Official De-Lurk

Training
181

Thanks, everyone for the nice compliments (both on the ink and the lift). :slight_smile:

Kimba, I absolutely find body art to be a problem in my field. I cover it up completely while working, whether at the office or at clients. There have been situations at the airport, grocery store, gym, etc. where I run into clients or co-workers during my own time (not working) and there is always the “oh my god, we had no idea” conversation in which I attempt to convince them that I am not someone different than they thought simply because I have body art (I can still be trusted and having tattoos does not change my level of ethics, really). And I definitely get the feeling that there’s an assumption that somehow the fact that I am tattoo’d has an impact on how well I can do my job and my level of competence & intelligence. So far I haven’t found it to result in any problems or situations I couldn’t handle. I don’t rub it in anyone’s face. It’s my body, my preference, and I think as long as I keep it covered at work there shouldn’t be any problems. After the two years I’ve been with this firm I think most of my co-workers have seen some of the ink at one point or another, and they are all fine with it. The touchy point is definitely the clients and the professional image that is expected ( especially for the money they’re charged). Back to the feeling that there’s a perception that my competence is somehow impaired by having body art.

The true difficulty that has started to crop up is appropriate evening dress for social business events… black tie affairs, where one could normally find a very nice evening dress have become quite the shopping / dressing challenge. :slight_smile: But it is sooo worth it.

On another note, I decided I wanted (read desperately craved) wings and chicken strips yesterday, and it was gorgeous outside, so we walked the 4 miles to the restaurant and 4 miles back after wings. I am one sore puppy. Yeah, I blame the walking, not the DLs I did right before.

182

it’s a shame that in this day and age people still judge that way. art is art is art is art!! :slight_smile:

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I was afraid that would be the case. In the suit-and-tie professions, clients and colleagues sometimes judge quite harshly based on appearances. However, it sounds like you have the situ well in hand!

I like the way you think about food. On Saturday I worked off a pineapple infused cosmo, mussels appetizer, lamb burger with fries, and a hazelnut gelato by riding 1.5 hours to the restaurant and 1.5 hours back. Well worth it.

184

Kimba - that meal is making me salivate big time.

185

I’m not a tat person. But your back is a work of art.

And your DLs. Well, you are truly one of the most talented lifters I’ve ever seen. Unbelievable.

What kind of juice do you drink for breakfast?

And tell me more about ANACONDA.

186

ya, I’ll have what your having Frzn! :slight_smile:

187

Kimba - lamb burger… mmmm…

Snap - No juice, I swear. I’m not into drinking my calories. That is what you meant right? :wink:
In all seriousness, my diet is pretty boring, but yummy. I have the same breakfast every morning (steak and eggs and grapefruit - and coffee), the same foods throughout the day (meat, broccoli, celery, blueberries, glucosamine in water, and salad), and meat and veggies for dinner. Variety consists of changing up what type of meat I’m eating (chicken breast, fish, or steak) and occasionally throwing something interesting on my salad, like grapes, strawberries, cucumbers, etc. I try to make good choices when we go out (which is way to often) and although I like beer and alcohol, I don’t really WANT it, so it’s easy to not drink anything.

Anaconda, so far, seems great. For years I’ve used Surge as my workout drink and then just tried to make sure I ate asap after workouts. I would say Anaconda is a better pre, during and post workout protocol. I’m usually wiped after my main workouts and these past few workouts, while following the Anaconda protocol, I’ve found I have much more energy and have been doing more during my workouts… which has resulted in me needed a lot more sleep. :slight_smile: Although, I do believe the Anaconda is helping reduce the crazy next day soreness that would usually result from goofy workouts. If you want a breakdown of the cool shit in the drink, I can have the hubby get on here and type for a while. He’s the chemist. :slight_smile:

188

[quote]Frzn_Arctc wrote:
If you want a breakdown of the cool shit in the drink, I can have the hubby get on here and type for a while. He’s the chemist. :)[/quote]

No need to do that.

I was joking about the juice. Steak and eggs for breakfast? Shit.

189

So… about two weeks have passed… To catch up in summary, I have had some great workouts, some not so great workouts, discovered that I can dig a much deeper hole to recover out of while drinking Anaconda, and that digging that deeper hole makes me HUNGRY (And ruins any diet related benchmarks I had previously thought applied).

Workout highlights:
(1) I benched 135 with a full pause and following cues from my spotter. Awesome!
(2) I was giving Deb Farrell some shit in the gym (because that’s how I make friends, giving people shit is a natural part of my social operation) :slight_smile: and one of her comebacks was, “yeah? well you should be benching more”… ouch… hitting a little close to home with that one…
(3) After my last posted work out I continued to have great workouts, but mixed it up a bit in the gym and threw in more upper body days (the hubby’s pulled hammy is still giving him shit, this time in the form of pulling his groin while trying to avoid re-pulling the hammy).
(4) Last squat day was shitty, form felt like crap, but I pyramided up and squatted 215 again (for the 2nd time ever). With a good form day I think I should be able to squat much more.
(5) In the process of mixing up and doing some fun upper body stuff I tried incline bench presses (with bar), which I hadn’t done in a long time. And I incline pressed 125. :slight_smile: I’ve gotten stronger. :slight_smile:

Diet/Anaconda/Eating everything in sight highlights:
After DLing 295, I had a great week of workouts every evening, aerobics in the morning, followed my normal diet amounts of meat, veggies, salad, (and, yes, steak and eggs), and then realized on Wednesday of last week that I was STARVING. No, not just a little hungry… STARVING, quite literally.

I wouldn’t say Anaconda increases my workout intensity, but it has made me able / willing to workout LONGER. I can push out more reps on any one set and I have this retarded compulsion/energy to always “do one more set” or one more exercise. This has led to amazing workouts and much soreness.

This also led to me burning WAY more calories than I’m used to and throwing my food measuring (which I do by eyeballing it all at this stage) completely off. I “diet” by knowing how much meat I have to eat to get enough protein, getting good fats by throwing in olive oil in the form of salad dressing and eggs in the mornings, and filling in the rest of the day with veggies. I get a little carbs usually by eating half a grapefruit in the morning and having some yummy raspberry vinaigrette on my salad. This ALWAYS works for me to lost weight. … Always, until now. My diet works through me finding the right set of meals to eat that get me enough protein, don’t leave me starving, and yet keep me low calorie and slightly low carb overall. Then I just eat the same thing every day until I reach the weight I want, or until I run into a series of weeks where family visit and it goes all to hell… one of the two.

With Ananconda and the crazy increase in workout burn, I was way under calorie and too low carb (fuzzy headed). So, after eating everything in sight for several days (including six donuts, pizza, breadsticks, candy, etc… yeah, all in one day) I weigh slightly more but have reset my diet to include an apple and an orange in my daily food. This has helped enormously. I’ll try that for the next week and see how I’m feeling by the weekend.

The other part of Anaconda that is interesting is the creatine. I weight 136ish now. Yes, part of this is undoubtedly due to the above diet breakdown. But I can’t tell how much, because before the diet breakdown I was weighing around 134-135 because of the creatine. So, I’m trying to reset my weight / scale in my head but I’m not sure how much to adjust by. So, reset weight goal for end of October is ~130.

I played my first volleyball games yesterday. It was a blast. It’s going to be interesting figuring out how to time my workouts around volleyball on Sundays. At the moment I’m deadlifting on Sundays, which means workout from noon-1:45ish, shower, drink calories, and then playing volleyball from 3:00-5:00. good times. :slight_smile: I think that schedule will work out well, I just need to find a way to get more calories in me in the in-between time.

Anyway, that’s the past two weeks events in a nutshell. Oh, and my alternator went to hell in a handbasket on Wednesday last week, so I’ve no vehicular mobile for a while. :frowning: But on the upside, that means I get to ride in with the hubby and get morning time with him, so I’m not really complaining. :slight_smile:

190

In addition to all the above catching up, I think it’s time to update the meet goals. The original goals (decided and posted on 7/26) were:

215 squat → Already achieved, twice. It’s easy as long as my form is on & I don’t get out in front with it.
150 bench → May have been a little big headed (eyes bigger than my pressing muscles) on this one… so far I’ve only pause pressed 135, once… and it was heavy
295 DL → Already achieved. Very doable. not easy. Form dependent, I think I can lift more here.

So, given the above thoughts, the reset goals for the meet at the end of October, after a couple weeks of maxing, are:

230 squat → secretly hoping for more at the meet, but this is a totally achievable goal
135 bench → If I can really press this, full pause and following cues from someone who doesn’t know me, I’ll be happy. but again, always secretly hoping for more.
315 Deadlift → I want three plates!!!

For a grand total of … 680 lbs. Which will beat the current state record of 568 held by… ME… yeah, since I’m the only female to lift raw in the USAPL in AK. Ever. Well, I’ll rock my own records, either way. :slight_smile: However, this will not be enough (by 30 lbs) to qualify for nationals in the 132 lb class. dammit…

And I’m thinking the 60 kg class is now much more achievable (for the end of October) than the prior goal of the 56 kg class. I’m a slow dieter (when it’s working) and not into the crash course, lose weight asap despite all the bad things you’re doing to your body, kinda dieter. I’m a bitch when I’m hungry. Hunger is bad… But I’m still aiming to get back to ~125ish (while still using creatine in the Anaconda). :slight_smile: Just need to maintain these good habits for a few months. :slight_smile:

191

woo hoo! nice new meet goals!!! although i think u should aim for 140 on the bench.

the three plate deadlift is one of the best feelings on earth. =+)

192

DL video is only beat by that beautiful back, art and all! Sumo pull looked way too easy, and if you’re benching 135 with a pause, gotta go 140-145 on your 3rd anyway! Meet atmosphere always motivates me in good way!

193

You’re strong and your back work looks fantastic.

194

Slow n steady wins the race(or PL meet!)

I hope you smash your goals!

195

Deja - I am dreaming about those three plates. seriously. I think I might be obsessed. Of course, after that I will still be unhappy with my progress, because I’ll be too far away from the four plates that will immediately become my goal. :slight_smile:

Deja & Lil Power - Yes, I think my Bench should be more too. I just still don’t seem to have a solid form and my tightness on the bottom of the press seems to come and go at will. I know it’s form and I just haven’t drilled it enough yet (don’t even really have a solid groove to aim for). I’m thinking I’ll open with 115, then jump right to 135 (why not?). If and when I nail that, I’ll have room to try a real max for my third.

Bobbi - Thanks, on both counts.

MiM - Yep, slow and steady. :slight_smile: Although, with me it usually also involves much backsliding and sprinting forward. :wink:

196

What a fascinating experiment with Anaconda. You are pursuing the difficult task of losing weight while gaining strength, and your recap really shows up why that is so hard. There is a huge difference between maintenance eating (which is what I do) and cutting. Wow.

I really, really appreciate hearing about your training and knowing that its not just me that is in the backslide/forward sprint pattern of strength gain.

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oh!!! :D!!! I just saw your back pictures and it is going to be gorgeous! its gorgeous already!! :)!! way cool! way cool! :)!

I love the foo! My foo…is sorta a fancy foo un, um sorta not offical foo, but i am a foo fan!..I love yours too :)!

and great lifts as well! :)!

198

[quote]
Work Sets
215x1
235x1
265x1
275x1 → Felt good, so I did another
275x1 → Felt really easy, again, so I thought, “Fuck it, I want 295” (my exact thoughts, I swear)
295x1 → Fuck. Yeah. PR +15 lbs b – And, that felt like I had much room, so …
315 x … Fail. But it was damn close. I broke it off by about an inch or more, but was just a little off balance and a little off on my form and couldn’t push through my heels like I had been. I think this is right on the edge of my real max right now, but that makes it the perfect goal for the meet. Or before… before would be good too. [/quote]

just saw this video. hell yeah you already have the 315 in the bag for SURE with the speed you ripped up the 295. i bet if you skipped the 265 and one of the 275 pulls you would of had it easy, peasy. =+)

199

whoa, yea, too many workups. MHS 135, 225, 275, 315

200

Always interesting to follow your progress.

Kinda sad but I qualify for nationals just because . . . I am old. Ugh. Wish I had your talent.

I can’t imagine you cutting 10+ pounds and not having it affect your weight. You look absolutely fab where you are RIGHT NOW.