Recent Posts
Topic: RE: Monday Workout~
Awesome Stacy!
I was picking my wife up at the airport here on the left coast.
I just cannot work out in the am, I do the late night thing, so I will be working out when you MW and E coast peeps are sleeping, except Earl
buckeye john
on 1/24/05 3:41 am - OH
on 1/24/05 3:41 am - OH
Topic: RE: My Turn!
Not a groaner here. I breath very heavy on the last few reps but hardly groan at all. We had lots of groaners and bangers at my old gym. This one huge guy banged the weights all the time, but he was so huge and intimidating that no one ever said anything to him.
Topic: RE: Monday Workout~
Thanks but that really is a normal day for me. Dana usually has a client booked at 5:30 or 6am at the gym. If he doesn't have a client then we work out together. We also share one car these days so I have go in with him in the mornings even if I am half asleep. I just shower and get ready at the gym for work when I am done. That way we don't have to make multiple trips into the city. We live about 25 minutes outside of Baltimore and his gym is right across from my office so it is hard to come up with excuses not to hit the gym every morning =)
Topic: RE: Listening to my body....
Hiya John,
I really mean it when I say that if *I* can do this, anybody can! Believe me, it's not as bad being abandoned by your parents and living on the streets at 12 yrs old, though, and although surviving was the best I could manage back then at times, it's not enough to me today to just simply survive now. Surviving is only the beginning. There's having a life worth living, one that I value; there's overcoming the obstacles in our head and in our lives in general so that there's room for the good stuff.
The first things you have to beat are your own demons, and that can't happen till you *own* them yourself. That's the part that a lot of people don't get--our demons only have the power over our lives that we give them. Once you figure that out and have those little nasties put in their proper place, then there's moving yourself forward in your life. Once I realized that I had the choice to either sit there and feel sorry for myself and spin my wheels or I could work like heck to get to a better place, it was a no-brainer. I am just not one to say "quit" to life; I believe in fighting for whatever it is that you really want, and that what you are willing to do to get what you want speaks volumes about what you really want the most. That's the key. The way I see it, our actions define our priorities. Mine is to have a quality of life that has health and fitness at the top of my list of priorities, even if I have to fight like heck to get it.
I'm not unique that way; plenty of obese and formerly obese folks are well familiar with the struggling. The cool thing about the surgery for me is that at least now I can fight like heck to achieve health and fitness and be able to get there!
With kindest regards, Donna E. 
www.teklawgirl.biz
www.teklawgirl.biz Topic: RE: Listening to my body....
Hiya Val, I'm feeling better today, just had a mild bedtime flare last night that resolved pretty quickly but was fine at the gym other than the *extreme* soreness in my legs. I really really really don't like to accept the limits that fibromyalgia can put on me either, so yeah, you're right, you know how that feels. But if I caved to pain every time it happened, I would be laid up in bed waiting to die by now. I have learned that there are flares and there are FLARES (hence the 5-minute rule), and Saturday happened to be the latter and I wasn't paying attention. I should have rested Saturday and I ignored the signs.
The pushing just feels better for me. I don't like sitting and idling when my head is saying, "come on let's go go go!" 
When I'm not pushing, I feel like I'm losing the race for nothing. I believe that pushing myself is what got me to where I am today. I also don't want to seem like a cry baby in the gym; it is personally embarassing to me to go wuss out in the gym. I don't want to be *different* than everybody else. I don't want to give in to this stupid disease and when I'm forced to it just frustrates the heck out of me.
My friends with fibromyalgia are amazed at what I do and can't imagine how I do that--push through the pain. But it's all a mental exercise, and I'm not the first person in the gym to fight through pain to attain a higher objective. Heck, that's what muscle-building is about (granted, to a point). You tear down muscle, it burns like heck, and then you rebuild it through rest/recovery and diet/recovery. So I have more pain when I do that than other people, just more to block out mentally, or treat it like it is just more of the burn. It can get rather foggy around when it's too much and I should stop. But there were neon signs flashing in my head that told me this was not one to push through (nausea & abdominal pain, photosensitivity, vertigo, extreme persistent weakness of the muscles, over-emotional, mentally foggy).
Thanks for hanging with me this weekend; it was really nice to have you guys to talk it through. There just aren't many people around that would understand this.
Hugs, Donna E.
www.teklawgirl.biz
When I'm not pushing, I feel like I'm losing the race for nothing. I believe that pushing myself is what got me to where I am today. I also don't want to seem like a cry baby in the gym; it is personally embarassing to me to go wuss out in the gym. I don't want to be *different* than everybody else. I don't want to give in to this stupid disease and when I'm forced to it just frustrates the heck out of me.
My friends with fibromyalgia are amazed at what I do and can't imagine how I do that--push through the pain. But it's all a mental exercise, and I'm not the first person in the gym to fight through pain to attain a higher objective. Heck, that's what muscle-building is about (granted, to a point). You tear down muscle, it burns like heck, and then you rebuild it through rest/recovery and diet/recovery. So I have more pain when I do that than other people, just more to block out mentally, or treat it like it is just more of the burn. It can get rather foggy around when it's too much and I should stop. But there were neon signs flashing in my head that told me this was not one to push through (nausea & abdominal pain, photosensitivity, vertigo, extreme persistent weakness of the muscles, over-emotional, mentally foggy).
Thanks for hanging with me this weekend; it was really nice to have you guys to talk it through. There just aren't many people around that would understand this.
Hugs, Donna E.
www.teklawgirl.biz 
Topic: RE: My Turn!
Hiya Val,
I know what you mean about making some noise; that's the way it is for me at my gym, too, though I've been in gyms where making any noise was discouraged (like the corporate gym at my work--they actually have signs posted like "some may find your noise distasteful, so please be quiet when you workout and don't disturb others") 
Of course, when I'm working out and working heavy and hard, I get teased about it! One day my daughter came to meet me at the gym so I could take her shopping afterwards and it was leg day, and when she came in, she told the girl at the desk that she was looking for me, and before she could answer, Ma'idah heard a sort of half scream half groan from the back and said "it's ok, that's my mom now!" 
Cheers..Donna E.
www.teklawgirl.biz
Of course, when I'm working out and working heavy and hard, I get teased about it! One day my daughter came to meet me at the gym so I could take her shopping afterwards and it was leg day, and when she came in, she told the girl at the desk that she was looking for me, and before she could answer, Ma'idah heard a sort of half scream half groan from the back and said "it's ok, that's my mom now!"
Cheers..Donna E.
www.teklawgirl.biz Topic: RE: My Turn!
Wow that is so cool that you guys can work out together! 
I'd LOVE to get my husband to work out with me, but so far can't get him motivated to do it with me, which is quite frustrating at times because he doesn't exercise. It's just not his *thing*. 
He's one of those people who's been skinny or at least slender most all of his life and never had to diet or exercise to maintain. So he's not developed the focus on it that I have. I think the fact that it is something that I am advanced in doing and he's seen that plenty of times makes him shrink from doing it. I did get him in there playing a little with it, very briefly, then he just stopped going and always had an excuse. So I finally stopped nagging him to do it because I don't like nagging and I know he doesn't like being nagged. Who does? 
However, even though he doesn't work out with me, I have a great workout partner that we *both* like. 
I wasn't sure at first how that would work out, as I didn't have a workout partner for a very long time because there were no other women at the gym with the same focus or commitment that I had in the gym, not so *hard core* about it, which is ok, just left me without a workout partner. Hubby finally suggested that I find one of the guys to workout with, and I was kind of suprised. He said, "Look babe, chances are pretty slim that you will find a woman who wants to workout like you do, but there are plenty of guys up there who do, so it makes sense for you to start working out with one of the guys." I'm like, "Are you sure, honey?" Yep, he was sure. And it has gone well. 
Mark isn't someone that I *hang out* with or anything; we workout together and that's pretty much it, besides my hubby and me taking him out for his birthday.
I sometimes call him "Bam Bam" and other times just "The Horse". He's built like a brick wall and *very* strong, but it works out well because he is just as invested in really focused workouts and consistent dedication his fitness objectives, so we are compatible that way. The funny thing was that he actually approached me to be his workout partner, rather than me asking him. That's funny to me because I am comparatively the new kid on the block at that gym, though he's been going there for years. It's also nice that he's only interested in doing one thing with me, and that's workout. I like being *one of the guys*!
With kindest regards, Donna E.
www.teklawgirl.biz
I'd LOVE to get my husband to work out with me, but so far can't get him motivated to do it with me, which is quite frustrating at times because he doesn't exercise. It's just not his *thing*. He's one of those people who's been skinny or at least slender most all of his life and never had to diet or exercise to maintain. So he's not developed the focus on it that I have. I think the fact that it is something that I am advanced in doing and he's seen that plenty of times makes him shrink from doing it. I did get him in there playing a little with it, very briefly, then he just stopped going and always had an excuse. So I finally stopped nagging him to do it because I don't like nagging and I know he doesn't like being nagged. Who does?
However, even though he doesn't work out with me, I have a great workout partner that we *both* like. I wasn't sure at first how that would work out, as I didn't have a workout partner for a very long time because there were no other women at the gym with the same focus or commitment that I had in the gym, not so *hard core* about it, which is ok, just left me without a workout partner. Hubby finally suggested that I find one of the guys to workout with, and I was kind of suprised. He said, "Look babe, chances are pretty slim that you will find a woman who wants to workout like you do, but there are plenty of guys up there who do, so it makes sense for you to start working out with one of the guys." I'm like, "Are you sure, honey?" Yep, he was sure. And it has gone well. Mark isn't someone that I *hang out* with or anything; we workout together and that's pretty much it, besides my hubby and me taking him out for his birthday.
I sometimes call him "Bam Bam" and other times just "The Horse". He's built like a brick wall and *very* strong, but it works out well because he is just as invested in really focused workouts and consistent dedication his fitness objectives, so we are compatible that way. The funny thing was that he actually approached me to be his workout partner, rather than me asking him. That's funny to me because I am comparatively the new kid on the block at that gym, though he's been going there for years. It's also nice that he's only interested in doing one thing with me, and that's workout. I like being *one of the guys*!
With kindest regards, Donna E.
www.teklawgirl.biz Most Active
Recent Topics
