Bleary Monday Blues

I won't lie. We ate like hogs the entire weekend, and not just leftovers from our own turkey and stuffing dinner. Yesterday we drove up to Poughkeepsie to visit a showroom (Fitness Showrooms) with the intention of trying out and buying an elliptical for home use. I was armed with printouts from an elliptical review website. I wanted to check out the Smooth Agile DMT X2 which got high ratings, just under the Precor EFX 5.25. I love the Precors at the gym but we didn't want to drive to White Plains where a competing showroom (Leisure Fitness) features that brand. However, when we got there, it was evident that Life Fitness was their main brand. They didn't have any Smooth Agile ellipticals whatsoever.

They did have a Precor EFX 5.25 for me to try. And after several hours of discussion and hopping between machines to try them all out, I finally settled on a Vision Fitness S7100, a brand I'd never heard of before. It actually scored decently on the aforementioned website. It's cheaper than the Life Fitness models (some of them were commercial models that cost about $5000). It's cheaper than the Precor 5.25, and I have to say that I was disappointed in the Precor. Not just the antiquated dot-matrix display, but the motion was a bit gritty. Since Fitness Showrooms no longer carries Precors, the store manager was selling his floor model. He'd cut me a good deal if I really wanted that particular one, but that was just it: it would be that particular one, with the gritty feel and horrid display. No thanks! I'll use the Precors at the gym, and for home use, we'll use the Vision S7100.

Then we went across the street to eat a late lunch/early dinner at a place we'd never heard of before: Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse. It was wonderfully Disneyesque from the talking moose and buffalo heads to the antler chandeliers and snoeshoe decor. And the food was actually pretty good! My prime rib was perfectly rare. My husband's NY strip steak was lovely. Sweet potato fries came dusted with cinnamon sugar which it didn't need but it was tasty. The Onion & Ale soup was refreshing and cheesy. We were too stuffed to even consider dessert. My son had his fill of macaroni & cheese, and chicken tenders, which were actually tender. A big plus considering the major disappointment we had at our local Four Brothers Restaurant, which used to know how to cook a decent prime rib, and now sadly can't tell the difference between medium-rare and medium-well done.

I was a bit surprised that there was no one at all on the ellipticals at the gym this morning. I did my 45 minutes, barely busted a sweat and got 4.97 miles on hill #5. The Smith looked busy so I did Cage stretches and kicks. When I returned to the Smith, the 45-lb plates were still on the bar and no one was around, so I unracked them and took over. I hate it when people just walk away without putting their weights back.

Over the weekend, I discovered a great weight-lifting website chock full of useful information called www.muscleandstrength.com. Okay, it's a tad condescending to women (since women aren't their main audience) but all the articles are fairly useful and detailed, and reinforced a lot of my training beliefs and practices.

Today's Total Workout:
45 min cardio #5 hill = 4.97 miles
Cage stretch & kicks
Smith Bench Press: 12 @ bar / 12 @ 95 / 3 x 10 @ 145 lbs / 12 @ 125 / 12 @ 105 / 25 @ 95 lbs
  (this is actually feeling easier even though I still can't finish a 12-rep set)
Flat Bench Twisting Sit Ups: about 100
Dumbbell Front & Lateral Raises: 3 x 12 @ 20 lbs
Lateral Raises: 3 x 12 @ 20 lbs
Rear Inclined Seated Raises: 5 x 15 @ 20 lbs (I'm probably over-working these muscles and should cut back either on reps or sets but I haven't decided which yet)
One-Arm Tricep Dumbbell Extensions: 3 x 12 @ 20 lbs
Lower Ab Kickouts: about 125
Tricep Press Downs: 12 @ 40 / 3 x 12-10 @ 50 lbs (now I know why my right side cramped up a few weeks ago -- I feel my right obliques contract to stabilized me as I press heavy!)
Mat Stretch (no Twisted Triangle today!)

I see R and after I'm mostly done with my workout, I say Hi to him and ask him about his Thanksgiving. He's all chatty and tells me about the four helpings of dinner and two helpings of homemade cheesecake and pumpkin pie because he's got a sweet tooth. Then we start talking about dogs and next thing you know, it's 15 minutes gone by. He's able to workout while he's chatting so I'm a tad envious about that. I can barely collect my gear while I'm chatting with anyone. Eventually we just wander off to different stations and I'm relieved because I still need to do Lower Abs and Triceps.

The scale reads 112 lbs. Same as last Monday! I'm not as worried about my weight as I am about the fact that my pants fit me differently now. Suddenly, my butt and thighs are tight in my pants although (thankgoodness) the waist is still loose. Must be those squats and dead lifts kicking in finally. I'm not sure how I feel about it. On one hand, it's great not to have a super saggy butt (like an old elephant). On the other hand, I don't really like my pants so tight in the butt and thighs. I guess I got that elliptical just in time so I can do some extra cardio now to trim these babies down!

The home scale reads 109.2 lbs which seems very reasonable. My BF is up though and my TBW is down, and I scratch my head puzzled because muscle and bone are also up. Whatever. It's how your clothes fit that really counts. And mine are getting too tight. Sigh.