planting. In the past that would have been enough for me. Still had some energy, so I went to nursery and bought bags of filler soil and manure. (Yes, my husband chided me for spending money on poop). The store employee loaded my car while I looked for plants. When I got home and was unloading, I was struggling with the bags. I thought, "geez, I am weak". I hauled them to the beds, dumped and raked. Then I noticed, what I thought were 20-25 lb. bags were 50 pound bags. Not a big deal for a lot you, but made me feel good that I handled it.
  • E_Brault
    E_Brault Posts: 362 Member
    The operative word here is "bags" - plural - more than one! You rock!
  • marekdds
    marekdds Posts: 2,232 Member
    edited April 2016
    LOL! Thanks, I can now honestly say what it feels like to carry 350 pounds of poop.

    BTW, farback and Thomas, you guys do amazing stuff! So impressive!
  • UncleMac
    UncleMac Posts: 13,725 Member
    edited April 2016
    At the end of yoga class, I was chatting with the instructor and she remarked on how much more flexible my hips are in the past few weeks. She asked if I'd changed something since she felt it was that much of a difference. I said the only change was that I added a stretching session at the end of each personal training workout.

    Speaking of personal training, we're back working legs again… On Friday, I challenged myself and threw an extra set of plates onto the leg press. Three sets of twenty reps at 450 lbs… no shakes or adverse affects on the rest of the workout.
  • E_Brault
    E_Brault Posts: 362 Member
    That's amazing. I press 30 pounds for one set of 15! How long did it take you to get to 450 pounds?
  • UncleMac
    UncleMac Posts: 13,725 Member
    E_Brault wrote: »
    That's amazing. I press 30 pounds for one set of 15! How long did it take you to get to 450 pounds?

    My legs have always been strong. We started off doing free weight squats. My shoulder made it difficult to hold the bar so we moved to leg press. It's been a year since I started working with the personal trainer.
  • marekdds
    marekdds Posts: 2,232 Member
    Congrats UncleMac! very impressive!
  • MostlyWater
    MostlyWater Posts: 4,294 Member
    Despite the fact that I am taking Spinclass soon after coming back from an injury and I'm not supposed to push too hard, I biked a Personal Best last night - I usually bike about 8 or 9 miles, but last night I got up to 14.41 !
  • marekdds
    marekdds Posts: 2,232 Member
    That is spectacular, Ms. Water!
  • UncleMac
    UncleMac Posts: 13,725 Member
    Awesome, @MostlyWater!! How are you feeling today?
  • E_Brault
    E_Brault Posts: 362 Member
    Outrageous NSVs !!! Congratulations to all of you!
This discussion has been closed.