Tag Archives: nrolw

NROLW and Ravenous

It’s the start of my weekend! I actually slept until 7 am before hitting the gym. Did workout A of stage 6 again. The negative chin-ups were harder today, not sure why. Maybe from my intense workout yesterday.

  • Negative chin ups:  3 sets of 1
  • Lat Pull downs:  10 sets of 2  at 70 and 60 pounds (got tired)
  • Pushups:  2 sets of 8
  • Barbell split squats:  2 sets of 8 at 65 pounds

I couldn’t hold the chin ups as long as on Monday. Then did  some walking on the treadmill.  I thought it would start raining before I biked home, but it held off.

Decided on protein pancakes with maple/banana topping for breakfast:

cakes109

I kept feeling like I needed to get to work.  That’s one problem with working at home, the environment is always the same!

Pink photo for today:

pink109

Well, John won the football picks again this week….. grrrr….  I need to step up my game!  His dinner choice was Ravenous – a french crepe place.  Now, I have to say that I would have chosen to go here for my dinner anyway as well, so I guess I won after all!

It’s a cute little place, very small and intimate inside:

rav2

We sat at the window counter, which was fun.  Started with an order of pommes frites with a cajun dipping sauce.

PA090025

Delicious!  Thick cut and hot fries.  I can’t remember the last time I had fries!

I chose the Sorbonne crepe: Fresh asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes, and chevre.  Organic salad on the side.

crepe

This was so good!  I actually couldn’t taste the crepe much because the filling was so flavorful!  The goat cheese had a wonderful flavor with sun-dried tomatoes.  And the asparagus were the really thin ones and super tender.

Since the meals were light, we decided to split a sweet crepe for dessert:

Dulce De Leche: Butterscotch-caramel spread rolled in a crepe with toasted pecans. Served with whip cream & sliced peaches.

dulce

Another winner!  This did not need the peaches (they were canned).  Or they should have been fresh peaches.  The dulce de leche filling was oh-so-good.  Thick and creamy:

descrepe

We definitely want to come here some time just to each have our own dessert crepe.  There are so many to choose from!  We are thinking we need to try some crepe making at home.

And I wasn’t stuffed after dinner, which is also a good feeling.

Tomorrow John has a 5K race to do.  I am not racing with the duathlon coming up in 8 days (!!!!!).

NROLW and video!

Today was workout B of stage 6 for NROLW!  Short, but intense.

  • Reverse lunge, one dumbell on shoulder:  2 x 10 at 20 pounds
  • Dumbbell 2-point row:  2 x 10 at 25 pounds
  • Dumbbell push press:  2 x 10 at 20 pounds
  • Back extension (on machine):  2 x 10 at 100 pounds
  • Incline reverse crunch:  2 x 10

The incline reverse crunch was harder than I thought it would be, and I didn’t have much incline LOL!

Here is the video showing one side of the reverse lunge.  This is a great balance builder.  I actually had to refilm as I fell over the first time!  You then switch sides and repeat.

This lower camera angle makes me look tall.  I think I like it 😀

Please mute unless you want to hear “School’s Out for summer”  😛

New Rules of Lifting Stage 6

Okay, I am in the really hard section of NROLW – stage 6.  This is an optional stage.  It’s the chin-up stage.

Score: Chin-ups: 3    Lori:  0

Today was very humbling.  I have been feeling strong and mighty doing this program and  came crashing back to earth today.  Today’s A workout was short, but intense:

  • Negative chin-ups:  3 sets, 1 rep
  • Underhand lat pull down:  10 sets, 2 reps at 70 pounds
  • Barbell split squats:  2 sets, 10 reps.  1 set 45 pounds, 1 set 55 pounds
  • Push ups:  2 sets of 10 pushups.

It looks rather innocuous on paper (pixel??) doesn’t it?  The negative chin-ups were very hard.  You have to stand under the bar, then hop up to the bar so your chin is at the bar with an underhand grip, then lower yourself slowly.  Then repeat that twice.  The idea is to work up to taking 20 seconds to lower yourself.  The hard part was controlling my body.  When I jumped up to the bar, my body was swinging so much that I had to stay up there for a long time just to stop swaying before lowering myself.  My arms were already shaky before the lowering!  3 times was about all I could take!  I even tried one set where I sort of climbed up the squat cage to the bar, but still had swinging.  At least I have something to strive for!

The lat pull down was also a bit different.  You pull the weight down very fast, and then slowly let it back up, taking 4 times as long to go back up.  These 2 exercises really work the upper body, let me tell you!

Barbell split squats.  Again, another tough move and I didn’t even load the barbell for the first set.  Takes a little more balance doing a split squat than a regular squat.

For some crazy reason, I decided to get on the treadmill after this because it only took about 25 minutes and ran for 2 miles!  This is my hard training week before tapering next week.

I may have to have John video me trying a chin up so you all can have a good laugh 😀

NROLW: YTWL video and no bagel??

Hello to my new visitors!  I was honored to be asked for an interview by Sahar for FatFighterTV and it was posted today.  I was given a Weight Loss WooHoo, which you can read about here. That was fun!

September challengers, don’t forget to do the final check in here!

Today was the last NROWL stage 5 workout:

  • Deadlift/bent over row:  4 x 4  at 75 pounds
  • Single leg partial squats:  4  x 4
  • Wide grip lat pulldown:   4 x 4 at 70 pounds
  • Back extension:  4 x 4 at 100 pounds
  • YTWL:  4 x 4 at 10 pounds
  • Crunches, reverse crunches, lateral flexion:  3 x 10
  • Prone cobra:  3 x 2 minute holds

Then it was breakfast time.  Long-time readers probably expect the usual Wednesday bagel, but not today!  Today is my mom’s birthday (Happy Bday MOM!!) and we took her and my father out to breakfast at the Silo Restaurant.

P9300009

There is plenty of opportunity to eat a lot of food there, but I decided to eat healthy instead with a bowl of oatmeal!

silooats

There was a choice of strawberries or blueberries, and you can see what I chose.  I also sprinkled with a bit of brown sugar.  It was quite good and filling.  Actually more oats than I normally eat.  I was hungry after my workout today.

Chilly day today, mid 40s.  We turned the furnace on today for the first time.  Pixie is just a heat magnet now. It’s very hard to work when she does this:
pixie
Yes, that is my current work spot.  How lucky am I that I can work in a rocking chair??

Here is my next video! Please forgive the set up and ending. I still need to figure out how to crop those off. I did it before with my triathlon videos, but forgot how I did it!  I’m no Stephen Spielberg.

Anyway – this is a move called YTWL.  Named that way because of the moves your arms make. You can feel free to sing YMCA when you do this if you want. 😀 If you try this, please start with no weights and build up. It is much harder than it looks. I am using 10 pound dumbbells and you can see how I struggle on the L part at the end. Also, some people point the weights horizontal on the T part. I do them parallel to the floor because I think it is easier on the rotator cuff (that’s just me).

We are off to my folk’s house tonight for cake, ice cream, and fruit – so wish me luck. My plan is just to have fruit and I have enlisted John’s help with that.

Question: Is there another NROLW move you would like to see me video?

NROLW and video

Monday morning! This was the last workout A for NROWL for stage 5. One more lifting workout this week.

  • 1 arm dumbbell snatch:  4 x 4  at 25 pounds
  • 1 legged dumbbell deadlift:  4 x 4  at 30 pounds
  • Bent over barbell row:  4 x 4 at 75 pounds
  • 1 arm overhead dumbbell squat: 4 x 4  at 15/30 pounds
  • Incline dumbbell bench press:  4 x 4  at 25 pounds
  • Planks:  3 x 2 minute holds
  • Reverse wood chop:  4 x 4 at 50 pounds
  • Leg matrix  3 times

Biked home.  It’s only a shade under 2 miles, but after doing the leg matrix, that is a tough ride!

Had a delicious bowl of banana oats topped with peanut butter.  I made the PB yesterday with some maple syrup.  Yum!

P9280034

Here is my first lifting video.  (Excuse sweatiness, I did this at the end of today’s workout.)  I wanted to showcase one of my favorite moves – the deadlift/row combo.  You can start with the barbell on the floor if you want, I just have it on this rack for convenience.  Important thing in this exercise is to not lock your knees and to flex from the hips, not your back when lowering the bar so that you don’t round your back.  * Note, if the sound isn’t down, you may want to turn it down to block out the gym noise.

Hope you enjoyed!

I’ll be back later with an anniversary post 😀

Last challenge check-in for September will be on Wednesday, since that is the last day of the month. Just a couple days to go!

NROLW and balloon festival bust.

Thank you for all of your opinions on my 2 dresses.  I should also note that those are the only 2 dresses I own!  As I lost weight, I have always worked without needed them, so I just got these recently.  I have John’s opinion on the 2 dresses, now I just need to make up my mind.  😀

Didn’t sleep really well last night (like that is anything new….).My legs are also a bit stiff from yesterday’s run.  We have a long bike ride tomorrow, so hope they feel better soon!

NROLW Stage 5 B

  • Deadlift/bent over row:  4 x 4  at 75 pounds
  • Single leg partial squats:  4  x 4
  • Wide grip lat pulldown:   4 x 4 at 70 pounds
  • Back extension:  4 x 4 at 100 pounds
  • YTWL:  4 x 4 at 10 pounds
  • Crunches, reverse crunches, lateral flexion:  3 x 10
  • Prone cobra:  3 x 2 minute holds

Then I walked on the treadmill for 15 minutes. Almost done with stage 5 – only 2 more workouts to go.  Then it’s the scary chinup stage :O

Yummy protein pancakes for brekkie!

brekkie

This plate is a little small for the blueberry sauce.  I almost made quite a mess.

Pixie was falling asleep watching me eat (yes, I was in a computer chair by the printer….).  P9250007_edited

Spent a good portion of the morning cleaning the house.  It’s amazing that we both work at home, and yet the house gets out of control at times.

Lunch break!

wrap

Tuna wrap and Kiwi!

I picked up a sweater at one of my favorite consignment shops today, plus the black shoes that you saw in in the dress photos.  I am addicted to consignment shopping!

The hot air balloon fest tonight was a bust.  It was pretty windy and cold, but we biked there anyway to see what was up.  Lots of people there, lots of food vendors, but no balloons.  At least they weren’t going up for a while.  There was a chance it would be later, but because we biked there, we couldn’t stay too late and had to leave time to bike home before dark.  We brought along a couple protein bars to eat instead of eating the stuff for sale there.

Hopefully balloons will go off tomorrow!  We decided to stop for some warmth on the way home:

dd

No donut for me, though!  I had this when I got home:

pear

So, Saturday should be a long bike ride to Greenwich for their fall festival, if my legs can hack it. They are a bit tired (shouldn’t have biked tonight). It’s 32 miles round trip. Going to pack some lunch foods and snacks and hit the road. Gonna be chilly, though. It’s perfect for a fall festival!

NROLW, drive by post

Sounds like most of you love cheese like I do!  Yay!

Going to a Tupperware party later, so thought I would squeeze in a partial post in case I don’t get by later.

Preworkout snack today:

chegb

My chewy granola bar.  This was good for over an hour, so I am happy with that!  Biked to the gym under gray skies this morning to do NROLW:

  • 1 arm dumbbell snatch:  4 x 4  at 25 pounds
  • 1 legged dumbbell deadlift:  4 x 4  at 30 pounds
  • Bent over barbell row:  4 x 4 at 75 pounds
  • 1 arm overhead dumbbell squat: 4 x 4  at 15/30 pounds
  • Incline dumbbell bench press:  4 x 4  at 25 pounds
  • Planks:  3 x 2 minute holds
  • Reverse wood chop:  4 x 4 at 50 pounds
  • Leg matrix

John arrived just as I was finishing the matrix and I had to get on the bike for bagels!   This workout took me an hour to do, which I don’t like – too long!

That was a tiring ride after that.  Need to rethink bike rides after the matrix LOL  (maybe I won’t be doing the matrix much in the future.  It’s not my favorite).

Had some delicious coffee and a bagel which I could barely wait to nosh on as I was so hungry!

bagel

So good.  I love eating after a workout because it is so satisfying!

It started to rain on us as we left.  That was no fun.  I don’t mind running in the rain, but when biking the rain blows into my face and is irritating.  It wasn’t heavy rain, so we just continued on to home.  My legs were filthy from a dusty backsplash.

Gotta get a lot of work done early. Talk to you later!

Question:  Do you own Tupperware?

NROLW and chewy oatmeal bar recipe

Preworkout snack was 1/2 a homemade chewy oat bar.  Recipe at the bottom of the page:

bar

Another chilly morning!  I biked to the gym today, and I think it felt colder today than yesterday, although that might be because I was wearing less layers since the gym is only a couple miles away.

New Rules – Stage 5 workout B:

  • Deadlift/bent over row:  4 x 4  at 75 pounds
  • Single-leg partial squats:  4 x 4
  • Wide grip lat pulldown:  4 x 4 at 70 pounds
  • Back extension:  4 x 4  at 100 pounds
  • YTWL:  4 x 4 at 10 pounds
  • Crunches, reverse crunches, lateral flexion:  3 x 10
  • Prone cobra:  3 x 2 minute holds

I am so loving these workouts!  I feel so strong.  I kind of feel like it is my secret superpower.  I can walk around at 5’2″ and seem small, but inside I know I can kick someone’s ass if I need to!  Just let someone try to mess with me.   😀  I might try making a video of a couple of these moves, if I get the nerve to put my form out for review!

Yummy oats for breakfast.  Warm oatmeal is even better on a cold morning!  This bowl was a small banana and cocoa powder cooked in topped with peanut butter.

oats

Work, work, work!  Reveling in winning the football picks yesterday – that means John has to take me out to dinner this week of my choice!  😀

Ended up eating a huge lunch, I was really hungry today.  Have you tried the Food Should Taste Good brand chips?  You absolutely must!  The Sweet Potato ones are my very favorite.    Served with a yummy pear, cucumbers and tuna with lemon pepper.

tunalunch

This kept me full for quite a while (but not so full that I didn’t enjoy my afternoon latte!).

Dinner was one of my standards of grilled chicken.  Yesterday we stopped by the smokehouse and stocked up on meat.  I love shopping there because the meats sold there are from smaller local farms:

smokehouse

The prices are quite good, too.  Sometimes much better than what is at the grocery store, and it’s nice to know you are supporting a local farmer.  It’s worth it to us to go 7 miles to buy meat.

So, part of that ended up on the dinner plate.

chicken

Plus my usual beverage of choice:

polar

After dinner I went for a walk around the track while John did his 5K run.  Here he is whizzing by me!

jrun

1 year ago, John started running.  He did his first 5K in around 45 minutes.  Tonight’s 5K was 26:45 !! He is awesome.  John started really working on weight loss this year and has lost over 30 pounds.  He is 7 pounds from goal and I am so proud of him!

Chewy Granola Bar recipe:

Adapted from this recipe

  • 2 cups ]rolled oats
  • 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/2 cup wheat germ
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 cup ground flax seeds
  • 1 cup Rice Krispie cereal
  • 60 grams protein powder
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 teaspoons molasses
  • 1-1/2 cups natural applesauce
  • 1/2   cup cinnamon chips
  • Preheat oven to 350 F
  • Line a 13.9 pan with parchment paper (or spray with nonstick spray)
  • In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients (except cinnamon chips) and stir to combine.
  • In a separate bowl, mix together all wet ingredients.
  • Add wet mixture to dry and stir until dry ingredients are incorporated.  Add the cinnamon chips.
  • Press mixture into the 13×9 pan evenly.
  • Bake for 30 minutes until the top is lightly browned.
  • Cut into bars while still warm.

Cut into 15 bars, they are about 200 calories each.  These are actually quite good, although they are missing some crunch.  I think I would add nuts next time.  I was trying to reduce the calories, so I left out nuts and added Rice Krispies instead, but they didn’t hold their crunch.  This is a good starting base to play with, I think.

NROLW and funny search terms

Short post today.  It’s the start of my weekend.  Need to keep up the good work.  Challengers – stay strong, halfway through the month now!

Little kitten made it through the night.  He is getting bottle fed now:

kitten

Good news, though – I was able to find someone who fosters kittens to take him!  She works through a shelter and will be able to get him neutered and shots and all that before adoption.  I spent a good portion of my day off trying to home the sweet thing.  I feel so much better now.  He will be going away tomorrow morning.  I have gotten a little attached to him, though.  I think I have the word ‘sucker’ tattooed on my forehead.

So, back at the gym this morning.  I actually did workout A, but when I did wordless Wednesday, I didn’t post the workout that day, so here it is:

  • Barbell deadlift/row:  4 x 4  at 75 pounds
  • Partial single leg squat:  4 x 4
  • Wide grip lat pulldown:  4 x 4  at 70 pounds
  • Back extension:  4 x 4  at 90 pounds
  • YTWL:  4 x 4  at 10 pounds (Yeah!)
  • Swiss ball crunch, reverse crunch, lateral flexion:  3 x 10
  • Prone cobra:  3 x 2 minute holds

Just so you don’t get bored 😀

Came back to protein pancakes.

pancakes

I have maybe a pound or so of my Winney’s blueberries left.  Ahhhhh!!!  I was trying to figure out how many pounds of fresh blueberries I ate this season.  John cracked that it was half of the GDP.  He’s hilarious, isn’t he??  I think it probably has to be around 20 pounds!  Better than 20 pounds of cookies, though.

I got *the* biggest kick out of this.  I was looking through where people come from to get to my blog.  This has to be the funniest search string:  “Chinese Girls Kickboxing movies big smooth legs”  Can someone please tell me why my site comes up #1 for this????   😀  Hope they found what they were looking for ROFL!

Not much exciting on the eats front, so I’ll just sign off for the night.  Talk to you all tomorrow!

NROLW and losapalooza.

Hello everyone!  Back to lifting!

lifter

Started with a preworkout snack:

kbarNo more of these for preworkout fuel.  They are just too weeny.

Today started stage 5 of New Rules of Lifting:

  • 1-arm dumbbell snatch:  4 x 4 at 25 pounds
  • Single leg dumbbell dead lift:  4 x 4 at 30 pounds
  • Bent over barbell row:  4 x 4 at 75 pounds!
  • Incline dumbbell bench press:  4 x 4 at 25 pounds
  • Overhead dumbbell squat:  4 x 4  with 15/30 dumbbells
  • Plank:  3 times with 2 minute holds
  • Reverse woodchop:  4 x 4  at 50 pounds
  • Body weight matrix (it’s back!!) 3 sets

Holy crow.  I went ahead and did 4 sets on most everything, as the  recommendation was 3-4 sets.  Less reps, more weight.  I tried to use 30# dumbbells for the incline press, but I couldn’t quite push them up, so I had to back down. I can’t seem to get past 25# dumbbells on these.  I think I need the barbell for stability and will try that.  The body weight matrix – I forgot how freaking hard that is!  My legs were shaking so much after I got done that I nixed any treadmill walking, since I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to bike home!  Phew.  I am thinking my legs may dictate tomorrow’s workout 😀

I was ravenous when I got home and had  a genius idea!  Chocolate protein pancakes with banana/PB2 topping:

cakes

Pancakes were 1/3 cup oats, 1/3 cup cottage cheese, 1 egg, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1 teaspoon cocoa powder.  Blended in the Magic Bullet.

Topping:  1 serving of PB2 mixed with an extra teaspoon of water and then I mashed a small banana into it.  Tres delicious!  Really ripe bananas are best for this.

On a side note: Here is a link to the Apple Crisp recipe from the other night:  I had left out the nuts and the lemon juice.  I also used a couple teaspoons of tapioca with the apples just to make sure it wasn’t watery.  Not sure if you really need that or not.

I am very pleased with how I ate yesterday.  Pretty much on plan, plus I got in some exercise.  Normally Sundays are my rest days, but I rested Saturday instead.  Maybe that was the difference?  I don’t know.  Should have a good report for the challenge tomorrow!

Kind of a leftover day eating wise.  Dinner was some of the clam chowder from the other day.  Just as good ‘aged!’  With some delicious strawberries.  Isn’t it funny how some boxes of strawberries are divine and others are blah?

dinner

Went for a walk after dinner to hopefully keep my legs from being too sore tomorrow, but I think that might have been an exercise in futility.  My hope was to do a run/bike brick, but not sure if my legs will be able to make it!

Came back to dessert:

crisp

1/4 cup of plain lowfat yogurt and 1/4 cup of apple crisp.  Yum!

Check out this site for September 15th, everyone!  http://loseapalooza.com/

For every accepted mention or acknowledgment of “Lose For Good” made on September 15 via blogs, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, Weight Watchers will make an additional donation to feed children and families who need it for just one day of social media activity.  So do it and tell your friends!!

Challengers, we will be checking in tomorrow!