Jennifer,



You currently have a list of selectable workouts in alpha desc. order.



If you wanted to optimize the display you could make the list put the most commonly used or last 3 (or X) chosen at the top of the generated list.



It would save on the bulk of the scrolling done to hen and peck the individual routine when you have commonality.



Example given was the fact that I have 3-4 routines that repeat, observed over a year, and it would speed up my usage because scrolling to the bottom of the list to pick Weight Training is annoying over time.



If they really wanted to get fancy that list should be modifiable (create/sort/delete--maybe even share) but that's a whole other problem area(s). I'll take small steps any day. ;)



-a

My gym has wifi, I've got an iPhone, love to see an easy way to document while at the gym. 8)

For the last year my routine is nearly the same. Each time I have to select what I am doing requires a lot of scrolling.



Could we get the workout lists sorted by commonly/recently/last used?



Truthfully I use only 3 out of the list commonly.

Ok, I getcha. Glad you stayed with it. Good job on rehabing.



These days I'm just working on basic strength training and starting to pay more attention to my balance again, shaving bf% with lean mass.



I'm 220, was bodybuilding around 275, got married, don't need the work of what it takes to stay that large. Staying relatively strong and as fit as I can is where I'm at. I'll get a 3mi elliptical run and 2mi stairclimb twice a week with a basic free weight or hammerstrength workout.



After this weekend's brake stow issue (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciordia/541473880/) I'm laying low this week with Yoga as my workouts. Too much compaction, whiplash, and soreness to feel like a good weights/running routine is gonna make it feel any better. Careful stretching seems appropriate.

Ah, yea, 18k is a bit faster heart rate due to that O2 loss hah.



I'm a little lost on our goal though. You have an underloaded wing right now, but you gained 15lbs over the off season, which should have made you overloaded...right? You must have had an incredibly light loading on your previous season.



I'm near a 1.1 loading and it's definitely got enough flare. Something to try if you haven't already (and check with your local jumpers for further advice) is pumping your breaks to gain a little more momentum right before you flare. Timing of course is pretty important but it should transfer into forward speed thus giving you that flare in the interim that you're looking forward.



What are you doing currently to get to your weight goal? Protein/mass gain shakes? Any volume training?

Excellent question. We'd probably need a heart rate monitor on to figure it out. I am surprised you're getting a workout under canopy unless you were using risers. The fact that we're active for probably 5hrs or more should be additive but we work fiercely in bursts more often than naught.



What is your wingload?



I'm most under exertion loading up and if I have a long walk back. Our DZ is based around the classic 3 miles of runway triangle and if I put myself deep into a corner I've got a near 2 mile walk back which definitely puts me in a sweat when you've got your pack, your gear in your hand, and a suit on. I try not to do that often but this past weekend with winds shifting I misjudged my legs a bit and ended out in the boonies twice.

Mii too ;o) 4625 2206 6611 3960

If you've got access to a Yoga Ball (or whatever you might call it), some dirt diving with one is helpful.



Drape yourself over it and practice cupping air to slow your descent.



Put your belly on the floor, place your feet against the ball like you are in freefall/rw work and use the ball to remind and build your physioneurology. The resistance you can apply will help you next time you're in freefall.



If you have weight sticks, laying down, place one behind your neck and drape your arms over it like a yolk. First it locks your axis so practicing turns gets more solid. Second if you do this a while then remove the stick, everything feels fantastic. It's like training-clothing.



Got any other tips? I'll keep a look out!



-a

My home DZ is in Chester, SC with the wonderful people at Skydive Carolina.

Share your pics, your stories, your trials, your challenges. The skydiving communities are a fun loving bunch of people.



It takes a lot of discipline and work to execute well so if you are looking for a new avenue to take your personal challenges try Skydiving!

Congratulations on your start!



Cardio is a part of the equation but it is only a fraction of it. Cardio burns a small amount of calories per session and then really stops afterwards. What you want is to create lean body mass that is eating calories every moment of the day. The unfortunate side of growing muscle is that it weighs more than fat, so when you start to grow muscle the scale becomes slower to see the change. Others will chime in and like you have said yourself, your features sizes are changing. The scale is a bad method guidance. Let your features guide your changes, the scale will follow after you've achieved other goals.





* Gain Lean Body Mass

* Get Enough Sleep! You only grow when you sleep! (8-10h)

* Eat right. You should know what is bad and what is good, if not learn. As well learn your metabolic rate so you can understand how to create a caloric deficit.

* Track yourself in 3mo increments. Don't try and look at the pot while it's waiting to boil, you have to understand we adjust over time and it's much easier to see results if you guage in quarters.

* Visualize then Realize. You are what you think.

* Continue Learning!



Much luck to you!



-a

Before each meal drink a glass or two of water. That will help you get full faster. Exert control, you have it, you just might feel uncomfortable using it. Monitor your inflow and just be conscious of what you are doing. Don't shirk the responsibilities you have to yourself for others. Sometimes it is good to be selfish and this is a place where you need to be you. Don't let others override.

Search out vegan on the forums. Ideas have been addressed before, people forget how much fructose is in fruit and that can work against you. It might not be a bad idea to go get a metabolic study done of yourself so you can learn exactly what is required to make a caloric defict.



Don't worry though, progress is made by continuation of trialing out things. Don't give up!

Like anything else learn moderation. I love my ales and darks and will not give them up, but I sure have less of them when I need to be cal conscious. If you need a buzz thats one thing but if you're downing pitchers just because or peer situations you're going to have to learn control at some point. That or accept that you are not and balance the equation by 5 days a week of cardio before anything.



Balance must always be struck, even by indecision or misdecision, you'll still balance..just generally not in the desired way. Know what you're up to and use the one thing you've got in the world, choice.



-a

heheh the dagoba cycle team!

It's just about the foundation that human's are highly adaptable. Our muscles and bodies learn how to do something, then they become specialized at doing that thing. The more specialized they are the more efficient they become the less work it really takes to do them. The first time you did aerobics or ran, or what have you, I bet it hurt like hell and you sweat like a crazy person. After the third month how long can you go, how little effort did it feel like? That's the body doing it's thing.



Luckily the body can be tricked rather easily. Changing the order of your routine, changing the variation or tempo of the exercise can all help stave off the curve and eventual plateau. When to do it though is generally an individual call. Just pay attention to what your body is telling you and as you feel yourself not being challenged start thinking creatively on ways to mix it up. The combinations are nearly limitless and the orders really don't matter. Instead of running go do an aerobic class, instead of an aerobic class do a bike class, instead of bikes jump on the eliptical, etc. For weights pick up a book on exercises you'll find that there are quite a few ways to do the same thing through a different method.



The only thing that order generally matters in weight loss is doing your cardio first. Once you start to form lactic acid through exertion/weights/circuit training your body loses a certain ability to convert fats into energy which means what does get converted is protiens/muscles since they can readily be used. (anyone have a citation for this? I can't find my old bookmark)



Just keep in mind that your body wants to be effective and efficient. If you can keep it guessing or give it something new to learn you'll have to expend more energy until it can adapt further.



GL,



-a

Hehe I'll be there whenever it is. I wish Sony had their head on straight. Every time I look in their direction I feel like they are in a straight jacket in an asylum. The multiple personalities and control issues they have is paining. I think the Wii is going to dominate in breakthrough gaming.



I still wish a console developer would just run open, open up and let people make cool things for your box, the software, extend it, warp it, but be a fertile ground for development. The barrier to entry on these things is so high and the extensibilitiy is just ginormus ( 8) ) in possibilities.



Wiiii on. ;)

Just really think about this one, lower grade meats, bad processing, trans fats, calorically dense, etc. It's just not good for you, not really on any level. You're going to have to overcome this one like a smoker, you can do it. Once you stop though you feel better for it which leads you to have more of a distaste for what they are feeding the cow like public. Don't use them, make a little sandwhich, pack a small meal, keep a piece of fruit or a granola bar with you. We don't use our time efficiently as it is, just prepare a little more for your day and you can not need to feed from their troughs.



You'll be much better for it and it dovetails into any goals you might have about health.



-a

Retin A is what dermatologists will recommend & other Vit E creams.



Retin A works well but you need to be careful about the sun while using it. As well if you have fresh stretch marks if you keep them out of the sun they have a much higher chance of fading out more. Once you go into the sun and tan they will turn silver and be more permanized.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stretch_mark



If you have insurance go see your dermatologist. It'd be an easy visit and maybe some new stuff is on the market since I went.



-a

The link is currently broken and in general (when working) is very slow. Any thoughts of replicating it?



-a

Like my great hypnosis instructor always said; people do it, you are people, you can do it. You can do anything you put your mind to, don't box yourself in with can'ts. If I can do it, you can do it.

The body is a thermodynamic machine. It operates under the principles of averages. The body senses shifts in nutrient and calibrates over time. If you have higher concentrations of food in your system for a while it begins to store more, if you eat less you don't immediately lose the weight, it looks to see a trend and then you see change.



Just think of it as throwing a rock in water, the rock is absorbed and ripples are cast out until equilibrium is reached. The body works in much the same way. Never feel bad for a bad moment, just pay attention to the cumulative effects of the messages you are sending yourself.



Hang in there, the last push is often the hardest but it's very rewarding to cross that finish line.

I remember when this came out and gave it a whirl, hell anything different is worth giving a shot. Nothing wrong with the program, like many. It's just taking compound exercises with short rest intervals and running you through. It'll kick your ass until you adjust to the swing of it all. If you haven't been into weights in over a year I'd ramp into it over the first month.



Document it all and when you find you hit the plateau shift the gears around.



-a

Whatever you do when you break from this diet graduate yourself back to normal over a few weeks. Every single person I've ever seen coming off a high protein low carb diet has bounced back to or above their original weight if they don't create a transition period. You are tricking your body here and if you don't blend the reality of what was and what will be back together it reacts how it wants and it is not how you want.

Thomas, just know that we got here through thousands of years eating off the dirt and killing animals and we're all still here. hehe. In your area there should be small bands of people that still like to buy straight from the farm and like to support local farming, regional traditions, and cultivation. Check out http://www.slowfood.com/ and see if you can find a convivia in your area. Nothing beats buying straight from the farm and just plain knowing where your food came from and how it was treated on the way to your table. Otherwise a lesson I learned a long time ago is take everything as a grain of sand and build a castle you can call home. Nothing is permanent and the tides of truth shift from year to year. Find a place you can call home and live.



-a

Man I haven't thought of bulk/cut/show diets in almost four years. One forgets how much of a machine you treat yourself like. I generally went to liquid/protein shake (proteinfactory.com) diets w/ grilled chicken and cans of tuna, efa/cla/other oils. It was just a gear shift I could enter for 3mos or so, but when you're trying to hit something <4%bf and not lose mass man you really have to dig hard to keep that balance.



I miss the ripped but I certainly don't miss the bipolar dieting hehe.

I second Ron's message. Work on your trunk & obliques. Side bends, situps, roman situps, leg lifts, a good amount of yoga postures.. The stronger your core muscles are the more they will tighten the area. This will not eliminate your handles but will help. Word of warning if you train like a crazy man you can unintentionally make them larger.



Hence why lifestyle shifts are important. A diet is something that is temporary, a lifestyle is forever. Pay attention to what you eat, and if you cheat, at least be honest and document it. The more you pay attention to things the more change you can effect.



Do more verbs



-a

It might be in your interest to get a metabolic study done to see exactly where your metabolism is. We all age a little differently and getting a bead on how you are processing on a general basis might help shape your view of what needs to be done. As well getting a body fat test with a multi(over 3) caliper approach would also help see some of the composition.



You are leaving the days of creating high stress situations to drop weight quickly. You have to take care of what you have and ensure strength for what is coming. Interval mild jogging followed by brisk walking (instead of sprints to jogs) and such might be of help. Continued work on tone always helps. Let your look and musculature guide you and not you're overriding weight. Muscle is much denser than fat and eats a large share of calories. You also don't generally have to worry about getting larger unless you are hitting the gym with the attempt to gain mass. I've trained a number of women and they all have the myth that they are going to grow large if they train with weights. You have little to worry about as your steroid content is low by nature. Any woman you see who has bulked up is either genetically different or taking something. In most cases I'd put women on a larger circuit/weight training than they expect but the results can be phenomenal.



As well as all this Nick has some good points on your diet. Lower the sugar content, increase the protein content. As an aside you'll be full longer.



Lastly keep a journal/log. You don't know where you are going if you don't know where you've been. If you say your consistant but your actions show otherwise.. well it's amazing how subtly we trick ourselves and the only thing that catches it is a record.



Sounds like you're doing great overall though. Keep up the good work and cheers to future progress!

For cardio, morning is easy, for strength training I find morning very difficult. If you need my mind to be as focused as the body, the effort is hard to pull together predawn. My favorite work out times are before lunch or right after work. I think a lot of your scheduling ends up being around where you can fit it most comfortably (if you drive by the gym after work, your more inclined to fit it there..). Plus when you work out later it feels like a new day. If I cram it all in at the beginning of the day I end up dragging tail earlier (generality).

I'm sorry I got turned around and should have known this. I'll be more careful on precoffee commentary ;)