Beeps-glad the surgery got moved up. And I agree, we keep chasing the elusive progress!! But I hate to think of what id weigh and look like if I wasn't trying!

Mel-where in mn are you? Dh's family is in Cohasset, Alexandria, Elk River...all over mn. you got all that in on an hour? Impressive!! You're welcome in my boat, but it's a rough ride .

Aigre-good job getting your workout in!! I've never been thinner than this, but would dearly love to be. Couldn't we be thinner and strong? I'm dialing back my lifting in an attempt to lose some fat...still dreaming .

Stephe-OHP is my weakest lift too . I've worked up to 55-60lbs over the past 2 years. Sad. But we keep working...

Kim-cool about the omelette! I rarely use kettle bells. I did Turkish get ups for a while, good exercise!

Jo-have fun!! Relax and enjoy yourself!!

I'm doing well. Lifted upper body today, and lower body on Tuesday. Hit my PR on whts (175) and bench (sad 70) so that's encouraging. Hitting my low calories, and the scale is considering going down, not as fast as I'd hoped...but hopefully it's coming along. Sigh.

No lifting for me today - I did do a short HIIT workout this morning using dumbells. It may only have been 15 minutes but it didn't half get my heart pumping! My glutes are already feeling it from squat jumps and reverse lunges so it must be doing it's thing! I'm hoping that the HIIT workouts will help shift some of the lardy-ness! Aigre - I am definitely more body fat than you!

I have a friend visiting this weekend - we used to go running together when she lived locally (now lives the other side of the country). I think she is bringing her running kit with her, so we may earn the wine that will undoubtedly be consumed tonight by taking in a couple of steady miles around the village! She is training for the NY Marathon later this year, whereas I will be happy to get around 2 or 3 miles without my hip screaming. Will report back.....

I'm now in LA. Drove from 4 am till after 9 pm in order to get here. Stopped at a couple of food places. I start work tomorrow. Today I haven't done much. Did go to the gym though, since needed to check out the locations over here. It was okay. At least had a place to squat and such. Had a guy suggest I look up someone who does powerlifting after the guy commented on how strong I am. Always throws me off cause I wasn't even trying for heavy, just did 135 for squats. Then spent the afternoon napping with the cat.

Squat - 3x5 @ 135
OHP - 3x5 @ 65
Deadlift - 1x6 @ 135, 3x5 @ 185 (conventional, sumo, conventional)

Oh and the friend I ran with, I haven't seen for months as she lives the other side of the country now.....I put my running kit on and she said....."have you been lifting weights or something? Your back and shoulders look amazing!"

Woohooooooo!!!

Welcome back @pmagnanifit. I certainly empathise with the donut thing. I too can be very "all or nothing" in my approach, when all I want is a healthy balance between the two. Should be so easy, but isn't! Stick with it. A "c" is not so bad. Room for improvement but a long way from failure!!

Just done an hour's circuit training and half an hour on the crosstrainer. Now completely pooped!!!

Planned to bike today- but worked instead.
I took my girls to see a production of the high school musical- we had fun

Hi All!

Happy Monday, again!

Beautiful weather here lately.

Saturday I did Strong, Stage 6, Workout B, #3 - managed to get up to 55 lbs on the squat to box. Hoping my technique is improving and will allow me to lift more weight gradually.

Yesterday I ran 4.3 miles in the morning. In the afternoon we walked to a country fair fundraiser for the elementary school. The kids had fun doing pony rides, bounce houses, and getting ice cream. Including the run, I hit 19000 steps. I ate 1650 calories but then woke up at night hungry

Today I did Strong, Stage 6, Workout A, #4
Spidermans - 6 each side
Standing cable chop - 2x12@35 lbs
Deadlift - 3x8@103 lbs
Bench press - 3x8@50 lbs
Suspended lunge - 3x8@16 lbs. Can't really figure out the difference between suspended lunges and RFESS. They feel the same to me.
Dead stop row - 3x8@30 lbs
Intervals x 10 minutes

Pmagnanifit - 3 months of Strong Curves and 2 months of NROLFW sounds better than a C to me. Sorry you are having trouble getting back in control of eating. Bet the depression has a lot to do with that.
Dawn - awesome update! Glad everything is going smoothly with the move! How far away is the meet?
Kim - great run! And how nice your friend noticed and said something! That sort of thing can really make your day.
Beeps - two splits in one day? You are so strong!

Told my husband that I was frustrated that despite being almost 6 months into a lifting routine that I still feel so weak. I know I shouldn't compare to others, but I just feel so far away. He was like "How can you be weak, you workout all the time?" He just doesn't get it. He goes to the gym, does a few machines, a few pull ups, dips, some ab work, runs on the treadmill for 20 minutes and is in great shape, never has to worry about eating or weight. Not fair!

^^^ what she said.

Good morning everyone!

I had a nice run this morning, 3.2 miles, kept my heart rate in the 140s - so much easier since it was cool!

Kim - LOL about the shoes. I have 2 extra pairs of shoes in my office and one in the car for such occasions. Glad the Body Combat was fun. It's nice to switch it up every once in a while.

Beeps - I think the disadvantage of the Strong workouts is that Alwyn switches things up pretty frequently. So harder to see progress vs. doing Stronglifts or whatever. Because it's hard to compare a goblet squat to a back squat to a box to a back squat with pause, etc. At least it is for me as a newbie. I like the switching up because I feel like it prevents me from developing bad habits, and I like trying new things, but yeah. And I feel a little frustrated that "newbie gains" are supposed to be over soon and I haven't really noticed any

Stephie - somehow I keep missing your posts! Sounds like a good workout. Will look to find your video, not because I have any advice but just to see how to do it.

Anyway, I have a lot of confidence in my abilities in other aspects of my life, but my athletic ability has never been my talent. It's good for me and I still hope that eventually I'll see results, so I'll keep going. But definitely jealous of Dawn's "easy" 135 lb squats whereas 100 lb squats or even 80 lb squats seem just so so far off to me!

Ohhhmerrrgerrrd! What a crummy TIRED day! I meant to check in here yesterday but got sucked into some stuff at the end of the day.

Julie - I live in Duluth, so literally across the state from Alexandria and that area. I've only been here for 5 years - moved here from Iowa - so I'm not super familiar with all the towns, but I've at least HEARD of the ones you mentioned We bought our van in Alexandria a couple years ago. I have no idea how I got so much done in an hour!! I know I didn't wait in between sets...so maybe that could be why, but that's still a lot!

Aigre - It gets COLD here in the winter. A few years ago, we kept getting "arctic blasts" and it was like minus 40 all damn winter. It's is supposed to be in the 50s and rainy here until Thursday. Then the weatherman says it will warm up. We'll see. In Minnesota, if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes. On another note, I don't think your weak. I think we all probably have days or weeks where we feel like we aren't doing enough, or doing it heavy enough. I definitely having one of those weeks right now - but you are strong and you will get stronger.

Kim - I really enjoy HIIT, but I've never tried it off a cardio machine (treadmill, stat bike, elliptical). I've been told that HIIT is pretty effective, so hopefully it will help you reach some of your goals.

Beeps - Your tenacity is inspiring! How on earth do you find time to do TWO splits in one day??

Pmag - Nice to meet you! I don't like doughnuts either. Or chocolate. Sounds like you're doing better than a C. And doing something is infinitely better than doing nothing. You're on the right track.

Dawn - Glad you made it to LA! I think it's awesome that someone approached you at the gym! No one really talks to anyone else at mine. It's all business lol.

I've really been slacking on lifting (or doing anything really) this last week. I only did two workouts last week instead of three (it was TOM and didn't feel up to it), and this week I already skipped Monday. I feel super weak, too, and SO TIRED!!! I almost couldn't stay awake on the 30 minute drive to work this morning. Had to get a caffeinated SODA (don't like coffee), and I basically quit soda in November (except for the very occasional non-caffeinated one). When I hit the gym today, I felt really *kitten* and weak. I just couldn't force myself to push any harder...

NROLFW Stage 2, workout A2.

front squat push press - 7@75, 5@75 - I think I effed these numbers up. MATHS! Also I hate this move. I can barely do it because I worry about 1) hurting my knees in the squat, 2) squat form, 3) holding the bar so it doesn't hurt my left thumb/wrist area and 4) pushing into the press makes me wobby in the middle. I might default to just doing sitting overhead presses and squats separately. It's not worth hurting myself over.
Step-up 10@60, 10@70
dumbbell one-point row 12@20 10@25 I don't do this exactly as illustrated because my balance on one leg like that is not that great and I can only get one or two in before I have to reset my position.
Static lunge (rear foot elevated) 10@20, 10@25 (no elevation because I tweaked my knee somewhere in here)
push-ups 10@0x2
planks 4x30sec
horizontal wood chop 10@25, 10@30
plus 10 minutes walking slooooooowwwwly.

Sorry for the book! Wanted to make sure to respond to everyone!

Happy Wednesday!

Stephie - Yes, we must post at the same time! Though I think we are in very different time zones! Funny! Your squat looks great to me. Sorry you aren't feeling well, hope you are better soon.

Supermel - nice workout! You are very strong! I'm around Boston so we definitely get cold and snow in the winter, but nothing like -40 for days on end. The weather here these last few days has been really spectacular though. Waiting for the other shoe to drop and the hot/hazy/humid to come in. Happy to be "friends" but I don't really follow that feed all that much.

Today I did Strong, Stage 6, Workout B, #4
Suspended jackknife 2x10
Standing cable lift 2x10@35 lbs
Back squat with pause/box/etc. I did 3x6@49 lbs. Sometimes paused and sometimes sat on the box and sometimes didn't. That probably wasn't the most consistent thing to do, but I did manage to get through the sets without doing my ridiculous good morning moves.
Chin ups with band. Thought 4 was my limit, but eeked out a 5th rep on the last set. Progress! 2x4, 1x5@ 100 lbs assist
RFESS 3x6@24lbs each leg
DB neutral grip bench press 3x6@25 lbs
Intervals x 10 minutes

Oh, and the meet is early October but haven't signed up for it yet. Need to get one together, figure out requesting time off and ask for plane ticket for birthday. Would start peak cycle in August if go for that one, which being a world comp would be really cool to attend. Hoping it works out.