Sara's Stuck Saturday

[taurusmoon]

Apparently Oprah is sleeping in today cause she's sure not whispering any themes in my ear.

So I'll leave you to talk amongst yourselves. No insidious mental exercises today. Unless, of course, someone else wakes up with Oprah in his/her head.

Just make sure to take some time to do something positive today.


Sara
Off to spend half her precious daylight hours in the car

[pluckyduck]

Hey, I could always channel Jerry Springer while Sara's gone! What do you think?

How many of you have had sex with a transvestite while stepping? "Worked out" with your first cousin or half brother? Hmmmmmm?????? ducking chairs being thrown on studio set

Alas and alack, I'm very suburban.

I just swallowed what has become a pharmacy full of vitamins. I'm doing my One a Day. I picked up Dong Quai and Dandellion when Sara was here last weekend. I threw a B complex (I have a reason, I just can't remember what it is at the moment) in and that is three huge horsepills. I needed sudafed for my allergies (fortunately they are tiny) and ibuprofen for my overall achy body. I look like either a health nut or a 82 year old woman, shoving all of that stuff down with my Heart Healthy OJ with a soy milk chaser. :p

One of the diet changes I'm most pleased with is, I've really been able to weave soy into my days. I've done so much reading on this stuff and I think it is the real McCoy, meaning I think it really is beneficial as opposed to a health fad that sweeps in and out. If I get a chance this AM (I'm moving slowly, very slowly), I'm going to dig up the soy thread I started and add some info and some products to it.

I'm still not losing much weight. I can't whine too much about this because I refuse to diet rigorously...honestly, I'm just trying to hold onto my two pounds I lost last week. If I am "even" on Monday, that's a cause to rejoice. (My bloating time of month has begun and I'm praying the dandelion keeps me from swelling up. I need that number on the scale to keep me moving.)

I'm going for another 20K + day today. We'll see. I'm awfully achy.

Oh, my stretching tape....I love, love, love my stretching tape. I'm nagging Don to start doing it. He has a lot of lower back problems and he's actually got the time to do it every day. I don't. , but if I do it a couple more times I should be able to do at least some of the stretches without it, without taking up much time. If anyone is looking to add basic stretches, I really recommend this tape. It is remedial, but I feel so wonderful every time I finish it.

And what are you guys doing today?

Andrea
who realizes she just rambled...house to herself, no one to talk to but a stoned poodle

[cyndilouwhoo]

Well I bought a new bathroom scale...how's that for pithy?

It is one of those scales that displays weight and body fat . If this morning's reading is any indication, I have a long way to go...

Today, I try to motivate myself to get in at least one walk. Tough because it is not a weekday and if this had been a mon-fri kind of day I would have gotten in one walk already.

But I did go out last night and walk for no reason other than I wanted to. For me, to take a walk just for the heck of it is a major accomplishment

[cyndilouwhoo]

And I forgot to mention:



Go Ducks!

Cyndi

[lynnzop[$]]

I'm going shoe shopping

Sara, I've read your Dr.'s shoe column and some other "shoe" stuff, so I think I am ready to have some shoe guy caress my feet whilst telling me which Nike/Adidas/Saucony/New Balance/etc., will make my tootsies feel the best and give me stepping nirvana.

Eeeks, that sounds a little too much like an icky romance novel.

Saturday is usually errand-day; it's pitiful how few steps there actually are in an errand-day when I used to come home feeling like I'd been walking around SOOO much. Since we live so far from anything, I can't even walk to any stores.

Lynn
(Off to outlet-mall land to find the perfect shoe)

[pluckyduck]

Have I told you guys lately how much I you?

Cyndi and Lynn, you crack me up. Tootsies and Feetsies and Shoesies! You make this stuff fun!



Andrea

[quasar]

I think we need to start writing our own booksies a la Seuss

My first meager attempt, off the top of my head so be kind:

I went to the store stepping away
To find shoesies today
And my feetsies felt finesies
In the socksies they stocksies
And the shoesies all bluesies
On my feetsies
On my feetsies
On my feetsies today

Ouch....I should probably just erase that, but it's so bad it'll probably make you chuckle so I won't.

Janice

[taurusmoon]

LOL Janice. Glad you didn't erase that. :thumbs:

I'm back from my Adventures in Outletland. I had to drive 180 miles on Chip's little errand , but I did get some good shopping and stepping in.

I intentionally made my way around the malls (2 of them) very inefficiently so that I could get some exercise walking around them. I done good. To the tune of 5.69 miles. If I could afford to, I'd do this every week.

Sara
Who bought a nifty pair of inclement weather sneakies at the Nike Outlet

[pluckyduck]

Well, sheesh, "everybody" is getting new shoes but me. I promised Don new shoes too and I'm dragging my feet, get it?

My stepping day is going pretty well, still gunning for another 20K day. I'm up to 10K.....although I am getting the urge to lay around and read a book.

The dog will not stop following me around. It is driving me crazy. I was doing Laundry Aerobics which involves going up and down the stairs, up and down the stairs and the drug addled poodle kept getting under my feet.

Then I yelled at him and felt bad.

Darn it, he wants me to sit so he can curl up but darn it, I have to step.

Andrea
finishing September off with a bang, hopefully

[quasar]

So y'all have gotten me thinking (ouch! stop that!) that I really miss doing weight training. I've always been muscular and weights are something I'm good at. My finest gym moment ever came when I was about 13 at the Y. I had just finished a few sets of leg presses and this huge guy came up to the machine and had to lower the weight before he could use it! Did I ever enjoy the looks I got that day!

I basically stopped when I went to college and there wasn't a gym. I also lost my motor transportation (read parents) at that time. In my few attempts to do the gym thing since then, I never really picked up weight training again, partially because I didn't go regularly and always ended up spending all my time on the treadmill (something else I'm good at - it did my self confidence wonders when I could manage 45 minutes almost immediately).

So seeing as how I didn't really have anything better to do today, I decided it couldn't hurt to check out the two gyms I knew I could walk to. On the way I decided to stop in my complex's fitness room and refresh my memory about what they had. One broken treadmill, status of repair unknown, one working treadmill, a stationary bike, a stair machine, and a precor. Much nicer setup than we used to have, available to me 24/7 (one thing I really like about my complex). There is even a small television to watch while working out.

Then I noticed some free weights on the side, sizes ranging from 5lbs to 50 lbs. I've never used free weights, only nautilus and similar machines. I took note then headed for the first gym, about 2.5 blocks from my apartment.

Called Super Fitness and spanning an entire (small) block, this is both the closer and the larger of the two places. I walked in and waited about 10 minutes for someone to help me. I was about to leave when a guy came up to the desk, obviously annoyed his workout had been interrupted. I asked him for membership information. He started this schpiel about specials today and must join now or it will cost me. No information on classes or what was included etc. Not very happy but wanting to at least look around and not let one jerk deter me if this place would be best, I asked if I could look around. He looked at me as if I had four heads. After surrepticiously checking the mirrors behind the desk and ascertaining that he was just being an idiot, I asked again. He reluctantly said yes.

So I wandered around aimlessly and unaccompanied for about five minutes, searching for the women's locker room. I found the men's right away (dontcha hate that?). I started looking at what they had, not recognizing a lot of it but recognizing some, and making my way back toward the desk figuring the women's locker room must be on that side. I went into the area with all the treadmills and bikes and such and asked one of the women who was leaving where the locker room was. Opposite corner of course, right where I was when I headed back toward the desk. It was unmarked, unlike the men's area. Now I must admit it was nice, and there was a smaller weight room there for women only. However, there were no scales. How can a gym not have a scale?!? One of the benefits of going to the gym is having consistent access to a real scale. Anyway, having looked my fill, I headed out. As I passed the front desk a different guy was there, one who had heard the last part of my conversation with the first guy. I thanked him and said I needed to think about it and started leaving. He shouted after me "Why did you come here if you didn't want to join "

Guess what gym I will not be joining.

So I headed over 2 blocks to the YMCA, about 3-3.5 blocks from my apartment. I walked in the door and this nice woman said hello, asked what she could do for me, and was generally helpful. Now there's a concept that is obviously beyond the morons at the other place. She gave me a booklet that outlined the current classes and extras, which were included and how much others cost, membership rates, and pool hours. She asked me if I wanted a tour of the facilities - without my asking for it. I told her I wanted to sit down and look over the materials first and she waved me over to a chair and told me to take my time and to let her know if I had any questions. Imagine that! I read things over, asked a question or two which were promptly and nicely answered then I asked to go on a tour. About two minutes later, the manager came out, introduced herself, and took me on a tour. :thumbs:

Now for the bad part: stairs. Lots of stairs. One flight down to the hall with the entrance to the locker room, four stairs up into the children's section, half of a flight up to the main area - complete with a scale - four steps up to the shower area. It was a really nice locker room by the way - much nicer than the other place. From there, a small room with one treadmill, one bike, one step machine (I assume for women who want privacy) then a full flight of stairs up to the gymnasium (basketball court) and pool. Nice pool, and they have aqua aerobics. Yay! (but I do have a pool at my complex in the other building, near the fitness room). Then it was 1.5 more flights of stairs up to the fitness equipment. There were about four treadmills, a few of this and a few of that, about 12 pieces of weight equipment, and free weights. Not exactly well equiped

I don't know where they have the classes, but they do have quite a few free classes weekly and some with a nominal extra fee. The hours are quite bad too - who ever heard of a gym that closes at 2PM on Sundays???? and they open at 6 and only stay open until 8 or 9PM depending on the day.

They gave me a free day pass to try it out as I was leaving - again a class act all the way; I would have no problems giving them my money - so I will at least do that.

So now I don't know what I want to do. Here are some thoughts:

1) I have not managed to consistently go to the gym since I have been an adult responsible for my own transportation, but some of that is that all of the gyms have inherently been quite a bit out of the way. Is 3 blocks of walking close enough to not have the "it's too far out of the way" reaction when I'm tired. Also, 3 blocks may not sound like much, but am I going to be willing to do it in the snow? Winter is, unfortunately, almost here.

2) It closes awfully early for someone who tends to work late a lot. But on the other hand, it may help me leave work earlier. The aqua aerobics classes are at 7 for instance, so if I wanted to do them I'd need to leave work by 5:45 or so.

3) Can I deal with the stairs? My knees hurt right now

4) I do have access to a decent amount of equipment in my complex, and I don't use it often enough (but I only just found out it was reopened and more than a somewhat broken treadmill a couple of weeks ago). I could just try to use it more often, see how it goes.

5) Those people in Super Fitness deserve to shrivel and get fat

This novel brought to you by Janice

[taurusmoon]

Sounds like you've got a couple of good options there Janice. It seems like you really can't go too wrong with either of them. Kudos to you for deciding to take the gym plunge.

I plan on going to check out the Y tomorrow. I'm actually -- gasp -- excited about it. And, if the family plan is affordable I might be able to convince the guys to join with me. Double benefit: they get to work out and I don't have to listen to them whine about me leaving them to go to the gym.

Meanwhile, today's been a good walking day. As I mentioned earlier, I walked close to 6 miles at the outlet mall today. I got home, caught up here for a bit, then went out for my usual walk around the park. Got another 5.25 miles in. I don't know how I'm going to feel tomorrow, but right now I feel pretty darn good.

Sara

[lynnzop[$]]

This novel brought to you by Janice

Thanks for that commercial break....now here's a taste of my day:

Lynnzop went shopping for shoes
And on the way home, got the blues
A dumb@ss grabbed his pop
And neglected to stop
And the tail end of Lynn's "Z" is now ooze.

ARGH...my poor baby.

At least no one was hurt, but now I have to spend precious time dealing with State Farm.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

I DID get some new shoes though...Saucony Odysseys...they are cute AND comfortable. Now I think I will just go for a long walk, and not come in through the driveway because every time I see the back end of my car I get pissed.



Lynn

[quasar]

Ouch! Well at least you're okay

Janice

[taurusmoon]

Oh no Lynn. What an awful feeling that is.

I'm glad to hear that, at least, you weren't hurt.

Hugs to you,

Sara

[AmyLEnsor]

I had to decide between 24 Hour Fitness and the YMCA. Those were the only two places near me that had pools. I loved the people at the Y--they were so friendly and enthusiastic, but they had a much smaller weight training room and everything looked older and not as nice as the brand spanking new LA Fitness. The Y had a lot of classes, but no step aerobics oddly enough. The hours were longer at LA Fitness and they had tv's by the cardio equipment. The childcare hours and prices were comparable. It was a hard decision, but the Y didn't try to sell me and LA Fitness did, and I'm bad at saying no. Plus, the LA Fitness people were friendly too.

[AmyLEnsor]

Oh sorry, Lynn That is really upsetting. I'm glad you are OK though.