grit, guts and gumption

Shake that Money Maker

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Two pictures are worth even more...

But it's the actual commercial, as well as the parady video that's gone viral over the internet that is truly priceless.

Behold the future of exercise:

....you'll have to google the dirty version for yourselves ;)

What a difference a year makes! It's been just over a year since I left my big-nationwide-chain health club and joined my current gym. This morning, as I walked back to my office after my workout, I passed ye old health club. It was packed. Every single piece of cardio equipment that I could see through the streetside windows was occupied.

Now, rewind to my earlier workout - the gym was also pretty packed. In fact, I had to wait to use the assisted chin/dip station once I was done with my squats, lunges and bench. Biggest differences were that the treadmills, steppers and recumbant bikes were mostly empty, and I was one of perhaps 3 women training during the typical lunchtime rush.

A friend asked me why I thought there were so few women at my gym - my response, while a bit tongue in cheek is most likely accurate: because there are no personal televisions at each cardio machine.

I totally understand, too. Unless it's an intense interval workout, I can't stand to do "cardio" unless I'm in front of the boob tube. At home, my Tivo is my best friend while I'm on the treadmill. I can read while on a bike or a stepper, but give me television if I'm running indoors or slaving away on the elliptical :) But as much as I enjoyed the personal TVs at my old gym, I had to leave. It was virtually impossible to get a decent lifting workout. And in the long run, that was more important to me than keeping up with daytime television.

Which leaves me wondering how I (we) can get more women under a barbell, rather than devoting all their energy on "burning calories" or the next biggest new-age studio workout (ps, I love yoga, but I hate when yoga studios advertise how many calories you're burning. Oy.).

Any suggestions?

Holiday Happiness

Wishing you all a very happy holiday season! See you in 2010!

Aesop's Fables

I can't begin to tell you how wonderful it feels to get back into the swing of things. Wonderful, and at the same time, incredibly frustrating. For me, the difficult thing about a return to "normal" is that it takes a while to figure out just exactly where you're at. In other words, I have to disregard what I was lifting prior to my break, how far I was running (as well as how fast and how often) and how quickly I was ramping up (both the weights and the distance/speed/frequency). It's almost as though I spend a week or so testing the waters - keep going until I can't go any more, see how I recover, and build a training program based on what is inarguably purely subjective data points.

So while on one hand I feel productive again, on the other I'm not really accomplishing much in terms of building strength or endurance. But it's important to remember that there is no alternative (other than never taking a break in the first place, of course). Were I to disregard the basic fact that I had lost fitness over the past few weeks and jump right back in where I'd left off, the only thing I'd take away from my training would be an injury.

In my book, slow and smart trumps speed and stupidity every time. Just read Aesop's The Tortoise and The Hare :)

Home For the Holidays

I am home. It only took a 26.5 hour travel day, but I am home :)

We were due to fly out of Venice on Sunday, but our flight was canceled - a combination of the European snow storms from Saturday and the storms in the North East US on Sunday. Rather than rebook us right there at the airport (as they do in the US), we were given a hotel and meal voucher with phone numbers to call, and sent on our way.

Lovely.

After our (surprisingly) tasty airport lunch, we set off for the hotel. I then spent from about 2 pm until 7:30 pm attempting to get a hold of a ticketing agent at Delta. After several near misses (we thought we'd get out the next morning from Milan), we were told that we'd been booked on a flight on the 24th.

Lovely.

We settled in for the evening, watching some TV on the laptop (did I mention that the hotel's TV was out?) and tried to come up with a game plan. Rumor had it that Delta would only provide for one evening at the hotel, so we set the alarm for 7 am - get up early, eat breakfast, then head to the airport to try to get information regarding our hotel situation.

In a full hotel shuttle, our baggage in hand, we set off to the airport.

And walked into yet another madhouse (this time, it was Air France who canceled all of their flights to northern Europe).

As luck would have it, the Delta line was pretty short. We watched as our compatriots who'd arrived earlier in the morning were turned away from the counter with nothing more than "pay for a reduced rate at the hotel and submit it to Delta for reimbursement". Urgh.

So, imagine my surprise when I approached the counter, said "Hi, we're stranded here until Thursday" and the gentleman says something that sounds like "trying to get you out of here today".

Long story even longer, British Airways apparently added another flight from London Heathrow to JFK and WE GOT ON IT! We flew out of Venice at 12:45 pm, arrived in London at 2:45 and were scheduled to depart for New York at 7 pm. We boarded our flight at 8:30 pm and sat on the runway until MIDNIGHT (I have to say that BA was great, they broke out the bar cart, and turned on the video system).Landed in NYC at 2:15 am, walked into our front door at 4. Hit the sack at 5 am, up and at'em by 10 am.

It's good to be home.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to get reacquainted with my running sneakers.

The Never-Ending Honeymoon

Well, looks like the hubbie and I are stranded in Italy until the 24th. Sounds great, huh? Nice extended honeymoon. Well, don't be fooled. We spend the day on the phone or in line, waiting to talk to someone and hoping for an earlier flight home (or at least compensation for another evening's hotel room).

Keep your fingers crossed for us. We are both Italian Food-ed out...I can't wait to come home, eat lightly and sweat the frustration out in the gym.

Happy Holidays!