comments, assorted. :)

Katie P., about the side lunges in Shred: I don't know if this will help you, but a trick I use (because they never felt right to me either) is to look towards the foot of your strengthened leg - as if you were a dancer emphasizing the move by a pointed glance down (sounds weird, but that's how I think of it). I don't know why that works for me, but ever since I started doing that, the move started feeling right instead of all wrong.

And congrats on moving to heavier weights throughout! Love it when that happens.

(btw, isn't it funny that as you get fitter, you use heavier weights on most things, but a small amount of weight during those all-important body weight exercises?)

Most despised household chores . . . I don't like the bathtub either, because ours is a plastic composite that never looks clean. But I tell myself I just have to clean it, I don't have to make it look clean, and then I feel better about it. Actually, a lot of the ones I like least, Adam does, just like I do a lot of the ones he likes least. Gotta love marriage! :)

Katie J: glad you're getting the high of being stronger - I know that since I started the Shred, going up and downstairs isn't a big deal. I mean, it wasn't a horrible deal before, but now it's not even much harder than walking down the hall, you know? It's a small thing, but you notice. 

Kelly, I'm sorry about your back. I hope it gets better soon!

Kelly and Yolanda: I'm a different shape too, after having kids. I'm in better shape, weirdly (I think having kids forced me to get disciplined in my personal life - it was that or go under), but it's not the same shape.  I'll take it though. 

I really like St. Francis' way of calling his body "brother ass." Lewis talked about it: the body is a beast of burden, stubborn yet loveable. You don't expect magnificence from it, but you just can't hate it either. You use it, you take care of it, and you feel some affection for it. I think my affection for my body has, I don't know, deepened?, since bearing and nursing children. It's proven a more useful donkey than I ever would have thought. I can't hate something that's done its job so faithfully, even if it looks a bit funny now. :)

Yolanda, RE expectations: I've actually kept track of my weight over a couple of years, and so I guess I think about my fitness in a longer stretch than just a few weeks, and that helps a lot. I actually graphed my weight once (nerd!), and it was really interesting to see what a bumpy line it was. But (this was post-pregnancy) the general drift was down and then steady, and that works for me. I think enjoying the fairly-immediate increase in endurance and strength, and looking for a slower, slightly-bumpy-but-consistent drift in the direction I want to go is how I balance my expectations. 

And Adam found the remote! Yay! I can do the Shred again!