quiktekk

YOUR MAIN QUEST Pick your Main Quest - where do you want to be in a few months? I want to be 20 lbs lighter and/or lose 2 inches on the waist. Currently weighing in at 176 lbs; I am a size 12 using Aeropostale's US measurements... definitely muffin topping the 12's with a 33 inch waistline & being 42-44 inches on the hips. Not healthy for someone who's 5' 1". By October 27th, which is coincidentally my 25th birthday, I'd like to be able to say these pants are starting to get loose, or at least lose the muffin top. I don't mind being a size 12. I just don't like the little round lump before the pants line under the shirt that I see in the mirror. I'd like the aesthetics to match the 250+ lbs leg/calf presses I can knock out with ease. I want to wear my red angry bird's face shirt without his cheeks bulging out on the bottom. Pick three incredibly specific goals (diet and fitness related) that will help you achieve your Main Quest. Go to the gym at least 3x week (early mornings, i.e., 3A-5A on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays). I am currently going to the gym on a daily basis with Thursdays and Sundays a rest day, but realize with my full-time internship starting in October, along with the fact that I still work full-time, there's only 8 hours left after a 16 hour day, and I'm going to need to sleep for half of those hours when October, and shortly following, December, rolls around. Establish a sleeping pattern. Admittedly, I have poor time management skills outside of work... my brain is usually exhausted to think about anything definite once I get off the clock, so I'd like to get at least 4.5 hours of sleep, if not more, each day, preferably between 8AM-1PM while I am still on the PM shift. When I transition back to a dayshift schedule, I'd like to sleep from 12AM-5AM. This is difficult since I am working 9-10 hour days since work has been historically short staffed. Even with the new hires, there's still a lot of training ahead, and my internship schedule really interrupts my ability to sleep well. Drink more water. Coupled with the poor time management skills, I know that my will power bar is low & I have tendency to mistake dehydration for hunger. The Mayo Clinic recommends 2.2L of fluid (or 9 cups) a day, so that's the goal. 1 Gallon of H2O is 3.78L, so if I even touched half of that, it'd still probably be more than I'm currently getting (I usually drink less than 2-3 cups of water in a day). Coffee, juice, and other drinkable substances do count towards the total volume, but obviously, I'm gunning for primarily water. PICK YOUR SIDE QUESTSLife Side Quest: A quest not related to diet and fitness that will help level up your life.Continue to participate in choir. I grew up in a questionable part of Los Angeles and never thought I would learn how to read music or sing in a traditional choral choir, so being part of one right now has been a big eye opener. Being the youngest and a minority adds to the unknown territory, but it's a very enriching part of my life... religious or secular, the people there (mostly 50+ y.o.) bring a new perspective that you just don't get from our generation (X, or in my case, fellow Y/millenials). It's been a great bonding time for me and my husband, Daryl. Choir gives us a break from venting about work or working out. With the limited time I have already, it's definitely going to end up modifying my schedule for work/school since there's required practices on Thursdays at 7PM. DECLARE YOUR MOTIVATION Write on a piece of paper why you're doing this challenge and why you want to level up your life. Hang it up somewhere that you see it every day, and take a photo of it and upload it to your challenge thread. If you can't take a photo, writing it out will be fine.Before you can have responsible kids & teach them how to live a good life, you have to teach yourself to be a responsible kid first. Don't let history repeat itself.

Amazing goals; as a newly wed, trying to get the other half to do anything on a regular basis outside of eating and sleeping is tough! Good luck to you... =]

Hi, Batwoman! Let me know if you have any questions about riding... got my M1 license in California & have been riding for about two years now (I have a Rebel & a Ninja, so I can talk about either cruisers or sport bikes!). You've got a good set of Alfreds behind you =]

You got this!

Thanks for the share, Starlight! Love those 50 reasons =]

Short, but completely necessary hiatus... got "three" days worth of workouts to list, so I'll keep it short: Day 9: Hitting a Brick Wall So the other half and I hit the gym promptly after the 9/11 post on Wednesday mornings and noticed some major issues... we just weren't getting those returns we wanted. The Angry Birds workout made Daryl legitimately angry because he wasn't able to progress to the next levels; I encountered similar problems in only 3-starring the squats: <Insert Angry Birds Results from 9/11/13 here... his phone died & he left it in the car; will update ASAP> He joined me for my laps in the pool, only to be further frustrated that he wasn't used to swimming. I'm not sure why guys get so frustrated while working out. As long as you're having fun and challenging yourself, that's all it should be about. I know it's going to be A LONG time before I even master a single pull up, but I'm not going to cry about it (unless it's out of sheer pain or if I tore some ligament or ripped off a tendon). Day 10: Rest Thursday 9/12/13 was a choir day. Used the morning hour to complete some quizzes that I forgot to do during my internship (hopefully they'll honor it... I'm two months away from being able to apply for the Medical Lab Tech board exam in California... I've got this internship month in October and the last in December... with some divine assistance, I should have a licensure in hand by next year). Rushed around like crazy at work (no breaks, skipped lunch) to make it to choir practice and was still late. However, I made the capella choir's soprano section! I was on Cloud 9 for a good three-four hours. The workouts definitely have a huge roll to play: because I'm able to inhale more air due to the running/swimming/cycling, I'm able to sustain notes longer! Day 11: DISNEYLAND! Took the much needed 3-day vacation today, Friday the 13th. Being in Southern California, I have the lucky privilege to be an annual passport holder and went to California Adventures & Disneyland. The parks were packed by 4PM and didn't close until 1AM. No official workout was done that day, but the Up wristband results speak themselves: I'm counting that as my workout for the day... I'd like to think I could at least last a half marathon in the near future! We were good about limiting the calorie intake too: I had pulled pork, baked beans, & a corn medley from Flo's V-8 cafe. I'd like to think that's waaay better than getting a $5.00 churro or some random sugary item! Day 12-13: More rest! After all the walking & not getting back to San Diego until 4AM, I was a lazy bum and slept most of the day. I've been bad about turning on sleep mode on the Up wristband, but on the days I do track my sleep, it's been accurate. We got up and ready in time for church since it was the choir's turn to sing for the Saturday 5PM mass. Got back home & did more sleeping. Yesterday was a repeat as well; slept most of the day, did the grocery shopping, & went back to bed. I need more of these three day weekends! Day 14: Back to the gym Today was a big tell in the whole "your muscles need time to repair" idea: sure enough, the angry birds results were great in comparison to Day 9: Exercise / Goal / Set 1 / Set 2 / Set ... // Total # // Grade Level 5.2 (Overhead Squats) / 50 / 51 // * * * Level 3 Push Ups / 50 / 25 / 25 // 50 // * * * [struggled on the last 5 of the last set; I'm willing to repeat this since it felt "sloppy"] Level 3 Pull Ups / 10 / N/A // [see below] Planks / 240s / 91 / 87 / 65 // 242 // * * [i can live with these results] I'm not quite sure how to attack the pull ups. Inverted rows seemed to be a breeze... is there something fundamentally wrong with my technique? There's a machine at the gym that gives assisted pullups (i.e., it has a set of weights that is pushing up on a wide bar that serves as a platform for your feet. So, for example, I did 10 sets of pull ups with a 70 lbs assist, so 176-70 equals me pulling up 106 lbs ten times). However, I'm not feeling much of any "back" exercise and mostly feel it all in my biceps. I tried to move it up to 62 lbs, but 114 lbs caused me to only do 2 sets before tapping out. I did 5 sets of dips (twice) on the same weight, but again, I don't feel like any of these should be counted towards a pull up since the goal is to go for a true, unassisted pull up. If I get bold enough, I might post a video of me doing the assisted pull up to see if someone can help me correct my form. Anyways, time to shower & get ready for bed... work's at 3PM and I'm wondering how the lab faired on Friday. Lastly, we're on Week 1 Day 2 of Couch-to-5K; results here: Definite improvement. First Day (on 9/11), was 1.98 for total distance, walked 1.17 miles with the average of 19:19 min per mile. The scores above also beat the previous run distance of 0.81 miles with the running pace of 9:52 minutes per mile. Little to no pain other than the generic muscle burn in the calves despite adding a block to the workout. I'm really enjoying the C25K pace; I'd like to speed up a little, but it's probably for the best that I take my time & make sure to keep my workout buddy motivated to come with me rather than blast off ahead of him only for him to not want to do it again... I want to win the habit changing race slow and steady with as many people as possible.

Thus far it's been enjoyable; I just swam a good hour in the pool with it & at the moment of truth in plugging it in... ... it still works! Though I see more people walking around with the Fitbit Flex at work, I'm liking the Up (since the Flex seems to chafe on my friend's wrist... the skin looked like it was peeling right underneath the band). He said he takes it off/has to switch wrists occasionally.

Haha, never underestimate the power of the granny grocery cart:

Just wanted to be able to write a quick post to keep the workout days separate: Day 8: Avoid new hires at all costs lest you want to get home at 4AM. Did indeed go to the gym, but it was practically morning by the time we got there. Went to the Oceanside 24-Hour Fitness. Bad idea: all of the marines from Camp Pendleton where there, doing their morning flexing. Couldn't help but feel pudgy. We got done with some light lifting (since the 17.5 lbs weights were missing) & headed for the beach to do the cardio portion of today's exercise. It was 5AM by the time we started walking/jogging... both Daryl and I used the Couch-to-5K (C25K) app to track the distance. For the couple of dollars this app costs, it is definitely worth it. It kept track of my GPS location quite well & was able to calculate the total distance, my mile walk/ mile jog times, and log how I felt after the 30 minutes. 1.98 miles for the first day using the app. Ok, now that I posted about going to the gym, time to go to the gym (lol).

Hi NewMe, I just finished reading your whole blog and am addicted; excellent progress on all your goals... I know you won't give up on fitness, but I'm so eager to read more of your posts. Keep up on the great work, most especially keeping it paleo You're definitely a source of inspiration to me & I hope to eventually be able to move to Paleo someday (as stereotypical as this is, I am asian and rice is a staple in Filipino food). Following your Battle Log!

Day 7: Happy Monday Everyone! Saturday night/Sunday morning was filled with a ridiculous amount of food and night life walking; my baby brohanosaurus came down from LA and spent the weekend with us. We had the most delicious set of Stoned Smoked Porter Braised Beef Ribs and a Framboise. The ribs came with a side of mac & cheese, which got subbed for potato fries. The indulgence was walked off around the Gaslamp District of San Diego. No additional alcohol was consumed; we did a lot of bar window shopping, introducing the young man to Wet Willie's, the Double Deuce, did a pit stop at Ghirardelli's, and tittered through all three floors of Hustler. This counted as my workout and food consumption for the day. Completely changing gears, Sunday morning topped off with choir/church time. I failed to mention that prior to going to the Gaslamp, I purchased the Jawbone Up Wristband and activated it before going to bed: I must say, this thing is pretty awesome; I wrote it to church and it was able to track all the steps, the idle time (i.e., sitting for the 1.5 hr at church), active time, resting vs. active burn & lets you free-text log your activity... there's also the sleep tracker, which was able to map my deep/light sleep cycles, and a place where you can enter in your food (we ate at Smashburger and I was able to find everyone else's burger... except mine, since I ordered the smashchicken - it is possible to add custom food). It survived the gym and even the shower; the wristband successfully synced using the 3.5mm jack located underneath the silver cap and is rather accurate for something that you just wear around your wrist (when it said I only slept for 3 hours, I really did only sleep for 3 hours, but I only felt like I got an hour and a half worth of sleep... interestingly, the deep sleep was 50% of the time!). Other impressively notable attributes is the ability to log how you're feeling via the smiley face; the day started off horribly due to either indigestion or PMS, so with the 8 different phases of "Happy Face," I could log not only numbers, but the physical morale behind it! Though it costs a pretty penny ($129 + the $19.99 2-year unlimited replacement for any reason warranty from Best Buy), since it stays around my wrist 24/7, there's less of a chance I'll lose it and therefore will use it more than a FitBit clip-on... I spend waay too much money at BB, so I was able to get the warranty for a little cheaper ($17 and change) and used $20 in reward zone points to bring the total with tax to $138. Note: I am aware Fitbit has the Flex wristband, but the battery life on the Up is too good to pass up: 10 days in between charges v. 5 days. I'm still open to trying the Flex in the future. It'll take a couple of weeks to justify the amount, but I'd like to think of this as an investment in tracking my health. For the actual gym log: Exercise / Goal / Set 1 / Set 2 / Set ... // Total # // Grade Squats / 100 / 101 // * * * [Don't ask me how I did this; I just zone out until I heard "Good Job!"] Push Ups / 50 / 25 / 15 / 10 // 50 // * * Inv. Rows / 20 / 11 / 9 / 2 // 22 // * * * [see below] Planks / 180s / 90 / 90 // 180 // * * * [The utter pain when coupled with cramping of a feminine nature] About those inverted rows: two things... No. 1 - the proper height of the bar makes a big difference: too low and you're virtually horizontal. Too high and you're barely able to touch it with your arms. No. 2 - probably most importantly - doing those bicep curls for the right arm TREMENDOUSLY helped. Since my left arm wasn't doing the majority of the previous 70/30 split, I knocked out quite a few quality rows the first shot. Daryl still hasn't come up with the circuit, so we winded through the Hoist machines on the first floor of the gym. I opted for 8 reps, 3 sets of the following (the resistance / pounds for a 150lbs user are listed... still being 173-176 lbs, I probably did a little more): Mid Row (6 / 130) - Just right Shoulder Press (6 / 76) - Too heavy; adjust down tremendously... might have pulled something! Chest Press (3 / 75) - Next time, quality versus quantity. Seated Dip (5 / 91) - Struggled through these; exceedingly weak upper body by comparison to the legs Bicep Curl (6 / 70) - It was... "okay" Leg Extension (6 / 91) - Just right Leg Press (10 / 179) - Easy... too easy. I bumped it up to 12 / 211 and that felt more challenging. I'm able to do 6 / 106 with one leg no problem. Topped the visit off w/ a 24 minute cycling session. Adjusted the seat height AND the length between the handle bars/seat, and this made a difference between a painful versus comfortably challenging ride. Can't wait until tomorrow!

Hi Bekah, looked at your profile/location, and it's a bummer since the two color runs I know of (The Color Run and Color In Motion 5K) are a good 100+ miles away: http://thecolorrun.com/orlando/ http://colorinmotion5k.com/Jacksonville I did the SD CIM5K, which was amazing... so many different types of people doing different types of runs!

Most definitely! I'm already following you, so I'll ask the Chef Man (aka the other half) to make a similar veggie pot!

Day 6: "IS THAT A CHALLENGE?!" So Daryl never quite found a workout, which stalled us from getting out of here. Poor guy seemed really... moody... for working out since he couldn't quite find a circuit he liked. So instead, we pulled out the Men's Health and Fitness Gym Bible: Note, I don't know if this link/page is valid, but check out this link to get a free PDF copy. "Mens gym bible pdf" was suggested by the google awesome bar, so I had to see what that was all about. We weren't sure what "circuit" to do, so why do a circuit at all? I mentioned core workouts last log, so we fit to the body weight workouts: alternating side planks (x3) and russian twists (x3). The catch?! It's a burn out session! Daryl and I mirrored each other, counted to three, and held the side planks until one of us dropped. This turned out to be fun way to pass the time, which is usually excruciating when you stare at the stopwatch. In place of JessFit's 20-lbs. cat, I used the 20-lbs. dumbbell and did 6 sets, 3 reps of the bicep curls for each arm. Again, I can do 25-lbs., but I'm going for quality and evenness... my left arm is going to have to slow down for the right side. I also did a couple of overhead tricep stretches; however, I'm not counting those. Lastly, my cardio for the day was the swim. I completed 10 lengths of the pool (1/8 of a mile) in 17 minutes... I didn't die or stop other than to clear the occasional inhalation of chlorine water. This was a major accomplishment and improvement from last time & it makes me hopefully that I'll be able to swim more efficiently and quickly. Regulating breathing is the hardest part of the swim. As for tomorrow, we've got the angry birds workout, another attempt at a circuit, and cycling!

Love this thread; congratulations on the progress thus far!

You're right in that it gets routine, but I remember that each and every one of those blood samples I'm getting is a parent/cousin/sibling/teacher/care giver/military member out there in the world trying to get or stay healthy! So that makes it less routine and more important that just some random tube. To become a technician, labs usually look for someone who has A.S. or B.S. in Medical Lab Technology, Clinical Lab Sciences, or some health related major; and if you're in California, they're especially looking for a state approved license... some (i.e., yours truely) weeded up through the cracks (or were grandfathered) without the degree and started out as an accessioner, then became a data entry clerk, then a lab assistant, then a tech... but ultimately, pathologists (MDs) rule the lab. Training can be on the job, but it really depends on what department you'd work for (since there's microbiology, molecular biology, chemistry, special chemistry, hematology, immunology, etc.) & what instruments/methodologies are put into process at the lab. I can blab about this quite a bit, so I'll stop here for now.

I'm very amazed at your diligence with the foods... what did you start working on first: dieting or exercise? Or has dieting always been easy for you? I don't have anything against veggies, I'm just horrible at actively seeking them out.

Day 5: Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream! Having never been through a choir seating arrangement placement (-ent), the process of getting paired with someone who vocally matches you is quite an experience... basically, everyone is grouped according to what part they sing (soprano, alto, tenor or bass), and within those parts, people are teamed up together to have them blend well/brighten the color and sound of the choir. However, this required us all of us to constantly sing (individually) "Row Row Row Your Boat" as the tune of choice. These guys are professionals. We've never made that song sound so beautiful before. More on choir later... for now, IT'S GYM TIME! The stretches from yesterday were a HUGE benefit to me. It was pretty evident the difference between stretching and not streching; Daryl was struggling with each Angry Bird Workout, but I was able to power through at a marginally better rate with these scores: Exercise / Goal / Set 1 / Set 2 / Set ... // Total # // Grade Squats / 70 / 45 / 25 // 70 // * * * Push Ups / 20 / 10 / 10 // 20 // * * * [i did another 10 / 10 just because Daryl was all like, "Your butt was up in the air."] Inv. Rows / 20 / 4 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 2 // 15 // No stars [Two more than last time, but still...] Planks / 120s / 65 / 57 // 122 // * * * All in all, moving on up a level with the exception of those darn inverted rows. I don't know what it's going to take to lift the 173 lbs of me twenty times other than a mini forklift with a trigger happy joystick operator. I figure it has to do with side dominance (as a south paw, my left hand/leg/eye coordination seems to be far superior to the right). This was confirmed during the mini strength training exercise I did with the free weights. Performing a concentration curl was so incredibly uneven. I'm able to successfully do 5 reps, 3 sets of a 25-lbs. dumbbell with my left arm, but had to get the next lowest weight (a 17.5-lbs.) for the right arm. I performed 5 sets, 4 reps using this. Too bad I hadn't watched the link above prior to doing it so I could get most quality out of the workout... but, there's always tomorrow! That being said, there's a lot of development that needs to occur on the right side if I ever want to complete quality inverted rows, and eventually, pull ups. Topped it off with a 20-min run/jog on the treadmill. After doing treadmills twice in this week, I'm honestly more wanting to take this run outside and truly be in control of my speed. It's frustrating on a treadmill, since soccer players don't typically keep running at a constant rate. More often than not, we take a steady jog, sprint, ease back into a steady jog, and torpedo again when we get a second wind -- all within a matter of seconds. So PreCor TreadyMill 5000 only staying at 1.0 incline at 3.5 mph for 6 minutes is a major "no go." If I move these workouts to the REAL morning (5AM), I might just have to take this to the beach or go on night runs around the neighborhood. So, game plan for tomorrow: some core exercises, work on that right arm with some concentration, whatever circuit the big D wants us to do, and playing in the pool again! Definitely raising that threshold for pain! Note to self: Check out more of the LiveStrong videos with Michelle Trapp (Cert. Personal Trainer c Gold's Gym)... she has the most amazing borderline-masculine girl arms I've ever seen and is my new inspiration for having toned/defined upper body. Watch the "How to Get Bigger Biceps" video for proper form and not showing off. Yes, it might sound like a mini girl crush, but the musculature looks natural (unlike the inflated, steroid pumped women as the one pictured here).

Day 4: REST Day - STUCK AT HOME! So much for the "rest" part of rest day... worked from 2:30PM-1:30AM since the lab tech that usually does the restocking of the bulk reagents at work (same weight as two 2-Gal. milk jugs) was off today, so I did quite a bit of lifting, reaching, bending, tossing, etc around the department. I didn't sweat as much as I usually would have, so that's a good sign, but the triceps and muscles under my arms are still extremely sore. Anyways, by the time I got to the house at 2AM, the husband was sound asleep, which is abnormal, since we're usually awake at this time... this killed the timing for us to go to the gym, since I've got to be at work again at 9:30AM (in an effort to get out by 6PM and make it to the first choir practice)! However, I didn't let this setback stop me. I want to make workouts second nature and part of my daily life sooo bad... no one tells you to shower or brush your teeth; you just do it everyday! Since I couldn't go to the gym, and it was a rest day, I settled for the following: Stretch your way into a more muscular body routine off of BodyBuilding.com The static stretching routines pictured are very familiar... they look like my old army stretches or the ones you'd do in high school during P.E. class. To offset for the lack of the gym and its freestanding equipment, I had to settle for... the laundry room! The entryway from the living room to the laundry area helped perform the chest/shoulder/bicep stretch while the washer/dryer played a huge part in streching the lats, delts, and hamstrings. I guess the back of a couch could have been used, but you get the idea; find something and make it work! This took all of 10-15 minutes, and I was sad that it was sooo short. I'm really excited to go to the gym tomorrow... rather than thinking of it as a place of obligatory torture, I'm drawing from the times I was in elementary school and couldn't wait for the bell to ring for recess. Imagining the gym as a large playground with lots of cool toys for everyone makes the experience a bit more enjoyable. (If only for the endorphin rush!) Can't wait until choir gets out!

Vengeful's got a great idea with the Couch25K app... the key thing is to just make sure you get out every day & make a habit out of it! Definitely go for it... you'll be powering through a mile in well under 20 minutes in no time!

Hi, Heather! Nice to see another new rebel! Q: What are your favorite foods to eat!? My mom is a Type 1 Diabetic; I might be able to help since I'm always keeping her diet in mind when we go out to eat.

Don't mind at all, Wren! In a nutshell, I do the testing/instrument maintenance in a diagnostic laboratory... specifically, the tests that you'd get to find out if you're pregnant (or more accurately, how far along you are), cancer screenings, cardiac testing, thyroid function checks, or help docs figure out why a patient might have anemia or allergies. It's a 24/7 operation, so I get stuck at work quite a bit!

Day 3 at the gym completed! DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) hasn't been this prevalent in awhile. The supersets with the bench press from yesterday definitely caught up to me; I have no pain in my legs or torso past being slightly worn, but the tricep area is noticeably sore with every overhead arm movement. In other words, adjusting your pony tail or flattening the backend of your labcoat is an exercise/stretch in itself. (>_<) However, after spending 3PM-1:50AM at work, it was nice to kick off the flat lab shoes and get into some barefoots! About shoes; I've figured out that taking care of your feet is probably the #1 thing to keep the workouts going strong when dealing with cardio. If my feet are happy, the rest of me doesn't seem to complain nearly as much. So far, the last half dozen pairs of shoes I've bought have all been from Merrell. Being 5' 1", I still fit into the kids section and can get away with wearing the following: Merrell Reach Glove for Kids (except in the color brown) and... Merrell Trail Glove for Kids in Lavender (pictured above) every workout/outside. There's a Merrell Outlet store along the coast; I was able to snag the above for ~$50 each -- a steal considering that the same size shoe in women's is $80-$160. I would have purchased a pair of the black leathers above if they were in my size and not discontinued. For now, I wear the brown ones every other day to let them air out & keep the freshness. Meanwhile, I've put the above Trail Gloves through hell and back... they've been through the washer and survived gloriously (usually, the insert of my past washed shoes get deformed or just don't have that same fit, but these look and feel brand new). Anyways, I highly recommend giving Vibrams of any brand a shot... taking the advice after lurking on NF was the best thing I did for getting back into shape. No shin splints. No back aches. No bad ankle rolls. It takes a couple of days to adjust to these and will definitely feel the burn in the tendons near your ankles, but that's just the muscles waking up. Afterwards, any padding on any shoe just feels awkward. Back to the workout! Here's what happened... Daryl is sick, but was still a trooper and went with me to the gym. Day 2 of the Angry Birds Stats (after 3-starring all of level 1 on the first day) rendered the following results: Exercise / Goal / Set 1 / Set 2 / Set ... // Total # // Grade Squats / 50 / 51 // 51 // * * * Push Ups / 20 / 3 / 10 / 7 // 20 // * * [Honestly, this is part and partial of the tricep issue; I know I can do more!] Inv. Rows / 20 / 5 / 5 / 1 / 1 / 1 // 13 // No stars Planks / 120s / 61s / 12s / 22s / 25s // * The inverted rows and the planks will be my weakness. My core and back could always use the improvement, and I feel like I could have made more quality inverted rows... I fixated on the number, rather than the workout =[ I also knocked out 15 minutes of cycling, which was a lot more of an exercise than I expected. The fact that I have no padding around the glute/inner thigh area made the ride a bit hard. Anyways, I powered through it, but there's definitely a need for more investigation on proper cycling technique... it's not as easy as just hopping on and going for a spin, since you're changing the resistance and adjusting your body during the ride. It was a bit much for me to follow the on screen instructions, so I just rode and kept in the suggested cadence range for now. Anyways, tomorrow is a "rest" day... we're still trying to figure out what counts as resting, but still allows us to be in the gym. Sauna or Jacuzzi, maybe? For now, I'm getting distracted by Paranormal Witness on SyFy/DVR.