Silo

I'm going through this some right now, but more with my stomach. I've only been upping calories for a couple of weeks but I feel like I can see some improvement already. It's not really quantifiable at this point (my stomach has gotten smaller which makes it seem to be shrinking but I don't have enough data points to be sure yet) but it looks better in the mirror. I'm not comfortable posting pictures that would illustrate this or else I'd show you.

Another idea--try eating a snack before bed. It may or may not help but is worth a shot.

I worked in a cookie/baked goods factory one summer in college (think Fig Newtons and Nutter Butters) and most of the machinists were missing a finger or two. I work a job that I like just fine but I can't say it's particularly fulfilling. It's my favorite job so far but I work to pay my bills, not because I feel like I am serving a greater good. My pay and benefits are nice plus I have a great boss and fantastic employees. Not really anything to complain about. My undergrad degree is in accounting. I picked it my junior year of high school and never changed. I'm pretty much a textbook case of setting up my career "perfectly"--entered college with a set major, planned out my classes to a T the first week and then followed exactly that plan until I graduated a term early, had accounting related jobs starting my first summer of college, worked for a Big 6 firm the last summer and accepted a job there before senior year started. But still, I'm not really emotionally invested in my career. If anything, I think my completely logical and unemotional handling of it is what has helped me get this far. That sounds completely robotic, doesn't it?

You could eat a portion of your breakfast beforehand and the rest after. Or, eat some during. Sometimes I take a banana or yogurt to the basement with me and eat between exercises.

I've been following the beginner workout at the bottom of this article. When I was actively cutting, I was doing it 4 days a week. Right now I'm definitely doing it 2 days and then might throw in another day here or there. I really like the incline walking. I feel like I get a good workout plus I can read on my Kindle at the same time, as long as I make the font bigger. https://www.t-nation.com/training/get-ripped-get-walking

Day 11 (3/5/15) 5 minute warmup, 43 minutes @ 3.5 mph & 4% incline, 5 minute cool down 2 sets of 8 lying leg lifts Day 12 (3/6/15) OHP - 20x5, 30x5, 40x2, 55x5, 55x5, 55x7 (I should have lifted only 52.5, not 55. I realized that after the first working set, considered lowering it, and then decided not to.) Glute bridge - BWx12, 50x8, 90x12, 90x12, 90x12 Lpd -3x5, 4x5, 5x9, 5x9, 5x9 Front squat -25x5, 35x5, 45x2, 60x5, 60x5, 60x6 Romanian deadlift - 67.5x10, 67.5x10, 67.5x10 Lying band abduction - 10 each side w/blue band, 20 each side w/out band

Hope all is going well!

I read something where a guy who was 6'2" said that he liked to tell people that he was 6' tall, just to aggravate people who were 6'-6'1" because it would make them seem to be shorter.

When I was engaged, I was pretty in shape already and I didn't feel the pull to be more so for my wedding. However, that was a very long time ago and I think that I hear about this phenomenon a lot more now. I see "shredding for the wedding" type posts on My Fitness Pal on a weekly basis and I know that many of my friends have done it as well. I never actually paid attention to see if their male counterparts did it though. But I do think that there is a tendency to see one's wedding day as a peak day, so to speak, so wanting to look good for it make sense. Especially since there will likely be photographic evidence of it for years to come. That way when your younger relatives look at your pictures 20 years from now they might laugh at your color scheme and clothes but they'll also be thinking "Whoa, young SuperUnison and Mrs. SuperUnisoon looked good!" Also, I think that wedding planning seems to be pretty stressful for a lot of people. Maybe the extra exercise helps people deal with that.

I am definitely at the point where tape measurements show me my progress way more than the scale does. I do them on the first of every month but I also grab the tape in between those days, whenever I feel like it. I did my measurements over the weekend and found that I have lost an inch off my waist since the beginning of the year. That was with a 2 pound drop in weight. The last inch I took off my waist took a 10 pound drop in weight so I was over the moon about that.

Totally off topic. I drove past an Excel Avenue last weekend and almost turned around to take a picture of the street sign. Yes, I am an accountant.

This is what made me start laughing at my desk today. My husband got me a set of sawhorses for Christmas. He's still alive. (To be fair, I asked for them and I rarely ask for anything specific so when I do he knows I really want it.)

What stopped me from working out back before I worked out - general exhaustion, just not feeling like it, etc. What stopped me from joining a gym in the past - money and not wanting to workout around other people. I belong to a gym (rec center) now but only go once a week. I have all of the equipment that I need at home in order to do my workouts so that is what I do. I try to go to the gym once a week, just for a change of scenery, because I like the chin up bar and lat machine that's there better than mine, and, frankly, because there is a coffee shop between there and work that sells the best scones ever. So my routine is to get there at 6 am, exercise, shower and dress, and stop at the coffee shop on the way to work. I try to eat more carbs on my weight training days so I feel like that justifies the trip to the coffee shop.

Hey! Are you calling ME rusty and worn out? Lol. I'm going to ask him about this tonight.

Well I would hope that after 25 years my husband would know me better than that because that type of reaction is definitely not me.

Have you all ever used this website? You can set it for lbs. or kg and choose your bar type and then it tells you how many of each plate to put on the bar. I found it while trying to figure out warmup sets. (Aside--why are there so few resources telling newbies how to do warmup sets?) My bar is only 15 lbs. as opposed to the standard standard (heh) 20 lb. bar but I still find the site useful on mornings when my brain hasn't totally woken up yet. I just have to remember to add 2.5 to each side in addition to whatever the website recommends.

In a way, I wish that my husband had been a bit more assertive about suggesting I do something about my weight/health because I feel like it may have encouraged me to get on the ball sooner. But then that's not really his responsibility so I also feel like wishing he had been more vocal is a way for me to deflect the blame for getting myself into a totally unhealthy state. He never ever said a word about it though so part of me wonders why, if he clearly likes the improvements I've made, he never said anything.

I'll also throw this out there--Is there any chance that your non-exercise activity has decreased over the past couple of months? I'm making the assumption that you are in the northern hemisphere but it is really easy to slow down during the winter without really thinking about it. I found myself doing just that, actually, and have had to add in a couple of treadmill sessions each week just because I'm not doing stuff like yardwork, which burns calories outside of my normal exercising.

I weigh myself every single day. I like to see how what I eat and other things affect my weight. It has made me somewhat immune to freaking out over seeing an increase.

I really want to see if anybody I ever present to would catch on to the joke in these pictures if I were to put them in a presentation: Vince Vaughn and Co-stars Pose for Idiotic Stock Photos You Can Have for Free

Day 10 (3/4/15) Bench press - 25x8, 45x5, 65x1, 77.5x5, 77.5x5, 77.5x9 (!) Deadlift - 55x5, 55x5, 75x3, 105x1, 130x6 Dumbbell row - 25x12, 27.5x10, 30x8, 27.5x12 Hip thrust - bwx10, 75x5, 95x12, 105x12, 115x12, Lunges - 30x5, 30x5, 30x5, 30x5 I felt so much stronger this morning and no blah feeling at all. My bench press made me really happy. I had been up to 82.5 over the holidays and then when I cut calories, I was down to 75 and could barely eke out that some days. Seeing it go up this morning was great. I swapped out goblet squats for lunges, for the mini. I wanted to do some weighted this morning but tomorrow morning I'll probably do them as bodyweight lunges. My legs were pretty tired by the time I got to them so I could only do sets of 5 at a time. This week my eating goal is 2500 calories on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday and 2250 on the other days. So far I've eaten 2503 on Monday and 2249 on Tuesday. I got in bed at 8:30 last night and then turned off my Kindle to sleep at 9:30. I woke up, thinking that I had slept for so long and would probably be hearing my alarm soon. So I check the time and it was something like 11. Ha! I was able to go back to sleep though. I think that going to bed earlier is going to trigger a "sleep begets sleep" thing for a while, a la Weissbluth. But once I've been going to sleep earlier for a few weeks it should get better.

This is the most boring clothing goal ever but I just want to be able to wear a skirt or pair of pants with my shirt tucked in or a visible waistline. Something like the first picture would be great but if I somehow pulled off the second, I'd be overjoyed.

That is great! And great form too

I could never not shower after working out and then go to work or out anywhere other than maybe a stop at the grocery on the way home from the gym. I vote to get to gym earlier or exercise at home or exercise after work. Confession: I love showering at the gym. The water pressure is really high and at first I thought it might rip my skin off but now I look forward to it.

My daughter's 2nd grade class had a teddy bear party last Friday as a reward for good behavior. She told me last night that during indoor recess she and her friends used Tinkertoys to make barbells so their teddy bears could lift weights. She has been wanting to exercise with me lately. I have a bar that pretty much weighs nothing so I've been letting her use it with small plates. She's so cute with it and I think it's great that she decided to make her doll work out as well.