Suprise Yourself!

It's the wet, cool Monday after a very busy weekend and I've probably drunk too much wine and eaten too much in general, and gone to be at 3 am for the past 3 nights. So, moving on auto-pilot, I get myself gym-attired, pack my stuff and my son's stuff and drive him off to the first day of summer camp, and then myself off to... well, what'd you think?

I'm a slug as I get onto the cardio equipment but iPods are wonderful devices and pretty soon I'm bopping along with my eyes closed, my hoodie flopping over my face and a big grin on my face. I tell myself that it's Monday so if I don't quite make it to 5 miles, well, that's okay. And the display reads 5.07 miles and I'm pretty damn happy. Shape.com has their free June music download available and 3 out of 5 are pretty darn good.

My elbow and shoulder are a bit achy so even though I'd like to push heavy today, I decide to ease off. I pyramid up my bench press on the Smith machine (12 reps at 95, 12 reps at 115 and 12 reps at 135 lbs) but my right thumb and wrist ping oddly even with the elbow braces on so I settle for the one good full set and then pyramid down without much resting in between. 115 feels a bit heavy but I muscle through a full 15 reps, and go for 25 reps at 95 lbs. The bar is ridiculously light so I move my hands further apart than shoulder's-width and get another 25 reps just for a stretch.

Trying kicking the side bars lightly.

To give my upper body time to recuperate, I do abs (torso twists) and then to the cage to stretch and kick. That's almost a cardio workout in itself if you do it quick enough for enough reps. Shoulders are next and even though I can get 6 sets of 12-15 reps, I'm not convinced that I can handle more than the 15 lb dumbbells. Perhaps next time I'll add those magnetic disc weights. If only someone could tell me how much weight they actually add.

I haven't done decline benching in a while but the bench is occupied. I'm not interested enough to ask him about the bench so I do triceps instead, warming up with a quick set of dumbbell extensions with 15 lbs. The tricep push-down station is vacant and it already has the right angled bar on it. I'm game! 3 sets of 12 reps at 40 lbs is enough for me. I do 4 sets of 25 reps of inclined situps while holding a 10 lb weight to my chest. I've already done the twisting situps and lower ab kick-outs.

B tells me that she's leaving because she's been here since 7:30 am, and 4 hours is definitely enough. Then she tells me that I'd better not be losing more weight. I scoff at her and tell her that I'm wearing old clothes that are too big, which is true. She says, "But you don't see what we see." I go into the locker room and look at myself in the mirror.

Well, my pants are too big, yes it's true. The butt is all wrinkly and flat because it's too damn big. Because it's a medium and I don't wear medium anymore. I'm under 5 feet tall, so yeah, medium's gonna be too big. Jeez! But loose clothes are definitely comfy! I'm not a skin-tight lycra girl. I just can't do it — too damn self-conscious! I get on the scale and it reads a reassuring 108 lbs. Standard Monday weight after a piggy weekend.

I bought new, smaller workout clothes at Marshall's last week. I suppose I should start wearing them.