Lupus In Fabula

I miss riding. I used to ride in college because my good friend was an accomplished equestrian who trained horses for competitions and she would frequently have me help her out. It's funny, I was, and still am, apprehensive about horses because they are huge and could kill me if they so desired (although nothing's preventing dogs from randomly killing me, and I still love to play with dogs and never even think about their pointy teeth and strong jaws ) but I would love to one day acquire my own horse. Either a Friesian or a Percheron would be my dream horse (and maybe I'd train it for jousting, but that might be too ambitious an endeavor for somebody who has never independently trained a horse).

Congrats on the possible new job! Hopefully that will cut down on some stress and make this easier.

This is my dog, Parker, and his "aunt" who belongs to my parents. Parker is a shepherd mix and my parents' dog is a Chihuahua mix. I cannot say enough awesome things about my dog.

To the OP: Thank you for asking this. I've recently started with deadlifts and I feel like such a doofus as I'm struggling to maneuver plates onto the grounded bar. I self-consciously think that all the big dudes are watching and thinking, "Man, she can't even put the weights on the bar without a struggle. What's she doing thinking she can deadlift?" It's nice to know that 1) others have this problem and 2) there are easy solutions. Thanks again.

Wicked cool. Seriously, do let us know how your tournament went. How long have you been studying this style of combat?

Thanks for the well-wishes. So, I've started my quest and I think I'm seeing some positive results. Writing down everything that I eat has kept me honest and it's definitely preventing junk foods from sneaking into my diet. It has the added advantage of helping me keep track of whether I need to add more protein or more veggies during my day. Unfortunately, since it's still early on, I'm going through a phase where I'm always hungry. Right now, I'm looking at my dog and hallucinating a seventy-pound burrito with fur. And I won't lie, it was really difficult to go to Taco Bell yesterday and watch my husband down a few chalupas and not even be able to enjoy some of the Mt. Dew products only available in store. Chalupas and Baja Blast Mt. Dew, I miss you so very much. I admit that I ate one crunchy taco, but it was an improvement over my usual order of the chalupa meal along with a 3 bajillion calorie big cup of soda (ok, slight exaggeration on the calorie count there). I've also tackled the deadlifts. Talk about humbling. To keep form, I'm only lifting 70lbs plus whatever the bar weighs. But I'm going to press ahead on this a little at a time. As for fun cardio, I'm having difficulty fitting that in. Right now, I'm just at "put on a weighted belt and dance around the living room to Walk the Moon like a mad thing" - it's a pretty weird and awkward sight.

Thanks for the replies; sorry for my late reply - real life keeps happening and my internet community participation has to take the sidelines. First, congrats on going to med school (that's the dream that my husband is working towards and I've gotten to see how difficult it can be to get an acceptance). I'm a little reassured to hear that somebody training in the field understands the frustration. I know doctors are expected to be knowledgeable about a wide breadth, so I feel as though I'm being unjust in expecting my doctor to have advanced knowledge in everything, but it is very frustrating to have a doctor - and his staff - just dismiss the ambitions that I have for my own fitness goals. I'm 5'4" and 160lbs. At the time, I was squatting 200 and benchpressing 130. Like I said, I wasn't coming in there with outrageous numbers because a lot of my fellow women can outperform those stats any day of the week. I've since had to cut back my weights because I injured myself doing something totally unrelated and am working my way back to those numbers (but I'm making solid progress, so that encourages me). I'm at 500 on the incline leg press but am transitioning off of that and back to actual squats because those seem to translate into more "usable" muscle and engage more muscle groups in the process. After seeing many people here have success with the method you've mentioned, I've recently started doing the same thing. Since I'm having to start from square one with some of my weights, I'm overhauling my diet and trying to maintain a caloric deficit while focusing on weight lifting. I've just started, so I have a ways to go yet before I can switch to the caloric surplus stage. It would just be nice to have a doctor or a NP I can talk to about my goals and get input and advice (and some encouragement instead of just having them tsk-tsk and tell me I'm obese and ignore my plan to rectify the problem). Out of curiosity, and if I may be so bold, how is the cut stage going for you? Are you finding that it's coming along relatively quickly, or is a slow process? Ha! Yeah, I'm not tiny. I'm short (5'4"), but not tiny. A friend's wife who was a registered dietician until she became a stay-at-home mom and let her licensing lapse, just about flipped when she found out how few calories I had been put on while trying to increase muscle. She told me to get a new dietician immediately. In hindsight, I wish I had listened. And thanks for the link to the guide - I'm going to go give it a look-over right now. Thanks again to all of you for your helpful input - I really appreciate it.

No, not THE Doctor, just my physician. Talking to Dr. Who would probably be way more successful, which is why I need some advice. OK, I need to lose weight. When I go to the doctor's office, I get told I'm obese according to my height-weight ratio. Now, I'm not doubting the veracity of it. What I'm struggling with are the suggestions that my doctor and/or the nurse practioner offer. When I explain that I lift weight and then tell them how much I lift, I get told, "Well, that's not possible for a woman with your physique." Uh . . . thanks? A couple of years ago, I got sent to a registered dietician who first put me on a strict 800 calorie/day diet for a month with all of my food charted out for me by her. OK, cool. But I didn't lose any weight. It did, however, suck to go to the gym and have no endurance for weights or cardio. So we upped my calories to 1000 per day. Nothing. Then we went up to 1200 per day. Nothing again. I was still just as heavy as when I started. Honestly, I really don't understand. I even had my doctor check my thyroid, but it came back as normal. I'm not lifting ridiculous amounts of weight, so I don't really think I'm walking into the office spouting something unbelievable. I'm wondering if part of my problem is that I'm not getting a diet focused on somebody who wants to build muscle. When I try to explain this to the nurse practitioner, she asks what sort of work out I'm doing. When I explain I do high weight and low reps, she replies that my work out isn't effective and that I will only see results if I do low weight and high reps. OK, maybe. But I tried that for a couple of years (yeah, thanks women's magazines for all those weightlifting "tips", Lupus says sarcastically) and didn't develop muscle definition and didn't lose weight. I know that I need to fix how I eat, but I want to be able to lift weight, too. I get frustrated going in to see the doctor and feeling as though I'm not being taken seriously. Are there any suggestions about how I can better communicate with my doctor and the staff about what my goals are?

That looks pretty darned cool. How did you get involved in Medieval Combat?

I'd say that there is no such thing as too many books, but then I realized that I'm going to have to pack and transport all my books for an upcoming move and I'm very worried that I won't have enough space and some of my ink-filled friends will be left behind (or even worse, sold off). I'm supposed to be culling my collection, but then I wandered onto Amazon (curse you, Prime, and your tempting free shipping) and started adding to my collect. I think my husband is about to stage an intervention.

If I could just have these books with me, I'd be a happy person: To Kill a Mockingbird A Tale of Two Cities The Killer Angels The Redwall Series Captain Blood The Brethren Admittedly, there are quite a few others that I enjoy (particularly some non-fiction books), but these are my "go-to" books when I want to unwind and enjoy a good story.

Soooo . . . I'm new around these parts and I'm not sure if I'm doing this correctly (as evidenced by the fact I wasn't paying attention and originally posted this in the wrong section), so please let me know if I'm doing this challenge bit improperly. I'm also late to the party, but I figured that it's better late than never ( I mean, heck, if Frodo thought, "Well, Sauron's already building an army and he's got Mordor pretty much tricked out, so it's a bit late to take this ring to Mt. Doom," Middle Earth would have gone all to hell). A bit about why I need to do this: So, I've been hitting the gym for about six years now with no obvious results. I've been to nutritionists and doctors with no obvious results; one nutritionist even had me spend a month on an 800 calorie/day diet with every snack and meal written out for me and I lost - wait for it- exactly NO pounds. It did a great job of killing my output at the gym, however. About a year ago, I worked up the nerve to drift over to the free weight section of the gym and, while I've been able to increase the weight I'm able to lift, I haven't developed muscle definition or lost my pudgy thighs. If anything, my thighs just keep getting bigger. So, that means I'm not eating properly. I overhauled my diet a couple of months ago and I gave up soda, most bread and pasta (*sobs*) and began eating protein and veggies without any result except that I can lift more weight. Meanwhile, my doctor is freaking out on me that I'm obese, my mother is giving me *insert name of very prominent weight loss program here* information like it's going out of style (and I mean no disrespect to that program because I've seen some friends have excellent results from it's program, but it just doesn't seem quite like me) and she keeps buying me new clothes in a size too small in order to "motivate" me to lose weight. My nurse practioner is after me to train to run a marathon, but by the Seven Haberdasheries of Hell, I hate running. Main quest: Lose one pant size so that I can fit into all of the nice clothes I have that I'm otherwise going to have to donate (excellent for a person in need, not so great for my budget and wardrobe). Right, that sounds really simple and probably doesn't seem like a goal. Except that, historically, it has never happened. Ever. I just keep increasing sizes little by little. Quest One: Track everything that I eat. Since weight loss has not happened, I'm obviously still consuming more calories than I should and/or eating things that I shouldn't. Writing down everything I eat, when I eat it, should help keep me honest. Because it's totally discouraging to give up foods I really enjoy and not see any results. Quest Two: Deadlifts. Those suckas scare me, but I'm clearly missing out by not doing them. So, it's time to stare down that fear and start working on those deadlifts. This means I have to first focus on my form, but hopefully I can soon start making progress. Quest Three: Fun cardio. I was one of those who spent several hours a week at the gym hitting the treadmill, the eliptical, etc. and never noticed a positive change, no matter how much I sweated (well, I'm sure it helped my blood pressure and endurance and such, but it didn't affect my weight). Additional time spent fencing, working out on my punching bag 3x a week and running through additional katas alongside the HIIT that I've been working on for the past several months. If I start seeing results, I think cardio will become more enjoyable. Life Quest: Work on my Scholar project for my historical fencing class. This will involve doing some research (but at least it'll be fun research) and coaxing my husband into letting me use him as a sparring partner (which I'm sure he won't mind, provided I don't leap upon him with a saber the moment he gets in the door after work). Written in big friendly letters: Don't Panic Now, where the heck is my towel?

Soooo . . . I'm new around these parts and I'm not sure if I'm doing this correctly, so please let me know if I'm doing this challenge bit improperly. I'm also late to the party, but I figured that it's better late than never ( I mean, heck, if Frodo thought, "Well, Sauron's already building an army and he's got Mordor pretty much tricked out, so it's a bit late to take this ring to Mt. Doom," Middle Earth would have gone all to hell). A bit about why I need to do this: So, I've been hitting the gym for about six years now with no obvious results. I've been to nutritionists and doctors with no obvious results; one nutritionist even had me spend a month on an 800 calorie/day diet with every snack and meal written out for me and I lost - wait for it- exactly NO pounds. It did a great job of killing my output at the gym, however. About a year ago, I worked up the nerve to drift over to the free weight section of the gym and, while I've been able to increase the weight I'm able to lift, I haven't developed muscle definition or lost my pudgy thighs. If anything, my thighs just keep getting bigger. So, that means I'm not eating properly. I overhauled my diet a couple of months ago and I gave up soda, most bread and pasta (*sobs*) and began eating protein and veggies without any result except that I can lift more weight. Meanwhile, my doctor is freaking out on me that I'm obese, my mother is giving me *insert name of very prominent weight loss program here* information like it's going out of style (and I mean no disrespect to that program because I've seen some friends have excellent results from it's program, but it just doesn't seem quite like me) and she keeps buying me new clothes in a size too small in order to "motivate" me to lose weight. My nurse practioner is after me to train to run a marathon, but by the Seven Haberdasheries of Hell, I hate running. Main quest: Lose one pant size so that I can fit into all of the nice clothes I have that I'm otherwise going to have to donate (excellent for a person in need, not so great for my budget and wardrobe). Right, that sounds really simple and probably doesn't seem like a goal. Except that, historically, it has never happened. Ever. I just keep increasing sizes little by little. Quest One: Track everything that I eat. Since weight loss has not happened, I'm obviously still consuming more calories than I should and/or eating things that I shouldn't. Writing down everything I eat, when I eat it, should help keep me honest. Because it's totally discouraging to give up foods I really enjoy and not see any results. Quest Two: Deadlifts. Those suckas scare me, but I'm clearly missing out by not doing them. So, it's time to stare down that fear and start working on those deadlifts. This means I have to first focus on my form, but hopefully I can soon start making progress. Quest Three: Fun cardio. I was one of those who spent several hours a week at the gym hitting the treadmill, the eliptical, etc. and never noticed a positive change, no matter how much I sweated (well, I'm sure it helped my blood pressure and endurance and such, but it didn't affect my weight). Additional time spent fencing, working out on my punching bag 3x a week and running through additional katas alongside the HIIT that I've been working on for the past several months. If I start seeing results, I think cardio will become more enjoyable. Life Quest: Work on my Scholar project for my historical fencing class. This will involve doing some research (but at least it'll be fun research) and coaxing my husband into letting me use him as a sparring partner (which I'm sure he won't mind, provided I don't leap upon him with a saber the moment he gets in the door after work).

If I have a gift card, I head over to the clearance sections at Big 5 or Sports Authority. If not, then I go to the thrift store - not for bras or shoes, though, that's too gnarly even for me. I don't know why I never thought to try Ross or Marshall's :facepalm: I guess I know where I'm headed next time.

Wow, this thread is totally inspiring. I've struggled for years to do a pull-up and I won't lie and say that I haven't given up. Thanks for inspiring me to challenge myself again and see if this time I can succeed - it's a bit embarrassing to be the woman at the gym just hanging out on the pull-up bar not doing anything expect turning weird shades of red and making awkward facial expressions.