scrittrice Member

This is me. I keep thinking I'll be able to give it up, and I'm fine for a while, but then slowly I begin to creep upward. I'm a sloppy logger (and also good at eyeing portion sizes) but I need to do it. Recording the numbers makes it "real."

That was probably the biggest revelation of MFP for me: that going into maintenance meant adding a couple dozen almonds.

Several years ago I had these exact symptoms and I thought it was gastroparesis, but an ultrasound showed I had a kidney stone. I never had back pain or any of the other typical symptoms, but I could feel that I was not digesting anything. It went undetected for a long time because I'm not in the risk category--very…

@krokador I lurk here but post rarely (I feel as though I'm so boring compared to everyone else--I just plod along making incremental progress), but I wanted to say I'm so sorry about your cat. I can tell she was much loved.

I seem to be able to skip logging or skip weighing, but not both. I just start to creep upward. I think doing one or the other keeps eating properly in the front of my mind.

Same.

Based on my own experience and the experiences of others that I've read on MFP, I would say it takes at least a year for your brain to catch up. And I think there is a little part of my brain that will never get there. For a long time I would go to a big department store where I wouldn't be bothering anyone and try on the…

This was so helpful to me when I was getting started and working out at home with dumbbells: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/902569/barbell-routines-when-you-only-have-dumbbells/p1 Eventually I joined a gym and switched to barbell, but you can go a long way with dumbbells and don't ever need to switch if…

I used to wear Moving Comfort but switched to Anita, specifically the "Active Momentum" style. Expensive, but worth it, and comfortable and non-uniboob-forming enough to wear as a regular bra.

A good friend of mine who struggled for years has found Nicotine Anonymous tremendously helpful.

I used this site to get started: http://blackironbeast.com/5/3/1/calculator There's lots to read about it online, most of it ridiculously bro-y. Highly recommend the Wendlerized app. But you could also drop from 5x5 to 3x5 if you haven't already.

I switched to 5/3/1 when 3x5 became too time-consuming. I looked at NROLFW (took the book out of the library, because I'm cheap) but it seemed to be overcomplicated just for the sake of it rather than for any real purpose. But I like the most boring, straightforward program possible--a routine in every sense of the word. I…

I just want to piggyback onto this great response to say that I log consistently (though I take a day off every once in a while and when I'm on vacation) and I have a lot of the same feelings the OP does. The other night I was having dinner in a restaurant with a group friends, and one of the people there who hasn't known…

Ha--I'm going to Italy in 5 weeks as well. Can't wait!

I love this, and (as someone who has worn glasses since age 6) I'd come up with the same analogy to eyeglasses on my own. I'd love to stop logging, and maybe someday I'll be able to, but so far each time I've tried to stop even one day a week, the slow creep has begun.

I have an Orwellian-sounding motto that I repeat to myself every time I have to reset: Failure is progress.

I wear an Anita bra and love it. They come in a very wide range of sizes. They are so comfortable and "normal" looking that sometimes I wear them as regular bras even when I'm not exercising. Expensive, but worth it, and you can often find bargains online. I'd go to a store and get fitted, though, if I were you, and pay…

I see on the other thread that you already went ahead, but want to chime in that if it's one week or less, I just stay the course and haven't noticed issues. So far my longer-than-one-week breaks have been planned vacations, so I've played with the schedule leading up to it to make the break fall before/after/during deload…

@SezxyStef is correct, and this is a ridiculous argument. If anyone gets bigger than s/he wants to be, that person can stop lifting. Unless you think our little lady-brains are too dim to figure that out.

My story, too. There is definitely a hormonal component. Every once in a while I step on the scale and I've "gained" 8 or 10 pounds overnight. I don't feel bloated and my pants aren't particularly tight, and then two weeks later I get one of my increasingly rare periods. But otherwise, my weight just slowly inches upward…

I did the same thing (stopped weekend logging) with the same result, and it occurred to me afterward that it would be better to choose a random day or two not to log during the week, as my eating is much more steady/regular then. I've been weighing portions a lot less, though. I've always had a good eye for that anyway.

Do you place the bar on a couple of stacked plates or steps? I find with the small plates on the bar and the bar resting on the floor, my shoulders round. There are also special plates that are the size of 45-pound plates (so they lift it off the floor a good amount) but weigh less. My gym doesn't have those, but maybe…

I would add two things to what's already been said: 1. Maybe you'll love lifting, who knows? (Unless you're already doing it--I assume from this post that you're reading but haven't started lifting yet.) 2. I'm a cyclist, and while I still like riding my bike more than I like lifting, I LOVE how lifting has made me a…

You're the best. Seriously. Not only would he never have done that to a guy, but he waited for the guys who were there to leave before he approached me.

@canadianlbs Thank you--for both the video and the validation! (Yes, I need validation from semi-strangers on the Internet.) That was more or less it--the total invasion of personal space. Not that my form is so perfect, but I think maybe he saw me doing my warm-up and thought those were my work sets and so he was going to…

Guys at my gym are generally nice, and there are a few regulars I ask for a form check or a piece of advice now and then (and vice versa). Today, one of the trainers was there with a few guys I know when I got there, and there was another younger guy working out who was unknown to me. I nodded hello, asked if this guy was…

I am extra-cautious with it too. I alway kind of leave my hands right underneath when I let go to make sure it's stable, but you're right, at that weight I don't really need the rack. I use it more for form purposes. Then again, yesterday at the gym after my shower I could feel I had an eyelash in my eye and I leaned in…

Oh, I guess I'm using a non-standard bar, too, because the "women's bar" at my gym is the same width as the regular bar (I think), but shorter and weighs less, and I always think how silly that is. If you were making a bar for women, it should be narrower but the same length as a standard bar so it fits in the rack.

I use the women's bar with plates sometimes--the plates fit inside the hooks on the rack rather than outside. It's a little clunky, but there is room for a plate or two and the clip.

I gained a couple of pounds. Seriously. Just kept going.