Adena

My li'l buddy, Murray, getting comfy on the couch:

Istanbul is my favorite place so far! Pretty much everyone seemed fluent in English which I was apprehensive about before I went, I managed to find pretty decent grain & bean salad type things at every restaurant we went to, and the Hagia Sofia and Blue Mosque were breathtaking. There didn't seem to be any weird scam artists and/or thieves about and I felt very, very safe there. Plus, Turkish delights rule.

I can't remember what it was called, but I watched a documentary about farming and the farmers who worked for Monsanto tried to save seeds, which is a time honored skill in farming/gardening, and were pressured not to so they had to spend far more money buying new seeds every planting season. I don't remember if they were actually sued or not.

Oh no, we pronounce things weird here!

The title of this thread made me laugh. I've been vegan for almost ten years, and that's still how my mom pronounces vegan. I gave up correcting her long ago.

A helpful attitude for me has been to only talk about veganism/animal rights to a receptive audience. If they're not receptive, then they're most likely just going to have the attitude that vegans are preachy and judgmental. And they won't change their ways anyway. I heard about this from one of Vegan Outreach's emails and they use this philosophy when handing out leaflets. People will either ignore them and walk away, or be curious. If they're curious, then you have an open door. Otherwise, it's best to leave them alone.

At the gym, the only other thing I do besides my normal routine is shoot the breeze with the people in my powerlifting club and try to pick their brains so I can better. It's a really positive environment and I'm grateful that I have finally made friends with them. Outside of the gym, I love riding my bike, but it's usually not very intense cardio-wise, I kind of just dilly dally around the bike trails and enjoy being in the forest and by the river. I also play with my dogs and garden. My husband does most of the gardening and it's pretty intense for city-dwellers. Our friends call it our "farm."

Awesome!

In that case, 30 reps is not enough!

I never voluntarily do the prowler, but strangely enough, I never mind doing a bunch of burpees.

30 reps?! Holy Mother F'er! The only thing I do 30 or more of is steps on the trail when I go hiking or running! Baby Herc 30 reps of anything sounds like the most boring time you could possibly have!

Good to know!

Robert, have you seen the commercials for Planet Fitness? They're borderline offensive to anyone who is trying to improve themselves or progress in any way. But yeah, they probably appeal to people who would like to stay out of shape.

How have I always missed this thread? Could be that I've been neglecting this forum for about a year... Just saw Born of Pain, Naysayer, and First Blood this week. I kind of forgot how much I enjoy First Blood.

Running outside is definitely way more interesting, but I bet you're going to feel so great the first time you get on that elliptical!

I am terrible at updating this thing, lately! Oh well, I can assure you all I have been continuing to strength train four times a week and I'm struggling a little with getting enough calories, but a lot of things are going according to schedule. Bench has been feeling pretty easy, which is unusual, in a good way.

Haha, yeah, the dude has "old man mouth" and was wearing a patriotic teddy bear sweatshirt, then got hot and took it off so he was wearing this T-shirt that said "Grillo's Pickles" with a dancing pickle on it. His dance moves are pretty sweet. My neck is still sore from all the enthusiastic head banging, but I think I'll make it in to bench day. I forgot my regular shoes, so I'm going to have to wear my slipper shoes I wore to work. They must think I'm really goofy at my gym. Or if they don't already, they will now. I've been losing weight this whole month, so I'm going to have to up the calories for next month. I started at 144 and now I weigh 141. It's not a huge difference, but my bulking appetite is starting to come back. Here's to hoping my belly doesn't get any huger!

Ouch, I'm so sorry to hear that...At least you know your food processor blade is nice and sharp, right? I hope you recover soon.

Wow, way to go on bench! Sorry about your smashed finger, though. Hopefully it's nothing serious.

Happy Edge Day! ---and I enjoy some good ol' Chipotle, as well.

Wow, I'm terrible at updating my training log sometimes. I'll just give you the highlights of my Week 3: My best strict overhead press was 1x1x70. My best parallel squat was 1x2x165. My best bench was 1x5x90. My best deadlift was 1x2x215. It'll come back. This week I'm deloading, which has been fun so far. Last night I got to see one of my favorite bands, Bane, so that was pretty sweet. I'll be rockin' this really goofy Bane muscle-T at the gym tonight.

Bench Day Bench Press: 1x5x45 1x5x65 1x5x75 1x6x85 1x6x80 1x8x75 1x10x70 1x10x65 1x12x60 Hm. Way to go. Didn't see that coming. BOR: 1x10x85 1x8x85 1x7x85 This was about the point when I decided to lighten the weight on most of my assistance exercises in general so I can do higher rep work. Push-Ups: 1x8 1x5 1x4 I figured I about had it at this point, and went home. I intended to do some more tricep work, but there's always next week. Deadlift Day Deadlift: 1x5x135 1x5x155 1x5x185 1x3x195 Thought I'd be able to do a little more than this, but my hands just can't hold onto the bar since I took so long off. My back felt pretty fresh still at this point, though. Rack Pulls: 1x2x205 2x1x205 Farmer's Walks with a 45 lb plate in each hand: 3 sets GHR 3x5 Plate Pinches with two 5lb plates: 3 sets each hand Ol' lefty sure is wimpy these days. But still, after looking over my journal it doesn't seem as though I went backwards too far from taking the summer off, so that's a nice surprise. This week is going to be a little tough since they're asking us for overtime, which means I'll get into the gym even later than usual and it'll throw my night off, but I'm going to do my best to get four solid training sessions in this week anyhow. If I do it like last week and make Saturday and Sunday two of the four training days, it shouldn't be too difficult.

Squat Day Parallel Squats: 1x5x45 1x5x95 1x5x115 1x5x135 1x5x145 1x5x155 That last one was kind of a grinder, so I figured I better not try 165 right away on my first week back. I didn't lose tooooo much strength, though... A2G Squats: 2x5x135 1x4x135 Lunges with 45 lb plate held overhead: 3x10 steps (5 each foot) We just got a GHR machine in the power room but I forgot to use it! Oh well, there's always deadlift day.

Ok, I'm back! The garden got pretty out of control so I ended up spending the summer doing cardio and lots of time was spent in the garden. We got a lot of use out of it, it just takes time to weed, water, harvest, and preserve everything. Aaaaaanyway...I really missed lifting heavy so I went straight back to the 5/3/1. Strict Overhead Press: 1x5x45 1x5x55 1x5x60 1x5x65 Push Press: 3x5x65 Overhead Shrugs: 3x10x65 Dips: 3x5 Assisted Chin-Ups (48 lb assistance): 1x12 1x8 1x5 Not too bad on the main lift, but I definitely lost steam throughout the training session. I'm way sore, so I'm not sure when I'm going to get to squat day. Oh, and I turned 31 yesterday, happy birthday to me.

Yeah, Chewy! Way to go! You're looking really huge these days, haha!