Undulating Warriors March 28-April 3

Peaceful Rainbow

Peaceful Rainbow

Cathlete
Good morning Warrior Ladies!!! Can you believe this is our LAST week!!!

Ok, so in keeping with the spirit of the final week - my morning got totally messed up. And I did it all to myself. :p First, I set-up the wrong workout card, and using it set up everything I needed to do the wrong workout. Was putting the disk in when I realized it. So, I came back up and set up the right one, but then it was way later than I needed it to be to start a long workout. So, I decided I'd do cardio. Went downstairs and put my shoes back on (they are workout only and, per DH's basement rules, may not be worn upstairs) decided that I would finally do 30/30 only to realize that the top I was wearing while sufficient for weight training was not nearly supportive enough for cardio. :rolleyes: So, back off with the shoes and upstairs to change tops. Then back downstairs to put shoes on for the third time.

At that point, things finally clicked and I did 30/30! Did it with no breaks though I was definitely gasping for air at times. The only one I have left to try is 40/20. After that I did AC Medicine Ball Abs.

Hope the start to all of your days is smoother than mine. :D
 
Good morning Warriors

My morning started off badly when I realized that it was an hour later than I usually get up to work out. So now workout before the my oldest went to school. Now I need to clean the house because we have company coming.... so if I get the house cleaned in time then I will be able to workout but I think it will be cardio too as I am not sure how I will fit it all in. Also I am a little nervous as it was Meso 2 Chest and Triceps W3 that I messed up my back on...I just need to be more careful this time.

Okay off to clean and tidy! Hope everyone had a great weekend and Cathy and I are the only ones with Monday morning madness!

Cathy - Don't you hate when you have to go up and down because you forget something!!! and it always seems that if you forget one thing then there are others! For me the more times I have to go upstairs and waste time the more likely that one of the munchkins will wake up and then my morning gets really messed up!

I'll check in later today after I do my workout! This morning I actually contemplated doing something different for the last week. But I need to stick it out and finish this!!!

Talk to you soon
Heather
 
Hi Warriors

Welcome to our last week! Where does the time go? My goal for this rotation was to lose some of the weight I put on while I was rehabing my ankle. Unfortunately, after having the DEXA scan I gave myself too much permission to eat, and now the scale is even higher than it was when we started. :mad: < at myself.

I am a low calorie burning, small framed girl with endomorph tendencies. I just can't slack off. I am back to logging every single item that goes into my mouth. If I eat above 1600-1700k I gain. Why I veered off from that understanding, I don't know.

Ok. I didn't have the morning you two had, but I did inadvertently unplug the tv/dvd player in the middle of my STS workout. To give my shoulder a break I skipped the push ups today; I also went very light with weights that affect the rotator cuff. Before STS I did Hiit- Pyramid, and after I did a 3.1 mile/30 minute run on the TM.

Thanks for the Gin Miller tip, Heather. I will definitely check her out. I'm burned out from STS too, for my next rotation I may only use STS Meso 1 legs and use other Cathe dvd's and P90x for my split workouts. Can you believe we have done 3 solid rounds of STS!? We should be proud of ourselves, but I think it might be time for a mental break.


Cathy - there are two areas on the workout manager where you can create workouts, one is more for assembling free-style workouts, and the other is through the rotation wizard. I haven't looked in a while, it is also possible that I completely misunderstood the application!

Tara & MJ - We miss you. Please share the details of your trip, I'd love to hear how it went.

Tomorrow is a long run day and I don't know what else. Something that won't aggravate my shoulder - so no bootcamp.
Ciao
:D
 
Hey Everyone

I am very proud of myself... I actually did STS disc 22 then Hiit 30/30 and completely cleaned my whole house - vacuuming, floorwashing and everything. I have to say that my shoulders have lost alot of strength somehow. I had to go way down on all the drop sets except the should presses. The other thing that I noticed was that Cathe said that 30/30 was the easiest of the Hiit workouts - right in the middle of the workout. I hadn't noticed that before so as I am leaping and jumping for all I am worth it somehow took away from the workout. It was still a great workout mind you. My youngest insisted on playing in the same room with me as I was sweating up a storm. Hope I haven't scarred him for life!

So if you can believe this my DH is actually coming home tonight!!! I thought it was tomorrow night. He kept saying Tuesday but that is in Australia time because they are a day ahead. Good thing that he called when they stopped over in Vancouver or he could have been sitting in the airport for a while!

Janis - I just wanted to let you know that it is Jill Miller not Gin. One site is http://yogatuneup.com/ and the shoulder solution one is http://www.jillmilleryoga.com/products.html I have the hip helpers on and it has really helped my leg stretching for running... and actually I have less knee pain now and Dh uses alot of her quick fix vid's. The other thing that I wanted to tell you about was the book that I am reading Intuitive Eating. It has an interesting take on dieting. I too am very ready for an STS break and I know that I have NOT lost weight however I know that I have not changed sizes so that is cool but not really where I would like to be.

Tara and MJ - Hope all is well!

Cathy - What do you have on line for tomorrow? Seeing as I copied you today!


Talk to you all soon
Heather
 
Heather you hardly copied me since you did weights and cardio!!! I'm impressed. I noticed Cathe mentioned that 30/30 was easiest, too. I wasn't overly appreciative give how much I was sucking air! I knew it was the easiest on the three, but I really didn't need to be reminded.

I also mopped the kitchen/dining room/laundry room, and vacuumed, but I got to clean the guinea pig cage. It's not small, as it's wire panels on the sides with a piece of vinyl flooring for the bottom, so it takes quite awhile. I need to start working in more spring cleaning stuff again. Like thoroughly cleaning the windows and not just the glass. Are you supposed to hit 70's later this week, too?

So, who's done 40/20? How much tougher is it? or don't I want to know?

Janis I'm there with you on the diet, though I think I've at least maintained. I'm not checking :eek: But, based on my clothes, I don't think I've gained. Not what I wanted either, but those weeks of no cardio, definitely were not a plus. I'm going to try and get my diet more on track in April and hopefully be fully there when I start my rotation in May. After having spent most of last year looking forward to doing STS, Shock Cardio and Ab Circuits together, I think the fact that I couldn't do that this time was more of a letdown than I originally realized and may well have played into why it's been so hard to get my diet on track.

MJ and Tara hope things are going smoothly.

Boys have scrimmages the next two nights and it's supposed to be 70's in a couple days! YAY!!
 
This morning was Disk 22 Chest, Shoulders and Triceps. I hit all my target weights, but some of those drop sets were just nasty. For a short workout it is killer. After that, I did Stretch Max with the mat in hopes that my upper body will be usable tomorrow! I've decided to move my other upper body workout to Thursday and then legs on Friday.

It's a very frosty, 20 degree morning here, but it's clear, sunny and we're headed to almost 60 by scrimmage time. They are now saying 81 for Friday. Love these 20-80 degree weather patterns we get this time of year. No time to adjust to the heat. Though it won't stay around yet. Guess I better dig out some shorts for the end of the week.
 
Good Morning Warriors

I am just going downstairs to do CC6 and some ab work and thought I would check in first. My shoulder/neck is a little sore from yesterday (nothing like you Janis) but none the less I know that for some of the shoulder drop sets I started out way too high.
So I have been thinking about STS and weight loss. If STS helps build muscle and strength then according to BFFM then we can't loose weight and build at the same time. So maybe weight loss shouldn't be what we expect? I know that my clothes fit the same as they did when I weighed less and I do have alot more muscle definition. I am interested to try another type of rotation and hopefully loose some pounds and then see what STS does to my body when I am starting with a lower body fat percentage. The question is what program to try?? Right now I am leaning towards Kettlebells and body weight/ interval training. I have so many of Cathe's workouts now that I have not tried that I should try them as well. Like Pyramid, CTX etc. or a bunch of her circuits.
I am about a third of the way through Intuitive Eating and so far the premise is allow yourself to eat whatever you want with no restrictions but to listen to when your body is full. The idea is if nothing is off limits and you know that you can have it anytime you will not crave it. I am not sure I can give myself that permission yet but I have been trying to listen to my stomach and not finish my plate when I am starting to feel full. I'll let you know that rest when I get finished!

Cathy - It's frosty here this morning too but we are supposed to go up high in temperatures this week too. I love when I am washing snow pants and shorts at the same time. I really don't think that 40/20 is that much harder than 30/30 and I thought that pyramid was the easiest! It think that the higher jumping is the part that throws people but for the sweat factor they are on a par. You can do it!

Janis - Hope you have a great long run!

Tara and MJ - Hope all is well in worlds!

Talk to you soon
Heather
 
I keep forgetting to tell you guys that I've seen several people lately wearing Vibrams and both times Heather's comment about the clown feet came to mind. :eek: I love the concept of these shoes, but it would be really nice if they would offer color options that weren't quite so clown feet like!

Heather how are you feeling about your workout? Does doing abs bother your neck?

STS works very well for my upper body! Unfortunately, my lower body seems to respond to nothing except diet. :( I've never really figured out what type of workouts my lower body respond best to, because the only times it's looked decent are when my diet was good. If my diet is good, it truly doesn't seem to matter whether or not I'm lifting heavy or light or what type of cardio I'm doing. For the last couple years I've just sort of thrown up my hands and let things just go, but I'm feeling like I'm ready to have another shot at it soon.
 
Hi Warriors,

Nice to be back! I had a good time in Las Vegas. The conference was good & in the evenings, I got a couple of massages & a pedicure. :) So, it was work during the day & pampering during the evening. The resort I stayed at had plenty to do, so I didn't venture to the Strip. It was a nice break from the usual work routine.

I flew back to Germany on Sunday. The jetlag going from the U.S. to Europe is always worse than the other way around. I have been so-o-o tired, yet my sleeping schedule is all off. I find myself falling asleep during the day & then waking up at 0200 or so wide awake. Today was my first day back to work after my trip. I hope that being forced to stay up all day will get me back to a normal schedule. :)

I haven't exercised since Saturday. I'm hoping to get the energy to do so tomorrow or Thursday at the latest. Either way, I plan to get this last week of STS done!

Interesting what you all have said about weight loss or gain. I had started doing BFFM, but found that eating every 3-4 hrs sometimes put me above my 1500-1750 calorie limit. I need to try to get things figured out to stay at the limit. I'm kinda leaning toward returning to strict WW (which is what I was doing in Jan-Feb, when I lost wt). I find that it all comes down to the calories for me too! Exercise helps, but I no longer can just increase my activity to lose weight; I have to really be strict with the calories. Heather, I was musing about STS & wt loss too. While I definitely see muscle definition & strength, I just wish the scale would move downward faster while doing STS! :) I still am planning to do another modified STS rotation, but I was thinking of doing mostly Meso 1 workouts--hoping that the lighter wts & higher reps will maintain my muscle mass, but not cause a significant muscle gain. Also, I would like to up the cardio more.
I guess I need to not focus on the scale so much though. I'll plan on beginning to take measurements so that I can look for results that way. :)
I've heard about the intuitive eating. I tried something similar 10 years ago or so. It is hard to give myself permission to eat anything. I know that if I taste certain foods, I will just keep eating & eating. Let me know what your thoughts about it are as you continue to read it, Heather. Maybe it has some good tips that will keep me from going overboard!

I'll check in tomorrow or Thursday. See you all then!

Tara
 
Hi Ladies

I ran this morning, like I said I was, but only 5 miles, somewhere towards the end I felt like I was losing strength and energy, so I felt it was better to stop given my propensity to injure myself.

Heather - I ordered two of Jill Miller's dvds from Amazon, I'll get them tomorrow. I bought the hip one you mentioned and the shoulder one. I think she will be able to help me and hopefully it will also encourage me to stretch after every workout, which is most likely one of the reasons I hurt my shoulder...that among many of the over use possibilities - gardening, lifting, push ups, torque-ing my shoulder/arm while using the lap top, driving, baking etc... SO thank you. Also, I appreciate the pep talk about diet and exercise. I really needed the reminders. I looked at Intuitive Eating. The principles are valuable and interesting but most don't apply to me - er - maybe I am in denial... My main problem is wanting something sweet after I eat a meal, plus all the nibbles and noshes while I prepare food. Yesterday I ate 5 real meals, I felt full and satisfied all day, I didn't go to bed hungry, nor did I wake up hungry, all good signs, plus I stayed within my caloric range. What made a difference for me was planning ahead what I was going to eat and telling myself I could wait until the next meal knowing it was only 2 hours away.

For my rotation I am going to do one week of full body/endurance (likemuscle max, drill max, boot camp etc), one week of hypertrophy splits (gym style or p90x, 4DS), one week of strength (pure strength or slow and heavy) and one week of Kettlebell, then repeat changing up the dvds. I am also mixing in kickbox, Insanity, Hiit, and step.

Cathy - Aren't the Vibrams - colorful! It is cold here, no spring warmth for me this week. We are even expecting snow. What has worked for me, for my lower body, is doing weight work twice a week. It has made an enormous difference. Staying away from salt and sugar have helped too. It is the first place I gain and the last place I lose; the increase in my thighs last week is what freaked me out about my scale weight. Not a huge increase, mind you, but my pants do fit a teeny bit more snugly and the tape measure confirms the increase. Some of it is hormonal and some of it is from eating the bread I've been baking (salt and reaction to wheat), but mostly it is from eating more calories than I burn.

Tomorrow - legs and kickbox.

MJ and Tara - are you girls out there?

:D

ETA: Tara, it looks like we posted at the same time, I didn't see your post until now. I am glad your trip to Vegas was relaxing and rejuvenating - in a way. Jet leg west to east is brutal! It is really good to hear from you. :)
 
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Quick check in today. We're going to the annual concert the local symphony does for kids. Shall we say the boys are less than happy that they are going ;)
After that, to the park for homeschool group and then back home for supper and off to Derek's first scrimmage. Nicholas played second base the first two innings last night and caught two guys stealing and picked one guy off. His only time at bat he walked and stole his way to third, but got stranded there. All helpful in his making the A team. They had 20 kids playing as they haven't split the teams yet, so it was a little chaotic.

This morning DH decided to NOT go to work, and so since I had ended up on the couch, I slept in until 6:40. So, I did Step Moves and skipped abs. Now it's time for breakfast and to get everything ready to go!

Have a fun day! Oh, and Janis, I can definitely agree that the Vibrams are colorful. :D
 
Good Morning Everyone

I got up this morning and did Disc 24 legs and it was a butt burner! I went down in weight for deadlifts but I did them and I did the squats too. My legs are still burning a little and it has been a couple hours since the workout... I am a little worried. I am going to do 4DS Kickbox this afternoon so hopefully that will get some of the DOMS out. We are getting ready for Easter craziness and travelling to the MIL's this weekend. I am hoping to get a run in while I am there but MIL tends to freak out if I workout as it might take away time that I would be helping her get ready for the Easter festivities. There done my rant!
I have seen no one with Vibrams around us yet... but the snow just went away. So I take it they are not hard to miss?

Cathy - Sounds like you have some very skilled sons! We are doing baseball for the first time this year. It is not as popular here but Soccer is huge. That is my ds's sport of choice!

Janis - I hope that you like the Jill Miller stuff when you get it. I usually do the stretchs in the hip helpers after all my runs now.

Tara - I am glad that you had a good trip. My DH just got back and he is struggling with Jetlag too. Last night he made popcorn and forgot to put the bowl under the popper...

MJ - Hope you are well.


Talk to you soon
Heather
 
This morning I did Disk 24 Back & Biceps! Only one more workout to go! I did all my weights and on the drop sets for barbell curls I actually went a bit heavier on the third round, because I knew I couldn't adjust my weights quickly enough otherwise. I actually used 45 lbs for the deadlifts, but I didn't do those really slow ones I did them all at the faster count and didn't go low. My back was ok with it, but my forearms were dying!!

It's supposed to be near 80 today and tomorrow!!!!! Generally I consider that a bit hot, but it won't have the humidity of summer with it and it'll be wonderful to have the house all opened up.

Heather baseball is definitely my boys best sport. They are small - really small for their ages and baseball is one where skill counts more than size. Derek's team is actually playing a team from Canada that's coming to our field to play. It was funny because Nicholas' basketball coach, is Derek's baseball coach, and at the year end basketball party he told me that he'd got a text from the guy running the club about us going to Canada to play. I just looked at his and said....um....you need passports to go there now and we don't have them! It's such a recent thing that nobody had even thought of that. Not enough kids on our team could go there, but apparently, their team can come here. We can get enhanced driver's licenses that allow us to cross the border, but spending $90 for two of us to get them, to go over and play one double header just didn't seem like a great idea on our budget.

And for sure the Vibrams are hard to miss - really hard to miss. :D

How's everyone else doing? MJ are you getting back in the swing of regular life? How was your trip?

Hope you're all having beautiful weather, too!
 
Hello Warriors!

Just a quick check-in while I am at work, will post more later on my trip. I got home late Sunday night and had a crazy week at work. The good news is, work, while still insane, will switch to new insanities because I am finally through with a few giant projects including healthcare renewal...hooray! So now its back to focusing on my workouts and getting myself going again properly. Besides its April 1st, good day to start over for spring. Anyway, will check back later and catch up on your posts for this week. Hope everyone is well. :D

Oh, btw, I know money is tight for everyone, but I am contemplating being brave and going to the roadtrip in Glassboro this year and would love to meet everyone. Any chance for any of you?
 
Hey Warriors

The Easter crazy run around has started already. Is it just me or does anyone else feel like they are going a million different directions at once? It doesn't help the dh's family is 3 hours away and we always seem to be the ones that make the trip!

Today I did The LAST workout in this rotation for me!!!!!
Back and Biceps!!! It was very hard! Those last bicep curls after all that work assisting with the back work put me over the edge! I am way down in weight but I do remember the last time being pretty tough as well. I did a CC7 run today as well but skipped the last challenge (it was a short 4 minute one) so that I could fit in a stretch afterwards. My legs are crying after Legs and then kickboxing yesterday and now the run. I'll have to have a bath tonight.... although it is very warm here tonight so maybe just more stretching! I am going to do a Tabata style skipping workout tomorrow with abs and then take a little break while I am away.

Janis - Hope your shoulder is getting better. Can you still do upper body weights? Are you taking a break? What is your plan next week? Is that enough questions?

Cathy - Interesting that you are playing a Canadian baseball team. Here in Canada we have been all getting passports because otherwise you just don't travel and it has been required for alot longer. It is a pain in the butt though. Hope your concert was good. So just legs left for you? So are you going to move right into the next STS rotation after a weeks rest?

Tara - I am glad your trip went well and you got to pamper yourself a little. What is your plan for next week?

MJ - Glad to hear that you are back in the swing of things and your don't have a looming work monster over your shoulder for now!!! Do you have a rotation planned? I seem to remember that you were going to finish out Meso 2? How is that going? I forgot to answer your question... about the roadtrip. I would really like to go on the roadtrip but I am not sure that this is the year to do it. It would take about 8 hours for me to drive there and it does look like alot of fun. Right now I am a no go. It would be really nice to go and already know people there!

Well I had better go and back Gluten free pie dough and get things sort of packed up for tomorrow! Lots of fun.

Talk to you soon
Heather
 
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Done! Last workout of the rotation - Disk 23 Legs is over. :D I followed it up with the stretch from Legs & Glutes. Still haven't figured out what I'm doing next. Gotta work on that today. I can't say that that workout is one of my faves. Somehow the flow of the exercises just doesn't do it for me. My body also wasn't thrilled to be doing deadlifts 2 days in a row, but it survived. I used 45 lbs yesterday and my forearms were just dying and I used 40 lbs today and they handled it much better. I wouldn't have though the difference between the two for that move would have been so noticeable.

Heather I hope you have an enjoyable weekend. 3 hrs. is a bit much for a regular basis. My parents are 55 minutes away in good weather and regular traffic. Makes it a nice driveable distance. Especially since neither of my boys deal with car rides well. Especially the oldest who gets headaches.

We had excitement yesterday afternoon. I had put our bench back out by our natural area and was out there reading to Derek and smelled smoke. Looked and I could see through the wire on the neighbors chicken coop a fairly significant amount of flames. At first glance, I thought the guys next door were burning something in their pit, but second glance said is was too wide and to high of flames. So, I sent Derek in the house and went and had a closer look and a past the neighbors the dead grass in an open area was burning pretty good. I came in and called our next door neighbor and got no answer on his home or cell, so I ran over and knocked. He was talking to the woman who lives up behind them with a long drive and she was in tears concerned it would spread to the house. Fire department was on the way. I came back and got the boys so we could watch and they could see how grass fires are handled. Apparently, the not so bright people in the next place up had been trying to burn something and it was very windy and got out of control. The way the properties sit, there's us, our immediate neighbors then a long drive and house up behind them and then another property. They mow the area along their drive and we figured it would stop there and it had already burned out in the places it had reached the mowed area, but was spreading in the other directions. Finally, after longer than it should have taken (and us all commenting that we were very glad it wasn't our houses because they'd have been hard to save at that point) a large pickup arrived and started driving through the burned area and spraying the areas still on fire. Took still another few minutes for the big truck to arrive. So, the boys got a good lesson in how fast a grass fire spreads and how it's put out. It's been a weird spring here. Very little moisture from when the snow melted and it hasn't been wet since, so it's actually dry here which is VERY rare at this time of year.

Heather do you also have the option of something other than a passport for driving into the US? I don't know if other border states are doing the same, but we can get an enhanced drivers license which is much cheaper than a passport.

MJ I'm glad that things have calmed down some for you at work. Hopefully, they can stay that way!

Janis and Tara how are things going for you?

Busy day here. Nicholas needs a haircut, then off to use their Book It coupons at Pizza Hut, a stop to buy a new cup for Nicholas as he's outgrown his and it pinches him in a place I'm guessing guys don't want to be pinched. :eek: Then we'll go and wake my Grandma up as we haven't visited in awhile. The woman has her days and nights mixed up, so it's very hard to try and visit when she'll actually be awake!!
 
MJ I forgot to answer your question about the road trip. I would LOVE to go, but there's no way I could pay even the cost of the event, let alone adding on airfare and hotel. :(
 
Well shoot! I was planning on doing the Hiit workouts as often as I safely could during my next workout and now I find out that they are likely to add muscle. I'm not opposed to muscle generally, but muscle adds size and that's the LAST thing my thighs need. :( Though in truth I've never found anything that really leans my legs out and diet is the only thing that really gets them smaller, so maybe I'll do it anyway and hope that cleaning up my diet evens things out, so that even if they don't get smaller they are at least more toned and firm.

Rest day here. Hope that you are all having a good weekend!
 
Hi Everyone,

Well, it took a full week for my body to get over the jetlag & feel normal. So, this ended up being my rest week! I'm starting back up tomorrow. I'm still planning to do some STS--mostly a traditional rotation, but maybe throw in a non-STS weight workout here & there.

MJ, I was considering going to the Glassboro/Cathe weekend, but I already have some travel plans for that weekend. I am going to aim to go in 2011. I wish it had worked out for me to go this summer.

Heather, Janis & Cathy, hope you all are enjoying the weekend. Easter weekend can be a crazy one indeed, but my has been pretty relaxing so far.

I'll see you all on Monday & will be back to checking in regularly!

Tara
 
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