The Tuesday After...

I went to the Bronx Zoo yesterday with my son's first grade class and it was a lot of fun. Not only was it a blisteringly hot day with enough clouds to threaten rain, but several other schools were on their annual outing as well. Still, it was fun and we got to ride the Monorail, visit the Reptile House, see tigers, peacocks, camels, assorted rodents and experience the Butterfly House (not quite as personal as Rainbow's End Butterfly Farm) with its huge variety of beautiful fluttering wings.

As I loaded my gym bag into the car, I kept thinking about how much I didn't really feel like working out. Three days of being a slug was starting to feel attractive. Nevertheless, with everything set on auto-pilot, I drive the familiar route to the gym, stow my stuff in a locker and get my iPod plugged in. Nothing like a routine to force you to do the things you should.

45 min later, I've got 4.91 miles, a soaked hoodie and I'm eyeing the vacant Smith machine. I only get 11 reps at 135 lbs, basically because I start to doubt myself on the 10th rep. I get 3 sets, always faltering at the 11th rep. I've gotta stop playing mind games with myself. The ab stations are full so I go stretch and throw out side kicks at the stretch cage, then come back to the weight area to do shoulders: delts. Standard 3 front dumbbell raises supersetting with lateral raises. I really need to either add weight or something. 15 lbs is getting too easy and I'm not sure I really want to do more than 15 reps per set. I do 3 more sets of lateral raises then 5 sets of rear inclined seated raises. Yup. I've got to up the weights or something.

After abs, I go back and do Declines benching but only get 2 sets of 12 reps at 95 lbs. My elbows are sore and I've been sporting the Golfer Elbow brace like a big mourning band. But since everything else I'm wearing is black, well, I figure it just sort of blends right in. I don't do triceps, toying with the idea of doing pushups later on, but I don't do those either.

I'm thinking tomorrow I'll do Back and Legs on Thurs, and perhaps see how an Arm Day (bi's and tri's) feels for Friday. It's not a routine I'm used to but this is a short week and if you're feeling bored, the best thing to do is to change the routine. The scale reads 107.2 which is what I expected. I psyche myself to go to the local Marshall's because I really need to get some inexpensive gym clothes that fit. My sport bras are all too big now so I'm afraid to bend over! I like my pants loose but apparently that's not how sport pants are suppose to fit. Que sera...

Some people think I don't eat which is so not true. Some people think I eat like a hog all the time and never put on weight, which is also soooo not true. The whole point is to change your lifestyle to include enough exercise (cardio to burn calories and hopefully fat, weight lifting to build muscle to increase strength, and metabolism) so that you can eat like a human being (and not a rabbit) and still maintain an attractive size. That means eating in moderation most of the time. It's not a diet. It's a way of life so it has to be "sustainable". Everything else is fantasy.