Back from Life-Sux-Break

[hazeldazel]

In the last two weeks:

1. Super-huge Work Project #1 (deadlines the Monday after a holiday weekend suck)
2. Really-huge Work Project #2 (packing up records room for our move)
3. Got a really bad cold, can't take cold medicines (I'm epileptic), can't take sick days cuz of projects... yay me.
4. Boss says "Guess what? We're not moving after all, thanks anyway for packing up 270 boxes last week."
5. One of my cats diagnosed and dies from stomach cancer

So, I ended up not going to the gym for two weeks.

I was just finishing Stage 1 before the break but I have decided to do the optional extra Stage 1 workouts before starting Stage 2, since I felt like my knees/legs were still pretty weak. I also want to do better on my nutrition and weightloss, so I've decided to lower my carbs from 30% to 25% and really try to get most of my carbs from fruits and veggies.

Monday: 5-minute treadmill warm-up, Workout A (8-rep range)
Tuesday: ZOMG! MY QUADS! 40-minutes treadmill, did 3 intervals before my legs said no mas! so the rest was steady-state

oy. I'm bummed that my legs are so sore again, sheesh it wasn't that long of a break! Plus, work project #2 was essentially doing deadlifts all day long, so what gives?!? Oh, a big ole THANK YOU to Alwyn for putting deadlifts in the program, I would have killed myself if I hadn't known proper lifting technique and gotten a bit stronger. Ooh, I shoulda told my boss that Madonna's trainer said I didn't have to lift anything heavier than 3 pounds. Why didn't I think of that?

Anyway, I'm back, I'm feeling great, and I'm hoping that the diet and additional cardio on off-days helps with side-effects of my anti-seizure medication (Depakote). The carb cravings have really gone down, hopefully the extra weight will too.

P.S. Yay for me! According to my fitness test on my Polar HRM, I'm now at 63! Two years ago when I first started to lose weight, I tested at a 17. Before starting the NROLFW, I'd been hovering in the mid-40's for ages, I'm so jazzed! I'm officially 1337! *does the Rocky victory jog*

[LancelotsLover]

Originally Posted by hazeldazel

5. One of my cats diagnosed and dies from stomach cancer


P.S. Yay for me! According to my fitness test on my Polar HRM, I'm now at 63! Two years ago when I first started to lose weight, I tested at a 17. Before starting the NROLFW, I'd been hovering in the mid-40's for ages, I'm so jazzed! I'm officially 1337! *does the Rocky victory jog*

Really sorry about your cat; I'm a cat person, I know how that feels. . . sucks.

Glad you're feeling better; I thought just a few days ago that I hadn't seen you around here lately!

What does that paragraph about the Polar fitness test mean? What are those numbers? I don't have a Polar, so I have no idea.

[hazeldazel]

thanks for the condolences, it sucked that my cat was still young and died so quickly - not ready for it, y'know?

My polar watch does a fitness test that estimates the VO2max. It basically gives you a number score and the higher the better. For a 40-year-old woman, my score of 63 is "elite" and off the scale good. When I first got my watch (before I started to exercise and just after I was starting to watch what I ate), my score was 17 which is off the scale bad.

Here's the scale for women:
. Age....V.Low...Low......Fair.. ...Moder....Good...V.Good...El ite
40-44....<22....22-25...26-29....30-33....34-37....38-41...>41

[wonderwoman]

Hi Hazeldazel,

I am very sorry to hear about your cat and the time you had to take off from working out. I was just wondering how you did on Stage 1 since we started around the same time. You'll get back into the groove of things in no time. (And no, I have given up.....just been extremely busy with salsa classes, going out dancing, and the rest of my crazy life...hee-hee!) I just started Stage 2 yesterday and it is pretty cool and intense. I am feeling it today. Take care and tell your boss to back off

[hazeldazel]

thanks WW, glad to hear things are going well for you too! I decided to do a few more weeks of stage 1 and omg! my legs were soooo sore all week! It was almost as bad as when I first started but the awesome thing is that i'm seeing big gains in the amount i can lift today. Thank gawd work has quieted down some and I decided they can take a long leap off a short pier, I'm actually going to take some time off for a change. I'm taking Friday off and then all of the 2nd week in August. I realized with the layoffs, crazy projects and normal stuff I hadn't taken any time off except half a day here and there when I was sick. No wonder I'm burnt! It's going to be awesome - sleep in, putter around in my fuzzy slippers, go see a movie and just generally hang out and chillax. might have to budget in some room in the diet for a coupla mojitoes...

[wonderwoman]

LOL! That's what I'm talking about....MojitoeS!! Glad you are going to take some time off. A whole week off from work is like the best thing since sliced bread. But then again....what would 2 weeks be??? Hee-hee! And I hear you on the strength. I can definitely feel a difference as well. And sign me up for that vacation!! Sounds like fun to me. There isn't nothing like taking a vacation to do nothing or, as I love how you put it...CHILLAX!

[hazeldazel]

lol!

Originally Posted by wonderwoman

what would 2 weeks be???

...almost as good as the 3 weeks I get at xmas time! We get 1.5 weeks at the holidays and then I always take some more time off before. Makes holiday shopping and holiday baking more fun. Oh snap, I'm gonna have to figure out a way to budget in all those xmas cookies in... chocolate's a food group, right?

[hazeldazel]

so far, so great!

I'm really glad I decided to extend the Stage 1 by several weeks, I had so much knee weakness and hip mobility issues that I never felt I was getting to where I needed to be - just ramping up to 'normal.' Last week I was soooooo sore, just like when I first started which was pretty disheartening. This week (workout B-A-B) has been sooo great, my deadlifts are progressing very well as are the B1 and B2 exercises. The lunges (BW only) still suck but I'm cheered up by the fact that I can do 3x8 now and that my legs aren't wrecked for three days afterwards.

The workout A still is my nemesis but strangely my favorite. I realized that I fell in the trap of trying to do squats with my ego, so yesterday I did a few warm-up reps with bodyweight only and then did the 3x8 with a 20-pound bar rather than the oly bar I was using before. Just concentrated on going as deep as I could while maintaining perfect form. It was so great, I got sooo much deeper and could really feel it finally in places other than my knees. I'm not to parallel yet, but I'll get there. The B1 and B2 exercises were great as usual, was able to bump up the weight a little.

The step-ups was another place where I made an adjustment and got great results. I have been targeting 3x8 (BW) using an aerobic step bench with four boosters on each side, and the third set has been a hot mess. This time, I did the first two sets like normal and then went down to two boosters for the third set. My knees still felt the workout but could continue and I really felt my hip muscles working and stretching as I came all the way up. I finally felt like I was getting the benefit of the exercise instead of lousing up the form so much just to continue the reps.

Today, I'm perfectly sore all in just about every single muscle of my body and feel great.

[LancelotsLover]

Yay! It feels so good to hurt so good!