VSG Maintenance Group
Recent Posts
Yikes to the bear!!! Feels like the bear needs to be removed from the neighborhood and relocated. Bears are awesome, but don't mix well with residential areas.
My Grandma lived in Duluth proper. The fog would roll in from Lake Superior, and the temp would drop. Meanwhile, at my Aunt's house "on the other side of the hill" it was 82 and sunny. Always intrigued me when I was a kid.
I think the meds can cause fatigue all on their own, and then add in the low calories as you noted, and you've got a recipe for low energy. DH was super fatigued the first couple of months, then adjusted. He joked that he initially lost weight because he was too tired to eat.
Super busy day today! There were no posts when I posted the, where is everybody post and then bam! Lots of posts!
CC, glad you are well. Please don't worry about complaining here! We are here to support each other in all that life deals us! Hope Dad's demeanor improves soon. Grumpiness can be hard to handle! I'm glad you can be there to help Claudia! And Mr. Kirby! Stop spilling drinks, puking on the floor and running away from Mom! As DH says all the time, they are kids in fur!
Peps, can't believe your school year is starting so soon. I know this last year of working has become increasingly more difficult for DH. Hope you can find joy in your last year!
Diane, those beans look amazing and DD, roasted veggies sound great too! I've been grilling mine lately!
Liz, praying your son thrives in his new environs! If I remember right he has had some mental health issues like my oldest, correct? That can make navigating life so much more difficult!
DH has the next 6 days off! Yay! Planning on going for a hike tomorrow. The day is supposed to be cool with a high of 71. Hoping to go kayaking one of the days and also suggested making a trip to Milwaukee to visit the zoo! He of course has at least one golf outing planned with his friends. I'm still very fatigued on these meds. I think some of it is the very low calorie consumption. I snacked on nuts tonight to bring my daily total to 834 today! We went out to eat tonight and I was only able to eat 1 shredded chicken taco.
5' 4" tall, HW: 242, SW:215.4 Weight Loss - pre-op: - 26.6, M1: -15.4, M2: -16, M3: -11.4, M4: -11.2, M5: -12.2, M6: -7.4, M7: -7.8, M8: -2.0 Goal of 130 lbs. reached at 8 months, 2 days post-op!
the beans:
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Greetings all
Our house is in a cloud today. Fog seems to roll in right at our freeway exit. Five miles away it's sunny - at least it was at the studio.
We went to lunch at the Chinese buffet with friends. I am always amazed by how much a non sleever can eat. Three or four plates from the buffet. One person is the one who was in the hospital for so long, She is not supposed to lose any more weight so she heads for the soft serve. Fine with me. I really don't crave that much anymore.
CC glad you are ok. Ditto glad you are getting new dining furniture. Makes a big difference. So many chairs are the wrong height or just hard or both. I bet your crabby dad slowly recovers from his crabbiness. Yikes! Kirby's big adventure! I would have been terrified. Chip did that once. We got a call from down the street. And whats all this about exploding flagstone??!! Could have been your grout man. I so love the look of flagstone and other stone. Hope it's not too terrible.
Peps thanks for the muscle/strength info. It's really what we all should be thinking about instead of numbers on a scale. I can't believe you can do so many squats!!!! Yowza. Pays to work out.
So good on you DD for managing your work out to make it doable. You are so right that there is no point in setting goals if they are such that you just give up. My personal rule is that I can stand anything for 10 minutes. Or most anything. Anyway you go girl - you have the right idea.
Liz hope the DS moving is going well. Lots to process. Kind of exciting to think of DS setting up a new household.
Burgers again tonight. Plus more of the zillion pounds of runner beans I was gifted. I had no idea a little lunch bag would hold so many.
The bear has been sighted on our street in someone's back yard. Hmmm.
Diane S
Join US On The VSG Maintenance Group Forum!!
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Where is everyone today?
5' 4" tall, HW: 242, SW:215.4 Weight Loss - pre-op: - 26.6, M1: -15.4, M2: -16, M3: -11.4, M4: -11.2, M5: -12.2, M6: -7.4, M7: -7.8, M8: -2.0 Goal of 130 lbs. reached at 8 months, 2 days post-op!
So helpful! Also, clarifies what I thought: actually increasing muscle size is hard to do. I'm not worried at all about getting bulky muscles. I'm simply not that ambitious. :)
Thinking about strength vs. stamina is another good point. I like the idea of doing strength building movement to increase aerobic training. I was using the recumbent bike with a decent amount of resistance for aerobic conditioning, but it's got so boring that I started dragging my feet about going to the club. I decided it was better to drop that part of the workout and increase the time and number of machines I used. Better to go and do that then not go at all. The resistance machines just gobble up stress, which feels so great and I like the meditative aspect of counting and inhaling, exhaling. I will add doing some sets at a lower weight for many reps to build stamina. That seems very doable and I don't think I'll get bored.
Great question about building muscle vs building (increasing) strength. No quickie answer, but let me try. In short the answer is YES! Actual strength, meaning being able to lift a heavy carry on tote from the over head bin, will come from a resistance training program that gradually over time increases the weight you are able to push, lift, or carry. That type of training also builds or grows muscle. In average post menopausal women strength increase will be more noticeable than additional bulk. You must remember that muscle is denser than fat, so while you may be losing fat and maintaining muscle, you will become smaller, not bulkier. I hope this makes sense. It is very, very hard to build muscle while reducing calories to eliminate fat. Maintaining muscle is much more realistic, which it sounds like you are doing.
Now, if you mean increasing stamina to sustain higher level activity over a span of time, that would include a different type of training to complement the resistance training you are doing. To achieve that type of increase in strength or stamina you would want to add aerobic types of movements. Aerobic does not only mean sustained movement for long periods of time (e.g. treadmill, jogging, eliptical training, etc...). Moves like mountain climbers, downward facing rows, push ups, renegade pushups (not for beginners), walking lunges are all aerobic moves. Also, lowering weights on resistance machines and increasing repetitions is a great way to build stamina and increased ability to maintain activity over time. As an example, I do very little resistance training on my legs, but I do lots and lots of body weight moves. My favorite is adding a set of 15-20 squats between sets of resistance training. Some workouts I will do between 200 and 300 squats. If you truly want to increase stamina I would add squats, mountain climbers, and rows to your routine. Easily done, and none require special equipment, other than a dumb bell.
Probably more than you wanted, but I got going... Sorry.
I hadn't thought about body composition, but now that you mention it, my weight has been steady all summer, but the pants I was wearing yesterday were annoying me because I had to keep tugging them up.
So on the resistance machines, I'm doing 3 sets of 12, making sure that the weight is high enough to make 10, 11 and 12 pretty darn hard. Sometimes on the 3rd set I can only do 10. I'm confused though when I read about building strength vs building muscle. What is the difference? Can muscles become stronger without increasing it's actual mass? Does it matter when what I am after is to be strong enough for daily life and to have good mobility? My joke is to be strong enough to easily stow and remove my bag from the overhead bin. I'm really good at packing, and that bag is heavy! To save lives, DH usually handles it for me.
