Blissful Ignorance

111.2 lbs today. Getting there!

I'm not sure that I'm easily overwhelmed, but every now and then I find myself blinking in the headlights of oncoming traffic. Not literally, but emotionally when it comes to economics and morality. Recycling is a major sore point. Our town collects recycling once a week, but that is limited to newspaper, unfinished cardboard and a limited selection of plastics. And glass and aluminum.

The town doesn't want to recycle plastic bags although every shop provides them. The supermarket chains have special bins just to collect them. The town recycling company complains that the bags and other film plastics jam their sorting machines. Everything else gets put in the trash, which is no longer carted to a dump. Instead, I'm guessing, it gets sold by the ton to foreign countries for them to pick through. Tons of it winds up in the ocean. It breaks my heart to hear about sea turtles dying of starvation because they've ingested plastic bags, mistaking them for sea jellies, a favorite food. I toss all my bags into the recycling container instead of the trash because I can't be responsible for sea turtles starving to death!

I use my "reusable" shopping bags when I can, but eventually they get filthy and worn. Some things are best wrapped in plastic, like meat you want to keep separate from your produce! The freshly misted kale goes into a plastic produce bag. As do most of all the other veggies and fruits. Only melons, pineapples and bananas get to ride loose in the cart!

Not that it really matters. When I used to commute into NYC, I'd routinely separate the recyclables from trash. The train platforms had one huge bin with three cutouts: newspaper, bottles (plastic and/or glass), trash. One day I noticed a worker emptying the bins and putting fresh bags inside the bins. And he just mixed all the recyclables and trash together into one big trash can. Uh, so what was the point to having separate receptacles? Was it just to make us all feel virtuous, while in reality doing nothing?

All the conservation funds are great at asking you for donations, especially at the end of the year. I'm sure they do admirable rescue work, and important conservation lobbying. But I'd rather see towns do real recycling instead of paying it mere lip-service. The constant barrage of messages implying that we all have a personal responsibility for the planet, means that I have to turn off my moral compass every time I want to toss something in the trash. It's making me feel two steps from becoming a hoarder, where everything might have a use one of these days as long as it's not labeled garbage! 

For a while I tried bringing back all my empty glass and plastic bottles to the supermarket to get the nickel deposits back. It does add up! But my hubs buys beer at so many different places that it's impossible to return everything in one trip. Eventually, I let him concede to forfeit the deposit even though he hates the idea of NYS keeping money they're not entitled to. Well, at least I can toss all the beer bottles into the recycling bin!

I get to the gym and it's just at that perfect time when the morning people have gone, and the lunch crowd hasn't arrived yet. However, all the cross-trainers are in use except the one closest to the front door. It's 27F and I don't want to feel the chill every time someone enters or exits. Instead, I do 30 minutes on the elliptical, followed by hammer grip pull ups and my basic core work. My left elbow is not at all happy today. I think one set of pull ups might suffice.

How to do a Muscle-Up

Whacking the machine yesterday has left me tired and a bit sore today. It's not a bad thing. The Smith is free but I'm not psyched for flat benching. Instead, I do a few sets of inclined benching. Even the bar feels heavy! Not a good sign. I've been playing with the idea of trying to do a muscle-up at the Smith one of these days. But not today. DB laterals also feel awfully heavy because 25 lbs is awfully heavy. I might have to drop back to 20 lbs for this move and just use 25s for the Reverse Inclined Flyes. I'm just happy I could do three sets of Rip Skulls and not drop anything on my head! I see Little R and Big Mustache and a few other sporadic regulars. The Mayor has been scarce this week. I don't miss him or that pervasive screeching voice.

The BlueTooth earbuds appear to be fully powered today, but they don't block the sound as well as my earplug earbuds, and they don't sound as good as the Sony MDR-J20s. It's bad when you can hear the two ladies on the ellipticals adjacent to yours, and they're not screaming at each other. I like it when there's no one around. I don't come for the social atmosphere, unlike B, who was wearing eye make-up last time I saw her at the gym. Well, she can't possibly be getting sweaty is all I think.

Thursday

30 min elliptical
Program 1
Miles 2.57
Calories 291

HGPU 31
Knee-Ins 50
Push Ups 100
Crunches 3 x 50
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Side Planks 2 x 60s

Smith Inclined Bench
Bar x 12
12 x 50, 70, 80
90 lbs x 8
25 reps x 60 lbs

DB Lat s/s Rev Inc Flyers
25 lbs x 12/15 x 3

Rip Skulls
40 lbs x 12 x 3