ElizabethKalmbach Member

Only once a week, if that, in winter. I'm too freaking cold to even contemplate a cold beverage, so I tend to go heavier on the lean meats. Summer, I maybe do one shake a day while camping or on weekends when my cardio load is lower or my ability to cook is hampered.

It's winter in Wisconsin, so I wear my workout clothes under my work clothes as "long johns." I arrive at the gym and strip off my outer layer in 20 seconds like freaking Superman in a phone booth, then start my workout. Changing after takes slightly longer, but not by too much, because while I sweat a fair amount, I don't…

I warm up by walking FAST over to the gym (12 min), I do my heavy lifts in the lift cages (15 sets/30 min), have a rinse in the shower, and then cool down by fast walking back to my office (12 minutes). I do my smaller accessory work at home in the morning before work. I do not need a squat rack or biceps curls or crunches…

1. Being able to do really impressive playground stuff for being "someone's MOM." 2. Being able to do what I love without help. (I make really big tents. People who have just met me sometimes try to help me put up my tent. The people who know me hold them back and whisper, "Just watch. It's magic." Tent canvas weighs about…

Right, but a home made version is going to use the same ingredients and typically end up at around the same number of calories for size. Mine end up being about 700 calories because I pile on the meats for protein and I'm not shy with the cheese. Essentially, it's a tortilla with refried beans and cheese on top, with some…

... The Taco Bell version only has 530 calories. Were you looking to go lower than that?

You should be able to log it under CARDIO as circuit training on MFP to get a reasonably analogous number of calories, though my Garmin does log my calories for my strength sessions - I think it may depend on the type of Garmin device you have? I log my sets and reps via my watch and it dutifully catalogs some calories…

I hike with my dogs, my mom gardens, my dad keeps renovating his house, or my house, or whichever of his children leaves him unsupervised near their property... :lol:

Typically if I'm eating the "wrong things" while out, I won't have hit my protein macro. One day won't kill me, but if it was lunch, I might try to get closer to the range I want by grabbing a protein bar or shake when I get back to my office or home. Long term, it doesn't really make a difference, but short term, I might…

You may want to try banking calories during the week (50-100ish per day is usually enough for me) and then using the extra 250-500 calories (or whatever you banked) on the weekend for fun food/beverages.

Girl, you're gonna need to eat more and as SlayLikeAWarrior suggested, rework your goals and targets. At 5'5 and 150 lbs, MFP gives me 1470 for a SEDENTARY lifestyle and a loss of .5# per week. I am not sedentary. I eat about 2100 calories per day to keep my loss DOWN TO .5#/week. Try a couple different TDEE calculators…

The entire left side of my body is less well muscled than my right, so I get where you're coming from. Bret Contreras has a lot of very solid programming for activating glutes, so one or more of his books may be worth investigating. I'm focusing a lot of attention on single leg and single arm work and starting on my weak…

Good on you for being smart about this. Heavier is not always better. It's the PROGRESSION that makes you stronger and your only competitor is yourself. FORM is way more important than weight moved, as good form will keep you moving weights around for longer when you're not injured and gimpy. There are a ton of good…

Does your knee hurt when you do the squat motion or at other times? Is it swollen? The BEST answer is to see a doctor or PT and follow THEIR advice, depending on the source of your problem. You may also need to get a trainer to fix your form with special attention to knee and toe position. My knee was hurting so I changed…

I do IF just to work around all my medications that shouldn't be taken with food and can't be taken together. I generally don't eat anything until 11:30 in the morning and then I have dinner around 6 and don't eat anything after that, unless I need to fit in more calories and was too full at dinner. The IF has really…

I like hiking around with my dogs and my kiddo, living room dance parties, hooping, ooh, and playing on jungle gyms... I'm gonna be sad when my kid goes off to middle school and we don't have jungle gyms on the playground anymore. :D

@magnusthenerd I think the DEXA software spits out an estimate based on lean mass, etc. I had a metabolic chamber thing with mine that measured my RMR (1411) and they compared it to the ones the DEXA estimated just to see how close they were.

+1 to Good shoes and thin, moisture wicking socks. As a former ballet dancer, for whom "good shoes" didn't necessarily prevent blisters, I usually stick a piece of masking tape or athletic tape over the problem spot, BEFORE there's a blister, if I know I'm going into a tough schedule of wear on my feets.

As a human recovering from iron anemia over the last 6 months, I can tell you that the reading I did suggests that low iron disregulates leptin (which makes you feel hungry) and ghrelin (which makes you feel full). My appetite was messed up and weird for MONTHS while I was struggling to get my ferritin numbers back into…

I think personality has something to do with the mnemonics and habits that work well for different sorts of people, but I don't think there's any sort of personality that can't lose weight or be disciplined. It's a matter of figuring out how your brain works and what you can do to harness those quirks.

*sigh* That should read CALORIES, but I'm sure y'all got what I meant. >_<

I have a treadmill desk at home, and I really like it, but not so much for added calorie burn. You can't go fast and use a spreadsheet. HOWEVER, I'm one of those "cold all the time" people, and the constant movement DOES keep my blood circulating better and my heat bill has gone down significantly since I installed the…

I usually do my workout as planned and as Chieflrg mentioned, the workout seems to take the edge off my cramps - that said, some days I have to lower my weight or my reps because I SIMPLY CANNOT move what I normally would the rest of the month.

It really depends on how you're measuring the steps. Many of the fitness watches these days allow you to "edit" your exercise so as not to double count. Some of them allow you to pre-select where the "steps" are coming from. For example, in my Garmin, before I start tracking an exercise, I tell it what I'm gonna do, and…

Wow! Congratulations! \o/ I'm so happy for you! You've been working so hard and maintaining such consistency!

Watch your weight fluctuation with respect to your weight lifting schedule. I'll bet you $1 you see a correlation. ;-) I usually lose all my weight for the week after my 2 back-to-back rest days on the weekend.

I stalled out for 5 weeks in November. I was lifting weights and had measurements, so I just kept going. My waist measurement dropped 2" in those 5 weeks, so obviously *something* was happening. Then half way through week 6, I dropped about 2.8 pounds when I took about 3 days off from lifting, due to the holidays closing…

I'm trying to creep my weight back down by only .5 lbs per week, but as my NEAT creeps up, I keep having to adjust my calories up by 100 calories/day/week. Because I'm going so slowly, I have a really good idea of what exercise calories are roughly correct for me and which ones are not. Over time, everything has averaged…

I had a couple oral surgeries a year or two ago. You're probably fine to keep walking and keep your steps up. Just don't do anything *strenuous.* You don't actually have to go "full potato" to heal from your oral surgery, though having lower calorie goals may be helpful depending on what you're able to actually ingest with…

Hey! I *used* to be a ballet dancer, "back in the day." If your insurance covers it, therapy can help you sort out A LOT of issues about the way you think of yourself much more efficiently than struggling through it all on your own, but doing it yourself isn't impossible. It just takes a while. :) I've found the most…