a_stronger_steph Member

Yeah... I'm just struggling to figure out what "good form" really is. I felt fairly fine with my squat form until yesterday (aside from the issue of not being sure how to hold my arms/hands), but yesterday I noticed that on the "rise" part of the squat, I had a differential in the rate at which my hips were rising and my…

Beautiful! Wish I'd had this when I was starting out... that PDF really is atrocious. And your description of it made me quite literally laugh out loud. I get that most of his audience is male, but it does sort of irk me that he's not doing anything at all in his power to help change that up a little. And it really…

Figured I should pop in here and add my introduction. I'm in a similar boat to a few on here, in that I started with NROLFW and got a bit annoyed with the set-up of it. I started NROLFW a few years ago, got through almost all of Stage 1, then got sick for a few weeks and went to a conference and didn't get back into it…

I'm going to mostly agree with this as well! I bought NROLFW a few years ago, got through Stage 1, got sidetracked... came back to it just this past year, did Stages 1 and most of 2 and just got a bit frustrated with how long and complicated the workout routines were getting. BUT - I still credit the book to opening my…

I was eating ~1400-1450 while losing, now slowly creeping towards maintenance and doing more strength training, so I've recently upped to 1560. Took me about a year to lose 40 pounds, and I'm pretty happy with the loss rate. Photos in my blog:…

I think your best bet will be to check out a store that specializes in running/running shoes (such as "The Running Room") in your area, if you have one. They'll get you to roll your pants up so they can see your feet, ankles, and calves, and have you run back and forth across the store a few times (or run on a treadmill)…

I found there was an unevenness to how challenging the different moves were, too, but it's evened out a bit for me (I'm... maybe... 7 or so workouts in to the SL routine, I guess). For me, trying to do the overhead press the first time was a disaster. I could get 2 or 3 reps, barely. But the squats and deadlifts were easy…

HAH! This. Walking for two to three hours per day is not sedentary. If you're set to sedentary, then log it. If you're set to a higher activity level, then don't.

My favourite pair of running shorts are a pair of compression bermuda shorts that I got from Old Navy last year. They come down to about 2 inches above my knee - which means they cover the entire thigh, and because they're compression, they don't ride up. They were cheap, too - about $24 regular price, and cheaper if you…

Well, this thread took an odd turn.

Oh, I forgot to mention: there's another way to get to eat more calories. If you're set to 1200 net, you probably have your loss rate set to 1-2 lbs per week. I see you only have about 10-15 lbs to lose, so personally, I'd go with a deficit that will give you a loss rate of 0.5 lbs per week. It may take longer, but you…

If you set yourself to "sedentary," then log all of your exercise, and eat back the calories that you've burned while doing that exercise. If you set yourself to "active," then you're essentially doing the same thing, except you won't log your exercise every day because it's already accounted for in your activity level.…

I started at 175 lbs (give or take - I may have been closer to 180) and was a size 12-14. I'm now ~135 lbs and a size 6 (or a tight-ish 4). If you'd like to see photos of what different people look like at certain heights/weights/pants or shirt sizes, check out http://www.mybodygallery.com/ - it's such a neat website!

I think you may be conflating "regular beer" with "mass-produced InBev ****e." The craft brewing market is growing, both in the US and Canada. Those who want to drink Bud Lite will do so; those who want to drink beer will seek out and support craft & microbreweries. Though, by all means, go ahead and assume that the US…

I used to think the same way (I'm Canadian), until I discovered microbreweries. There is an amazing craft brewing culture in the US, and they are producing some outstanding beers. Check out the breweries of Souther Tier, Dogfish Head, Rogue, Stone, and Avery, to name but a few... they make some seriously delectable stuff!

A life without beer would make me a truly sad and crabby person. I drink beer like some people like wine. I stock my beer cabinet according to type/season (IPAs are mostly in the back right now, waiting for summer to call, whereas the barley wines, Trappist ales, and stouts/porters are up at the front and ready to be…

Actually, that sounds like the definition of "plateau" to me, so I think you're understanding everything just fine. :) There's been some good advice in this thread. I know some people are enthusiastic about "calorie cycling" or "zigzagging", wherein you mix high calorie and low calorie days. I tended to do this by…

Out of curiousity, where is the "plateau" in your graph?

Hah, I've done pretty much all of these things at one point or another. When I was playing rugby, I put my hair in two tiny pigtails, one on each side of my head. In part because I couldn't be arsed to fuss with it much more than that, in part because I was afraid of what would happen if I got tackled with clips in my…

Bwahhhh?

Are you trying to cut out sweets/chocolate completely? As in, for the rest of your life? I figured there was no way I'd be able to (heck, no way I'd WANT to) go without chocolate for the rest of my life... so I worked it into my calorie goals and I have about 2-4 squares of some variety of dark chocolate per day. Sometimes…

To the OP, check out www.mybodygallery.com, if you haven't done so already! You can see bodies of all shapes and sizes - just pick a height and a weight range.

Some info: http://www.skepdic.com/bloodtypediet.html

In what universe does walking to work NOT burn more calories than sitting? Certainly not the one I've been studying.

My activity level is set to sedentary, so I log my walk to/from work every day. It's about a 15-20 minute walk each way, and my natural pace is 3.5 mph, but I log it as 15 minutes each way (30 total) at 2.5 mph so as not to overestimate the calories. I've been doing that since I started on MFP, and it gives me ~100…

Hot damn. You're rocking this.

I usually have between 200-300 calories for breakfast. Much more than that and it's more like brunch to me. :) In general, don't worry about when you get your calories in. It doesn't actually matter when you eat. You could eat all your calories at midnight, and, so long as you're in a caloric deficit, you'll still lose…

Baked oatmeal! I bake it the night before, cut it into four in the pan, and I've got breakfast for four days! My latest iteration had fresh cranberries, dark chocolate chips, and almonds... mmm.... http://www.foodwhine.com/2011/02/baked-oatmeal.html (Yeah, it calls for milk, but actually use soy or almond milk anyways, so…

This sounds great! Thanks for sharing!

Ahhh, I wish that were the case. My supervisor is terrifyingly brilliant and knowledgeable. Thankfully he's also an extremely relaxed and kind person, or I'd wet myself every time we had a meeting. :wink: