Fiddleman

That's great! Before you know it, you will have 200 in your rear view mirror. Onederland is right around the corner and it will be such a wonderful feeling to be there, even better then what you are experiencing now!

Great job Nicole. Thanks for posting. It is nice to hear about your success.

Cake batter is good for me. I will try out banana cream light next.

Nectar desserts like cookies and creme, vanilla bean and chocolate truffle. Cake batter muscle milk light. Mmmmmm.

Good attitude on the ripped! Better then me. Bob Harpers "Inside out" is an hour and I am current only 30 minutes through before running out of steam. It is hard!! My goal is to be able to get through an hour of it with 15 lb weights. Currently I am using 10 lb weights. Whew!

Excellent!!

I tried the light muscle milk version today and it is pretty good! It has 25 g protein, 210 calories 6 g fat, 13 g carb (2 g sugar) per serving. Sits up there next to my cookies and cream shake staple in terms of taste. I am a dessert flavor protein shake junkie.

Congratulations Laura on being the featured member in the VST newsletter! You are a big inspiration for all and are always supportive of others that need both kind words and wisdom.

Are there any medical reasons not to get it done before 18? There are a lot of products and services out there that require 18 years or older. Some freshmen in college are 16, 17 18, etc.

Consider intense level as that which raises your heart rate to 80% of max target heart rate for 20-30 minutes or longer. For example, It could be intense workout programs like Insanity, PX90, Jillian ripped, Bob Harpers Inside Out or any other high intensity organized program. It could be any HIIT workout that you do such as cross fit, running, biking, rowing, anything really as long as you alternate between 60 seconds of intense activity (out of breath) and 60 seconds of moderate exercise (catch breath). It could also be running a 5 k, 10 k or longer distance where you are challenged and your heart rate again is 80% of target heart rate. Intense exercise will drain you where recovery is required afterwards. Performing an exercise where you are not challenged is what the average person does. For example, walking / jogging at a low intensity or uninspiring strength training where the motions are followed, but no challenge. There must be a high level of focused energy in order to be actively engaged in intense exercise. You ever see those girls in the gym that are reading vogue while slowly biking for an hour while popping heir bubblicious? that would be classified as below average. Just my two cents on intense versus average exercise and everyone is welcome to their own opinion on it.

Any of the strength trainers / body builders / lifters here have additional comments about the adjustable dumbbell products?

I went back and tweaked per second formula and aggressive fat loss (lowers total daily calories a little) and now it tells me to eat 31.3 grams for each meal, 6 meals a day. That is a lot of Protein. I need to start up my own farm to have readily available chicken, beef and pork! I know the zoning laws will let me have chickens...haha. Seriously, I am going to increase my Protein powder even more as I usually only get in about 25 g protein when I drink shakes and between 17-25 g when not drinking shakes. Would the body actually know how to process 60 g of recovery shake if I took it after training? The Wheybolic 60 actually recommends people take 60 g after training, but I usually just do 25 g. I cannot believe the tdee calculator recommends more protein (> 30g) than the body is capable of processing in a meal (30 g) . Maybe I should just woof metrx bars more often (30 G protein @ 400 calories) and call it a day. I typically do not eat these because i get icy stares from my wife, but i do enjoy the 2 i have tried so far in the last few months. Eating these bars are probably cheaper than trying to get in real meat all the time from costco. Gosh, that is expensive.

Really great suggestions aroundhky!!

Hey Laura- 90 or 100 grams of Protein a day is a great place to be for moderate active lifestyle (say, 30 min exercise a day). You will find it easier and easier to eat more protein as your exercise increases. You will just be hungry and your body will need more to support that BMR of yours. It is not necessary to try and rush progress. It will happen over time, one day at a time. One week at a time. One month at a time. Before you know it, you will be easily hitting 125 G protein to support your future ramped up exercise. A person should be eating 6-7 x a day of 25-30 grams of protein per meal to sustain the numbers of an athlete (150+ g of protein a day). For you, your activity levels do not require so much protein. Instead, try 5-6 x a day at 15-20 grams of protein a meal. Use the Protein shakes to make it easier to hit the numbers for first and last meal. Start eating early in the morning when you wake. Finish eating when you goto bed. Eat at least every 3 hours and keep the meals small, but balanced. Last meal should be a long lasting protein that will engage your metabolism for 5-8 hours while you are sleeping. The gold standard casein protein works well for me and makes a huge difference over night. A fast acting whey protein is good for when you wake as your body does not want to wait around for the protein. By following these guidelines, you will train your body to be burning fat and building (some) lean muscle 24 hours a day. You have to eat small protein based meals all day long to increase efficiency of the fat burning furnace in your body. It will get easier the more you do it, like breathing after a while. And your residual hunger you have now will vanish.

My only suggestion at this point is to modify the heck out of the pull up or chin up. These are probably the single most difficult body weight exercise!! You can modify by using bands looped over the bar which your left or right foot sits in, depending on your dominant side. For me, i put the band around my left foot because i am right side dominant. Thicker or more bands will help you get up and over the bar. It is a bit of an application of elasticity To reduce the effect of gravity on your exercise. Use a box to help get into the band and start the exercise. Keep your hands further apart to engage your back and lat muscles. This is key. Do not try and get yourself over the bar with your arms alone. It won't happen. Start out trying to get one, then 3, then 5 and then 10. if you can do a set of 10, pat yourself on the back. great job! Now try and do 3 sets of 10. I am almost to the point where I can do 30 (3 sets of 10) unbanded pull-ups and chin ups, but it has been months of using bands. Practice, practice and practice these as much as you can. My weekly workout routine has me doing pull-ups 2x a week. Once You can comfortably do pull ups and chin ups without bands or a box, try advancing onto the rope climbs. This is where I am heading next.

I still get these whenever standing up from a seated position. Used to it now. My take is that as long as I do not completely fade to black, I am a-ok.

Sort of tempted to order from amazon, but again some horrid reviews. They also talk about added sugar and other things (chloride?)