It's that time again. Please let us know how your BFL week went. I hope it was better this week for some of you that were going through a rough spot last week.
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This was week two for me and it rocked. My eating habits have really improved since re-dedicating myself to this challenge. I've been pretty much by the book. The only difficulty is that I can't get free-day off my mind. I'm just thinking about it and planning it way to much.

My weight workouts have been great. I'm really happy with the intensity that I'm getting at the gym. My cardio days have been good too, if evil cardio can ever be called good. But the way I figure it is that if I get my butt out of bed and outside running, then I've done good.

Because the weight workouts have been so good, I've been verrrry sore this week. But I know this will get less intense soon as I progress.

In my first two weeks I've shed 4 or 5 pounds to bring me back to where I was at the end of my first challenge. But I know my body fat % is still higher now than it was then. But if things keep going well, I hope to get from about a 24% BF to hopefully about 15% by the end of this challenge. I don't know if that's realistic, but that's what I'm shooting for.

Arnie

Hopefully I will click the right button and send this post as a REPLY not a NEW THREAD, as I seem to be doing lately.

Week one was great...for the most part. My first 2 workouts and cardio days went wonderfully. I was pleased by how well I did with heavy weights and thought my body was handling it well. Also had great eat days and my usual desire to binge during the late evenings went down.

Until today! Woke up feeling dreadful!!!! Yesterday was the last day of my medication for a terrible kidney/bladder infection, and today I had a horrible reaction to the meds. Why the reaction happened after I was done taking the medication, I have no clue. My skin turned bright red feels on fire, my body can hardly move, (and I thought I was sore/stiff before this allergy) my head is pounding, I am dizzy, and feel queasy. Somehow I managed to make it to the gym to do my UBWO, but ended up crying most of the time due to my body's inability to do any of the things I wanted it to. I was unable to do any triceps, and thought my arms would fall off after one set of biceps (I was able to make it through to the high point...though the entire workout felt like one big high point). When I returned home after the workout, I decided to eat some icecream to settle my stomach (which did help, surprisingly). So, I guess today is considered my 'free day'.

In spite of everything, this week went by in a flash, and it feels good to have one down (almost). Already, I see a difference in my leg muscles and have lost 4 lbs. (even though I ate more than I normally do).

Redeemed I hope you're ok. That allergy sounds awful.

Today is my last day on antibiotics and I am so happy. Unfortunately my infection isn't gone so I have some yucky "procedures" and possibly surgery. I'm going on vacation tomorrow and I don't care.

I ate tons of food twice a day to help my stomach and have gotten stronger everyday. I did the weights, no cardio. Switching to free weights is kind of strange. It seems like on the machines I worked only the target muscle and I worked harder,with the free weights other muscles get worked too. Like on squats its doing the back of one leg and my quads on the other leg. Or on the chest or shoulder exercises my arms get worked as well. With the free weights I don't feel like I worked as hard yet my muscles feel harder than ever.

Next week: going to Tuscon. Not sure if about the gym so plan to do lots of hiking and bring my weights.

This was a great week in the gym. First of all, I hit all the workouts! I increased my Squat to 57.5 kg (126.5 lbs), which puts me only 2.5 kg shy of my goal for this Challenge. I think I'll probably be able to do at least 1 rep at goal weight by the end of next week. I also continued to consolidate my improvements in the Bench Press, although it remains to be seen if I'll be able to do 1 rep at 50 kg (121 lbs) by the end of next week.

My cardio continued to improve and I was able to raise all my running speeds on the 20 MAS yet again.

On the diet front, I finally had to do two things...(a) Stop trying to count calories and (b) Stop trying to re-establish ketosis. I was suffering from too much hunger and was starting to get a "binge" mentality on my free day, and I don't think that's a trend I want to encourage. As for the ketosis, because of my travels and general disruption over the past couple of weeks, I wasn't able to get back in quickly--lo and behold, I was able to work much more intensely on the weights, and even on the cardio. So this week I deliberately ate just enough carbs to stay out of ketosis, probably 100 - 150/day. Of course, I paid for it with a few pounds on the scale, but I feel so much better in the gym that I don't care about that. (And besides, I am into clothes that I could only dream about three months ago--just put up a picture in my gallery wearing a pair of jeans that I couldn't even get on before this Challenge.)

This was week 11 for me, and I felt fantastic leaving the gym today and realizing that there's only one more week to go, and that at this point it would take an act of God to keep me from finishing. My confidence has improved immensely--if that were the only benefit of BFL I would be thrilled. But of course, there are many more benefits than that.

Charging towards the final week....

Emily

I did all my workouts this week, which I can't say of some previous weeks where I suddenly had to go abroad and work all hours. I had not exactly been LC-ing the previous week, so I felt great this week in my workouts. I beat my treadmill 5K and upped my weights on the squat.

As I wrote in the serious exercise thread, I finally got what sounds like a sensible diagnosis of my shoulder problem, and the upshot is that I am not to do any weights work with my arms raised much above the shoulder line for a few months, while I do some work to fix the imbalance and instablity lower down at my scapula. So I have had to adapt the workouts somewhat.

I dropped scale weight this week, so weeks of BFL and LC-ing, plus a mini-refeed, seem to have done me good. I might even reach my BFL goal of 161, but even if I don't, I have had some great satisfaction trying on reference clothes etc.

This week I was able to do 2 full LBWOs without (at least so far) adverse consequences to my knees. I was pleased that I was able to pick back up where I left off on the weights. I did my 3 HIIT cardios plus 2 bonus water aerobics classes. I also attended 2 Pilates and 1 yoga class. Whew! Today is my free day and I earned it! I was so hungry this past week, especially the last few days. TOM came and of course that didn't help.

So today I am eating everything in the house! Dd and I made homemade ice cream, and there was some leftover in the bowl that wouldn't fit in the ice cream maker. Dh asked if he could lick the bowl so I asked if he wanted me to pour him a glass. We all ended up drinking a small glass of pre-ice cream. Kids loved it! Of course this was just heavy cream, 1/2 & 1/2, sugar and vanilla. Dh is complaining of a tummy ache...

2 more weeks of this challenge. I must admit I am looking forward to my week off.

Jen

Wow, awesome weeks, everyone! Emily - you look great! I have about two weeks left in my challenge, too, and am actually *gasp* looking forward to my pictures. I've had great strength gains in my lower body, and less impressive ones in the upper. (Emily - I am green with envy over your bench. Next challenge I will have to work harder on UB.)

Still doing cardio splits, and I no longer hate them. They just 'are'. Still struggling a bit to get the lifting in. Food remains rock solid... but where oh where is that oink post. Gosh I need it this week.

Cheers,

Friday

I'm with you, Friday - everyone has had an amazing week! And I'm joining in - again, I made all my workouts, hit lots of 10s, and cardio is getting amazing - I look forward to it so much now. Saturday, I did 35 minutes HIIT on the elliptical and then another 30 minutes on the bike at level 8, and really pushed - felt so amazing after. So I'm in week 6 now, and this morning I put my fresh-washed size 18 jeans on, and they were loose! I've been laughing to myself all morning - BFL if the best thing I've done for myself in a long long time. The end of this week will be my half-way point, and I couldn't be happier with my results.

Have a great week, everyone!

Laura