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buckeye john
on 1/17/05 10:46 am - OH
on 1/17/05 10:46 am - OH
Topic: RE: Helping my buddy out
Diamond Princess, I agree with you... You are very wise....that is because you are from Durham, NC. and that Duke influence rubs off on many people in Durham. I was in Durham last weekend taking my kid back to school (Duke). He is a freshman. Maybe we can get together for coffee when I pick him up in May. Take care.
Topic: RE: New to the bodybuilding message board
OUCH!! That had to be terrible. Foot surgery is really a difficult one to recouperate from. Makes you realize just how much you use your feet. Hospitals are notorious for picking up staph/strep infections. Unfortuntately sometimes even the best aseptic technique doesn't always prevent those nasty opportunists to invade!
It is like Earl always says...Pain is progress. Sometimes we have to just bite the bullet and go on. I think it makes us stronger people. The key is knowing when it is time to lay back and when to move on.
Hugs,
Val
Topic: RE: Helping my buddy out
HECK YEAH!! That would be a blast!! We would have great fun and get buns of steel at the same time!! 
Besides I could use a 6 month break...I think I would prefer the summer months tho...OHIO weather sucks right now too.
I am glad I can get you motivated. I think we can all keep each other going here, because there are days when I need a good shot of the motivation too!!!
I LOVE the eliptical machine! If I could purchase one more thing to complete my gym that would be it. I would be on that bad boy all the time!
You know....the thought of being a trainer does sound interesting....who knows maybe one day Earl and I could do it as a couple...
I see my life and career becoming more and more centered around wls. I love it. I swear I feel as if this were my true calling in life. I know, sounds corny, but that's what I feel in my heart.
Ok, nuff mush! Go get your groove on girl!
Val
Besides I could use a 6 month break...I think I would prefer the summer months tho...OHIO weather sucks right now too.
I am glad I can get you motivated. I think we can all keep each other going here, because there are days when I need a good shot of the motivation too!!!
I LOVE the eliptical machine! If I could purchase one more thing to complete my gym that would be it. I would be on that bad boy all the time!
You know....the thought of being a trainer does sound interesting....who knows maybe one day Earl and I could do it as a couple...
I see my life and career becoming more and more centered around wls. I love it. I swear I feel as if this were my true calling in life. I know, sounds corny, but that's what I feel in my heart.
Ok, nuff mush! Go get your groove on girl!
Val Topic: RE: Helping my buddy out
I am sure she does. I hope so! I try to make it fun and positive...she and I both have overweight teen daughters so I am hoping that if I can get them going we will all be the healthier for it. Besides it is actually fun to get the girls involved with it. I want them to know that they do have a choice to be in control and learn to love themselves. It all starts from within.
Take care!
Val
Topic: RE: Helping my buddy out
Valerie: You are an 
for helping your friend out. Would you consider comming to NY, for say 6 months to get me in shape!!! lol
I think you have a natural ability to motivate, maybe you should be a trainer. It must be your nursing instincts, my mom is a nurse and she has such a nuturing way. I read some of your posts and they make me get off this butt and "just do it" Never feel guilty for taking time for yourself, it makes you a better person, wife and mother when you take time for you. Keep it up and thanks for the inspiration!!
Congrats on your recent PR! 
I am off to my eleptical since it is very very cold and snowy here on Long Island-
all the best
Patty
for helping your friend out. Would you consider comming to NY, for say 6 months to get me in shape!!! lol
I think you have a natural ability to motivate, maybe you should be a trainer. It must be your nursing instincts, my mom is a nurse and she has such a nuturing way. I read some of your posts and they make me get off this butt and "just do it" Never feel guilty for taking time for yourself, it makes you a better person, wife and mother when you take time for you. Keep it up and thanks for the inspiration!!
Congrats on your recent PR!
I am off to my eleptical since it is very very cold and snowy here on Long Island-
all the best
Patty 
Topic: RE: Fitday and other journals?
Hi Stacy,
I've gone through a number of variations on the journalling. I never used fitday, though I encourage and support people using it if it works for them. I have used notebooks with subject dividers where I had food intake in one section, exercise journals in another, and even personal diary kinds of entries in a third. Then I split them out to where I kept them in separate little notebooks that travelled easily. And other ways I've done, too. Just depends on what fits your needs--schedule, space, etc.
With kindest regards, Donna E.
Topic: RE: Help with a workout routine
You know, Val, I love what you said about the mirrors! Before WLS, I just didn't ever look in mirrors, no point, since the image that came back wasn't the image of me in my head anyway! And I hated having my picture taken because I just wasn't very *photogenic!* 
My daughter has modelled off and on, and we tease her that she never met a mirror that she couldn't get stuck in! Now I've become my daughter, but especially at the gym, I am in my little skinny workout clothes and I am utterly unembarassed to study all of my muscles while I workout, flexing between exercises and studying them, and really liking what I see! Ooh I love looking at the pump!!! Man oh man I just love it, and I also know that there are plenty of the guys in that gym loving my pumped up muscles, too! I'm really the only woman like me generally in that weightroom who is really into that so much, so yeah, I get noticed.
But I didn't start out that way, no way! It was incredibly difficult for me to start going to the gym, though I talked to the owner right away, and told him that I just had bariatric surgery and intended to launch my new body working out in that gym! I told him that I used to do some body building in a much younger life, and he was probably looking at me and thinking, "yeah right!". But he's very close to the top of the people who admire what I've accomplished and continue to work to maintain. He admires my commitment, and has many times asked me to work out *with* him, which was quite a compliment to me!
I would suggest to anyone who is feeling uncomfortable when they think about going to a gym for the first time before they have lost the weight, to approach the gym about scheduling some personal training sessions to get some solid and safe routines workout out for them in a personal one-on-one session and that will help a lot with breaking the ice and feeling more a sense of belonging there. They usually write out the exercise routines for you so you can follow them, and if you forget how to use a machine, it's always ok to go back to them and ask them to show you again!
What impresses people at the gym is not simply how buff you look, though, but your commitment and consistency with working in support of your goals. It doesn't really matter to those guys over time how big you are/were when you start, but what you are doing with yourself. And don't worry about what the dorky teenager is doing with weights, chances are he's probably doing it the wrong way anyway and is trying to look cool in front of someone else!
I actually felt extremely self-conscious about doing free weight squats at first, and just wouldn't try that on my own. What if I looked stupid? (the head trips we do, eh?) I was mortified for someone to tell me that I was doing it all wrong! So I didn't try them again until I was working with a personal trainer, who worked with me directly and taught me and followed my training to tell me that I was doing it right. Then, I was able to do it on my own eventually and I know that I do it right now, better than a lot of the people in that gym!
With kindest regards, Donna E.
www.teklawgirl.biz
My daughter has modelled off and on, and we tease her that she never met a mirror that she couldn't get stuck in! Now I've become my daughter, but especially at the gym, I am in my little skinny workout clothes and I am utterly unembarassed to study all of my muscles while I workout, flexing between exercises and studying them, and really liking what I see! Ooh I love looking at the pump!!! Man oh man I just love it, and I also know that there are plenty of the guys in that gym loving my pumped up muscles, too! I'm really the only woman like me generally in that weightroom who is really into that so much, so yeah, I get noticed.
But I didn't start out that way, no way! It was incredibly difficult for me to start going to the gym, though I talked to the owner right away, and told him that I just had bariatric surgery and intended to launch my new body working out in that gym! I told him that I used to do some body building in a much younger life, and he was probably looking at me and thinking, "yeah right!". But he's very close to the top of the people who admire what I've accomplished and continue to work to maintain. He admires my commitment, and has many times asked me to work out *with* him, which was quite a compliment to me!
I would suggest to anyone who is feeling uncomfortable when they think about going to a gym for the first time before they have lost the weight, to approach the gym about scheduling some personal training sessions to get some solid and safe routines workout out for them in a personal one-on-one session and that will help a lot with breaking the ice and feeling more a sense of belonging there. They usually write out the exercise routines for you so you can follow them, and if you forget how to use a machine, it's always ok to go back to them and ask them to show you again!
What impresses people at the gym is not simply how buff you look, though, but your commitment and consistency with working in support of your goals. It doesn't really matter to those guys over time how big you are/were when you start, but what you are doing with yourself. And don't worry about what the dorky teenager is doing with weights, chances are he's probably doing it the wrong way anyway and is trying to look cool in front of someone else!
I actually felt extremely self-conscious about doing free weight squats at first, and just wouldn't try that on my own. What if I looked stupid? (the head trips we do, eh?) I was mortified for someone to tell me that I was doing it all wrong! So I didn't try them again until I was working with a personal trainer, who worked with me directly and taught me and followed my training to tell me that I was doing it right. Then, I was able to do it on my own eventually and I know that I do it right now, better than a lot of the people in that gym!
With kindest regards, Donna E.
www.teklawgirl.biz Topic: RE: In a rut
Hiya Stacy,
Just a few thoughts on your current challenges. I have fibromyalgia, which is a sleep-impairment based disorder. If I don't get enough restorative sleep, I will flare. New, additional, or different stressors on the body, I will flare. It's pretty much that simple. For me, having unmanaged stress of any kind, whether physical or mental, will leave me feeling awful, pain, brain fogged, moody, no energy to do much of anything. That all rolls together in what results in a flare for me. So I feel your pain, on a somewhat regular basis.
Having said that, you have identified the antagonists to feeling good right now already. Stress, allergies, need to get brought under control, or at least in such a way that will remove them as antagonists while you're sleeping. Focus on how you can relax during the hour or two before you sleep. Are there stressful things that can get resolved and therefore elminated? How do you calm yourself down or make yourself feel better/more relaxed during high stress periods? Some things happen in our lives and around us that we truly don't have enough control over to eliminate and it may be a situation that just needs to run its course. That happens to me sometimes, like when I'm travelling on a big negotiation that is very intense and goes day and night for upwards of a week. I know it's gonna be exhausting and stressful and that it's going to hit me with a big backlash physically, and try to accept that and relax through it. Sometimes I have rituals to separate myself from the inevitable stressful situation from my personal down-time, like taking a long hot soak in the hot tub while listening to some nice soothing music and sipping some sleepytime tea, and I wind down (or a soak in the bathtub with your favorite bubble bath and some lit candles! 
But gentle exercise also helps me to fatigue the muscles enough that they relax while I'm sleeping and don't spasm. Even 5 minutes of vigorous exercise can help to improve quality of sleep.
Just also wanted to make sure that you aren't at a point where you're overtraining, which can leave you feeling rotten *after* a workout. Generally, a workout should leave you with elevated mood, energy, and relaxation. If you feel worse after your workout than you did before you started and if you also think that overtraining might be a possible thing happening to you, it might be worth just taking a couple of days off from the gym and then coming back and jumping in again. Sometimes the body needs some downtime, too. Have you been sick? Exercise while having a virus can be counterproductive as your body needs its resources to heal itself.
Hope you feel better soon! Try not to be hard on yourself; you're doing great! 
With kindest regards, Donna E.
www.teklawgirl.biz
Like I said, this may or may not apply to you.
But gentle exercise also helps me to fatigue the muscles enough that they relax while I'm sleeping and don't spasm. Even 5 minutes of vigorous exercise can help to improve quality of sleep.
Just also wanted to make sure that you aren't at a point where you're overtraining, which can leave you feeling rotten *after* a workout. Generally, a workout should leave you with elevated mood, energy, and relaxation. If you feel worse after your workout than you did before you started and if you also think that overtraining might be a possible thing happening to you, it might be worth just taking a couple of days off from the gym and then coming back and jumping in again. Sometimes the body needs some downtime, too. Have you been sick? Exercise while having a virus can be counterproductive as your body needs its resources to heal itself.
Hope you feel better soon! Try not to be hard on yourself; you're doing great!
With kindest regards, Donna E.
www.teklawgirl.biz
Like I said, this may or may not apply to you. Topic: RE: Leg night!!
Hi Valerie,
Was wondering how they judge you on squats, in terms of form? What makes it an invalid squat vs a valid one in powerlifting? Obviously it is important to use good form to avoid injuries (who wants injuries?), but what are the powerlifting rules on that? Do they nix your squat if you lean coming up, or are they just looking to see that you do?
This is all so interesting, and I am fascinated to find a woman who is a power lifter! Way cool!
With kindest regards, Donna E.
www.teklawgirl.biz
Topic: RE: Another day in the books!
Hiya Valerie,
I train on a 4-day split, though I have done 5-day splits, I like the 4-day split best for me. It looks like this:
Day 1: legs & glutes
Day 2: chest & tris
Day 3: back & bis
Day 4: shoulders & traps
Then I start over again. This allows me to do a mega workout on those muscle groups that day, since I only have those muscle groups to work. I finish my weights every day in 45min-1hr, though legs I complete in 45 minutes and I'm spent after that! I take a day off when I need to, and pick up next day with whatever is next after the last one. So I might do Day 1 legs, then I might need to take off the next day for some reason, then the next day I would do Day 2, but otherwise, I just keep going. I never do cardio on leg day; just too much, though I do abs if I have the energy (15 min max). I try to do cardio one day, and abs the next, so they both get done every other day. When I do cardio, it depends on how much time I have that day to do it, but I try to do at least 20-30 min cardio each time, up to an hour. My objective with cardio generally is heart training, and secondarily when needed, to shake off some fat, like right now. Because I'm trying to shake off some fat from my recent down-time, I try to do some cardio every day except leg day until it is back to 130 lbs.
You were mentioning in another post about your girls giving you a hard time about working out. At first, my daughter felt that I was being selfish to be so dedicated to my workouts after my surgery, since I think she felt that my first priority should be for being at her disposal for her schedule. She tried to guilt trip me, but that didn't go too far with me. I had decided that I needed to put my needs first, too, and this was a need for me. Now after all this time and the amazing results of all that hard work, she gets its importance for me, and that sometimes it is necessary to be selfish in order to take care of ourselves. I am now able to do more for her and everyone and myself now that I am fit and healthy, so she no longer begrudges me the time commitment.
With kindest regards, Donna E.
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