Another bronze star week for me.... Also didn't make it to the gym for my NROL workout on Sunday, so only 2 workouts last week. We had crazy rains here on Thursday which resulted in 4" of sewer backup in our basement (YUCK). We have a playroom and an office down there, so lots of toys and carpet lost. But it's clean now! Anyway, my husband had his hands full dealing with Service master and trying to minimize the losses and so I was on kid duty all weekend and couldn't go to the gym. I did take the kids to the park both days, long walks with the stroller, and lots of lifting my 28 and 37 pound toddlers. So I guess that counts for something. But also lots of convenience eating (out for brunch on Saturday and pizza delivered on Sunday). Hopefully this week will be better.

Former QOTD - my husband is supportive, but works long hours and that makes it hard for me to get to the gym. My kids are too young to be unsupportive, but my littlest one (17 months) detests the daycare at my gym (read, screams the whole time), despite the fact that it's super nice with lots of great caregivers, so that works against me too. My mom is a total gym rat (straight out of the jane fonda aerobics era) who eats on the 1200 calories plan. So she's very supportive of my weightloss goals. But then she's crazy so I try not to talk to her about it.

OMG I had such an awesome weekend up in Maine. I stayed with sisters, visited with high school friends and saw the Vagina Monologues with them - one of my classmates performed a couple of the monologues. It was all terrific! We ate some great food and I stayed on point the whole time! Yea me! I'm down 2.8 #s from the last time I weighed, and tada I have an awesome NSV. Last year I bought a pair of skinny jeans, which I could get on, but were so tight my legs looked like sausages crammed into them and which were so tight I could barely zip them up! I have them on today! They are loolse in the legs, loose butt and very loose in the waist!! I'm a very happy camper!!! I have not measured since I started the program, and although I thought I would once I finished Stage 5 (last Thursday), I think I might wait. I have enough other indicators that I don't feel the urgency to measure now.

To day is my birthday. I'm 61. I feel better, more fit and more healthy than I did at 35. I'm absolutely more strong, and even my balance is improved,

Mary, I am so proud of you! How to work through a tough time and come out on top! You can do that every time now. Just remember how good it felt to you!!

Cowgirl, thankfully you know otherwise, though I am sure you'd be happier with your mom's approval. Funny how, no matter how old we are or how right we are, if our parents aren't on board, we sort of second guess ourselves!!

Em, I'm really sorry to hear you hip pain came back! I hope the doc can find what the issue is and that it's an easy fix! I am very envious. I wish my husband would workout with me! He is not happy with his weight and embarassed to go to the gym the size he is. I keep telling him there are people there who are much bigger than he is, but he won't hear it.

That said, responding to QOTD, he is totally supportive of my program and doesn't ever say anything derogatory about my meals or my gym hours etc. And he does notice and says so!

Beeps I'm PLATINUM again my total cals this week was 10,465, 1335 under my 11800.

Sue, happy birthday! You are so inspirational to me!

I was under net again this week, despite a crazy near binge on Friday!

Hi Ladies -

Beeps - I do not get a star this week..over 1000 over. Sigh. The good news is that I still lost weight last week!

Sue - love your strength gains and jeans losses! Happy Birthday!!

LJane - sorry to hear about your basement!!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! Love you guys!!

im having a super-stiff-shouldered resting day and about to eat my life away!
any of you feel hungrier on resting days/could this be due to needing extra energy to repair la ripped muscles?
i seriously feel like eating all the carbs in the world! *sigh*

If you want fat loss, pay CLOSE attention to your calories!

The #'s in NROL4W did NOT work, for me....so, just be cautious. If you eat the number of calories (recommended for some fat loss) from NROL4W and you are losing scale weight, while heavy lifting, you can be certain it's fat lost.

If the scale starts going UP, beware! I believe that is a sign you are "eating too much" and you may have to reduce your calories BELOW what is being recommended in NROL4W.

Just my $0.02

Awesome, thank you I am doing 1600 on non-workout days and just under 1900 for workout days... I'm 5'9" and 23 so I'm hoping that is right because it feels right!! And the scale did go up at first but it's back down now, I'm weighing every day right now so I can see what kinds of patterns my weight takes on. And on the plus side I can already feel some differences in how my clothes are fitting - back in my "skinny" pants that are the biggest the store sells haha

oh good, i dont feel like a complete idiot anymore. hope my appetite stabilises itself soon, cause it does feel like im overeating. (not talking about todays binge, obviously.)

emgel, how on earth can you work out evenings? thats some serious dedication there im in my 20s too but no way id be able to do that. mind that im a mummy so im running around all day like a lunatic and as the sun goes down i completely deflate too.

Morning all!

Did another great workout last night! I am not really following NROL anymore, but doing lots of heavy compound moves with hubby (last night we did split squats, rows, shoulder press, bench, and abs) AND i've discovered battle ropes...HOW FREAKIN FUN!!!

Eve - I mix things up with my workouts. Since October I have been getting up at 545am and going to the gym and recently I just got EXHAUSTED and kept sleeping through my workouts. So now I am working out in the evenings after work, I am sure I'll eventually go back to morning workouts, but this is working for me for now. It works with my schedule as I don't have kids and my husband usually gets home an hour or two after I do. He is also the opposite of a morning person, so to lift with him I have to go to the gym at night. It is working for now =D

Breeze - I do lots of cardio with my lifting! Do whatever YOU like to do!

Also I am sitting next to a GIANT plate of cookie brownies i made for secretaries day and good lord they smell good...I will have to move them.

guys, surprise surprise, the saying is true: eat crap, feel crap.
absolutely unmotivated after yesterdays blow out... BUT i pulled it through and squatted the hell out of my rack! whoop!
just sipping my wonder smoothie then off for a walk we go with my daughter to pick up 2x 10kg discs for my barbell. started to outgrow the ones i have...

also: do we have a general Q&A topic here, or does everyone 'have to' open their own question/topic? for me personally it makes life harder to try and search through all the topics, cause i dont want to repeat the same questions again. (nothing particular at the moment, but you get what i mean. you see 284393274821 topics about 'can i do this at home?' and 'do you follow the calories in the book' etc)

RE-re-restarting S3 today... lol. This time hopefully my schedule wont be so wonky!

I felt like crap yesterday so that's all I really have for now.

Beeps, I had to look up some vids of hip thrusts. I keep seeing people talk about it, but had never seen it. Looks brutal. I can't imagine doing it with 115lbs! That's awesome!

I don't know if I need a break or if Supercharged is just a crazy workout, but I was dead after my workout today! I spent 2 hours laying in bed after we got home! I haven't felt like this since I started NROL4W. Hopefully it's just from starting a new stage and from having a big calorie deficit yesterday. I'm not sure I can function like this.