I claimed a new friend from the forums lol. Now I'm trying to convert her to heavy lifting. I layed it out. She is close to 200 and wants to lose weight and comes back with light lifting and tons of cardio. <forehead smack> Hope I was diplomatic enough.

Question for any of you who lift early in the morning. Do you eat before, or wait until after? If before, does it upset your stomach?

And so bikinigeddon has come and gone. I went to the beach yesterday and laid out in my bikini and achieved a delicious and beautiful tan. I wasn't embarrassed in my bikini or my body and my mom even said I looked really good and I'd lost a lot of weight. I turned bikinigeddon into this huge deal. As if it were a bikini competition and I'd be judged on presentation. No one judged me. As a matter of fact no one even looked at me. I built this thing up to be so big in my head and no one even looked at me. Which is a shame cause I did look pretty good.
I realized I have an issue with self sabotaging. I lose 5 lbs and I want to celebrate by eating fried chicken, burgers, and fries. So then I of course turn around and gain all my weight back and start to lose the great body I worked so hard for. I finally came to understand that this journey will never be over. I'll always have to eat right. I'll always have to work out. I can enjoy all those foods that are bad for me but it's not something I can do every day. All in all it's been a good week and I'm glad bikinigeddon has come and gone. It taught me a lot about myself.

Man oh man I am still so sore! I've been drinking a lot of water... anybody have any tips to help relieve the muscle soreness?

On another note... I'm so proud of myself for reaching my protein goal yesterday! This almost never happens and I'm trying really hard

What pudding said!

Red lipstick - that is a great realization, doesn't really matter what others think, it was important to you and it motivated you and you felt great on the beach! Besides mom noticed and she's usually the first one to say;

"have you gained weight?"
"that is a very big piece of cake"
"looks like you need a size 12"

Lol at least they're honest.

Worked for 9 hours today - bleah. Gym is closed and today was my last day to get another 3A in for the week!

Hey all I am still feeling badly - poor appetite nausea bloating abdominal pain and feeling like I will pass out. My pcp has no idea so I saw another md -still no idea. So I am waiting to see a gastroenterologist.
It was time for a week off anyway so no lifting for me.
I will do some walking and yoga and swimming.

Red lipstick - yeah for bikinigeddon.

Hi Everyone,
Not sure what DOM's is? Can someone tell me?

I am feeling really good today. At yesterdays workout I managed to do 12 full pushups in a row, for both sets! This is really big for me. I typically do them on my knees, or with my hands on the bench. Then, for the seated rows I managed to use a weight that just last week, seemed impossible to me! Yeah! I also went for a great run on the beach this weekend. There is nothing I enjoy more than beach running. Especially now when the water is so warm that it is almost like running through bath water. I love it.

This week I am going to try and focus more on my diet and make sure i am eating to support my new weight training habit. That means protein, protein, protein. Over the weekend I made a huge pot of bison chili, and chicken tikka. Both are loaded with veg too. These should help me in my goals this week.

Thanks to all of you who are posting such great information. It is really helpful!
Sarah