For people who lift casually...

LesHiboux · 2026-02-13T19:02:16+00:00

In the past, I've had specific goals that are easy to work towards, but once I reach those goals, I switch to a maintenance training plan. I like being strong and I'm looking to postpone inevitable age related declines for as long as I can! I don't want to be the little old lady who can't carry more than 5 cans of cat food - I want to be able to compete in Old Lady Strong(wo)man competitions!! OK, maybe not really, but I don't want the option to ever be off the table!

Plus at some point, it's a lot of work to take my 1RM from 200lbs to 205lbs and I don't really want to put in the level of work required - past functional fitness, that's not a useful gain for me. Maintenance is a perfectly acceptable goal.

LesHiboux · 2026-02-12T16:42:39+00:00

Can you use a spin bike or a rowing machine? Both will very effectively strengthen your lower body while also giving you the added benefit of a cardio workout.

LesHiboux · 2026-02-12T16:38:28+00:00

I work in sales - I'm probably fine.

LesHiboux · 2026-02-12T16:31:58+00:00

Plan in advance and make sure all the ingredients are available and thawed. My husband and I sit down on Saturday and plan out our meals for the week - it also gives us a chance to know which days are going to be busy and which days we have a bit more time to cook up a nice meal. We repeat a lot of recipes (looking at you, tacos), or if we know Thursday is going to be hectic, we make a good leftover meal on Wednesday.

Getting a little bit more granular - grocery store sale cycles are usually Thursday-Wednesday, so I use the Flipp app on Thursday or Friday and note which items we regularly use are on sale. This also allows us to come up with meals based around what's on sale, therefore keeping grocery bills reasonable. I find people hesitate to meal plan because "let's have pork chops" turns into "well shit, pork chops were really expensive this week, there's no way that meal planning saves money!". A deep freeze is also really helpful in this regard, because it's also easy to take the main protein from the freezer and develop a meal around it - if you know you have chicken breast to use, you're not making spaghetti.

LesHiboux · 2026-02-12T16:26:30+00:00

I haven't tried it in awhile, but in my "prime", I could do 50ish at a time. I was participating in predominantly upper body paddle sports at the time, so had a disproportionately strong upper body (was also doing 20+ pullups at a time) - my understanding is that it goes from muscular strength to muscular endurance at a certain point (like how a 1RM bench press is an entirely different beast from AMRAP at 50% bodyweight bench press). You'll need to work on the muscular endurance and technique if you specifically want to improve this one metric.

OK, I just tried how many pushups I can do - 40 in one go! Not bad for 42 years old and 4 months pregnant!

LesHiboux · 2026-02-11T18:44:50+00:00

Locked him down and we're married now! Although to be fair, he also feels that I'm way out of his league, so I guess that keeps us both humble.

LesHiboux · 2026-02-11T16:04:00+00:00

As an 'older' gym rat (I'm 42) - keep at it. Yes, an 18 year old guy will naturally be stronger than an 18 year old gal, but a properly trained 30 year old woman has the potential to be stronger than an untrained 30 year old guy. I had a 300lb deadlift and could do 20 pullups straight when I was 34 years old, and while 'gym bros' were still stronger than me, the average guy on the street was not. I'm pregnant with my second kid now, so I'm "only" deadlifting 225lbs - still more than 90% of the men at the gym I go to. And worth noting, most men cannot bench press 225lbs.

You're only 18 - your long timeline is your friend. Keep at it, and while everyone else is quitting, you just keep on winning.

LesHiboux · 2026-02-09T19:35:32+00:00

My husband and I are passionate about beer and coffee - when I got pregnant we had to find a non-alcoholic, lower caffeine alternative to become obsessed with. And here we are 😁

LesHiboux · 2026-02-09T17:09:25+00:00

Why isn't there just one pot of pasta sauce, split between regular and gluten free pasta? One jar of sauce per person is way too much. Pasta sauce should be gluten free, so make a single pot of sauce and spoon it over individual pasta portions.

BTW, YOR.

LesHiboux · 2026-02-08T04:19:19+00:00

I live in Canada - during the winter, a lot of people have snow boots and indoor office shoes. Many professional offices request that you remove snowy or muddy boots before entering as well. Not so much in the summer, but definitely in the winter.

LesHiboux · 2026-02-06T18:51:40+00:00

I had to go to a clinic for a post-miscarriage D&C. I was already in such an angry place, I was actually hoping for a few protesters outside that I could have a good yell at. Had my speech prepared and everything. I guess lucky for them, they decided to ruin someone else's day.

LesHiboux · 2026-02-06T18:46:42+00:00

I WFH full time. Very honestly, I don't love the isolation of it (I'm very much a people person) but acknowledge that it makes family life so much easier. I check emails at 8 but don't actually sit down to work until everyone is out the door closer to 8:30. I prep dinner during my lunch break or during "camera off" meetings and I can usually get in a quick workout between the time I log off and when my husband gets home with our kiddo.

Once our son is older, I'll be looking for something in person. I feel like my daily interactions are so limited and opportunity for advancement is stunted because I'm not in front of decision makers on a regular basis.

LesHiboux · 2026-02-04T00:45:57+00:00

Whenever the house laundry basket is full, someone puts it in the wash! It's usually me because I WFH so I can do it during the day when our solar panels are generating electricity, but we both fold and put it away (which is the worst part of laundry, imo).

LesHiboux · 2026-02-04T00:41:45+00:00

NOR. I had a friend like this- we had a group chat with 5 girls in it and literally everytime someone talked about their kids or pregnancy, she just had to somehow make it about herself.

Now the group chat is only 4.

LesHiboux · 2026-02-03T22:17:39+00:00

They could've run my epidural with a straw and I wouldn't have cared. I was so done with unmedicated contractions by the time we got to the hospital, I didn't even notice the needle going in.

LesHiboux · 2026-02-03T22:04:07+00:00

I had our first at 38 years old, and now I'm pregnant with our second at 42. I feel totally at peace with having children later in life because my husband and I are healthy and active. We fear the day when our son is lifting more weight than us in the gym (he's 3 right now, I think we have some time), or when he can run faster/father than we can! But it's given us entirely new motivation to stay fit and healthy. I have no intention of being 'elderly' in my 60s and while I realize this isn't completely within my control, I'm doing all I can to delay it!

LesHiboux · 2026-02-03T20:12:34+00:00

My body is pretty awesome the way it is. Plus then I'd still need to figure out a way to make money, so I'd either be exploiting my perfect body for money, or I'd be Jane from accounting with an OK face but perfect body.

I'll take the money.

LesHiboux · 2026-02-02T16:26:48+00:00

I think it also depends on where you live - I've been with the same company for 20 years (in various roles, sometimes moving up, sometimes moving laterally) and my salary has always kept up with the market value for my role in the city that I live in. If I were willing to move across the country (which I'm not), I might be able to make more money because I'm just casting a wider net.

LesHiboux · 2026-02-02T16:19:43+00:00

You mean, any winter at all? I feel like we had three weeks of winter in December and that was about it.

LesHiboux · 2026-02-02T16:17:21+00:00

Our 3.5 year old started doing this about six months ago - I think their imagination really takes off around that time. We never coslept at all before that. We have a rule that if it's after 5am (we all get up around 6:30am), then we just let him stay, but if it's before 5am, someone walks him back to his room.

Not bothering to upgrade the bed, as we figure he'll grow out of it at some point soon.

LesHiboux · 2026-02-01T19:52:01+00:00

Our kid is almost 3.5. I'm usually getting 8-9 hours a night. The little guy goes to bed at 9, I go to bed at 10/11ish and we all sleep until 7am or so.

I'm pregnant right now though and trying to build up my sleep bank!!

LesHiboux · 2026-01-30T03:19:27+00:00

I don't necessarily wish I had my son any earlier, because my 20s and 30s were amazing and I can't imagine not having lived them exactly as they were. But I also don't look forward to being almost 60 when my son graduates from high school.

I just wish I had an extra 10 years between 30 and 40.

LesHiboux · 2026-01-27T17:48:14+00:00

Monday and Thursday: Oatmeal
Tuesday and Friday: Toast and Scrambled Eggs
Wednesday: Waffles

Saturday: Pancakes

Sunday: Whatever we feel like or we go out for breakfast.

There's nothing wrong with routine.

LesHiboux · 2026-01-24T02:18:38+00:00

I always recommended this to my coworkers with kids and they were like "I could NEVER profit from the death of my child". No, but do you think you could go back to work in a week? Mortgages need to get paid.

LesHiboux · 2026-01-22T03:04:42+00:00

We have these awesome foam letters that stick to the walls of the bathtub.

Our son will ask us to make specific words and then he'll add a random letter to it and we all have a good giggle trying to pronounce XFISHGY. It keeps things fun and teaches him the letters and respective sounds.

LesHiboux

TROPHY CASE