Starting Nov 1
Replies
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Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. :flowerforyou:
Still gloomy this morning but it is expected to clear by mid afternoon. We're heading out to the trailer where we are having Christmas in July with all our neighbours
It's potluck - I'm bringing the salad so if all I have is salad and turkey, all is good. We'll see what kind of desserts there are first 
I have half a season of Hawaii 5-0 left to watch on my pvr. At the trailer were watching DVDs of the original 5-0. It's awesome :bigsmile: That McGarrett is so smooth lol The acting can be really bad but it's highly entertaining. I also have a whole whack of Love It Or List It on the pvr. I tend to binge watch in the summertime when everything is on repeats.
We have great niece's birthday tomorrow. She's 7. I doubt it's at special request tho lol. We are going to a buffet. I usually fill up with salad first but this particular buffet also has a chocolate fountain :bigsmile: I plan to get my fruit in there I've been really good on keeping my sugars low - I guess this will be my treat day!
It's supposed to be nice again starting tomorrow - just in time to go back to work :sad:0 -
Tomorrow's Sunday--so you'll get one lovely day!
So I have a question--did you guys find your strength gains began to slow as you went through the program? Once I could add five ounds, let's say, every workout for a given exercise (i.e., deadlift--so every A workout or whatever). Midway through five, I feel it's a much slower process. I was hoping to up to 70 for the barbell row, and 65 was still hard. I was totally wiped out by the end and didn't bump anything up. I was able to do that two-weight squat thing at the higher weight I used for my last set last time, for all three sets today (that is, last time I did 8+15, 8+15, then 10+20--today I used 10+20 for all three). But the gains are definitely slower. Newbie gains are over, eh?0 -
I'm hoping it will be nice. It's sometimes hard to believe that it will change when you're in the middle of gloom!
Thru my entire lifting experience I would up my weights by 5lbs every odd numbered workout on things like squats and deads. Ones like you're referring to, not so much :laugh: That one I think I kept the top weight at 8 but upped the bottom. I felt I couldn't get proper form with too much weight over my head. There's another funky squat in that stage that I wasn't able to increase either, but I can't remember what it was.0 -
I guess everyone's different. Enjoy your niece's party today!0
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How was your party Jen? Just getting ready to go to ours. I'll update tomorrow :drinker:0
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Jen - after leafing through my future stages and with the number of dumbbell exercises and lunges, I wouldn't be surprised if adding the amount of weight lifted decreases. Hand strength starts entering into it, using a barbell would be very awkward on some of the moves and some of the moves just won't allow large amount of weights as we are working small muscles (thinking of the Cuban snatch and YTWL). Just my 2 cents worth 0
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I have a rubber thing to improve hand strength, but yeah, it's soon going to be an issue; I remember reading somewhere about strength gains slowing, and I guess I'm there!
Party was good, Blue! We had two this weekend--one for my niece on Friday and another yesterday to see DH's long-distance family. Both were pleasant. My brother really went all out for my niece's "League of Their Own" theme--bags of cracker jack, peanuts, etc. It was cute.0 -
Happy Monday!
Sounds like fun! Our niece's party was OK - it was actually just dinner with the family, which is A-OK with me. I'm not sure I'd be able to stand a group of giggly 7 year olds LOL The buffet was good - I had to laugh at my MIL and SIL. They followed me to the buffet and said 'let's have what Sherri's having' - I went for the fresh veggies first. They took one look and off they went to the hot foods LOL I was really good - only had small portions of some of the chinese after loading up on veggies. Had lots of fruit (albeit dipped in chocolate - but it still counts as fruit right? :bigsmile: ) and a small sundae. Then we went for a 40 min walk when we got home. Hubby was this><close to a food coma so we had to do something :laugh:
Got up and went for a run this morning. It felt good even tho my pace was a little slower than the last time.
The funeral for the friend that passed away is this morning
I'm expecting an afternoon on a deck somewhere with a group of people reminicing so I'm pretty sure the food choices won't be good. Some days you just gotta do!! This one's for you, George :drinker: 0 -
Morning ladies! Quick check-in for me as I had a Dr. Appointment and got into work late today. Had a pretty good weekend. Hosted a Bachelorette Party for a dear friend whose wedding I'm in this upcoming weekend. It was a long night (stayed out until 2:30AM) and I was one tired lady yesterday. Somehow still managed to get out and do some yard work which felt good and was probably good for me. Had a belated birthday dinner with my family last night - pizza and chocolate cake it was glorious.
I'm thinking this week is going to be semi light on the exercise as hubby is out of town which gives me the chance to paint the trim in his office. He moved all his furniture to the middle of the room for me, which is good because it will force me to get it done this week. I caulked the entire second floor yesterday too, so I think I will be making my end of August deadline! Yay!
We are having some pretty hot weather here (high of 89 today) so I'm going to try and get a walk in later tonight when it cools down with the pup. I'm going to get two lifting sessions in which leaves one more to go next week and I'll be done with the program. Whoo hoo. Then I'll need to start developing some workouts I can do for the next few months.
Doctor appt. went well today. Baby is doing great and has a pretty fast heart beat. He/She is moving around like a crazy person these days which is pretty fun. She did say I was measuring big (aka my belly is bigger than it should be at this point) which is always fun to hear :grumble: So she said if it continues to grow at the rate it's growing she wants to do another ultrasound to make sure baby isn't measuring way ahead. My hubs told me last night that he was a 9.5 lb baby... awesome. I was just under 7 lbs so really hoping for somewhere in the middle. So anyway, good news there - just not so much for my self esteem.
Blue - good luck with the funeral today. They are never fun, but always good to catch up with people.0 -
It's not you, Meg, it's the baby! I was a whopping 6.9 oz but you hear every now and again about those 10+ lb babies. Then again, I"m a whopping 5' tall, so maybe if I'd started bigger I could reach the cabinets now... Was the birthday party for you?
I hope the funeral was as ok as it could be, Blue--they do bring people together, but I find myself wishing we did so under better circumstances.
My new lifting shoes came in today--I'll give them a whirl as I wrap up stage 5 this week. Congrats, Meg, on being so close to done! I did 5B3 today. I pushed the barbell deadlift/row to 70 lbs. It's a tough combo, eh? I can deadlift at least 70+ but rowing as part of it is a challenge! Everything else about the same--85 on the lat pulldown, 8 on the YWTL. Etc.
Have a good night!0 -
Good morning ladies :flowerforyou:
It was a nice funeral - fitting for the type of man he was. Unfortunately we didn't know as many people as we expected but we did get to catch up with a few friends. So that was nice. When we were younger it was the weddings that brought everyone together. Now we seem to go to more funerals than weddings
I echo Jen - that baby's getting big :bigsmile: I didn't think pregnant ladies could paint? Something about the fumes?
I'm interested in hearing if your shoes make a difference Jen. I've heard flat footed is best - not sure how I'd feel about working out in my barefeet tho. Luckily I'm at home and know who's been walking on that surface LOL I have high arches and like the feeling of support underneath them.
Gorgeous morning again this morning. It was already close to 70 at 5:30 and you could feel the humidity in the air. My run only lasted about 18 min - it was too hot! Walked an additional 20 min so got a pretty good burn in.
Awesome numbers on those lifts, Jen! Before giving my back a rest, my highest dead was only 67 lbs! Those rows just add much more fun into the mix, don't they?
Have a great day girls!0 -
Hi ladies. Yes, Jen the bday was for me... quite belated And yes, I'm sure most of it is baby, I am getting tired of the "when are you gonna pop" question... haha. Great numbers Jen! I think I only made it to 50lbs on those.
Blue - I'm probably not supposed to paint with oil based paints... but it's pretty minimal (only one layer of primer) and the room is super well ventilated. I figure I deal with car exhaust fumes and other types of pollution on a daily basis so as long as I'm being smart and keeping air in the room, I should be a ok.
It's hot hot hot here today again... high 80's and almost 70 when I was out at 7AM walking the dog. I can't complain though - it could be raining!
Have a great day gals.0 -
The crossfit people are doing walking lunges across the parking lot with barbells over their heads! And then dropping them on the ground LOL Looks effective :bigsmile:
I ran/walked this morning so I don't feel guilty for watching LOL0 -
I'm planning a walk for later but I slept so badly I'll be kind of surprised if I go. I'll not take a barbell with me, though
Weather here is GORGEOUS today but I saw a huge branch that had broken halfway off a tree on campus--I think it was struck by lightening in the storms that came before this cold air. Crazy. A town on the shoreline in Massachusetts had a tornado--a very rare thing in these parts, though they happen at least a few times a year in New England.
I'm starting to draft a sabbatical application. Clearly I am well-focused if I'm over here, already putting dinner into the calculator. lol.0 -
How long of a sabbatical Jen? That's exciting. My next sabbatical will be called retirement I always tease my hubby that he only has to make $100k more a year and I can retire LOL For some reason he hates it when I say that :laugh:
It was a snooze button kind of morning for me - not sure why I'm so tired. Maybe it's the heat and we're just not used to it. It actually hit 30C yesterday (not sure what that is in F - high 80s maybe?) - first time this year and I'm not sure we had many of those last year either! Not complaining tho - it can stay as long as it wants! With humidex today it should be close to 100F. Bring. It. ON!!! Unfortunately I'm stuck at work and don't get to enjoy much of it At least the evenings are nice for sitting outside. 0 -
I think 30c is about 90F, so yeah, that's hot! We've had the nicest July--a few days like that but a bunch dry and about 80. Poifect.
The sabbatical would be a whole semester off in order to revise my dissertation--carve out an article, submit proposals to conferences, and try to get it in shape to submit to publishers in the near-ish future. It's a daunting task. And I need to write a 3-5 page book prospectus as part of the application...avoid! avoid! scary!
I had to cut my workout a bit short this morning and only did one round of BWM. A little anti-climactic for the last 5A, but so be it! I did shave a few seconds off and clocked it in at an even 2 minutes. btw, my new lifting shoes are FABULOUS. I had much more stability. I upped my barbell row weight to 70 (I couldn't do more than 4 reps, but I got them in!) and my single-leg deadlift weight to 30lb dumbbells. I still wobbled a bit but not nearly as much as I have been in the running shoes. So there you go. My reverse wood chop I got to 65, and kept my incline press to 20lb dumbbells. I'm looking forward to not doing offset squats with two different weights for a while. So awkward.0 -
Hi ladies - question for those of you who are ahead of me... I started Stage 3 Monday but didn't do the BWM's at the gym. Started doing them this afternoon and decided to ask y'all a question.
Lunge jumps.... OMG... the jump squats I think I can do but when I tried the lunge jumps my knees did not like me. Search of MFP for this just came up with this thread about 4 months ago when most of you started stage 3. I saw that at least one of you decided to not do that portion of the BWM. Do you feel you had a significant reduction in the effectiveness of the program by not doing them? Thanks for any input!
Susan0 -
How are you doing them? I found that lunging backward rather than forward was way bette on my knees and activates the same muscles--because my front leg, the bending leg, stays stationary it doesn't wobble out of form so much. I get better speed that way, too. Lunging forward is awful!
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Good morning!
So today I hopped on the scale and it's still reading up at 129. Now I can't remember when I started eating 1800 instead of 1600 but it hasn't been long enough to have put on 3 lbs. I know it's not "real" weight, or at least I'm pretty sure. It's probably period weight, salt weight, beer weight, what have you. Right? I figure 1800 is probably about maintenance for me with my lifting schedule. But I'm wondering if I should start a cut when I finish stage 5, for that week. Maybe down to 1400? I'm not sure I could do it, though. I've come to really like 1800cals worth of food. What do you think?
I'm also thinking of getting some body fat calipers so I can focus on that instead, but I'm not sure how much change I'll see eating at 1800. I wonder if I'd need to bulk and then cut in order to add more muscle.
Would love to hear your thoughts. I was hoping that since my TOM started yesterday the scale would have dropped back down. I can hear you all now--"Get off the scale, Jen." lol.0 -
Morning ladies!
Jen - KILLER numbers. I'm super impressed. I can't wait to start lifting heavy again... and perhaps I'll have to get myself a new pair of shoes Your sabbatical prep sounds scary, but you can do it! I also wouldn't put too much stock into the weight gain until you're done with TOM. Give yourself at least a few weeks at the new number to see if things stabilize. And yes, get off the scale Jen!
Blue - that's TOO hot for me... yikes. I guess I shouldn't complain about our "heat".
SK - I didn't have problems doing them, they were just hard in general ha ha.
Hoping to get a lift in today... didn't go yesterday as I'm experiencing some less than glamorous pregnancy side affects AKA gas :laugh: so I'll try again today.0 -
Morning!! Guess I'm a little late - better late than never right?
Another gorgeous morning here - too hot to go for a run but I did do my BWM before I showered so I don't feel too bad. That and we had a pancake breakfast for charity outside at the office so I was on my feet most of the morning. It's such a nice day I was telling everyone we should just stay outside and get burgers and dogs for lunch :bigsmile: And then ice cream for the afternoon LOL It's too nice to be working inside anyway. I had no takers
I was thinking your sabbatical wouldn't be more work, Jen LOL I think I'd be avoiding that work too :laugh: I'm not sure I'm the best person to give advice on cals because what I'm doing doesn't seem to be working a whole lot. I'm sure you want more than 1/2 lb month loss. Maybe try splitting the difference and eat 1600? I have one of those hand held body fat % thingies - omron, I think is the brand? I got it off Amazon. I'm not sure how accurate it is as last time I checked it still said my BF% was over 30. IT also measures BMI - hubby swears by it but I don't find it too accurate.
Susan, I think the intention of the lunge jumps is to jump from one lunge position into the other (one foot forward to the other). I was unable to do it that way so I just jumped from the lunge position back to the start position (feet together). I still found it very effective. I don't think I ever got it down to 2 min like Jen did Try different variations - see what works best for you and your knees. I'm not sure how much they affected the program but I did try to do everything as written.
Long weekend here in Alberta - I already have Friday off so it's a nice extra long weekend for me! Weather is supposed to be nice - I plan on sitting outside with book and drink and doing just about nothing :bigsmile: My idea of summertime outdoor activity!0 -
Thanks for the feedback, guys! I'd be happy staying at 126+/- a bit. I'd be happy to lose fat and build a little muscle while there. I don't want the scale to go up and stay there. I was just feeling frustrated and actually, I ordered some fat calipers this morning, Blue! After I showered, I put on some loose-fitting linen pants that sit low on my waist (thus my belly fat stays nice and even rather than muffin-y) and was noticing that even with the layer of fat on my upper stomach (that is, ribcage area) I can actually see a tiny bit of muscle definition between the two halves of the muscle groups. Hey, good enough for me! So now I"m feeling pretty fly. I shouldn't be allowed to post during TOM, lol.
Thanks for the kudos on the weights, Meg! Earlier today I saw a woman post something like "I was deadlifting 70 and I only got to a measly 100 lbs inside two or three months." I thought, damn, if that's measly...! I look forward to hitting 100 lbs, but it's likely not soon!
Enjoy the (long) weekend, guys. No beans for you, Meg. :laugh: We're going to a friend's for dinner, so I'm pretty much not worrying over calories today since I have no clue what they're making. DH is hoping at minimum, good dessert. CAn't say I'd argue! Blue, I'd totally go work outside with you--what a bunch of sillies!0 -
was noticing that even with the layer of fat on my upper stomach (that is, ribcage area) I can actually see a tiny bit of muscle definition between the two halves of the muscle groups.
I'm seeing that too! I'm calling it my one pack :bigsmile:
It's funny - since I haven't lifted in a week or so, I seem to be getting slimmer. How the heck does THAT happen??0 -
Sometimes I think when we check ourselves out too often, for good and bad, we see things that may or may not be there in reality--perhaps that's it, Blue. Inside a twenty-four hour window a week or so again, I thought I saw great muscle definition and increased flab. Um, yeah, no.
Then again, if you're eating less this week, perhaps that's it; could be water related to salt or something else; but for me, usually it's in my noodle. Mmm, noodles.0 -
, usually it's in my noodle. Mmm, noodles.
Love it!
You're probably right, but I did notice jeans fresh out of the dryer didn't seem to be quite as snug as usual. That too, could be all in my head. Wishful thinking LOL Although the scale is only .4 lbs away from my lowest low. I'm trying to be really good to see if I can actually get it to go under 150 before vacation!0 -
lol.
My friend made us amazing dinner tonight; i'm not even going to bother to try and count. lamb, mashed potatoes, sautéed veg, soup, chocolate soufflés, red wine....good fuel for tomorrow's lift, right?
good night, gals!0 -
Happy weekend!! :drinker:
Go my workout in although I really had to push myself to get it done! Heading out to the trailer this afternoon after groceries, laundry and dishwasher! It's going to be a nice, relaxing weekend. The weather is supposed to cooperate - life is good :bigsmile:0 -
Have fun! I finished stage 5 today. New shoes aren't great on the treadmill, so I'll be packing both pairs from now on. Few days off, yaaaaaay!0
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How are you doing them? I found that lunging backward rather than forward was way bette on my knees and activates the same muscles--because my front leg, the bending leg, stays stationary it doesn't wobble out of form so much. I get better speed that way, too. Lunging forward is awful!
Backwards feels so awkward... I did them fine in stage 2 though. The biggest issue is the jumping/landing sequence. I think I'll just do an extra set of jump squats or other lunges to make up for the jumping lunges.0 -
Jen - if your maintenance is 1800, a cut to 1400 is around 22% which is pretty steep cut since you are close (I think) to where you want to be? If you just want to lose 5-10 pounds, I probably wouldn't cut more than 10-15% from your maintenance level.0
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