I have one additional work out left in my first round of stage 7. I'm going to start another round on Monday. I'm officially down five pounds from my heaviest weight and 1 pound away from my original goal weight. And I've lost half an inch off my waist since I started stage 7! More importantly I'm really noticing a visible change in my body. It's not a small change that I can talk myself out of in a moment of weakness. I really am slimming down. Excited!
Stage 7 is rough and this is about the time when I start getting bored with the workouts but I'm getting such good results that I don't want to quit.

I'm so excited for u! My waist (and more specifically my lower belly pouch) is where I really want to see changes. I could take not losing weight if the tummy would just go already!

Hello- I'm having insomnia- and I ve been reading about strong lifts- I had a good workout yesterday and I will extend BT 3 a little because I think I can do more.
My single standing chest press stinks though hasn't moved at all.
I can do some harder push-ups but the chest press is still terrible, even after trying some negatives.

Sam that's a great compliment.

Way to go beepejaye

Beeps you have the best attitude

Jamaica you have made progress

Good workout to close out week 2 today:-) Hubs and I went to the gym together so he could check out my gym with a possibility of joining. But he hurt his shoulder over Thanksgiving and has been kind of hiding how bad it is. Today he was showing me where a bone (??? or something??) is visibly poking up where it should not be. He said it still hurts a lot. So no more workout duo until he gets to the doctor. He is your stereotypical guy who will not willingly go to the doctor but I think at this point he's pretty freaked out.

But, the nice thing having him there with me today was he showed me how to use the squat rack. I have been doing a squat substitution because I've been intimidated by squats. I'm still a little intimidated and I think I'm going to need to get a few workouts under my belt before I feel more comfortable. It's all just like this ginormous clangy metal machinery and pretty intimidating. I squatted just the bar and felt really unbalanced like I was going to lose it at any moment and fall over.

Anyone have an issue with the bar on your back and it presses against your spine in an uncomfortable way? I am thinking I need some type of pad or something to put under the bar. I feel like I'm going to have a bruise tomorrow.

Progressing a bit with amount of weight I can lift. I moved up from the 40# to 50# barbell today for deadlifts and that was good.

This morning worked for three hours doing farm labor! My older daughter and I are in this volunteer activity and one of the things we do is this organic farm that grows produce for the food pantry so the needy folks can get fresh stuff in addition to the canned/boxed items. This was heavy manual labor. I felt like I had already done a bunch of squats, deadlifts etc for 3 hrs before I even hit the gym today. SO tired right now!

I always used a foam pad for my squats....it is circular and fits around the barbell center.

Me too.

But you could use a towel to wrap round the bar instead

I've been out of town since Wednesday so I'm really behind!

Pudding, I've been overeating quite a lot lately, too.

Ladies, ladies, ladies! This past week was SO great for me. I finally feel like I'm back on track. No more excuses. I didn't overeat AS USUAL. I didn't skip my cardio AS USUAL. I made a plan, and stuck to it. I went as far as to type it up here and in Word and I'd look at it everyday to remind myself what I needed to do that day.

To meet my goals, my plan this week:
1. 3 days of lifting. I'm going to be starting Basic Training III in NROLS.
2. 1 day of HIIT cardio.
3. 1650 cals on non-lifting days, 1880 cals on lifting days. This averages to TDEE-14%.
4. 25% of cals should be from protein
5. 6 cups of water daily
6. 3 days consisting of 20 mins of stretching
7. No eating after 8 pm.
8. Eat 3 servings of vegetables daily. This is hard for me because I hate veggies.

1. Check
2. Check
3. Check
4. Almost. 24%
5. Check
6. Check
7. Umm, not quite. 3 nights I ended up eating after 8pm.
8. Check

And VOILA, a 2.2 lb loss this week! I know that's a bit much, but after being in a plateau for so long, I'll TAKE IT. Plus, I've lost inches all over. I'm HAPPY :happy:

Like Beeps said, lifting is always the answer, especially in women. What most "cardio queens" do not understand is that they are destroying their bone density and are at greater risk of osteoporosis and bone issues. Weight bearing exercise helps stave that off. My hubby learned that the hard way.

How does cardio destroy bone density?

Oddly enough, I get a 2/3 this week.

I skipped HIIT. On purpose :drinker: I need the rest of my energy for a shower and I wanna do some Suzie Homemaker crafts.

I had a terrible weekend I worked and had abdominal pain. My physical therapist and my massage therapist think I have SIBO- small intestine bacterial overgrowth. I am seeing my dr tomorrow.

I had a good workout tonight. I am going to give bt3 another week I think-I am increasing some weights and want to stick with this mix of exercises a little longer.

I am 2/3 for the week- I didn't make my protein. I don't really have an appetite and thought if I stopped the protein bars and shakes I would feel better.

Nice job Jamaica
DNA can I have your recipe?

Sounds like everyone is doing really well. jamacianlady, congrats on sticking to your goals and seeing a loss. I have gotten a bit more used to the calorie amount and I think I like having the same amount to eat everyday, it stops me from trying to convince myself that the two hours I spent wandering around shops counts as exercise and therefore allows me to eat more. I am 5'8'' and weight about 145lbs (according to my inaccurate scale, other scales put me as heavier) but because I have such low muscle mass my TDEE is really low.

For squats, I try to place the bar on the shelf on my back created by muscles when I pull my arms back (if that makes any sense) but I have seen people in my gym wrapping a yoga mat around the bar to act as cushioning.

Re. crossfit: someone on my friend list was giving out about it one day and I asked her why people hated it so much because from what I had heard it seemed like a really good workout. This was her response
'My personal opinion is that Crossfit is the Jazzercize of lifting. I'm not a fan of their business model, and I think most of their trainers are under-certified. I also think that unless you're already fit when you start, the likelihood of getting hurt is probably pretty high. (High intensity + "constantly varied" movements + a competitive atmosphere = probably not paying as much attention to form and individual capacity as you'd like to see). I'm in pretty good shape but I also have wonky knees, unbalanced hips and a messed-up shoulder, so I think it's really important to take each person's body into consideration and tailor workouts to each person, and I wouldn't trust a Crossfit environment to be safe for me, let alone a new person who doesn't know how their body reacts. /rant'
So having heard that I have decided that it is not something that i want to do and I am happy to stick with lifting.

Last week I lifted three times but on Friday I didn't have much time so I rushed through 3B and skipped the intervals. This week I will finish stage 3 and I will have more focus while working out! 2/3 for me last week, I missed my protein goal but about 20 grams for the week.

Tell me more about these foam pads for squats. Is this something that is in the gym or is it something you bring with you? I did put a towel between the bar and my back but it was one of those really thin hand towels (just the towel my gym makes you bring so I just end up bringing it and aimlessly carrying it around with me but never using it.) The only place I am feeling it is along the bone of my spine where the bar was pressing. It's not like it's terrible but if there's some pad sitting around the gym that I didn't know was for that purpose I'll pick it up and use it for sure next time.

Good morning and "happy" Monday to all! I've been very lackadaisical in the past week but am recommitting again. What I need to do is come in here any time I'm feeling apathetic. Ya'll are always kicking *kitten*!

Re: the crossfit discussion. I think it's very glamorous and "in" right now and was tempted to try. But after looking more into it, the popularity seems to have worked against it in the fact that there are too many coaches with not enough training or experience. Safety does seem to go by the wayside all too often. And me being extremely unlucky/uncoordinated/prone to injury, I decided it just wasn't worth the risk. Plus, why so expensive?!?