6 monthers Sunday Checkin

FourAM

FourAM

Cathlete
Dare I start it again...:D
Here goes!

Well good morning to all. I had a busy day yesterday and was not able to get back to check back in but I am here now.

I am always scared when I am starting this thing that Gayle is starting one at the same time and then there will be this one that is really unnecessary. I think I am teetering on the edge of the time when Gayle normally gets us started but I just could not wait.
Yesterday was my first rounf of disc24 and my bis and tris are sore. I think I got the tris with the pull overs. I liked the pace of this one although for the bicep dropsets I had to use 3 bars, one of them being my ez curl bar, so I could hit that ten second mark. I really wanted to give it everything I had. On the last set though, when Cathe goes to failure and does like 20 reps, I could barely get my 10. She is a machine. If I tried to go any farther it would have been a poor form fiasco. I took my measly 10 and appreciated everyone of them past 6:eek:. Then I took the extra rest her other 10 afforded me:D I have got more to say but have to go get some laundry started first.
Be back in a while
Rachel
 
Hi, Rachel. You beat me....no worries. Great job powering thru Disc 24! Closing out Meso 2, hugh??? What's on your agenda today???

I'm sitting here in all my glory! :D I just finished Disc 25, the first workout of Meso 3 and I LOVED IT! LOVE IT! Every second of it. The Recovery Week with intense cardio and core, then BANG into Meso 3. I LOVED IT! Nice and heavy, steady, with rests.

Let's see if I can calm down enough to give you my initial reactions here. (keeping in mind that it's ONLY the FIRST workout of this 8-week Meso, lol. And if you don't want to hear it, feel free to skip it! :)). I LOVED IT! At first I didn't like the thought of the longer rests in between sets, but it's not that bad. There ARE 3 minute rests between SAME MUSCLE group, but ONLY 75 second rests between exercises, and you're doing push/pull sets....does that make sense? So, for the first round of exercises, you do bench press, 75sec rest, barbell rows, 75 sec rest, bench press, 75sec rest, barbell rows, 75sec rest, for 4 full sets. Then ANOTHER set with different exercises. So you ARE getting 3 minutes between CHEST work and 3 minutes between BACK work, but you're not sitting there just waiting for 3 minutes to tick by. THAT made me happy. I can't sit still for too long. I felt SO STRONG this workout. Maybe because I'm fresh and rested from the Recovery Week, maybe because you aren't moving from exercise to exercise like the other mesos. Not sure. BUT I LOVED IT! I found that I could go heavier than my workout card in order to max out by rep #8 (which Cathe says should be the case, so I increased a bit here and there and will make a note of it for my repeat week next week. THAT is the BEAUTY of this longer Meso.

I think you guys are going to LOVE IT!

OK...I'll try to calm down now. lol But that was an awesome way to start my day.

My day today includes getting the kids some breakfast (younger DS had a friend stay here last night, and older DS stayed at a friend's house). Then my boys, my mom and I are going to a minor league baseball game today at noon. I've decided to 'allow' myself a treat there. Although it may not be clean, I WILL WORK IT INTO MY CALORIE/FAT/CARB counts for today in order to stay with our challenge we've got going on. Then when we get home, guess what....I'll cut the grass (YUCKO).

I have 4 school lunches left, then the kids have 3 half-days after that, so we're closing out the school year. My last PTA meeting as President is tomorrow night and I'm stoked about that.

I can't calm down, ladies. Can you tell. Maybe I better sign off now before I start irritating somebody. You know how those super-bubbly people just ANNOY you sometimes, lol. I don't want that to be me. So I'm going to take a shower and will return when I've come back down to earth! ;)

Gayle
 
I told you I would be back. I have alot on tap for today but I have to get my thoughts organized before I can get started. I have a couple of menus I want to prep for the week but I want to make one that can be frozen so that I do not have alot of food out and not enough time to eat it. I have to plan for lunches next week and dinners. Sometimes this is such a daunting task. Esp. if you are like me and like to experiment and always come up with something new to eat. Sometimes that is overwhelming.

Gayle and Cendrine- I thought of both of you last night when DH and I watched 'New In Town'. There was a group of women in the movie that were scrap bookers. They called themselves 'Scrappers'. That reminded me of yall because I think yall are Scrappy Scrappers ...:p

Jo-I hope you had a delightful Saturday. It sounds very relaxing. I think you needed that before starting meso 3 today:eek: How was the BBQ? Did you Spread the Health again?:p

Julie-I think no matter what it is great to be rewarded by compliments but esp. when you work out as hard as we are doing. It is nice to be praised on your good points. Plus with you r ongoing divorce it is nice to get some positive attention for a change I am sure! Congratulations and don't worry about getting off track. Just jump back on the train today.

Cendrine-I stumbled across something testerday that I thought might interest you. I was searching the net for an aspargaus soup recipe so I could use up my buch before it went bad. All the ones I was finding were low in fat but pretty low in protein too so I did a search for hi protein asparagus soup and found one on a blog. Although I changed the innitial recipes to go with what I had it was the thickener that I think is going to be a good base for lots of things. She used cottage cheese blended with fat free milk. For this particular recipe it was 6 oz. of cottage cheese to 1/4 cup of milk and it was a thick consistency but I think you could change the ratio and it would work well for lots of things. In this recipe it took the place of heavy cream, adding it at the end to give it that creamy texture. Tell me what you think and if you have any ideas for it let me know.

BBL

Rachel
 
Hey, Rachel. I have a bunch of asparagus that I need to use up too! Did you find a good recipe for soup??? (and have you used that thickener?)

Gayle
 
Good Morning All!

I'm sitting here having my coffee getting read to go do Meso 3 Disc 25! Gayle you got me pumped! But first I'm going to go take my stats since I haven't done that since we started Meso 2.

Gayle, sounds like you have a fun filled day! I remember counting down the end of the year! I love you're counting down by lunches! I used to count down by drop off/pick up! :D

Rachel, you and Cendrine are ever the chefs! I did just got two new vegetarian cookbooks to learn how to do more with vegetables. I'm trying to branch out beyond my normal broccoli, asparagas, green beans and peas! Mostly I don't know how to clean and cut and store stuff! Anyway these look like good "how-to" books.

Okay, I'm off to do stats and Disc 25! See if I love this like Gayle! (hope so!) BBL!
 
Gayle
This was the recipe I found but I changed it because I had alot of peppers I needed to use up so instead of going with the greek seasoning I went with a more mexican feel and I loved it.

1 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch of asparagus
salt and pepper
1 tsp greek seasoning
2 cups reduced sodium chick broth
6 oz low fat cottage cheese
1/4 cup of ff milk

Prepare asparagus by trimming the woody stalk and cutting to 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces.
In a sauce pan...
Heat oil to med-high heat, add onion and saute till translucent. Add garlic and cook for 1 more min.
Add asparagus and seasoning and stir to combine.
Add broth, it should cover veges. Bring to a boil reduce heat and cover and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until veges are tender.
While veges are simmering blend cottage cheese and milk together until smooth.
When veges are done process intil smooth in batches return to pan add cheese mixture and bring to a boil and let thicken.

I think the protein was something like 15. grams per serving intstead of almost non existent in the other soups I found.

On mine, I sauteed peppers with the onion and for the seasoning I added mexican seasoning, oregano and cumin.

Important to note that DH said it looked like runny baby poo:p but to me it reminds me of split pea soup.
 
Remember the song from Flash Dance? What a Feeling? Well that’s how I feel right now! WHAT A FEELING! :D I loved this workout! I loved this workout! I loved this workout! :D Disc 25 made me feel ALIVE!

A couple of things to note: I feel more focused on my chest muscles than I ever have. (It was probably the recovery week.) So maybe by the time I return to pushups I can do more! Doing deadlifts: this was the heaviest I’ve gone and I was able to hold on where before I was struggling with the grip and thinking about getting hooks. So I’m definitely stronger! Unlike Gayle, my weights were perfect and I struggled on the 8th for all. But I loved how I was always recharged when I returned to the exercise. So for example, I really struggled with the 8th rep on bench presses…but then you go do barbell rows, so when I did chest press again I was fresh! I loved it…uh huh…I did! :cool:

About my stats (remember I don’t need to lose weight and this is since starting Meso 2): I am down 1 lb but I don’t know if that is right as I am bloated due to TTOTM starting tomorrow. But…on BF, according to the Omron, I started at 21.5% and am 19% and according to the calipers, I was 17.9% and am 15.4%. So who knows which is right but what’s more important to me is the consistent decrease from both. YEAH! :cool::p

So there you go…clean eating and exercise! That’s what it’s all about!

Rachel, yes I made everyone eat healthy again (aren’t I bad?). DH smoked a salmon yesterday so we had smoked salmon salads and a fruit plate (that sufficed for side dish and dessert (if you want to call it that!). It was just one other couple so it was good! And they always remark that they should eat the way we do!

Alright, I’m off to the shower and then headed to Costco!
 
Hi Guys,

well, meso 3 sure sounds promising! I still got two weeks to go before I start but it sounds fun!

Rachel, using cottage cheese is a great idea! I used to blend nonfat cream cheese in my soups to add protein, but I think cottage cheese is less processed than cream cheese, so I'm going to give that a try next time!

My menu for the next two weeks looks a bit different than usual. I got these meals from the prevention magazine, and they are advocating doing a good serving of healthy fats for each meal, and since I'm in a rut and need somethig new, I decided to give it a try. It is supposed to help the belly fat go, which has always been stubborn here... But it means because of the higher calories, I'm going to have to adjust the other things a bit, maybe a tad less protein and watch the carbs again. It looks healthy and well balanced, and non boring. It's funny, I can go with the same kind of thing for months and then suddenly I am so done! So as you can tell I am so done and I am going to try this.

Gayle, I want your energy, i really do! I have 9 more school snacks here for ds, counting down too....:)

Jo, congrats on your stats! My chiropractor took my body fat on Wednesday. I had measured in at 17.6% at home and he came up with 24%! The differences! I'm not lookig for a number per se, just like you I'm just happy that I have seen a drop from when I started, regardless of what the start number was per my measures or his.... You are doing so well, can you tell any difference ?
 
Hi Cendrine! Yes, I notice my pants fit a little looser (down 1/2" in hips, waist and lower abs) and I do see a tad more definition in my shoulders. Nothing major as I'm a hard gainer. And...this probably sounds crazy...but I am a girl with cellulite (like many) and though I'm not over weight I have it and it's hereditary. I notice that they are less indented - not gone mind you! Even DH noticed that without me saying anything. So though no one else will see THAT, I know it! And that puts a little smile on my face! :cool: Let's just say the changes are enough to keep me eating clean!

How did the Dr measure your BF? I'm probably something higher too...but I'm less than I was!
 
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Gayle and Jo, your getting me so excited about Meso 3, I have to admit that I wasn't really looking forward to it.

Today for a change I played tennis with ds for my cardio. DD slowly seems to be improving she slept most of the afternoon yesterday but wanted to go with us to the hockey game in the evening. Our city is in the finals for the Calder Cup (minor hockey league champs) so it's a big event. Today she felt well enough to play with her cousin for a couple of hours.

Jo WTG on those great results!

Gayle Hope you enjoyed the baseball game, I had some popcorn at the hockey game last night.

Julie Congrats on those compliments! I'm sure they're well deserved!

Cendrien I didn't buy any cookbooks. I ended up buying Tinkerbelle books for dd and Disneyworld books for myself:eek::eek:

Kim
 
What a busy day.
I think I have cooked for most of it. I think I have enough meals prepped though that I will not have to worry about doing this again for a while.My freezer is stacked. There are premade muscle meatballs, premade turkey burgers, and now 6 containers of sweet potato and black bean chili ( a recipe I found today). Then in the fridge I made the pork fajita casserole from the clean eating mag. I have not tasted it yet but it smells great and that will be my dinner for next week. I hope I can keep this up because it really helps to walk in the door at almost 7 and be able to go right to the fridge scoop some thing out and heat and eat and then prepare for the next day and bed. Just to get up and do it all over again the next day. My only problem with prepping so much food is that I won't need to cook again for a while and I hate that because I love to cook. But on the upside I might be able to prepare something great for DH because he does not eat any of the stuff I eat. I felt a little guilty today prepping all the food for me and nothing for him but I would share if he woulf eat.:p

Jo-I am glad you gave disc 25 rave reviews too as Gayle did. This means so far it has 2 thumbs way up from to of my most trusted advisors;).I have one more week of meso 2 then recovery and then I will be right there with yall. I am so happy for you on your progress. I wish I had taken measurements. I took some before pics but I do not think they were very good so I will have to see when I get done when I compare them. For me it seems like my jeans are fitting tighter in the thigh but I am saying that is muscle gain...I firmly believe that!!!:D

Cendrine-I think my inability to cook the same recipe twice keeps me out of my rut. I always make things and want to make them again but I either forget or just start searching for a new way to cook the particular thing I have. This is really a bad habit of mine I think. It does not ever let me perfect something. My mother cooked the same thing everyday. We knew what day of the week it was by what we were having. I think this is where I get it. So anyway you will have to share your thoughts on your new recipes!

Gayle-I hope you had a good time at the game today! You are MIA today compared to normal! I know I will not beat you to the starting line tomorrow which is good beecause you always have something motivating to say.:D

I am off to chillax before work tomorrow...Have a great Monday!

Rachel
 
Hi Again,

Jo, the doctor took skinfold on biceps, triceps, scapular region and iliac, no lower body, but the midsection is where it stays the longest....

Kim, tinkerbell, lol, that is what would happen to me if I went and browsed, I always get stuff for the kids... as if they didn't have enough....:rolleyes: But it's as good as getting stuff for myself, I love getting others something. Giftgiving is one of my love languages I think.

Rachel, I'm coming over to your house to eat! your meals sound fantastic! Mine are tasty too, but here is my problem, even though I try new things all the time, I make routines out of it and then it gets old... And as I try new things and do them over and over again because I love them so much, I forget all the other great stuff I have tucked away in recipe stashes until boredom strikes again and I hit the books for something new....

I will let you all know of my new menus and how I like them. They look really easy, which is why I'm trying them, I have no time for fancy stuff right now.
 
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