melissatwa's Journal, 16 Aug 20

As they say in soccer, "GOOOOOOOOOAL!" 👏💙 

Thank you, dear Lonnie!  

⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️ 

Thanks, sk! Last week my 7 day average was a shred under goal. First time all summer. I'm working out really hard, so I'm pretty sure my bf has dipped a bit. 😁  

Perfect! 

Thanks, Chris, Ireland, and Petra!!! ♥️ 

Incredible!! So happy for you, Melissa! Are you getting a lot of use out of the bench? I keep hesitating on buying one for our home. 

Zero to go with a blue status line... Champ!!! 

Oh, and nice drop too!!! 

Thanks, newnameMM! I very much like the bench specifically for back exercises, hip thrusts, and bench presses. If you have the room, it is super nice. The one Chris is loaning us resides in our front room surrounded by weights. But... With covid we aren't really having guests, and no one in the family minds the clutter.  

Thank you so much, John! I am learning, I am closer to feeling stable than I have since reaching "goal." I'm starting to up my calories to accommodate my activity a little, and I'm still hanging pretty close to goal most of the time. I'll be up for sure tomorrow, since we splurged and had pizza today, but I'm less concerned than before and I won't panic from the inevitable water gain! 😁  

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 

Melissa, thanks for the feedback, love. 💖 That sounds great. I’m hoping a bench will improve my range of core exercises too. There’s only so much you can do on the floor. And true.. we’ll probably need to move a couple of things around to make space for it that it’s out of reach of the twinkies. All their stuff is slowly taking over our apartment, so I need to reorganize. 

Thank you, Eva! 😁 NewnameMM, if I could suggest something, I would honestly focus more on getting heavier weights... Like big old dumbbells that allow you to do deadlifts and squats before getting a bench. It is wondeful, but the compound lifts you can do with heaver weight it probably even more important. As a result of suggestions by Chris and Diablo from long ago, I have not done many "core specific" exercises but worked very hard on compound work that uses my core constantly. Yesterday I measured my waist at 28.5, so it really is working. The Only core specific work out I do is a v-sit with bicycle pedaling.  

Ah, thanks so much, Melissa and Chris! That’s so helpful. And a kettlebell will definitely be less of a headache than a new bench.. The heaviest weights we have are 9 pounders 😬 How heavy should I go? I’ve gotten much stronger since February and my back has been behaving, so I think I’m ready for those compound exercises. Very excited to try new stuff and I so appreciate all the advice from you guys. 🥰 

Mine are 50 pound each. But each plate is just five pounds. So with the bar you can have 15 to start. Having the flexibility to change the weight as you get stronger is prefect! Look up goblet squats! You just use one of the dumbbells! They are awesome! 😁