Bepeejaye, well color me jealous. Hehe, I happen to have a pic I sent my husband of the new cut that he took the liberty of editing, and I gotta say, I like it much better that way. Maybe I'll set it as my new profile pic

Barbell, yes. Happens too often and is frustrating and very de-motivating. Then, for some odd reason I'll have the opposite happen. Like this morning. This week hasn't been great calorie-wise and I really need to reign it in. But for some reason, this morning, I felt I looked skinnier and my tummy was flatter than it had been in a while...wth. This side of the coin can be just as unproductive!

Yes! And hormones play such a huge role in how I view myself and how I actually do look. Oddly enough, my leanest days are right before TOM. I swear I look ripped for 3 days. Then it hits and I look like a pufferfish for five days. Then it abates and I look very normal again. Then 10 days later my entire body swells(fingers, ankles,etc). A week of that and I start the Leaning out again. It's a constant cycle that I KNOW comes, but it still affects my psyche. And the scale reflects these crazy fluctuations which leads to more distress....

Manic, my husband does very little, but he's a great dad and I don't for much more. we;d both rather just hang out with the kids than clean. He doesn't complain either. He complains that I'm not much of a cook, but he could not give a crap that the house is dirty. I went on strike and he never noticed until he ran out of clean clothes. But then he'll wear the same jeans for two weeks straight. ewwww.

I too am a slave to my hormones and it just gets worse as I get older. It's akin to being manic depressive. One week of the month I am full of pep and vigor. Boundless energy and joy. By the end of the month I'm just depressed and unmotivated and have a VERY bad attitude. I also feel fat and ugly and telling myself it isn't true only helps so much. I can't button my pants when I ovulate and before my period.

Hoping to get to the gym today.

So I went into Old Navy this afternoon looking for capris. Grabbed a size 6 to try on- they looked big, so I took a size 4 too just in case. Seriously, why do they make their clothes so ridiculously big? I'm not complaining about being able to wear a size 4. But are they simply catering to a "growing" population? Vanity sizing is one thing, but when I was a size 4 in high school, my waist and hips were at least 2" smaller than they are now. According to today's sizing, I'd be a size 0 at 5'5" and 125lbs. That's just ridiculous.

Did not in fact make it to the gym. I got to drive my hubby's new car for three hours on a trip upstate to high point state park to fetch him from a 7 hour ride day. LOVED IT! BEst therapy in the world, driving a harmonious piece of German engineering. It's a total driver's car and with the new suspension it corners on rails. ahhh.

Vanity sizing is just stupid. However, I busted a pair of old navy pants today and they were 10 years old. Just wish their new pants were higher rise. Not everybody wants to show off their pubic bone, or in my case, stretch marks. Some women really need to be taught how to dress their bodies.

My biggest objection to Old Navy pant is exactly that, Sam - I don't wear low-rise, I look awful in them and I feel as if my *kitten* is hanging out all the time! Gloria Vanderbilt fit me best, sit just below my waist and are as comfy as can be.

Got my lifting in this morning - bench, DB shoulder press, bent over rows, tricep extensions and 7s. I had food poisoning over the weekend, so it was not a stellar performance but it's done!

I missed everything this week, sadly. I think though this week will be better since my schedule will be more normal.

Capri are cool. They are very spring.
I am having a hard weekend work wise - lots of tough situations and stress. It was my birthday but not fun. My kids tried hard - they made lots of colorful paper animals and a zebra striped cake. I ate cake and chocolate chocolate chip muffins this weekend. So I'm not meeting my protein goals this week.

I lifted last night at ten pm because I couldn't sleep. The gym is fairly empty..
Not my best workout but another one is in the can.

Does Ramp take twenty minutes for anyone else? I still have to look at the book. And I add in some of hip flexor strengthening pt moves.
Tomorrow I am off but working anyway.

Sorry your bday was not great. That sucks. Especially when us Mum's give so much the rest of the year. Nice that your kids made an effort though :-)

I don't really do RAMP. I have my warm up run (10 mins) and then have selected a few RAMP exercises which take me a few mins to get through. I don't have time for the whole lot.... so I do what suits me.

xxx

ALRIGHT LADIES, IT'S TIME TO REPORT YOUR WEEKLY CHALLENGE RESULTS!
Score it on a scale of 0-3.

Alright so I picked up the book yesterday-it is great. I am going to transition from my 5X5 stronglift program to Stage 1-which should be an easy transition. I am nervous about increasing my calories so much (at 173 lbs) I should be eating 2000 on non-lifting days and 2300 on lifting days. I will take some photos today and track my progress that way.

Any words of advice?

Welcome! Calories are very tricky- some of us they were too much, some of us they were too little. I personally switched to just doing the TDEE method after Stage 1. The "rule" about eating more on workout days has been debunked:) But do whatever you feel you want to do at this point and reevaluate as necessary. Some ideas I have for people starting NROL4W now that I've gone through Supercharged:
*If you are a beginner to lifting, watch as many form videos as possible before attempting the deadlifts and squats. Do not increase your weights until you are very solid on your form. FORM, FORM, FORM.
*The prone jackknife is a really challenging exercise for most of us just starting out. Substitute with mountain climbers if you aren't confident your form is perfect. I can't tell you how many times I made my back REALLY sore trying to do these. Since I was such a newb, it never crossed my mind to just substitute something else until I was stronger.
*DLs from a deficit in Stage 2: Only do these if you are certain you have the mobility/flexibility to do them correctly. Do regular DLs instead. I personally found these really difficult when I was doing them- my back was constantly sore and I shouldn't have been doing them! Wish someone would have told me to just chill and do them when I had more experience.
*If you are looking for fat loss in Stage 1 and want a little extra burn, you can always add some cycles of HIIT after each workout. HIIT is more effective for MY body.
These aren't "tips" really, just ideas that you think about. Most of all, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

What's RAMP?

30% . only hit one goal out of the 3 which was exercising 4 x weekly.