Fitness Safari

For my early readers, do you recall the story, Is no place sacred that I wrote after I saw a Craisins ad on the wall at my gym? In it, I compare Craisins to their close cousin, Mike n Ike's... Anyway, not long after I posted my story, (and I'm sure a total coincidence) the Craisins ad was replaced by an ad for egg whites! Yes! Seems I may not have been the only person to complain about the candy, er, I mean Craisins ad they had posted. Well, I'm even happier to report that the powers-at-be have decided it is better to push healthy items to the members of their club and have brought in their latest poster below. I definitely approve: At any rate, I'm still IFing, working out, and trying to keep my shit together while I undergo some major life events. The good news is that I seem to have busted out of my fat loss stall and have hit 115 lbs, but am maintaining my strength. I'm working to tweak my diet as I know I've been slacking big time and am already seeing cha...

After I sent Martin ( Leangains.com ) my chinup vids so he can post them, he asked me about my routine so he could offer some background to the videos. He felt it may help give some direction to other IFing women out there; and I hope it does. I think he's going to post this sometime soon as well, but I wanted to archive it on my own blog. I created this routine from bits and pieces found scattered like confetti across his blog. I know everyone is slightly different and has different goals, so this routine may not be for you. I also know that, after two months of this, I'm stronger than ever before, but will likely have to find a way to shake things up a bit to keep things moving...but I'm not sure how to proceed. In case you rush through the routine without reading the fine print, I generally rest from 3 to 5 minutes between every set. Since I'm only doing 2-3 types of exercises at 3-4 sets each, I'm in and out of the gym in under an hour. Oh, and I only workout 3 ...

The videos are a little shaky, but that's what happens when you let your 12-year old daughter film you. Only got two sets recorded - no idea what she was doing the other sets...but you get the idea. I'll post again when I break the 25 lb barrier! First set - Body weight + 17.5 lbs - a new PR! Only did 5, but that's ok with me! Followed with 15 lbs x 5, 10 lbs x 5, BW x 6, and BW x 6!

Spent the weekend moving into my new apartment and MAN am I sore! The muscles in my neck, middle and upper back and thighs are especially tired and heavy today. I was going to shoot my weighted chins vid today for Martin, but it's going to have to wait at least one more day. I have to eat and rest before I'm going to take that on. I don't want to disappoint everyone who's rooting for me out there! Hope you are all keeping to your programs and seeing results. I'm looking forward to another week of heavy training, heavy eating and lots of sleeping! Stay tuned...I'll publish the video later this week.

Recently I've been struggling with my motivation. I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere. My workouts stalled (poor diet, lack of discipline and no sleep). Then, today, I hopped on the scale to a solid 116.0 lbs (was literally 117.8 yesterday at the same time). I think the two pints of Guinness I had to celebrate St. Patty's with my girlfriend and the bar appetizers I shouldn't have eaten may have given me the "Whoosh" that Martin Berkhan speaks of. "By the way, a nice bonus after a night of drinking is that it effectively rids you of water retention. You may experience the "whoosh" effect, which I've talked about in my two-part series about water retention. That in itself can be motivating for folks who've been experiencing a plateau in their weight loss." In any event, I'm pleased at my results so far and look forward to seeing how I will look in another two months - just in time for Memorial Day at the Jersey Shore. Here the...

So, to make up for my crazy schedule and lack gym time, I spent the last week and a half working out about every other day. Things were holding steady until last night. My bench was a struggle; I could only do 4 weighted chins with 15 extra lbs... (down 1); and I just felt off. Realizing I'm not taking my own advice to rest I am going to regroup, drink some green beer with my girlfriend tonight and rest for the next few days. .... Some of you have been asking for progress pics...I will post some this weekend after I take the latest batch. Please be nice...I was pretty chubby for a size 4. :) - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

This is the culprit. Why I can't stay awake past 10 pm, but can't stay asleep past 3:30 a.m. Why I have no appetite. Why my hairbrush had decidedly too much hair stuck on it lately. Why I have this anxious feeling in my gut ALL THE TIME. Why I wake up sweaty almost every night. Even why my periods have nearly disappeared. This tiny blue pill that I have no choice but to take every single day for the rest of my life has turned my life upside down. Those of you who blamed my symptoms on IF - and you know who you are - guess what? You were right .... kind of. So, what is this little blue pill, you ask? Synthroid. The Back Story On Good Friday, 1999, I was given the cheery news that I had Papillary Carcinoma of the thyroid gland. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this butterfly-shaped organ, the thyroid gland is a small gland, normally weighing less than one ounce, located in the front of the neck. It is made up of two halves, called lobes, that lie along the windpipe (trac...

I've been reading the Facebook posts of some of my friends and fellow health nuts and I still can't get over the volume of physical activity some of them are undertaking nearly every day of the week. Interspersed between their postings of a zillion supersets of this and a bazillion reps of that are complaints about how tired they always feel...how their joints hurt...how they just can't seem to get enough REST. Well, duh. Now, I used to subscribe to the same program. I sweated my ass off, running mile after mile of sprint intervals; I did speed rope sessions combined with various plyometrics - and this was all DURING a strength training session. But, no matter how many miles I logged or how fast I ran or jumped rope or did box jumps or all of the above simultaneously, I wasn't getting anywhere. In fact, I was only getting fatter and softer. It wasn't until I stumbled on Leangains this past January when I discovered my problem, well, problems. First off, my diet su...

Traveling again - I'm in Wichita this week. Yee-haw! Nice place. I actually kind of like it here. The folks are all very nice. There's no traffic that I have seen and the pace of life feels a bit less frantic - that is, until I get to the office. But hey, I have a job. I mostly love my job and I totally love the people I work with. With the 12-hour work days we've been putting in, I haven't had time to workout, but I'm keeping the diet pretty on par with leangains... The lunch options don't afford me the opportunity to really protein up, so I've been keeping them very low carb and as much protein as is possible. I didn't pack protein powder, but I did bring beef and turkey jerkey and some of those packs of mixed nuts for emergencies. Since I'm way low on calories, I've been trying to load up at the only real meal I get each day - Dinner. On Monday I had the top sirloin with a double serving of veggies. That white stuff on the top of the meat is c...