Last week I got in all my strength training sessions (4) and 1 HIIT session. I did my (short) daily walks. I did not get to kickboxing or do sprints. My hip is still bothering me a fair amount and we had a busy week. I just wasn't up to it. I did 2 hours of open play at the obstacle course yesterday and it was a lot of fun. It is a nice one because there are plenty of things I can't do or are hard for me so it is a challenge. I was an idiot and wore shorts and got some rope burn coming down off the rope climb. You try not to slide but going down is still rough. There was also one obstacle with pipes that beat the crap out of my legs. However, I ripped my right hand open pretty badly. I was doing the peg wall. You have to move the pegs across the wall which requires hanging on one peg and pulling out the other to move it. I made it half-way across and was very pleased. I didn't even feel my hands until I got down and looked at them. I have callouses but they couldn't hold up to that much friction. I'm hoping she makes the open gyms a regular occurrence and I can get my hands healed up to start working on my hangs more to build up stronger hands. My period is due any minute and my body is a bit beat up so I took it pretty easy today focusing on bodyweight strength- squats, lunges, planks, push-ups. I'll probably stick to bodyweight work this week, depending on when my period shows up and how rough it is. I might do a bootcamp class tonight. It is supposed to be legs, so I think I can survive. My legs have some brusing and abrasions but they aren't really sore.

Workouts this week have been meh. My hip hasn't been 100% and I'm just feeling blah. I had one night of terrible sleep (in large part b/c my hip was hurting) I'm doing the best I can. Some weeks are like that. Mon- upper body/ Tues- lower body/ Wed- HIIT/ Thurs- Full Body Tonight is supposed to be kickboxing.

I'm sorry for the busy week. We have wysteria we planted at the base of our deck and it has climbed all the way up our posts and covered the top of our pergola. I love the shade it provides. Mine doesn't flower as much as @bookbard's. I have another wysteria on a trellis in a flower bed out front and it has gone crazy. I love the bright spring colors. I'm happy to hear you are feeling better.

I live a couple of hours from Vision Library but go up there to bring anything I can't easily sell. I've brought books up there a few times. I've been pleased with the experience. TBH I can't remember their protocol for donating books. It was spelled out to me. I just don't remember the details. I didn't have any reason to believe that they didn't do what they said they were going to do.

@Harriet Vane Happy Anniversary! What a lovely weekend. @Ali in OR transitions are hard and you have two going on with back to school and remodeling. Best wishes getting it sorted. @wintermom I'm glad to hear you are feeling better. The flowers are lovely. @Eos it is unfortunately much easier to fall out of habits than into them. Good for you for being on top of it, instead of letting it slide. ----------------------------------------- Friday and Saturday were both rest days- I just did walking and mobility. By Friday evening my hip was absolutely killing me. I couldn't move without pain. I finally gave in and took a bunch of ibuprofen. It was somewhat better Sat morning and I did a slow walk to work out the kinks. It progressively got better as the day went and I wasn't too bad at all this morning. I was able to do a modified workout this morning. I think it was a combo of too much driving time and moving a heavy piece of furniture. I got a bench! When I went to pick it up he just gave it to me. It was dirty but otherwise fine. I found some plates on Marketplace yesterday for a good price. I have enough weights for the barbell to last me for a while. I'm still looking for a squat rack because I'd like to have one but I can be patient and wait for a good deal. I found a nice price on one this morning but it had already sold. My sleep has been pretty decent lately. I'm having some off days but overall I can't complain. This week's plans (assuming my hip continues to be ok): We aim for daily walks and hit that most days. I only missed Friday last week. I try to do twice a day several days. I'm doing mobilty when I think of it sprinkled throughout the day and more on rest days. Sun: lower body strength- quad focused Mon: upper body strength- shoulders focused Tuesday: lower body strength- glute and hamstring focused Wed: HIIT Thurs: Full body strength + PM kickboxing Sprints -Friday or Saturday

That's smart to prepare! Have a wonderful time! Kickboxing was good last night. Got my HR up decently could have been somewhat harder to me. (Except core which was brutal) No HIIT this am I'm too short in time. I've got to change my schedule to do rest day on Fridays. We have to leave early for co-op and it's too tight.

Welcome @Ginevra fingers crossed your back is recovered. Sometimes it is a quick recovery with a little tweak. Ya, don't forget the bar in that counting that should be at least 35# if not 45#! @wintermom that sounds right up your alley. I'm sure it was a great time. Yesterday was a rest day for me. I did some mobility a short walk in the morning and a short walk in the evening. During the day we went to the river/creek with the nature group for the last water day of the year. Tuesday was upper body strength and sprints (finally got to them). Today is full body strength. Lunges, rdl's, squats, presses, pullovers, some burpees sprinkled in for "fun" and finishing off with core. Dd2 and I are planning to do kickboxing this evening but I'm waiting to hear if she's old enough to attend. The teacher is a black belt and helped judge some of dd's TKD testings. Tomorrow is HIIT. I might try to hit a workout class in the evening if I can make it work for my schedule(tomorrow is supposed to be fun day at the gym and I want to play on the obstacles to prep for the spring race). We were going to try and backpack this weekend but it is supposed to rain and I don't want to backpack in the rain (besides the fact the kids have a ton of stuff to do and I don't know if I could make it work). I think I found a bench for my home gym! I'm going to look today. I'm excited to have a bench for hip thrusts. I have a barbell now but without a chair in the basement, it has been hard to use for thrusts. ( I was just using db's with a living room chair upstairs but needed heavier). This one has a rack for bench press too so I can do that instead of chest press, with db's. Dh has been using my weights a bit so I think he'll get use out of it too but I'm going to have to get more weights. Food has been going well. I'm slowly working off my stress weight. I'm trying to keep the protein and strength training up to keep the muscle loss to a minimum. Anyway-- I've got to get with it and stop procastinating!

I find that I actually push myself too hard in classes and feel icky. I'm a bit competitive. I have to watch it. I'd love a VO2 max test but I don't know anywhere locally that does one. I'm curious about Max HR too. I'm 45 and the current max I've hit is 213. I regularly hit 180-190s just lifting weights. Generally those are lower body days where I hit higher. These are slow and controlled lifts. It's not the speed that is putting my HR up. I think the big difference of the SIT vs the HIIT Tabata style is you are supposed to be pushing harder with SIT. It is supposed to be so hard you need the longer recovery ur instead of a Tabata 20 sec on/10 off it is like 15-30 seconds in full tilt with 1.5-3 min recovery. She talks about HIT too but SIT us a bit different. I'm trying to get back into SIT. I couldn't do anything at all high intensity with my injury. I started back HIIT workouts a few month ago and have done fine. I planned to start with SiT in August but had a family emergency and heaps of stress and didn't.so, the plan is this Wednesday ! https://www.facebook.com/100044268557701/posts/1079324933553115/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

We regularly use credit cards and pay them off but have no other debt. We have excellent credit scores. We haven't had car loan in over 20 years. We paid off the house over 10 years ago. We had no trouble securing a low interest heloc for a house project a few years ago. We paid it off in about 18 months.

That's why I said it doesn't matter UNLESS the full amount is set aside in savings. I'm not certain from the OP that the amount of the loan will be in a savings account. For my peace of mind, I want the emergency fund and little to no debt (unless it is unavoidable or a true need).

I'd only consider it good debt if it was an appreciating asset and a car is not an appreciating asset. I don't want car loans, especially 2 at one time. The fact that the interest rate on the loan is lower wouldn't matter to me unless I had the full amount of the loan in savings (and could pay it off at any time). I'm also in the camp what would happen in an emergency? My biggest aversion to debt is having our expenses as low as possible so if something does happen we can survive on less. I'd ideally not want any loans. If that wasn't possible I'd want to pay off the first loan before getting a second car or keep the first one and save up to buy the second one with cash. But I don't believe that new cars are ever a necessity.

4 days of strength work this week/ 1 day of HIIT/ 1 class at Boot Camp (sadly was upper body I was hoping for another HIIT session). Short walks every day.

I was thinking I read for women new to strength training gaining 1 lb of muscle per month might be attainable but for those already strength training .5 lb a month was more typical. I was thinking that was in pre-menopausal women. I wonder if the difference between the upper and lower has to do with where you carry your weight?

(hugs) I'm just in my mid-40s but I can already see this play out over and over again. If you don't use it, you lose it. Many people can get by with unhealthy habits without too many ill effects when they are younger, but it catches up to you quickly as you age. Then you have people like you that do everything right but still have to fight harder to keep your fitness. I see people even my age starting to go downhill if they don't take care of themselves. I'm coming back from terrible sciatica last year. Just now 1.5 years later can exercise like before. I've gained some weight and lost muscle. I'm trying to push the weights hard, eat lots of protein, and maintain a bit of deficit to get the weight down.

That is neat info. I know one of the gyms does some scan but I'm not sure what. I'm very familiar with Sims' work and have tried to follow her recommendations for several years. A big part is diet, along with the exercise changes. From what Ive read I think the muscle goals are a bit lofty for that time frame, for your age. Although, working towards that goal will only be good for you. I'm trying to remember the details I read on muscle growth. I can't remember if that is in that Sims' book. She also has another book, it's not menopause specific but still has plenty of good info for all ages.

I love this genre too, although I've not ready any recently. I'm following for rec's. I can't think of any off the top of my head that haven't already been listed.

I worked outside yesterday for 5 hours. Today I did upper body strength for 45 minutes. We're hoping to do some hiking or other activity today since it is a holiday and the weather is cooling off. I'm ready to have some time enjoying the outdoors and not working on the weekends. We have about 1 more weekend's worth of work I'd like to get done sometime this fall but mostly I hope we can relax and camp and hike and enjoy the weather.

I missed your post @Faith-manor are you back now? It sounds like a lovely time. I think you should sign up for the class. YOu are getting more hours than you planned so who knows you might make it to 1000. ----------------------- I finished August with 743 hours/93 hr 10 minutes for the month. I didn't think I was going to make my goal of 90 hours after a rough and stressful beginning but pulled it off. I'm hoping to get some camping soon. We've had some cooler days and the upcoming forecast is in the 80s. I'd like to get a few weekend trips and a longer trip to the Smokies. I'm not sure if we'll do tent or cabin for that trip.

Thanks, Laura! I'm sorry to hear your knee is still bothering but happy that you have found an activity you can do. ---------------------------- This month the plan is 4 strength training sessions a week/1 HIIT/1 shorter - sprint training session. I'll hit a class here and there when I can. Keeping on with food. Today- lower body workout- squats and many varieties of lunges + some work outside and probably at least a little walk

Aha, bodies are weird sometimes. Best wishes for healing. I survived my HIIT. Tabatha style so it was tough and for my HR up. I slowed down but didn't quit!

Oh, grr, do you know what you did? Did I miss that? ------------------------------- Yesterday was lower body plus short am walk and shorter pm walk. Today HIIT- probably the hardest I've done since coming back from my injury. Then a walk - probably fairly short as we're going to the river today and have limited time.

@wintermom best wishes for your recovery despite your efforts to derail it 🙂 @Ali in OR I'm sorry about the rough night. You have my sympathy. ------------------------- I started my period, ya! Last night I was much more restful. I hope that is a sign that this cycle will be a better one. It's hard to say how much was stress last one. I did lower body yesterday morning + 1 mile walk in the am and 2 miles in the PM Today- upper body strength + 1.5 mi am walk and probably another one at some point Mobility sprinkled here and there and I'll probably do a short yoga with dd2.

I have the book Run Fast, cook FAst, Eat Slow which has some nice recipes and there are random ones on her FB page. I'm glad to hear you are looking at your training schedule. I was a bit worried that it was a bit heavy on the SS cardio and might be better for you if tweaked. I'd also look at your pre-workout and fuel during your longer trainings if you are not already. It is very hard to find good dr's. (hugs) It sounds like at least your coach is informed and that is great. Fwiw Dr. Sims was on the Huberman podcast not that long ago and I think that she a well distilling down the information on there. It might be worth a listen for you. lunch idea breakfast idea

I'm looking for one for my nearly 15 year old. She tried 2 different types of pills and both made her mood issues significantly worse. The help from the Ped gyn at the very prestigious Children's Hosptial was, "we can just keep trying different ones to see what helps". They throw hormones without actually testing what is going on with the body. I put my older daughter on them for period and mood issues and they helped her so I went ahead and tried them for dd as the various things we tried did not help and I had trouble finding another doctor. BC pills have known side-effects a mile long. I do not feel laissez-faire about prescribing them for anyone, especially kids but think that they can be fine for some. Personally, depo and birth control pills both caused mood and other issues for me and I was dismissed that basically I was just a woman and being moody was normal. We know depression (and other issues) can be a side effect. I don't know why we pretend it isn't.

I'm so sorry. We still have so far to go with healthcare for women. I'm glad you are familiar with her work as there is not a lot of women-specific research out there. BTW she posted a few high-protein ideas lately on her page if you've not already seen them- one is a lunch bowl and the other overnight oats with yogurt for breakfast. A few thoughts, that are maybe off base, are you getting sufficient carbs for your activity level? Whole grains and legumes have decent amounts of protein. I assume you've looked at the training plans for menopausal women in Next Level to balance out the cardio/strength/mobilty and looked at what your doing vs how much- ie more is not always better. I wholeheartedly agree we need strength training and some impact for our bone health. It doesn't matter what we do as women too many doctors will find a way to dismiss and our concerns. (hugs)