I took all I could stands, I can't stands no more!

[elfs]

I promised myself that I was going to sit January out and not go to the gym. The date of my last attendance was December 27th. Old hands told me that it wasn't a bad strategy.

But I could feel the weakness returning and I decided I couldn't stand feeling the sluggish downhill course anymore. So I went. The results are mixed. I've backslid on my biceps, from 35lbs down to 27.5, but I can still do shoulders at 50lbs and am still moving 95lbs with my abs and 120 with my back. I'm able to do the full workout and didn't feel too bad about it: as long as I have my MP3 player and some water, I seem to be in good shape. I should ride my bicycle more: my aerobic level is poor, as in I either have the heart of a 10 year old or I'm not doing enough cardiac work. I could be better-- much better-- but at least I'm not totally lost to sloth and gluttony.

I've also noticed that on days when I work out, I'm not tempted to drink soda pop. The past three weeks I've been tracking a slow increase in soda pop consumption, from a token pop when eating out middlebrow all the way up to a 20oz bottle a day. When I'm going to the gym twice a week, the "being conscious and happy about my body" thing seems to last for a couple of days and I don't drink pop.

While I was in the locker room I encountered a sadly commonplace species of human male: the cad. Rather, three of them all in their mid to late '30s, discussing the "girl at the coffee place in the basement" (must not be my building, thank Horus) who "I'd guess is 27, 28," like a piece of meat, one of them egging the other on to "get her to give you a good time so I can live vicariously through you."

Good grief. I need more characters like that in the Journal Entries, ya think?

Comments

[polydad.livejournal.com]

Triggers amusing memories for me of Ms. Cambine, a tae kwon do instructor I'd once taken a seminar with. TKD doesn't usually do throws, but *she* does, and it's somehow hard to stick with the "women as meat" model when ninety pounds of 4'10" viciousness has spend the morning dumping one repeatedly on one's skull.

best,

Joel

[blaisepascal]

You must have had a reason for deciding to take a month off from the gym. Did you fulfill your goals or reasons for doing so?

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

"Good grief. I need more characters like that in the Journal Entries, ya think?"

I think the word you're looking for is "target".

Probably not Journal Entry material, but I could just about imagine a story about somebody getting turned on by a course of subtle revenge, that gets less subtle as the sex gets hotter. Sort of a hard-core version of that movie Nine to Five.

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

I can't speak for Elf, but for me January is the absolute worst month to work out in a gym: the equipment is tied up by all these folks who adopted "get back into shape" as their New Year's Resolution. Most of them are gone by February, thank goodness.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

January is just traditionally the worst month in the world for going to the gym. Too many people who decided to work on their New Years' resolutions. If the're still there by March, it'll be a miracle.

Trust me, I'm nowhere near my goals.

[norikos-author.livejournal.com]

I've also noticed that on days when I work out, I'm not tempted to drink soda pop. The past three weeks I've been tracking a slow increase in soda pop consumption, from a token pop when eating out middlebrow all the way up to a 20oz bottle a day. When I'm going to the gym twice a week, the "being conscious and happy about my body" thing seems to last for a couple of days and I don't drink pop.

It's things like this that make me glad I had to stop drinking sodas. All 'brown' sodas (and, I discovered last week, red bull) cause my mouth to break out in hideously painful canker sores. When I figured this out around a decade ago, I stopped drinking them, and I suspect that's a major reason I didn't put on much weight when I went from biking 7 miles a day to taking a car to work, without any positive change in my eating habits (they did change for the worse around that time, as it was shortly before Vel went into the hospital and I had to start eating my own food, which had pizza and velveeta-and-rotel dip as major components...)

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[halloranelder.livejournal.com]

My gym is currently the busiest I've ever seen, thanks to the "New Year Resolution" crowd.

Should die down by the end of February.

As for "I need more characters like that in the Journal Entries, ya think?", the worlds you deal with are a much more "enlightened" society, so it's very unusual for anyone to get to adulthood with that attitude still intact.

A human visiting Pendor, or perhaps someone from one of the new colonies visiting Pendor might have that attitude. Then they would run into a Pendorian woman, and well, you can invent the rest. :)

I'd love to read it, that's for sure.

[(Anonymous)]

Who says a "cad" has to be a man? ;)

I know it usually is in RL, but it might be amusing to turn it upside down somt time and see how a guy likes it.

[norincraft.livejournal.com]

What are your goals?

[elfs.livejournal.com]

To be younger in 2010 than I am today.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

After the Patriarchy (http://www.nerve.com/fiction/mcinerney/afterthepatriarchy/), by Jay McInerny.