Silo

Any chance you have a garage with attic access? Something like this might work for you. I did something similar in my basement, with the straps looped over the steel beam that runs over the length of the house and then a pipe hanging from that. I don't think that would be high enough for you, though. Our basement has 2 extra courses of blocks (so I think it's 9'4") and the bar isn't really high enough for my husband (6'2") to hang from unless I raise it high enough that there's not enough space between it and the beam to get his chin above the bar. So the basement option could work if you have a super high ceiling in your basement.

This describes my workout yesterday. I slept like crud Saturday night and Sunday night I slept slightly better but the sleep deficit from Saturday still had me feeling out of sorts yesterday morning. Regardless, I crawled out of bed at 5:30 and headed to the basement. My pilates warmup was ridiculously difficult (apparently tired = no bendarooniness) and all I could think was "this suuuuuckssss." Came up short with (assisted) pullups and then headed over to do my least favorite exercise, the inclined pike pushup. Somewhere between cursing it and and starting pushups, though, it all clicked and I kind of forgot how much I wanted to climb back into bed and instead felt really good. Making myself just do it really does work the vast majority of the time.

I have a knack for flying under the radar Thank you! Well, last week was my diet break week and while it was fun, I was ready for it to be over last night. I ended it in a bit of a carb haze, courtesy of that great sailor, Cap'n Crunch, and his merry band of crunchberries. Sometimes things that appear to make sense on the surface (I should just go ahead and eat the rest of the box since it will go stale if I don't eat it all now) turn out to be bad ideas. It was pretty nice to loosen up a bit though. My husband and daughter were out of town so I had the chance to make a few meals that they would never eat (pierogies, yum.) In all, last week went well. I got my workouts in and my sleeping was good. Those are my top priorities so that made me happy.

Good luck with your application! If you have a good supervisor, s/he will be disappointed to see you (possibly) go but happy for your own personal career growth. I've had super employees who I have recommended apply for jobs in other departments because I've thought the move would be good for their careers. There are plenty of managers who take it personally when their staff want to move on but I've always been of the opinion that most people are going to move on at some point so managers need to accept that and find a good way to deal with it. If a person is going to move on but still be with the company, it seems like a perfect situation.

Milk. I was never much of a milk drinker when I was younger. Then I figured out that I was lactose intolerant. Lactose free milk has a weird taste for the most part so I still didn't drink it. Then I found non-homogenized milk at our local dairy and since I had read that some LI people can tolerate raw milk I figured I'd try it. It's not the same thing (the milk I drink is pasteurized) but, lo and behold, I can drink it without any problem. It's a super easy source of protein and tastes good and I love that the cream separates so sometimes I get a nice blob of it in my glass. Yum.

To piggyback off this thread--can anybody recommend a good full body dumbbell workout? I've been doing 90% of my strength training as bodyweight work and then adding dumbbell rows and overhead presses. I've come into a set of handles and 105# of plates and would like to switch over to mainly dumbbells but continuing pushups, a pullup progression and planks. I've found a few dumbbell workouts online but don't know enough to know what is good and what isn't. Eh, cross posted with Tanuki.

But once you move up into that, you would be developing the skills to move up again, right? This presupposes that the manager who is hired moves on eventually.

Are you qualified for the manager position?

It sounds to me like you are ready to step up a bit. I would apply for the coworker's spot if I were you. To me, this looks like: Current job: not challenged, dialing it in a bit, no opportunity for advancement Coworker's job: new challenges, higher salary, upward movement in company Plus just changing departments within the same company is a good thing, from my experience. Getting the chance to see things from a new perspective makes you a more well rounded employee and gives you a leg up when it comes to management potential because you can show that you have that dual perspective.

But don't your walkers get in the way?

Very cute, Thrillho Back in high school physics, my husband had to build a kite that could fly for a certain amount of time. He built this thing with about a 5' wingspan and, with his grandma's sewing help, made it rainbow colored. At the time he knew nothing about rainbows as far as being a symbol of gay rights. He still had it when we first got married. We used to take it to the park once in a while to fly it and always referred to it as our pride kite. Sadly, a few years ago, I tripped over a pile of junk in the basement and totally destroyed the kite.

That certainly is a positive thing You are making progress! It is kind of scary to try those smaller sizes. When I try on clothes and am not sure what size to pick I always try the bigger one on first because if it fits, good, and if it doesn't fit, it's a good thing to be able to go down a size. If I try on the smaller size and have to go up, it can be discouraging. The mind games we play with ourselves, right? Also, you might try washing them to see if they shrink a tiny bit (maybe let them air dry for now and then after a while you might try to dry them in the washer to shrink them more if they are big again.)

Wow, that is great progress. You have worked really hard and it really shows. Good job!

"Toning up" is the delicate flower term for gaining muscle. It's usually used in reference to women, who may be afraid of bulking up and thus like to use tiny weights. When I think of "toning up" I think of pink dumbbell routines from Marie Claire magazine. You'll find that the general consensus on NF is to lift heavy or do something like bodyweight strength training in order to increase strength, as opposed to light "toning up" routines. Kellymom is a good resource for nursing moms. This post talks a bit about the increased caloric needs while you are nursing. If you do not want to lose weight, you'll want to eat the extra nursing calories and then a bit more on top of that in order to provide enough fuel for muscle building. As for what to eat, aim for 1 g of protein per lean pound of bodyweight and then eat all of your calories. And, of course it goes without saying, drink plenty of water. I remember my nursing days and how dehydrated it can make you if you don't drink a lot of water. You can use a calculator like the one at IIFYM to determine your TDEE calories and then add in some nursing calories for a starting point.

We have 3 greyhounds and go through a lot of dog food so we always get the biggest bags possible. I've been able to carry them in but always had to stop and think "okay self, you're going to to lift something heavy, get ready." Last night, I ran out to the garage, grabbed a bag, brought it in and started pouring it into the bin and suddenly it hit me that I had just done it without having to think about it. Functional strength!

No, I'd still warm up first. It just seems to me like you'll already be on the floor doing bodyweight stuff so do the splits then.

Yep, no need to change to more meals if you don't like to eat that way. Three meals is a-okay.

I do 3 days of strength (bodyweight like you) and 3 days of cardio and then rest on the seventh day (Friday for me.) I started out with two rest days a week but if you already do martial arts, you likely are at a better starting point than I was. On the days when I do my bodyweight work, I also do a short pilates video. I think you could do your splits on your strength days or on your interval days, either way. I do the pilates when I do because I like it as a warm up for strength.

Thank you! Yes, I am doing strength training. I started out with the BBWW and at the end of May I switched over to El Diablo's Start Bodyweight basic routine. I've added a couple of exercises to it (dumbbell rows and overhead presses just because I like them.) I would like to start doing dumbbell deadlifts because I have enough plates to go up through 100# so it makes sense to use those before getting a barbell. I need to find somebody to show me how to do them in person, though, because I've watched a bunch of videos online but still feel like I am doing them wrong. I also need to get a full length mirror to put in my workout space so that I can actually see what I am doing. I'm taking a diet break and eating at maintenance this week because last week I was starving and felt like chewing my arm off. I eat 1700-1800 calories most days and don't usually feel uncomfortably hungry so that was unusual for me. I'll be back at a deficit next week and then moving into the 150s. One more big win for me today: I ran 4 miles without having to stop and walk. This was a welcome surprise. The summer heat and humidity has had me walking more than usual, even on short runs. But it all clicked today and my repeated "just one more song" mantra turned into "just one more lap around the block" and, bam, 4 miles.

I think it is GREAT that you have decided to give yourself some breathing room at a time when you need it. Learning to say "this isn't working, something has to change" is sometimes hard but it is important for self-preservation. A few years ago I was in a job I hated but felt like I had to stick out for a number of reasons. Then there was an episode of Freakonomics, The Upside of Quitting, that spurred me to really work toward finding a job that was a better fit and it was definitely the right move in the end. Ever since then, I have been a big fan of quitting. It's kind of a hard thing to do. I mean, who wants to be a quitter, right? But if changing what you are doing is not working, it doesn't make sense to keep hammering at it and making yourself miserable. So I say good for you for recognizing that your challenge wasn't fitting your life and choosing to make changes so that it does.

I get full (or at the least low fat as opposed to fat free) stuff whenever I can because I like the taste better and find it more filling. I don't think that 130 calories for 3 links of sausage is bad. Fat is not something that I try to limit. One of my summer jobs during college was at a factory that made Snackwells, among other cookies (Nutter Butters, Mr. Phipp's Pretzel Chips, those tiny Ritz pb sandwiches, other generic brands, etc.) I spent a lot of time on the Snackwell breakfast bar line, attempting to keep them from jamming up the machinery. I think that the Snackwell bars now are more like granola bars as opposed to flattened tubes of breading filled with jam.

Thanks, Kailer! I ran 4 miles today! Without any walking! I started out thinking that I wasn't sure that I could do it because of the humidity so I set my app to 3 miles and made myself run slower than normal. There's one hill that I usually get to the top of and then walk for about 30 seconds but I ran up it slow enough that I wasn't overly winded and then I realized hey, I think I can actually make it the entire four miles and not stop to walk at all. And I did! Woo!

Thank you.

I do mostly bodyweight strength work but I have also been doing one arm dumbbell rows and dumbbell overhead presses. I'm at the point where I want to increase the weight for rows but I'm not sure how much I should add. Is there a general guideline like 5%, 10%, 5 lbs., etc.? I'm at 25 pounds right now and was thinking of adding two 2.5 lb. plates but wasn't sure if that's the thing to do or not.