Workout

Well, I did my first exercise session with the dumbbells today, and I’m quite pleased! There were a few exercises I couldn’t do because my exercise ball hasn’t come in yet, but I got a good weightlifting workout in. I’m starting to suspect that I don’t need that gym membership, although as my employer is paying for my gym membership I’ll probably keep it anyway.

The only two things that I can’t quite figure out are how to work the soleus muscle (which runs along the back of the calf, and is one of the secondary muscles in cycling) and how to work the quads. The problem with the latter is that the weights are too heavy for my hands to grip (i.e. I can lift more weight with my quads than I can carry in my hands). At the gym I would use an Olympic bar over the back, but I haven’t got a cage for power lifting, so it isn’t really safe to try it at home. B. suggested that I try one-legged squats instead, and that seems to be working pretty well. Added bonus: it works the knee stabilizer muscles, which I badly need, at least on the left (injured) side. So I’m going to work with one-legged squats for awhile. I hope they’re not bad for my knee.

The book is coming along well; I’m about halfway through entering my stories into the appropriate locations, at which point I’ll be ready to sit down and write. B. has been really helpful in this–he comes over, and just his presence helps me focus and keep plugging away where otherwise I’d have given up and started playing computer games instead of writing. I’m really happy that we work together so well.

I continue to work at losing weight–I weighed 139 again this morning, so it wasn’t just a fluke–but it’s not easy. It’s peach season, and plum season, and I have a really hard time resisting the lure of Santa Rosa plums, Lady in Red peaches, and other summer fare. On the other hand, I’m also burning an extra 2500 calories on weekends (riding mostly), so that gives me some leeway to cheat a bit. I hope it continues to work–working out regularly at home should help, too. If not I’ll have to get serious about weight loss.

Sunday morning B. runs a half-marathon…I’m driving him over there and plan to bring my stitching with me. I haven’t quite decided whether to bring my stitching piece or whether to bring some socks to knit–I have some gorgeous burgundy silk yarn that would make fabulously soft socks; I might bring that instead.