thendanisays

ok, kinda pissed off that the scale didn't budge this week. like really-not at all. I AM CERTAIN that i did not eat enoug calories to maintain, but still managed about 100-120 g protein / day.....which is not much for me at all. and the diet was fairly low fat ( i usually take in about 60g, but this week was more like < 30) I workout out (hard) every day.....bah. i can already see and feel a difference though, so i guess i just have to drop that mentality about numbers on a scale. I'm starting to think that being 130lbs is just not gonna happen again unless i'm SUPER LEAN, which is way more work than i am willing to put in currently. i have just gained so much muscle that 130 is probably not in my near future. and the more i think about it, that it perfectly ok. There is this super creepy guy at my gym who just staaaaaaaaaaares at me the whole time i am there. him and some other guy i do not know literally cat called last week for my entire walk out of the gym ....at 8 am on a tuesday. REALLY????? yes... anyway, giacomo came with me to the gym today and mr. creepy was there, staring at me non-stop and giacomo starting deadlifting hundreds of pounds with no straps while i hung off his arm and was his little cheerleader as an effort to say "BACK THE F*** OFF!" but it didnt work. he kept staring, and just when giacomo was about to say something, this other guy came up and starting asking him if i was a trainer because i have such good form and blah blah blah.....so that was nice. then the creepy guy disappeared. awesome workout though. although the assisted pull-up machine is currently broken, so i just did heavy lat pull-downs....it's just not the same....

Hey all, someone at my job asked me to write him a workout series to get him started back into fitness. AWESOME! He has no weights, no equipment really--so it will all be bodyweight moves. got any good ones for upper back that do not require a pull-up bar? thanks

You're welcome! I hope you liked them!

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA! Jason, i am the queen of bizarre dreams. i literally have some whackjob dream every single night of my life. but if youre dreaming about ice cream--then that PROBABLY means youre doing an awesome job on your diet. thats a good thing. As for me, i have been in the gym 6 days a week, and eating exactly what i should be. now where the heck are my result dammit?!?!? patience patience, i suppose. you know, the first time i lost a lot of weight 4 years ago, i did it waaaaaaaaay too quickly, and i always said that if i could go back and do it again, i would do it slower. well, now that i have this AWESOME opportunity (ah the power of positive thinking) i'm doing it slower, and it BLOWS. i'd rather get it over with. oh well.....i just keep chugging along. i've been cycling more, i still suck at it, but i suck LESS at it than i did a month ago. ditto on the plyos and such. which is nice. been even doing my cardio like good girl.....blech. giacomo is gonna have to step it up to keep up with me in the gym soon!!!! <3

that sounds scary! I hope you feel tip top soon

Diet is looking good my friend!

Can FINALLY straighten my arms again! HAHAHA. i cant believe how sore i was. yikes. sunburn doesnt hurt anymore. And i got giacomo to go to my new gym last night. all good things. I did legs, which didnt seem so tough as it usually does, guess i have to up the intensity a bit. For some reason my alarm didnt go off this morning, and i overslept so i'll hit the gym up when i getout of work tonight. But i had thje strangest dream about my mom selling off my pet chickens (which i do not actually have) to some farmer who was going to slaughter them.....so i kicked my mom's ass..... Honestly this is the first dream i've had of my mother soince i moved across the country in october....and i was straight-up punching her in the face. HOW TERRIBLE IS THAT? sheesh, i feel the need to calll her and apologize.

Is that the island where we picked all those berries last summer? YES! Not quite berry picking season yet, but soon it will be. there were lots of people out farming and it was just gorgeous in general. can ALMOST straighten the arms today, and i'm just sumping lotion all over the burn. i'll live

I'm not even respoding to that you dirty dirty man! ANYWAY!!!!! My biceps have never been so sore in my WHOLE LIFE! I can't even straighten my arms, that is no joke. I did a sick bi/back workout yesterday. and my lats are very sore too, but they do not even compare to the my poor poor biceps. Did negative chin ups for days, 21s, amongst a whole slew of other stuff that i dont feel like writing about. Trainer showed me some cool Jane Fonda type moves to stop the popping in my leg, which would be nice as i've had it my whole life. I feel silly lying on my side with my leg in the air like that though.....like i should be wearing a leotard and leggins...shudder.... Work has been so super stressful lately its not even funny. i've never EVER wanted to walk out of a job before. NOW I DO! Hopefully giacomo lands some killer work soon and i can get the F*** out of there. I went on my first real Portland bikeride today. im such a shitty cyclist, but i'll get there. giacomo humored me and kept pace with me even though i know he wanted to go faster which was sweet. <3 We rode about 10 miles out to sauvie island, and it was a beautiful ride even though giacomo got a flat on a main road. Then as soon as we started heading back, he got another flat which could NOT be patched up so we got a ride back from some fishermen, ironically enough. HA! oh well, it was very nice of them and probably saved us about 5 hours of walking. My crotch is killing me from the bicycle seat, and i am sun-burned to high heaven, but it was fun. my sun-burned shoulders:( http://i42.tinypic.com/156bee1.jpg

YAY! Jason is back at it!!!! You can do it man!

only while i was there. haha. i dont know if it actually helped, or if i was just so winded and dizzy that i couldn't feel it!!! Its getting better though. hopefully its gone by morning!

walked to the gym and did thirty minutes on some strange cardio machine (part elliptical/part stepper???) and was sweating WAY more than usual--probably due to being sick and decided it was probably better to lay off the weights for the evening. guess i'll be back there bright and early in the a.m.

thanks for all the replies guys. @sydneyvegan-i've never seen a lot of those before. i just did them all and it kinda hurt just to do them, but maybe its because its something new for those muscles and they will adapt as i do them? anyway i'll keep at them, and acupuncture is something ive never had, or even really thought about ever--so i'll look into that-THANKS! see i thought sleeping on your stomach was ok, as long as your spine stayed parallel to the bed....? i dont know, i just cannot sleep on my back! ...i'll try tonight.-oh and my posture is fairly atrocious. i was thinking of this-i'll look into it. as for the 24 hour hot-tub......i just can't bring myself to do it. nothing is that painful.... @Vegan Joe-i actually have some white willow bark here, i forgot about it, but i have been taking ibuprophen, which i rarely do. but learning how to control those muscles specifically is very hard for me as i've been tensing them when i'm stressed since i was about 6 or seven. weird huh? what can i say-i was a stressed out little lady. yeah we tried that today. neither of us is especially good at giving massages. he's just terribly awkward, and my hands cramp up quickly, so it was pretty painful, although i did appreciate his efforts. he's so darn cute. And breathing deeply is something that i am ALL ABOUT! Giacomo sees me doing it all the time and says "oh look, dani's channeling wind again" lol. oh well. it really does work to de-stress....just not so much for the pain.

my gym is currently under construction!!! it SUCKS! it keeps throwing me off too! its extremely close, so i like that, but MAN! why do you think you had a stitch in your side?

+1 feel better soon hon

it may have something to do with that....i don't really know actually. i know that i sleep on my stomach with my face to one side (or the other) with that arm up under my head and under the pillow....i change sides several times a night, but its almost always the same position. any suggestions on what to try differently? or a different type of pillow? My i usually like my pillows a little thin and kinda dense, not those big fluffy ones..... oh man its killing me!

I have always carried most of my stress in my neck and upper traps, but lately the pain has become damn near unbearable. Short of a massage, which i cannot currently afford, does anyone know any stretches, exercises, tips on how to relex them thoughout the day, etc, that could possible help this extremely painful situaion? Thanks in advance guys.

you have some awesome consistancy man! Keep it up. its very admirable! and i cant believe you still have that quote in your sig. hahaha-hilarious.

Its Fubonn market and i LOVE THAT PLACE! i always find some weird thing that i want to get everytime i'm there-although last time i got these two packages of a kind of tofu jerky that tasted like flavored pencil eraser. hahah. but thats the exception inm my case-not the rule. giacomo and i have about 9 young thai coconuts in our fridge right now actually! hahah.

this ousnds so yummy-and i didnt get to try jimi's in az. maybe i'll try to make some of this today. thanks dude!

i was just talking to giacomo about how if i could get a really good trap and neck rub-down i think it would go away, but alas, we are no good at these things. wish you were closer girlie.

oh no! Youre sick too! that sucks. i hope you feel better soon. oh and btw since i didnt mention it before-that woman was a bitch and you were right <3

I recently moved to portland from boston massachusetts, so i feel like i am pretty qualified to answer your questions its the grey. plain and simple, the grey is depressing. it took its toll on me this passed winter for sure. i hated it. even in boston wehre it snows up to eight foot drifts easily, at least the sun comes out to make it sparkle and cheer the air. but someone told me when i first moved here, to stay active no matter what and the grey wouldnt affect me so much...easier said than done, but it was helpful. as far as i can see-this is a load of crap. yeah there are problems here, and bear in mind i moved here from BOSTON, so take that for what it's worth. There are a lot more homeless people than i expected and there is definately a "working class", which i am proud to be a part of. As far as actual "gangs"-yeah they probably exist, but i live in one of the "roughests" neighborhoods (and i use that term loosely as it makes me laugh when people are shocked that i live there) and aside from one house of shitty neighbors, everyone around here is super-friendly and awesome and i have never once felt uncomfortable to walk the streets here, although i have heard other people who live in other neighborhoods say differently. I suppose it is a matter of opinion. call me rough around the edges, but i think this place is about as dangerous as a rubber room full of marshmallows. I dont know about the rest of the ocuntry currently, but this has, by far, been the biggest issue for me personally. I work in the restaurant industry with a decade of SOLID experience and it took me nearly four months to find ANYTHING and six to find something (quasi)stable. If i were to move back home, i feel like i could have job ten times better than the one i do now in under 2 weeks. Come here with a little nest-egg for sure. i certainly didnt bring enough for the long wait for a job. BUT from what i've heard around recenly-they job market is getting marginally better. Now-my overall thoughts. i wouldnt move back. i love it here. I dont know what your interests are, but there is so much beautiful nature here-ive never seen a place so green. there are more parks per sq mile than anywhere in the country-trails-waterfalls-mountain-deserts-rivers-beach...all less than 2 miles away. there is a GIANT farmer's market every saturday morning to get fresh, local and organic produce, food co-ops everywhere, vegan friendly places everywhere you turn. People are extremely open-minded to new alternative ideas, the music is great, and people are just friendly overall like nothing ive ever seen. I've made better friends in 7 months here than i did in years and years at home. there is a sense of community here that blows me away constantly. and the slogan is "keep portland weird"...i mean c'mon, you cant beat that with a stick. have you ever visited before?

i am so sick! its the weirdest thing. its just a headache but it is absolutely debilitating. it hurts to move, and i have taken advil (which i rarely do unless i'm in a LOT of pain) and drank a bunch of caffiene, lots of sleep (i'm talking like 12 hours), drinking lots of water, hot bath....i give up.....sigh. anyway-here was yesterdays workout. i may just force myself to the gym today anyway. for whatever reason the headache subsided when i was on the elliptical yesterday morning. Shoulder/Abs day Warm-up: Balance on Bosu ball on 1 foot, 60 seconds each foot. [Cable Wood Chop @80 lbsx15/each side]x2 Squat and lift with 8lb medicine Ballx15 [Clean and Press w/ palms down grip @35 lbsx12]x3 [1 arm hanging lat raise @10lbx15]x3 [Rear delt Row and Rotate with tubingx12]x3 (this was very difficult form to perfect) [ball Knee Tuckx15, Bench Blastx1 minute, Side Plank and Reachx12/side, Hip Hinge Absx20, Double Crunch with tubingx15]circuitx3 30 minutes moderate intensity on elliptical. Then i went home and slept for 4 hours, woke up, ate, went back to bed for 9 hours. I hope i feel better soon.

i believe you are correct. i think the chocolate layer is mostly saturated fat. so thats awesome! I cant peel it off mine, so its probably because theyre almost expired. but, sweet deal.