[CaraBeth]

I'm a little disappointed in myself about Stage 6. I am almost done, have one more workout. I just don't feel like I have gained the strength I would have hoped (from reading the book and others' experiences). I can't do a chin-up (as I posted yesterday or the day before, probably partly because I never added weight to my negatives, so my own fault). Yesterday on my last Stage A workout, when I went back to regular ol' pushups, I was only able to do 13 in the first set and 10 in the second set. I guess I just expected more since the goal of the stage was to make them increasingly difficult and thus build strength (since I could do 10 in the first workout, I'm suprised I couldn't do much more in my last workout!). Maybe I was just having a weak day, I dunno. Also with the eating, maybe I wasn't really eating enough to have effective results from my workouts? I usually eat at a deficit, not because I am trying to lose weight, but I do think my personal maitenance level is less than the book's calculations for me, and just because I have a hard time getting that high number of calories in. I guess I am just venting a bit. Not sure whether to be mad at myself for not trying hard enough somehow, or maybe I am making a bigger deal and my expectations were too high. I will likely repeat this at some point (either again after stage 6, or I will just start the whole program over). Thanks for listening!