Manic - love the new picture!! The other one made me hungry!!

For those that do Zumba - what shoes do you wear? I tried a class sometime ago in my running shoes and could not get my feet to move the right ways. The instructor said it was because running shoes are made for straight forward movements, etc...so I am curious what you all wear.

FB - Of course you are doing something right!! And I don't think it's your food silly!! It's all that hard work you put in day in and day out!!

Sue - congrats on getting through your workout!!

Jennie - congrats on finishing up Stage 5!!


Thank you all for the comments about my bikini picture:blushing:. You all are too kind :flowerforyou:. I told my husband not to get used to the bikini because that is more of a beach outfit and not a general hang out at the community pool outfit. I still wear a one piece when out swimming with the kids, at the gym, or our neighbors. It was fun to do it though!!

Me thinks the bikini should be normal around-any-water wear for you. :bigsmile:

I'm nonfunctional today. If the children weren't trying to kill each other, I would have stayed in bed until noon. And I have a bit of a knot in my left calf. Still planning on going to the gym tonight. Desperately need to do laundry and clean the house today. No more Ms. Tired/lazy. Stupid sleep disorder. Sometimes it really kicks my butt.

To those afraid or not interested in stage 6. GO DO IT!! I LOVE IT.

Thanks for the complement, Runn. I'll take any offered. ;-)


My back feels better today. Not 100%, but better. My physical therapist kicked my butt this morning. You'd think he was my personal trainer. I ended up working my lower body hard enough that when I got home I only had to work my upper body. So I hit it hard. Not NR, just my own *thing*


Sue, I'm not eating Paleo. I just can't do it. I am trying to imitate it the best I can, but so far my best has been pretty lame. He has lost more than twenty pounds. I'm proud of him. I'm just not going to weigh myself.

Yeah, I stepped on the scale and found myself pretty much right back at my start weigh this morning. Boo.

I made a promise to myself to quit sugar once I went grocery shopping - and here it's about time to go grocery shopping but I find myself longing for one more bag of gingersnaps. "These are the good cookies" the yeast fauna in my stomach are telling me, "You can eat 25 of them and it's only like 30 grams of sugar. There's more in most breakfast cereals.".

Whatever. TAKING YOU DOWN, sugar. I'm trying to remember my year of being completely off sugars - how great it was and how much energy I had and how my body was tight.

Urrrgh. I'm not sure if I should try giving up milk again or not. It does make life -really- carby, but I hate how thick and gooey protein gets when you mix it with almond or coconut milk. What do y'all think? Milk or no milk? I drink 2% in my effort to get closer to full fat dairy (couldn't quite make it to whole, lol). I'd have to fill some calorie holes if I got rid of the milk.

Pep talk me on no added sugars?

Sue, the gym I am at is apparently a regional gym. It's "Total Fitness for Her".

I went off sugar for about a month a few years ago. I remember being less bloated, but I sure got cranky not having any dark chocolate. And it's so dang HARD. My lifestyle is not conducive to it at the moment. But I know it is so much better for you.

I'm going to have a bad day today (food-wise). Meeting some girls at a mexican restaurant. Gonna try to avoid the chips and just get a small plate of enchiladas with corn tortillas. Then eating out again tonight. Ugh.

Does anyone do IF while doing NROL4W? I did a sort of Eat Stop Eat method when I was at my healthiest.

I'm all for ditching the scales! I really hate them right now.

Yeah, I stepped on the scale and found myself pretty much right back at my start weigh this morning. Boo.

I made a promise to myself to quit sugar once I went grocery shopping - and here it's about time to go grocery shopping but I find myself longing for one more bag of gingersnaps. "These are the good cookies" the yeast fauna in my stomach are telling me, "You can eat 25 of them and it's only like 30 grams of sugar. There's more in most breakfast cereals.".

Whatever. TAKING YOU DOWN, sugar. I'm trying to remember my year of being completely off sugars - how great it was and how much energy I had and how my body was tight.

Urrrgh. I'm not sure if I should try giving up milk again or not. It does make life -really- carby, but I hate how thick and gooey protein gets when you mix it with almond or coconut milk. What do y'all think? Milk or no milk? I drink 2% in my effort to get closer to full fat dairy (couldn't quite make it to whole, lol). I'd have to fill some calorie holes if I got rid of the milk.

Pep talk me on no added sugars?

I have been low carb for at least 7 years. I had a period where I gave up, for no good reason, except that I was mid menopause and all the symptoms were kicking my *kitten*. It was also the same period of time where I gained 20 pounds, did absolute no exercise and was incredibly depressed. Which caused which I really couldn't tell you but I did several things to get back to low-carbing because I knew in my heart it was the way of eating that made me feel best.

The first thing I did was address my depression. Talked the doc, got some meds and stayed with them long enough to get out of the funk - then I read and followed the book "The 7-Day Low-Carb Rescue and Recovery Plan" which was a pretty gentle way to get to my level of low carbing. And... I stopped drinking soda. I occassionally will have a diet something, like maybe 1x a month, otherwise, I drink water, iced teas, iced coffee and rarely clear seltzer (sometimes unsugared flavored). The first month I did that, I dropped 5 pounds. The rest has come off slowly but consistently until this recent plateau. Now I'm working on the muscle again.

So talk you into it? I don't eat sweets, except an occassional protein bar, and the protein drinks I use. I'm very careful about added sugars - read your ingredients! They are in EVERYTHING, disguised as all sorts of "glucose" type ingredients. And I cook and eat whole foods as much as possible. :bigsmile: Did that help? Yea cravings occur sometimes. But all in all, not so much. And all in all I feel better at 60 than I have in the past 20 years.

ETA I don't drink cow's milk, haven't in decades. I do drink almond milk, and some soy, but can't do a lot of soy anything due to estrogen issues.

ugh, I am zombie woman. Thought I'd feel better after a shower. I just want to go back to sleep. Hasn't been this bad in a LONG time. Amanda, I have 2 boys, 8 and 5. They're the greatest kids ever...when they aren't together. Personally I can't do IF because I'll pass out after 4 hours lol, I do the 6xday meals instead. I've heard it said that it doesn't really matter WHEN you, what matters is what you eat and how much of it. Although I've heard of some people doing IF to kick their metabolism in the butt. I eat like crap and that probably won't change.

I made my husband stop being vegan because I got sick of interpreting freaking food labels. Best thing that ever happened to him. Like other annoying men, he lost his first 30lbs the first months. Freaking men. More dairy, switching to diet coke and riding his bike. By the end of the first year he lost 85lbs.

Jessica, I love using almond milk. I find Silk and almond breeze the best. I ran out of powder thought and have been using premixed shakes.

Samantha, it is so nice to hear from other moms that their kids are great too (when separated). I work evenings and my husband days (we both work fir the Sheriff's Office and work shift work)...so I'm home all day with the kids and when school is out, oh my gosh, they are at each other 75% of the day. But when M was at school and R was still home he was an angel and vs versa. Crazy how it all works. I hope you have been able to get a little more sleep today.

Jojo, 104lbs!!!! That is great!!! When I first upped my dead lift weights I felt it terrible but an extra day of rest seemed to help so if you don't decide to lift tomorrow I'm sure your body will thank you

I always thought my blender made my almond milk froth up...maybe the powder is to blame?? I don't mind it too much as long as I'm drinking it through a Tervis Tumbler straw (a really wide straw) and quickly...

Off to the gym ladies for my LAST Stage 1 A Workout!!!!! I'm hoping to rock it out!!!

Make it a great day,
Amanda

Jojo, I've been reading so much about the calorie estimates being very high for exercise on MFP. I finally broke down and bought a HRM. Should be here Tuesday. That's an AWESOME weight for DLs. Hope your soreness gets better.

Run, hope your workout is great! Yay for the end of stage 1!

Kids...ugh. I have a 1, 3, and 4 year old. My house is a constant whirlwind of messy activity. I work 1-2 days a week just to get a break. They actually get along really well right now, so I really feel for those of you with older ones who like to bicker.

This morning I was beating myself up for eating so poorly yesterday (didn't even log the last part of my day because I wasn't even sure where to start) and a friend of ours that I haven't seen in several weeks stopped by. He commented on how much smaller I looked. Made me feel not quite so yucky about myself. Thank goodness for the NSVs because the scale is definitely not my friend right now.

Cowgirl (I can't use Chubby either), 3 under the age of 4...wooh, makes me tired just thinking about it. Congrats on your NSV!!

Jojo, woohoo!! A medium size girl!! Great NSV to you, too.

I did my last Stage 1 A workout yesterday!! I'm so happy to almost be done Stage 1. As much as I have enjoyed it I do look forward to moving on to new moves. It went well, I rocked it as hard as I could and felt like vomiting when I was done...so I guess I did well :sick:

So talk you into it? I don't eat sweets, except an occassional protein bar, and the protein drinks I use. I'm very careful about added sugars - read your ingredients! They are in EVERYTHING, disguised as all sorts of "glucose" type ingredients. And I cook and eat whole foods as much as possible. :bigsmile: Did that help? Yea cravings occur sometimes. But all in all, not so much. And all in all I feel better at 60 than I have in the past 20 years.

Yeah, I spent 3 months eating "clean" until I realized that maltodextrin was hiding in everything, sneaky crap that it is. It's odd when I read that performance athletes use it.. not exactly sure it's -really- safe either since I know those sports drinks use it and they're one of the biggest reasons for kidney stones in young men.

Anyways. I'm ON IT NOW. I've been eating some fruits to to keep me from having the crazy headaches .. and I've had a tiny bit of rapadura until I can make it without in my hot cereal. See you never, sugar!

Cowgirl, you are going to LOVE your HRM. I always feel weird if I forget mine. Like somehow the workout is less holy-hell if I can't see that heartrate busting through the roof!

I've added cardio every day this week. It's crazy how much endurance weightlifitng gives you. I really had to turn up the resistance and incline to get pumped. Today I'm going to slow it down with some hula hooping instead of going to the gym, but hopefully this extra activity will reflect positively on the scale!

Manic -- i just finished stage 7. It is definitely more of a cardio stage. I think you will like it if you start with low enough weights so that you can get through the 4 sets of 15-20 reps. I was burning about 250 calories for a 30 - 35 minute work out. A couple days I just wanted to die after I finished, but a couple days I did feel like doing some light cardio/treadmill after the workout. I also did some walking/jogging on most of my off days of lifting, just to keep moving.

Now that I finished Stage 7 I'm trying to decide if I should do it again or go back and do Stage 6 (which I skipped because I felt I needed a fat burn!). I was thinking too, about maybe doing a combination of Strong Lifts and Stage 7 . . . we'll see!

Agreed on reading the HG books!
It's crazy how good young adult authors have been the last few years!

The movie was good, but the.. atmosphere of the books is just so excellent.

Welcome back Beeps! Glad you had a good time.

Another busy weekend here. 9 yo was in a soccer tournament. They didn't have enough team at his age group so all those teams had to play up against the 10 yo teams. My son's team made it to the semi-finals, but lost. They played really well, it's just hard playing against older kids. I got some yard work and canning done (strawberry jam), though.

Started Stage 6 today. The negative chin ups just feel awkward. Hopefully it'll be better on the next workout.

I have good new and bad news.

Good news - a co-worker and certified yoga instructor (she teaches for us at our work on Wed and Fri and I take her class quite often) saw me lifting on Friday and made a comment about me using impressive weights. She has mentioned weight lifting before and knows that it's the best way to lose fat, so the concept is not new to her, but she was also making comments about needing a plan. So, of course, I emailed her a link to the New Rules book on Amazon and she replied that she was very thankful, was going to order it right away, and told me that I was and "incredible inspiration." I've never been complimented so well!!!

Bad news - Another co-worker (not one that I worked closely with, but knew some since we worked in the same department) was in a motorcycle wreck on Saturday and didn't make it. :-( Our company is large, our office has 500 people, so there are a lot of people I don't know, so to actually know her and the other people that she worked with just makes it harder. It's just amazing to me how everyone else's life goes on and her family is probably in ruins today.