Hey Josie! Go girl! You show all this bros what a woman can do! You are totally an inspiration!

Thanks sista! (boston accent)

She is and I shall!

Thank you sista, so are you! Girl we are gonna get that pull up!

tyvm!

Took that I love kickboxing class last night...
Way, way, way more intense than anything i've ever done. In fact, I cannot lift my frigging arms without excruciating pain, and I work out pretty much every day.

It started with 15 min of HIT, which really almost killed me. I had a personal trainer doing it with me, within a big class and if she wasn't there I don't think I would've completed it.

At one point I was doing pushups (as many and as fast as I could do in a minute....you know while I was already exhausted) and sweat was just puddling beneath me, exactly as though I was a leaky roof.

I do sweat when I work out, but not to that extent. You know, I take yoga classes, do the eliptical or the tread mill, swim, strength training. None of that was close to this stuff. perhaps I should be pushing myself more.

I couldn't wait for the boxing part...just so that I could stop whatever I was doing...burpees, pushups, lunges, all different kinds of squats, sprints... but yeah, now my arms are on fire.

I get 3 more sessions with my groupon. I have the next one scheduled for Saturday morning. Considering not showing up. The class is like a protein shake for me. I know it's good for me, I know I should down it, but **** it's hard to do.

Oh and I'm 135 lbs this morning. Assuredly all the water/sweat I lost last night but we'll see.

RE: Food, I'm back to logging my food every day and have been for the past 2 months or so, but I'm laid back about the protein. I want to hit 120 per day, or 100, but I haven't been.

I guess I should have a protein shake.

There are a lot of limiting factors in pull ups. Which grip (neutral/facing/away) are you using and where is the sticking point?

If you want to post a vid of a “fail” from behind we could diagnose what you should work on to get a rep!

Neutral grip at gym, at home trying both neutral and away.

K - i could maybe get a video done this weekend.

Great! Neutral or underhand grip is the place to start for sure.

I'll echo whoever mentioned tendons being the first thing to hurt when overexerting yourself on a new/tough lift. Elbows/forearm flexors are notoriously annoying early on, they will get better over time if you listen to your body and rest/recover accordingly. There are also tons of prehab exercises you could do for them which might help alleviate some pain.

There are also thousands of Youtube videos on getting your first pull-up, I posted this one in my log the other day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8N-RT0N-aQ

Two alternatives to "protein shakes" (painless boosts);
*asian egg noodles (typically sold frozen) instead of pasta.
*collagen peptides in the morning coffees (tasteless, dissolves easily)

Mind you, I typically have 4 or 5 protein shakes a day anyway.

Holliday, I haven't gotten the collagen peptides but will soon....entirely because I can put it in my coffee. I did google it and saw some people thought it gave a "beefy" taste to the coffee, but Imma try it.

Not too much going on, but I feel like I SHOULD post so I shall.

Bad news: I skipped working out yesterday, but walked before work, during lunch and after work, getting about 10K steps.

Good news: I worked out for the past 6 consecutive days. This past Sunday I took my aqua-fit class at gym at 9:00 and then that mother****ing kickboxing glass at 10:30. I did the entire class and all the HIIT shiat but it almost killed me. I did feel like a badass all day afterwards though.

New tweaks in addition to the good ole working out 5-6 days a week:
1. I am focused on my steps - challenging myself to get 10K per day.
2. Do a little work out at my mom's when I visit her (1-2 times per week). This is usually just push-ups, squats, yoga poses, burpees, which results in the following from my mother: "Madonna mia, you wanna look like il uomo?" No one like-a you too skinny. You lose-a enough-a the weight - come on, your face-a too small. I explain that I am working on building muscle, not necessarily losing weight, but she doesn't care for that either. I usually spend the time fending off offerings of cookies, ice cream, soup, etc.
3. NOT watching TV, nor doing anything that would make me like a slug. I sit a lot at work. I don't at home. When I get home I'm cooking dinner, going to the gym, cleaning house or taking a walk. When I go to bed I enjoy some youtube time.
4. Poker had been going great but took 2 pretty big losses in the past 2 weeks. Can't play this weekend because it's my baby boy's 20th birthday. As he put it "You're not going to play poker on the weekend of my birth, are you?" Erm...no of course not. Anyway, I do think physical fitness and poker success seem to go hand in hand for me. I think when I am physically strong it's reflected in my mental strength.

Not to get off base, but I also think it's reflected in the cleanliness/organization of my house. It seems to be easier to keep my house/clothes/bedroom organized when I'm on top of my game physcially. Maybe cuz I have more energy?

Hmmm what else? How bout my weekend plans?

Friday (today): Working a half day, then a walk, then a work out, then dinner cooked, then not playing poker.

Saturday: Work out at 9am. Kickboxing at 10:30. Clean house and shop in prep of baby boy's 20th bday.

Sunday: headed to Hampton beach for the day and we have a room for the night there too. no gym, but will walk alot on beach and work out in pool and hotel's gym. Dinner will be hand made blueberry ice cream and lobster rolls (without the roll) from this little shack called the The Beach Plum. Now Hampton beach is about a foot away from a poker room....thinking of offering my little bugger 50% of my winnings if we can go for an hour.

Monday: The actual birthday! We check out of our beach motel and head home. I'll make the birthday cake(s) and he's inviting some college friends over for a fire pit in the back yard.

TMI? TFB! JK! LOL!

Alright, mama better do a little work, since I'm leaving at 12:30.

Happy weekend all!

Josie,

HBD to your mini! And sounds like things are going pretty well, with the caveat that I don't think you need to count that last workout session as a "skip" when you worked out the previous six days - it's just a day off well earned!

I was talking Olympic weightlifting with my cousin's wife and she told me she'd always wanted to do it but her father told her he would completely disown her forever if she ever tried it. Like it was crack or hooking or something. Evidently it's still his policy. I imagine the conversation was in his comically thick southern accent but I don't feel like writing out the onomatopoeia right now. Must be hard to be a woman.

I got no beef taste but maybe if you're putting in several scoops?

Thank you very much Monte!

Glad to hear you didn't get a beef taste. I def plan to pick some up and give it a go.

God, I could start a thread on the shiat my mother thinks and says....how about...

Mama: "I'm not racist. I like-a the black people. Now Auntie Teresa, she call-a them colored, they no like that! No, the black people don't like the colored, they like-a the black. They are nice people too.

I've tried to explain to her that she most definitely is racist but she doesn't get it.

Oh and in further news, I haven't lost an ounce of weight this week.

At least you no in-a the black.

Josie you're doing so great! Feel really excited that you're doing so well

Si!

Thank you sister! There's really been a mind shift/change in how I look at food/health/fitness.

I was at the poker room Saturday night and one of the regulars told me that I looked like I was losing more weight and what am I doing to look so good. He told me that he'd started a low carb diet and he started firing all sorts of questions at me, like just how bad is fruit? (table started talking about fruit like it was cocaine. "Stay away, Man!") and then he wanted to know exactly how long it would take to notice a difference.."2 weeks? 3 weeks? How long?"

Since he asked...

RE: Fruit
I shot the table down into silence with "I didn't get fat because of fruit and neither did you." I'd fill up on as much fruit, veggies and lean protein as you'd like, plus fats. You'll lose weight. When the weight loss stalls for a couple weeks, then you can look at the low-hanging fruit, erm fruit, but for now, this dude will lose plenty of weight doing just that.

As for seeing results, of course he's going to lose water weight the first couple of weeks and he'll see results but that's not the point. The point is to change his life style. The point is how he'll be health-wise next year and the year after that. I told him it really doesn't matter what he does for a week but what he does month after month.

Yeah, I know I sound preachy, but he asked! In fact he ALWAYS asks, and is always sucking on a big round lollipop ala Telly Savales (look it up young'ins!) except for this past weekend.

And for the record I haven't lost an ounce...still holding at the same weight while working out 5-6 days per week and eating healthy. Now I guess I COULD watch the ole fruit, but I only eat 2 pieces per day max and even though I'm not losing weight my body is definitely and finally really changing. Hanging skin looks worse than ever but if we ignore that, I'm muscley...clothes are really loose, esp in my ass and legs, my biggest area.

No, I still haven't done a complete pull up yet, but I get so ****ing sweaty TRYING, I think it's still worth the effort.

What I CAN do now is a real, mother****ing, pushup. Not the girly kind. And more than 1. (okay 2, but still!)

I cannot frigging believe this. Why? Why, why, why?

After vegetables, whole fruit is next in line (albeit a distant second) for overall health value.

Of course, my wife's dentist has routinely told her to stop eating whole fruit and juice it all up. And I believe dentists are some kind of doctor.

Damn your wife's mouth must be FINE, if that's his biggest gripe.

I don't 'juice'. I'd rather eat my calories or have a smoothie. Gimme all the fiber!

What you think, you become.
What you feel, you attract.
What you imagine, you create.

-BUDDHA

Just leaving this thought here because I believe it, and because I hope Lapka will see it. I've found evidence of this in every facet of my life, and I am nothing unusual....except for my will and desire.

I completely agree. That was kinda of a starting point of my blog.

And to connect this thought with fitness:
There is no bigger motivation than your image of yourself. If you see yourself as lazy McDo consuming fat POS you will behave correspondingly and become exactly that. If you see yourself as healthy, fit, exercising and paying attention to what you put in your mouth you will become that. Our mind always tries to close any gaps between its image from us/world and reality and basically forces us to act so that this gaps will disappear.

Well once you have one pre-workout (I mean protein shake before a workout, not a “preworkout”) and one during workout, and one...after workout, and one before bed...it’s really just a matter of fitting one in sometime during the first 8 hours of my day. And that’s still only like half my protein for the day. Honestly, it’s tough to fit in 3 meals with 50g protein each, but even harder when I’m only having TWO meals. That new Yoplait YO or Icelandic yoghurt helps.

Wow, I never thought of it that way.

^^ that.

I'm not sure I ever have a normal meal that's less than 50g of protein, and that's when I'm really watching kcals.

Unless you're a tiny female or a vegan, I can't imagine a meal with less than ~6oz of some sort of meat.

To be fair to Holliday, even the Inuit are vegan in comparison to G4S. That said, I obviously agree with the general gestalt; my lunch today is pretty sparse (7 oz cooked chicken breast, white rice, veggies) because of how much the minis are last night, and it still has 60+ g of protein. I might actually die if it had less.