The 80's Want Their Chips Back

This week is going pretty good so far.  Two days down, five to go.  Yesterday I hit the gym after work and rode 25 minutes on the upright bike, level 8.  It was a challenge, my legs were burning at times.  I thought I had legs/shoulders/core afterward but when I finished I opened my workout log to see it was back/biceps/core - Yay!  My legs were happy to be mostly done with their part.

I was a bit pressed for time but it felt like happy hour at the gym.  It wasn't too crowded but there were a lot of regulars there that I've gotten to know some and everyone seemed chatty.  Or maybe it was me.  Anyway, I spent a few minutes trying to talk a new-ish runner into the Kaiser half-marathon.  I don't think he was going for it but maybe in the future.  Later he was chatting with this super-fit woman I'm always trying not to stare at.  So I introduced myself to her and told her how much I admire how fit she is, "You made my day" she tells me...nice!  She's a mom of two and her muscles are all, "Bam!".  Lisa, don't want to forget her name.  And then another guy (a more hard core lifter type guy) commented on my workout log, "those are good for the beginning."  I explained how this has been a post-baby comeback but that I was strength training before too, not so much a newbie anymore as I am neurotic.  That and I can't remember all my exercises having three different body routines and two core routines. 

Then he asked if I switch things up regularly.  Busted.  No, not nearly enough.  I do the same exercises week after week, month after month, until I'm sick of them.  Then I meet with a trainer, or find something online, to mix things up.  Since we were talking I asked him if he had any idea why my quads are not getting stronger.  I've been lifting 35 pounds on the leg extension machine since I re-started back in July 2011.  After some trouble-shooting he concluded I need to strengthen my hamstrings more. 

He showed me an exercise which is basically like using a  leg curl machine but with a dumbbell.  You lie face down on a bench and then lift up a dumbbell between your feet and curl your legs up.  Straighten your legs and that's one rep.  I liked it, especially because I feel really cool while I'm doing it, which always helps the mojo.  So I'm going to add this to my leg routine.  At first I thought I should drop the Swiss ball hamstring roll I do but I don't want to lose the gains I've made so I think I'll drop that down to 2 sets and then add 2 sets of these.  That's an overall increase of 1 set so maybe I'll drop something else - like the Plie squats or the side lunges - because my leg/shoulder day is already too packed.

So I wrapped up my exercise with some good stretching before rushing home.  Ate a quick dinner and then back out the door for grocery shopping. Somewhere along the way I started craving ice cream and potato chips.  I decided to get one of those single serving ice creams (thank you to whoever decided to start selling those!) and picked a Skinny Cow chocolate fudge.  But that didn't address the chip craving.  At the checkout I ended up grabbing some Funyuns - yep, the onion flavored chips that I associate with the 80's for some reason.  It's been years since I've had them and was feeling curious.  I started eating them on the way home and thought, "yep, should have left these in the 80's" and made a plan to dump the rest when I got home.  But after eating my ice cream (which had a "diet food" flavor and was disappointing) I went back to the chips and ate them all.  Ugh.  Should have dumped them, I actually didn't enjoy them all that much.  Nothing worse than wasting calories on mediocre food.  What I should have done was get a full calorie ice cream and skipped the chips altogether.  Next time. 

By the way, I blame this whole fiasco on my super low weight of yesterday morning.  I hopped on the scale and for some unexplained reason I was 140.8 pounds.  Huh?  Eat too much, skimp on exercise and lose weight?  Whatever.  Just goes to show that the scale doesn't know the whole story.  But I think that low number made me feel entitled to indulge.  Which is not generally the way I like to operate.  Besides, I "indulged" on crappy food I didn't enjoy, double whammy. 

Today will be better.  No chips, no ice cream, just a good clean eating day with a little running thrown in for good measure.  I think the training plan calls for a 4-miler.  Yes sir, I'm on it!