Amazing Jo!!!

Woohoo Jo! Amazing!! (Plus, you only weigh 121lbs? Double wow!! ) impressive little lady!!

Dawn-that is interesting!! CTE, the 1 minute then a second round through 4th round, you change the weights? Or only on the last set? All in a minute each lift? Sorry, just wrapping my head around it. Love variety!! good job!
So sorry you're sick! What do you think brought that on? The workouts? Hope you're feeling better!

Beeps-yay for getting back to lifting! How do you feel? Hope your thyroid is good. I'm still waiting to see my new endocrinologist-sept 12 was the earliest appt!
The scale is evil, how do your clothes fit? Good for you taking control of your eating and tracking, great first step toward your new goal. You can do it!!

Aigre-good workout! So nice to do it at home

Got in a nice walk today and am trying to eat lighter. Scale up 3 lbs this week, but the weight training is much better. If I can stop gaining and keep adding weight to my lifts I'll stay the course. Hoping to eventually, slowly, shed some fat too! Jeans are tight! boo.

Beeps, I gained a similar amount last year when I returned from honeymoon. It went on in the space of 7 weeks!!!!! It has, however, taken 11 months to lose it, despite trying really hard to exercise and eat sensibly (ie not crash diet it away). Frustrating - it went on so quickly just by continuing to celebrate our wedding with friends, bottles of fizz being consumed, meals out etc. I didn't even realise until I went to put on a summer dress at the end of August that I had worn on honeymoon mid June and the zip wouldn't do up, with a gap of about 2 inches at the top!!

Aigre, the thought of putting a gym in the kids rooms is tempting - when my daughter was away for the winter season skiing, I had all sorts up there - bike on the turbo trainer, weights, etc! Then she came home and demanded it was moved! Hmmph!

Julie, you asked about the plan I am on - it is a 90 day plan. First 30 days of increased cardio - of the HIIT variety, although I just added this on to my weights sessions. On days you workout, you can have one carb "refuel" meal within 90 mins of exercising, then two low carb meals and two low carb snacks during the day. Portions are HUGE so you don't miss the carbs at all, although you do have to get to love broccoli and spinach! Cycle 2 is carb laden - 4 day split on weights where you do 10x10 sets. Typical 4 day split of chest/back, arms, shoulders and legs. 2 exercises of 10x10, so chest and back would be bench press and barbell rows, legs would be squats and lunges.

Because of the number of sets and reps, they suggest 60% of your 1RM, hence the lighter weights. First set is easy for those of us that have been lifting a while....by set 6 or 7 the lighter weights feel heavier than anything ever known to man!!! 60 secs max rest between sets, so less than 5x5 rest periods, all adding to the intensity! Plus 2 x 8 min HIIT sessions in between sets (or a spin class or similar during the day if that fits).

During this cycle you have 3 carb meals on training days but low carbs/high fat on rest days.

Cycle three ups the exercise intensity even more with pyramid training, but goes back to one refuel meal on a training day only, with the rest low carbs/high fat (not no-carbs, still able to have small portions of things like sweet potato, porridge oats etc, but not "full" portions). This hopefully strips the podge that you have gained from a carb laden cycle 2 and exposes those lovely muscles you've been working on over the 90 days!

All food is clean eating, really good recipes, plus you can make your own recipes from a "pick and mix" list as long as you get all your food groups during each day, so plenty of freedom which works well with me at work and with the family. No processed rubbish, so I am feeling better in myself too.

So today - Shoulders day. My HIIT sessions were made up of 2 sets of 8x20 kettlebell swings, then 10x10 OHP and 10x10 lateral raises.

So far so good.

Gentle hugs to all those who need them for whatever reason, and have a good Friday!

Hurrah for the XS blazer! an lol at the flashy vest. I used to have a little light and some Velcro that I would attach to my running gear through the winter. More than once forgot to take it of and it would go through the washing machine!

I'm in the first week of the second cycle of the plan, so day 34 of 90, I think. It is encouraging me to plan meals for the next week at a time, so I am super organised for once in my life!

Jo - fantastic advice! Thank you so much for a great post. How do you calculate your calories burned during weight lifting? I have been ignoring that as my Fitbit doesn't really pick it up (obviously), but noticing as I get closer to goal that it's more difficult for me to stick with MFPs recommended calorie goal. I usually start the day at 1200 and then accumulate 300 ish from my daily non-exercise activity via fitbit. But much under 1600 is a hungry day for me. So don't know if I am underestimating by ignoring those calories.

jo_marnes wrote: »

Thanks for all the good wishes

Wow, cross fit is expensive. I can't recall how much it was here in Oz when I looked but I remember thinking it wasn't worth it.

Aigre - another stage is always good to shake things up. I do not miss the SLDL!

Julie - haha yes, I'm a little one - but wasn't always. I started this journey at 75kgs (165lbs).

I'm sure if I had a rack at home I would be squatting better by now.

To those struggling with the scales and/ or progress - I feel that - while I am no expert - having gotten to my goal weight, maintained this for a number of years (up/ down as intended) and increased my strength I may have some words of advice. First up, consistency is key. Both in regards to training and eating. Choose a goal. Stick to one program to get you there. Evaluate frequently (3 mthly works for me). Modify the program as required.

KNOW what your maintenance calories are. Without knowing this, how can you know if you are in deficit etc? Start this by taking an educated guess - online calculators are useful for this. Eat that amount and record how much you weigh on a daily basis for at least 3 months. Yes, boring, but so informative. Our weight varies with our monthly cycles so you want to see what the trend is, not the daily difference. Why keep guessing? FIGURE IT OUT. Then adjust accordingly.

Then factor in goals. If goal is weight loss, eat at deficit and KNOW your calorie burn. MFP way over estimates for me so I used a HR monitor to work it out to start with. Now I know how much I can eat without even having to factor in my workouts - I aim for the same almost every day because my activity is pretty similar each day. And anyway, would certainly be the same over any given week. So if it helps to keep it simple, don't count exercise cals and just use the weight monitoring to decide a daily intake amount.

Frequent review is paramount - this year I dropped my calorie requirement because my job changed and is less physical. I had to factor this in to my plan. Now I want to cut some more body fat so I have dropped my cals again. It took a while to notice a difference (about 6 weeks) but now I'm 9 weeks in and in that time have lost 2% body fat and can SEE the change. Note that my scale weight has only changed a fraction.

It really is about gathering all the info (which takes time) and then using it effectively to achieve your goals. Constant evaluation is crucial, but swapping eating/ exercise plans every few months is only going to make you go back and forwards without really knowing what works.

Thank you for sharing this!! I really appreciate it! It's oddly comforting that you haven't always been so lean! Wtg!! I admire your patience and perseverance! I do bounce around from plan to plan too much...eating changes mostly. I can't seem to wrap my head around wanting to lose fat or build muscle. I do one for a while, then switch back to the other. But not long enough in either to actually make a lasting difference. Hoping for the elusive recomp, but ending up back where I started 165-170lbs and wishing my jeans were looser!
I'm now choosing to eat more carbs (scary for me) and focus on adding muscle and strength-but am also seeing the scale wt go up! 5 lbs in the last 2 weeks while being controlled, logging carefully, focused on 130g protein/day, lowish carbs (by normal people standards 100-150g) Scary! I'm making nice strength gains and my lifting is going great!
It's also a challenge as I'm hypothyroid and not treated yet, Hashimoto's. I'm hoping that is the cause of the gain as I'm averaging under my tdee cals every day. But, it'll still be a few weeks until I see the dr. Sigh. I could be up 10 lbs at that point!
I love the idea of sticking with a calorie range and giving it time, but I'm sacred to keep gaining. As I've gotten older the gains are stickier, they don't leave as easily. LOVE the encouragement to gather the info and take the time to see what your body is really doing. Thank you!

Beeps-((hugs)) wonder if your surgery and recovery have anything to do with it? Hope a dr can help! Like Kimi I can gain 20 lbs in that time, or less, really easily! Totally stinks! Hang in there and hope your plan starts getting you where you want to go!

Kimi-thanks for sharing too! So impressed and love your plan! Thank you for telling me about it. You've done so well! Wtg!! Inspiring!!

I don't do a lot of cardio, hate it in all honesty, and wonder if that would help? I've been down the cardio road before and it never helped me lose, but if I added it to SL of off days maybe? But I hate that I get so sweaty every single day-I have long dry hair and hate washing it and styling it! Isn't that a horrible reason not to work out more? Time consuming and hair damaging, and oh yeah, I hate cardio . I've been walking every day, even if only for 15-30 minutes. I enjoy that. Maybe I'll throw a little sprint in there a few times and see how that goes? The dogs won't like that, but they'll adjust .

Thanks for letting me mull my thoughts aloud! I don't want to obsess over the scale, but I also don't want to keep gaining. Very frustrating!

So much to catch up on.

Julie - The last go through was extra. Could have just left it at the same number of reps and weight but for the last round, we tried increase on the ones where I was getting all of the reps well during the other rounds. OHP I didn't quite make the last rep during the third go through so we kept it the same. Trying to tire the muscles some while still keeping the form was interesting. And I just had a headache that brought on the nausea but not sure why. Was okay the yesterday at least.

Aigre - I must not have explained it too well as it's 250-300 a month because it involves a lot of one on one. There is a bigger class that gets up to maybe 18 max but one class they do has a max of 5 and they do a lot of individual work.

Jo - Yeah, crossfit tends to be expensive. Most of the places I've looked up even in Oregon were over 100 a month. Some basically explain it like a hobby as people will spend lots of money on a hobby but I'm not one of those people as I don't have that much spare money ever. And good point on the maintenance calories. That's something I need to work on since I've mostly tried deficit and haven't worked out maintaining.


Weight loss does seem to slow near the end. Plus it's common to see recommendations to work on losing less than a lb a week along with getting a little closer to maintenance even though that often means taking much longer to see progress. The struggle I had when goal was .5 per week loss is that the fluctuations mask progress even easier between hydration, hormones and such. It's definitely more of a challenge when can't see the progress as quick (which is another reason people struggle on recomp too since the visual and scale progress is a little harder to see during). Plus really do need to be more accurate. I should weigh my food and do all of that to ensure my calorie counting is accurate.



Yesterday, went to the gym after work. Don't normally eat that much close to lifting but we had a potluck to celebrate the August birthdays and not much of the food was there until near the end of my shift. Had cookies, little bit of chicken and raspberry chocolate cake. Took almost an hour to get to the gym so it was one of the few times I didn't mind the commute as it gave me a little time to digest but still felt more full than usual during.

squats - 2x10 @ 45, 1x8 @ 95, 1x6 @ 135 and with belt 4x3 @ 175
overload - 245 for 20 count with belt
pause squats - @x3 @ 125
sumo deadlift - 1x6 @ 135, 1x5 @ 165 and 3x5 @ 185 with belt

Not bad overall. Squats are on the slow side still but felt decent and like I could do a fourth rep, which is good cause next week is same weight but 3x4.

Then, last night, we got all dolled up to go out. Me, sister and roommate went to a "burlesque" show at a small bar. Roommate did my makeup as she has so much from urban decay, MAC and such while I have just a little from places like Walgreens. She also let me borrow a skirt and corset. I've always wanted a corset, since I was 17, so it was fun getting to wear one for the first time. Dressing up was fun but the venue had way too many people in it considering the size and the show wasn't really what we expected from "burlesque". Got to have a couple of beers and later we got taco bell on the way home so definitely ate more than maintenance for sure. I'm not worrying much about calories for the weekend, though today won't be anything special. Tomorrow even though working on my birthday I'm going to get a cupcake or two from Sprinkles then have sushi for dinner. mmmm

Plan is to do a real focus on calories in September then for winter work on maintenance. Need a long mental break from trying to be in a deficit as this summer kind of showed since that was the intended focus but the results show not much of a success.

Aigre-wow! Great job!! Love the graph! So cool you lost that fast!! Really impressive! Slowing down close to goal is to be expected and I'm sure you'll get all the way to goal! I got the e2p book and am trying to do some version of it. So far I'm up in weight, but also reintroced carbs and upped my weights so hoping it'll come back down soon.

Jo-lol! I know! But it's hard to fit that in on top of the added workout. I'll try to get in some cardio. I know it's good for me. I loved combat! My new gym doesn't have it, but I could try Zumba again. Not as much fun, but still fun .

Dawn-you've done so well! Taking a bit of time and allowing your body a maintenance break is a good thing! Thanks for explaining, I was lost .


I'm hungry . Gonna go get some street tacos-high protein, low cal yumminess!

Jo - I wanna see muscle too. I keep hoping to get a peak of quad. Some day! hehehe

pmag - nice on the weights. That is quite a workout, moving them around.


I considered going to gym today cause deadlifts on birthday sounds fun but I'm still sore from Friday's squats and sumo deadlifts plus work last night. Don't want to rush around today either as it's a drive in the other direction to gym from work and the cupcake place. Today cupcake more important and tomorrow it will be lifting. I miss cardio too. Need to check out the park cause I do want to train for the half marathon in the near future.

Today is cupcakes and sushi. mmm

Happy birthday Dawn!! Enjoy!! Cupcakes and sushi sounds celebratory!!

Pmag-so good to see you!! Yay on the home gym! That's a lot of weight to move and store! Good job!

I did Zumba this morning before church! It was fun, but not very hard. Sweat a lot and better than sitting on my tush! Not too shabby! And scale back down a bit which is a relief. Whew!

Good work Julie!

Happy Birthday Dawn

Pudding - yep the scale is not a reflection of where we are at. Glad you can enjoy the shirt.

I don't know how I managed it but did DL day this afternoon (and upped weight for reps) after a 12 hour night, 2 hours sleep and then back to work for the morning. So glad I went - was tough but made me feel better. And scale weight was better than anticipated considering I usually bloat after being up all night.

Man I hope I sleep well tonight. Back on call for 48 hours in the morning I love my job, but jeez it's hard getting my body through the irregular hours whilst training to increase strength AND cut body fat at the same time! Taking the supplements (just fish oil, magnesium and glucosamine) to help my body through these times injury free.

Yep, Beeps, yesterday was my birthday. Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes. The sushi and cupcakes were nice and helped accommodate for the fact I had to work. Not only did I have a full shift but we were short staffed. Usually we have a cashier, someone in wine&spirits, a cosmetics person and a few people on the floor to help cover breaks and when there are lines. Last night the "floor" was just me. So, I had to cover all the stuff and try to do other tasks. But just need to make it through tonight then I get three days off in a row.

Nice looking gym, Aigre.

Aigre - awesome set up! I would LOVE my very own rack :-)

Upper body and combat done today. Starting to feel like this cut is hard work. My body is not enjoying. Am going to try and jiggle my macros a bit to see if that helps. I'm giving myself another 7 weeks and then will see where I'm at (hopefully start eating more again!). My gym runs an 8 week challenge which I'm not part of, but I've decided to hijack the latest one just from a timeframe and accountability perspective. I've told the trainer I'm doing it but in my own way on the side. I will use the daily FB posts about it as reminders to keep me on track.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Kimi - look at you with all your traveling! Florida is gorgeous, where in Florida are you going? Great workouts! Fantastic about the pull ups! Still a dream for me.

Jo - nice work! I can't imagine you have much to lose at this point.

Julie - haha, half the time I put my wet hair up into a clip and call it done!

Dawn - hope you enjoy your time off

Today was Stage 9, Workout B, Week 1
Windmills - trouble figuring these out, but think I did 5 on each side with an 8 lb dumbbell
OHP drop sets - 1x5@33 lbs (warm up), 1x7@45 lbs, 1x6@40 lbs, 1x5@35 lbs
Chin ups - 1x3, 1x2 with resistance band assist
RFESS - 2x6@35 lbs
Bench press - 2x6@60 lbs
SL RDL - 2x6@60 lbs

When I do upper body exercises, I don't get much DOMS. I just fail the reps when I get tired and I never get that sore. Lower body, however, I can keep going for a long time and really overdo it if I am not careful. Wonder why that is.