mizvalentine

Wine, CHEESE, rock n' roll, television, and working. Used to include bread and any bread derivative (pizza, omg) in there, and sugar...but I kicked those pretty good! The others, I just try to moderate. Work is the hardest one actually, because I love to program and I love making money, but I over-commit and end up tired and miserable and then my workout suffers. Cheese..well...I'll never get over cheese. I jettisoned all other dairy (god how I miss you, cottage cheese!) but the thought of life without cheese makes me want to cry.

I'm back! Sat June 23: 200 KB swings, 20# 3x8 DB benchpress, 40# 3x8 DB skullcrushers, 20# Sun June 24: 2x:30 front planks 2x:15 side planks 3x8 kneeling pushups 3x8 KB squats, 30# 3x8 swiss ball wall squats 3x8 one arm rows, 1x 30#, 2x 20# 3x8 overhead press, 30# 3x8 DB bicep curl, 15# Mon June 25: 200 KB swings, 20#, alternating one- and two-handed 3x8 KB ribbons, 20# 3x8 hip thrusts, unweighted

I feel your pain. Almost literally! I'm also mid-30s and female and I was prediabetic and overweight (even on extreme low calorie diets, which made me miserable) most of my life, have a spinal fusion and degenerative disc disease below the fusion, and two ruptured ACLs in my knees. I've had good success cutting out grains, legumes and sugar on a primal eating regimen... and my emotions really evened out once my insulin wasn't spiking all over anymore, which in turn made it easier to sleep, to exercise, and to keep eating clean. For me, it took a bit of adjustment (digestively speaking) to get used to eating fat and meat, but once I did I lost 35 lbs....it was slow but it happened! Cutting grains also helped with swelling that I didn't realize I had...my face and belly got less poofy, and my joints didn't seem like balls of swelling anymore. So like you said...if your other efforts haven't done what you wanted...try something totally different and see what happens!! I also got a good, exercise-oriented physical therapist and physiologist, and I'd recommend the same to you... they trained me how to work out properly, FOR ME--because of my injuries, my biomechanics are different than most and I would guess you might be the same. The big secret I learned is that I can do lots of stuff, I just have to modify slightly. Now I love to lift, where I grew up hating it because it hurt! And the more muscle I've built, the less my joints and discs hurt... core/glute/back strength supports my bad discs, quad/hamstring strength supports my knees. Just realize that PTs/physios (like all doctors) come from different schools of thought, and some of them think palliatively, while others think in terms of building strength. I personally run as far and fast as I can from the guys that tell me I need vicodin instead of deadlifts Good luck in your life changes...you've come to a good place!!!

Been SWAMPED but working out...just not updating my battle log! I graduated PT on Friday (6 months!) and am now working out at home for a bit while I get my job situation sorted. Trying to use the KB's to maintain my PT progress and incorporate more cardio while maintaining strength....intend to get back to lifting heavy after the new year. Tues Dec 6 Pigeon pose, :30 ea side Chair stretch, :30 ea side Calf stretch, 2x:30 ea leg KB swings, two handed, 5x10, 1min rests, @30# KB overhead figure 8s, 3x8x2 @20# Kneeling pushups, 1x10, 3x8 Front plank, 2x:30 Full side planks, 2x:15 ea side KB deadlift & high pull combo, 3x10 @30#

This was one of the first exercises my PT had me do when my discs went kablooey this summer... bridges are awesome.

I can't speak to your exact back injury, but I have degenerated discs L3-L5 and spinal fusion C3-L2, so I can sort of identify. I also understand wanting to hit the gym hard after an injury! And I love running/walking with weight... I'm about to start running stair drills with a sandbag again, as I'm finally back from my latest flare of DDD. My only advice as a fellow back patient is that strengthening your core, along with back-supportive muscle groups like glutes and quads, is probably going to make everything you do that involves shocking your spine--running, walking, rucking, whatever--safer and less painful. Adding some supportive strength work, under the guidance of a good, exercise-oriented PT, would probably help you strengthen your supporting muscles and make moving under weight a lot safer. If your abs, obliques, spinal erectors, psoas, hip flexors, quads, glutes, etc are strong and supportive, then there's less shock transmitted to your discs and nerves, which means less pain and damage. To use a terribly disgusting analogy...The way I think of it, your average person is like a pork loin with a stiff wire shoved down the center; your average back patient is a pork loin with a pipe cleaner shoved down the center. Us back pain folks need to turn our pork loin into a side of beef to support that pipe cleaner, where as other folks can just lean on their stiff wire til the rest of them catches up. Good luck. I'm totally convinced us back injury folks can do as much as anybody in the gym, BUT I think we have to spend a lot more time on flexibility, stability, and supportive strength building so that our injuries don't sideline us while we're making progress.

Thanks for all the advice & support guys!! I really appreciate it...got too swamped at work this week to reply sooner. Of course you all were totally right, 5 days post-trip I'm right back where I started. Thanks for indulging my temporary freak out. Also...the discussion of measurement tools and math in this thread is TOTALLY why this board rules... I feel the advice about throwing out the scale. But... I think I need it for encouragement, at least til I lose this last 20-30lbs. I find my measurements change so slowly compared to my scale weight that I get really discouraged. I also have a TERRIBLE sense of how much weight I'm carrying, I feel like I look exactly the same no matter how much I weigh. I don't know if its how my fat is distributed or what, but I can wear the same jeans size and be anywhere in a 30-40lb range of weight...I've never worn anything but a 12, 14 or 16 and I've been everything from 160 to 240lbs! That may just be indicative of how stupid women's clothing sizes are, though. That said, y'all are right, I probably need to weigh in monthly or weekly instead of daily, or at least graph the curve so I can get the birds-eye view. I think the daily is making me more crazy than it is helping me. I know I can gain up to 10lbs of water due to hormones one week a month, so I've already stopped weighing myself that week!

Weds Nov 16: Got a nice two-miler in. The unseasonably warm weather has been working in my favor! Fri Nov 18: Deadlifts, 3x8 @65# Lat pulldowns, 3x8 @75# Hip thrusts, 3x10 Incline pushups, 3x8 @mid-thigh bar height Preacher EZ-bar curls, 3x8@25#

So, we took a (much needed) getaway to NYC this weekend. We were staying with friends and eating out all the time, and I fell off the paleo wagon a bit. I didn't do TOO horribly, but I did eat bread three times, a bunch of fried/breaded Japanese snacks (mmm takoyaki!) one night, some fried potatoes one day and drank like a champ throughout (vodka and soda, sake and cider though, no beer). Other than that, no sugar, no other grains, lots of meat and veg. We also walked about 20 miles in 3.5 days. But I gained FIVE FREAKING POUNDS! I guess I was hoping that the walking would offset the poor food choices. Wondering if anyone else has experienced this? I guess I'm just surprised that a relatively short term slip up could make for so much gain. Maybe its water? I'm back on the wagon now though...fear is a motivator! I'll also add...my stomach is a mess. I've had some solid drinking sessions since starting paleo and been fine so I don't think its the booze. Do you guys feel sickly when you 'slip' off paleo and eat grains?

Gah, got SO freaking off track...traveling last week, looking for a new job, and working 2 jobs. Did a killer PT session last Tues, a decent lifting session Thursday and walked probably 20 miles around NYC this weekend, but that's not nearly enough and I feel it. I'm right back in it now... Tues Nov 15: Mostly bodyweight workout at home. Pigeon pose Side plank, 2x :30 ea side Front plank, 2x :30 Sumo Deadlift & high pull, 3x8 @30#KB Backward lunges, 2x10 ea leg Kneeling pushups, 3x6 Bridges, 2x10@ :10 holds Kneeling overhead press, 1x6 ea side @20#KB (no strength at all today so had to stop) One arm row, 3x10 @20# KB

AH...great idea. I think they have some 75# hex DB's I can use. Thanks! Using a bench is a good idea also, but unfortunately there's a poorly positioned rack of fixed barbells in the way (there's WAY too much equipment in our gym, but that's another story...). But I think the DBs are small enough to work.

So, I've been doing bodyweight rows on the Smith machine with the bar just below my chest. I want to get it lower, but the floors are so slippery in my gym I can't do it...my heels fly out from under me. I have a similar, though not as pronounced issue with incline pushups. Any suggestions on how to get around this? Something I can put on my shoes maybe, or a mat you can buy? My gym is pretty archaic...its like Mandelbaum's Gym in that Seinfeld episode. I like that in one sense because its really old school (they have ball-end dumbbells and leather medicine balls!) but its not well maintained. Maybe there's something I can tell them to put in there for safety?

Sat Nov 6: Pigeon pose, 2@ :30 each leg. Trying to loosen up my stiff hip flexors per PT's advice. Hip thrusts, 3x10 bodyweight Front squats, 3x8 @ 35# Incline pushups, 3x8 w. bar at mid-thigh Bodyweight rows, 3x6 w. bar at low chest...tried to lower it but the damn floor is too slippery to maintain the angle without my heels slipping. Very frustrating. Kneeling overhead DB press, 2x8 ea arm @ 15# Grappler's Getups, 1x6 ea side w. 15# DB Wanted to do more, but some a-hole was in there yelling and yelping like a hurt animal and dropping 300# of plates everywhere. I understand we all make noises in the gym, but jesus man, chill the eff out. It was so annoying and obnoxious I had to leave. I dream of the day I have a squat cage in my house...

Thanks! Good to know front squats work the abs hard, core strength is key for my lower discs. I'm deadlifting on the regular... Gonna try adding in those hip thrusts. Seems like a good progression from bridges, which I am doing but which seem way too easy now. Also, they look fun.

Thought you guys might find this interesting... Some research just came out finding that junk food may be as addictive as cocaine. The article here is pretty sarcastic/lighthearted but still sums up the issues pretty well: http://jezebel.com/5855607/junk-food-addiction-as-real-as-drug-addiction-but-less-cool A more serious, thorough take on the same research, at Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-02/fatty-foods-addictive-as-cocaine-in-growing-body-of-science.html If you're like me and get all worked up about such things, the fact that the food companies probably know about these addiction loops and continue to groom their products to take advantage of them, will make you angry. Because these people think we're stupid. I use that as incentive to stay on track, too.