@lynn I have definitely resorted to coffee prior to a workout before! Usually when I'm feeling that blah about a workout it's because I'm having PMS so I tell myself the feeling is temporary and I'll feel better after having worked out. @leahtalbot96 never tried Zumba, though I have a cousin who is an instructor and loves it. I was raised Southern Baptist and thus have zero dancing skills, lol. @FarmingMomma Congrats on a huge accomplishment! @soror I'm glad you are feeling some improvement and getting your labs done! Yesterday I did a HIIT workout in the morning and then CKD class in the afternoon. Today is lifting in the morning and then 2 hours of whatever handyman/housecleaner/landscaper work my parents need me to do (I include it as exercise because dang I think that exhausts me more than any of the rest!). I'm starting to really feel the black belt test looming over the horizon. My son and I got a stripe toward our last color belt test (brown senior) which will be March 20th. The lady who usually works out next to me who is a current brown senior is taking her BB test next Friday. Our private lessons with the chief instructor leading up to BB should start pretty soon after our brown senior test. Currently I am not nervous so much as looking forward to seeing this huge journey I've been on for 2 1/2 years take its next leap forward. Yesterday was the Grandmaster Choi's birthday and the international CKD office put up a pretty neat (short) video interviewing him. Since CKD is not a very well known martial art and since it's pretty rare to actually get to hear a living MA grandmaster speak about an art he developed, I thought I'd share the link if anyone is interested. He lives near Atlanta now where the CKD headquarters are and hopefully when my son and I get to be instructors we will get to meet him. Wow, that's a lot of rambling. Happy active day, everybody!

@Laura Corin Glad you enjoyed your new workout program! Such a good feeling to start on a new challenge!

I love a fresh, new month thread! Trying to start March off right by food prepping, resting, and relaxing. I rested Saturday and today from exercise...I've just been under so much stress that I didn't think the additional stress of working out was what I needed. Today has been great though. Early grocery shopping trip followed by a morning in the kitchen. I baked up a big butternut squash and mashed it up, washed and cut up salad stuff, cooked a pot of farro, made a batch of turkey burgers, and stuck chili fixin's in the crockpot. All that plus a few big pyrex containers full of cut up veggies and fruit should help me get a good jump on healthy eating for the week. Feeling pretty rested and relaxed after chilling all afternoon watching a movie with my husband (the boys are with their dad). I tasted the farro and WOW I love the flavor and texture. I've been doing grain bowls for breakfast lately (so far just with brown rice since I didn't have anything else), heated with almond milk, pumpkin puree or mashed banana, spices, and a little peanut butter. I think the farro will be amazing in it. I bought some quinoa too and will try some salad/grain bowls with it later in the week. Goals for March: --continue to settle in to maintenance mode...I have so far succeeded in weaning myself off calorie counting and am doing pretty good using the Lean Habits (except not snacking, ha!) I have been eating when I'm hungry and quitting when I'm not and I feel good about it right now. I guess I'm still skewed a little toward low calorie density foods because I was down another 2 lbs this morning to 133. I'm gonna just keep weighing daily over the next month or so and see how things go. Energy and performance are the goals from here through the black belt test! Happy to report that I haven't had any hypoglycemia issues lately. --be consistent with my workout plan, which involves lifting 3x a week, plus one morning of CKD drill, one of HIIT, and one of running intervals, then CKD classes 3 nights a week as usual. During March I will not be doing my weight lifting as a circuit with cardio intervals in between. I got enough cardio going on! Just straight sets. --still working on getting 5x3 pull ups. I can get 5, 4, 2, or 5, 3, 3, but so far no 5x3. --sleep and stress management as always. --getting better at spinning kicks, sparring, and air shield multi-opponent attacks. January and February were extremely stressful months for me, but fitness-wise I had improved weight lifting numbers and better cardio endurance. Gotta focus on that bright side! I really love hearing all the interesting stuff everyone is doing and eating every day. 🙂 Time to eat! We're having chili on baked potatoes with a side of roasted green beans. *drool*

@FarmingMomma wow, you rock! That is a lot of activity! @Laura Corin yay, it sounds like things are falling into place! Very exciting! Also, I came across a recipe site that I thought you might like: Running on Real Food. It's vegan only, but the recipes reminded me of you for some reason. I love good recipe sites. @soror I hope you got some sleep last night and will feel better today. Thinking of you! Not much to report over here, just doing the usual stuff that y'all can probably recite from memory by this point, lol. Oh, I did notice in class last night that my spinning kicks have improved, thankfully. I'm not getting nearly as dizzy after a whole set, plus balance, targeting, and power are better. Now I just need to be able to work them in to the actual flow of sparring and air shield attacks... Hope everyone has a relaxing, restfully productive Saturday.

@soror *big hugs*

Decently active day yesterday... I lifted weights in the morning. Day 1 of my new training cycle and I felt pretty happy about exercise selection and the weights/sets/reps I was working with. After lunch I worked at my parents, both housework and outdoor chores. Food stuff seems to be going well. I was glad to see this morning that I've maintained at 135 without calorie counting or going hungry. Today I'm planning on running intervals, since I'm a wimp and that's the only thing I want to do when it's 32 degrees out there (feel free to laugh, @wintermom lol!). Then there's CKD tonight.

So, I'd like to experiment with whole grains other than oats (my GI tract doesn't take kindly to the soluble fiber in oats and barley, apparently). What do y'all like (farro, millet, quinoa, etc) and how do y'all cook and use them?

@wintermom Way to go on the pull ups! I don't use the word empowering a lot because it's so overused, but truly, accomplishing a pull-up is very empowering.

@Laura Corin YAY that's awesome!! @soror That breakfast needs to get in my belly pronto.

@soror I'm sorry you are feeling crappy. I hope your mood brightens and the day goes well for you! @Laura Corin Heck, I want to buy your house now! Sounds so nice.

@FarmingMomma You are rocking that Obsession program! That's some discipline, following through the whole thing like that, way to go!

@wintermom Ice chopping! You kill me with your winter activities!!! 🤣 @Laura Corin Sounds like things are heating up on the house front! Very exciting! @soror Yay for jury duty being cancelled, that's a relief I bet. I'm sorry about your sleep. I appreciate the continual encouragement about my eating stuff too. It helps me negate my own not-always-so-nice self talk! Have had a very stressful 24 hours (having aging parents is no walk in the park!) and generally feeling headachy and ugh. But my CKD drill workout was productive this morning and eating has been pretty good. Last night during class, we did a lot of quick-reaction type exercises that really emphasized how much I do need to practice being relaxed while CKD-ing. Looking forward to weight lifting in the morning...as long as my area is dry. The rain is just to the point of being ridiculous! There was a 2 hour break in the rain this morning and I immediately canceled homeschool and booted the boys outside, dramatically yelling, "play! Play while you can!!!" Hoping to unwind and de-stress tonight. Tension has settled in my shoulders and it's pretty uncomfortable.

@Monica_in_Switzerland Glad you are better! And yay for steady weight loss! Good work! @wintermom Yeah, the attacking and sparring parts of martial arts practice are def the hardest on the body. I have to space out punching bag or air shield attacks like you do with skate skiing cause a little goes a long way, like you said! My lower neck/shoulder/upper back get very sore and tense. One of my goals for CKD is to become more relaxed in general and let the mechanics of the movements generate power rather than trying to hulk through it, plus relaxing mentally during sparring. I think this will help a lot. @soror How annoying about your progesterone this month, though I'm glad you got some sleep. I hope your jury duty is short-lived...I've never ever been called for some reason but I can't imagine the extended sitting and waiting would be very enjoyable. My HIIT workout was pretty great yesterday. I did 40 sec on, 20 off, 8 rounds each of jump rope, kettlebell swings, and punching bag. It's the first time I ever structured a workout like that and I felt like it was effective and interesting. I had about 10 mins left to play with after so I went for a short run. The swings were the hardest--I skipped 2 rounds in the middle. CKD last night was kind of meh in terms of intensity...but since it was because we have several new students, I'm good with it! CKD is my social outlet and I love it when we get new people. I'm still pondering over the Lean Habits stuff. Just because I can't follow the no snacks habit doesn't mean I want to discard the rest. I would really really like the be able to develop the skill of eating just enough. Last night, we were having a supper that I particularly like and, despite the fact that I "heard" my body say, ok, you're good now, I cleaned my plate anyways. Of course I felt like I had rocks in my tummy during class after, ugh. When I slip up, it is tempting to go back to the security of calorie counting/deficit eating, but I am determined to improve my relationship with food/maintain weight and energy without that. I have lifting on the schedule this morning, but it has been raining. Hopefully my gym area is still dry. It's supposed to storm all day, so that will probably be my only heavy activity today. My sons are hoping the power will go out so they can spend the day doing Legos by lantern light, lol.

Lifting wasn't that great yesterday (hello, cycle day 1 blues...) but I enjoyed the rest of my day. Today I will do some HIIT work (kb swing, jump rope, and punching bag intervals), then CKD tonight.

@Laura Corin and @FarmingMomma way to go, ladies! @soror, I hope you enjoyed your gym sesh! @wintermom I def chose to run instead of lift or drill CKD because I knew it would be the most pleasant option in the cold. My nose ran so much, though! I needed a nose diaper. Very active day for me yesterday, one that would have completely wiped me out a year or so ago! I did my run, about 45 mins, did housework, then went to my parents' and raked up and hauled away what felt like every oak leaf that has ever fallen on the face of creation. The leaf pile was about a zillion miles away from the place where I was raking, haha. Lotsa trips with the wheelbarrow. My raking muscles are a little sore this morning, but otherwise I'm feeling pretty good. Today I am planning to lift weights after an early morning grocery delivery to my parents. I will probably spend a little time washing and prepping veggies for the next few days and doing a some baking (I'm trying to perfect my ciabatta rolls) before my movie date with my husband. This is my last week of my current weight training cycle, so I need to finalize what I'm doing for my next one. Happy Sunday, everybody!

A Fitness Haiku In the cold and wind I ran. My nose did as well. Why, Florida? Why?!

So I have a confession-- I went out to exercise, felt the cold wind in my face, and turned around to go right back inside! UGH. I could not even. Another confession... I don't think I can do the 3 meals a day, no snacking thing. I have been getting so horribly hungry between lunch and supper and somehow I can't tweak my lunch to make it last. Oh well. Not sure exactly what direction I need to go in nutrition-wise except that I want to maintain my weight, keep away hypoglycemia, and have relatively stable energy. Guess I'll just keep at what I was doing and try to find a happy place.

Did a 45 min session of running intervals yesterday morning, then worked at my parents doing a variety of handyman and landscaping jobs. I didn't think any one thing I did was that exhausting, but I was certainly worn out by evening. Y'all will be proud of me--I learned to fill the boys' 4-wheelers with gas and use the big compressor to put air in the tires. I am not scared by much with regard to nature or people, but I'm not big on messing around with machines, gas, electricity, etc. Seriously, I was terrified by the shop vac until I was in middle school, lol. This morning I am planning on practicing my spinning kicks and probably run through patterns and speed drills. I have noticed that my CKD classes have taken on a format where there is a specific focus each week (technique, patterns & speed drills, sparring & air shield attacks, mock test) so that can give my home practice some structure if I go over the stuff the instructors aren't focusing on. Starting today, winter is coming back for a last hurrah, so I'm going to really take advantage of my time in my outdoor home gym this morning...tomorrow morning I will probably wimp out!

Well this is all good stuff, yay! It's so great when you get to see daily practice pay off. I'm glad the massage is working too! I still have some lack of stability in the foot/ankle that I had plantar fasciitis in last year and am using a unilateral strength training movement called one legged Romanian deadlift to self-rehab it. Hopefully I will have success as well so I'm not stuck with that forever either.

Class last night was so awesome that I couldn't wait to get on here to write about it, haha. For one thing, it was very fast-paced and high intensity, which I always like. Half sparring, half air shield attacks like Monday night. But I have been having difficulty with a few different things, and just a few well-worded insights from one of the instructors made some things click into place in my head. One of the fixes was really simple, the other 2 will only take a couple of home practice sessions to put into muscle memory. I love it when those kind of breakthroughs happen! Interestingly, the instructor that helped me was one that I don't normally jive with all that well. We have communication issues, or our senses of humor don't get each other, or something. But he really spoke to me in just the right way last night. Soooo, while I am mentally revved up to work out against this morning (lifting is on the schedule), unfortunately I am pretty tight and sore from running and class. I may do bodyweight circuits or maybe take my rest day. I reckon I'll see as my body wakes up.

For sure, I wouldn't mess around with it if you're feeling good and it's working!

@soror I'm sorry you are under the weather! Hope it ends soon. @Laura Corin I would be way too self-conscious to work out in my undies! Go you! Lifting was great yesterday, as was my morning 45 mins of running intervals. CKD tonight. Day 3 of practicing Lean Habits...I'm kind of cheating by doing Habits 1 and 2 concurrently, but eating 3x a day def makes me experience real hunger for 30-60 mins prior to my next meal, so both are being accomplished. Still no hypoglycemia symptoms, which is great. I am not going to weigh myself until after my period but I am interested to see if I will have maintained. PMS is making me feel spacey and uncoordinated (I dropped every measuring utensil while making bread this morning, for reals) so I'm not expecting much of myself in class tonight except to sweat and socialize!

I definitely realized yesterday that a lot of the unpleasant feelings I get between meals are hypoglycemia stuff, not actual hunger. Yesterday it was no hypoglycemia feelings, just tummy growling (actual hunger). So that in itself is interesting.

I almost didn't even read the first chapter of the book since it was about no snacking, but I did and it really gave me a lot of interesting ideas to work through. Meal size and frequency was on my radar as something I wanted to work on, because I have not been to pleased about how reliant I am on it. My blood sugar often tanks about a half hour before my AM snack, lunch, and PM snack, which causes me to feel irritable, cold, and anxious. The Lean Habits chapter says, with a lot of explanation that made sense to me, that eating 3-4 meals a day can help hypoglycemic metabolisms become more resilient and switch from carb-burning to fat-burning more easily. She definitely says that intense exercise means that you might need 4 meals a day instead of 3, but eating 5 or 6 small meals a day means your body is constantly in carb-burning state, prone to crashes, and doesn't go through the optimal hormonal cycles. According to her, it will not take long for the body to adapt, so I figure I might as well try it since it won't be a drawn out experiment. I'm not like, YES THIS IS THE ANSWER, more like, this has been something I want to fix, let's experiment. The other issue is that eating small meals burns up a ton of my willpower. Volume eating is my jam. Eating 3/4 c of greek yogurt at 9:30 makes me want to top it off with a grilled cheese sammich and maybe several handfuls of grapes. I don't, but it takes up a lot of willpower to stop eating when it's a small amount even though I know objectively that it's the right amount of fuel and I will eat again in 3 hrs. Yesterday I basically redistributed my normal food into 3 meals at 6am, 12, and 5pm. I was definitely hungry for those meals but didn't overdo it or have hypoglycemia symptoms. I'm going to monitor my weight and energy while I try this out...I'm totally open to doing 4 meals a day, upping the total amount of food, or scrapping the whole experiment completely. I can tell, though, that this habit, plus the Eat Just Enough one, will be the hardest. Most of the others I don't have issues with on the regular. We shall see how it goes!

CKD last night was really fun and fast paced, with half of it sparring and half timed bouts of hitting the air shield. At the end, I did 3 mins against two opponents holding air shields, which is the scenario I'll face in the black belt test. I think this makes maybe the 3rd time I've done it, so now I'm feeling pretty confident I won't get gassed during that part of the test unless I panic and quit breathing (which used to happen a TON). By the end of the class, my son was actually visibly tired (which NEVER HAPPENS) so that tells you something! Lifting this morning, yay! When I enter my next training cycle in about a week and a half, I'm trying to decide if I still want to structure it circuit-style, with intervals of kb swings or jump rope between each set, or not. I like it, but it does tire me out and I seem to be doing plenty of cardio otherwise. I'm leaning toward not doing it for this 6-week block for the sake of mental and physical variety. I am learning to think about training cycles and longevity in lifting instead of being focused on creating The Perfect Program, so that's positive. Not much else on my plate today physically--I'll be visiting my parents this afternoon and my mom's to-do list isn't outdoor type stuff. Probably for the best, because we've had like 3 days of cloudy, sticky-hot weather that's just been miserable. I just checked and it is going to be 83 today and is currently 99% humidity. Y'all come to Florida, now, you hear?! Lol.