Dear Diary . . . day by day

Friday September 15th - Body
Burning Man
Photo Gallery
2000 I'm tired and headachy today. I've been having slight sore throats, but I'm trying to convince myself that it's just due to sinus runoff (from allergies) and not the flu bug that's wiped out much of the office this week.
One can hope.
I've ignored how I felt - downed ibuprofren and claritin - and have made it to the gym several times this week. I never quite feel like going, but once I'm there and stretching, then lifting, I start to feel really good. It might just be pride - that I do this no matter what - but it's also due to the blood circulation, I think. After lifting, I do some situps and twisty things, then I head into the cardio room to put in up to a half an hour on the nasty elliptical "Precor" machine. I love this machine. I have to cover the timer with a magazine while I make it through the first 5 minutes or so, as the remaining time is too daunting. But after that I reach my "zone" where I feel like I can keep going forever. At this point I speed up, try to outpace the "strides per minute" I see on the other women's machines. When I want to slow down, I look at the calorie count on my machine, and watch them tick away. I take heart in the sweat drenching my t-shirt; I concentrate on breathing normally.
I always sit in the steam room for at least 5 minutes after working out, then I shower. I drive home with my skin feeling all tingly and with much more energy than I would have had I gone home and to lie down immediately. If it weren't for the oppressive hunger that follows - and it's almost always a hunger for protein, which blows my sushi budget - I would be incredibly productive at night.
My problem right now is eating. Too often, I don't have anything ready to heat up and eat when I get home from a workout. I'm way too tired to deal with grocery shopping or meal planning, although if I have the ingredients and the housemates haven't taken over the kitchen, I will cook something for myself. But usually, well, usually it's awhile before I scrape up something to eat.
So I eat something "easy". Sometimes this is trailmix. Sometimes it's nuts. Occasionally it's a tub of Ben and Jerry's or a package of cookies. Sweet stuff is easy for me to eat; dinner is more of a challenge.
I'm trying to change this. To make sure that I eat enough before I give into the sweet tooth.
Um, I'm feeling really terrible right now. I'm not even sure how coherent this entry is or whether I'm making any sort of point or what my original point was. The person who could cover for me so I could go home early is also feeling sick and has informed me he might not be in on Monday. He's leaving now. So I can't leave. I have to stay here and feel crappy and answer phones. I'm a little bitter about this - that there's really no way for me to go home right now because I must have someone cover and there's really no one to do so. I could go recline on the couches in the lunchroom and pull a phone over to answer, but that would "look bad". So I'm gonna sit here for the next 2 and a half hours, feeling miserable and pathetic and very, very sorry for myself.
Heh. I doubt I'm gonna be working out tonight. And I don't feel bad about this at all.
Exercise log:
Chest, triceps and abs. I was really pumping on those triceps, which are underveloped compared to my biceps. Thrilling, I know. Abs, which means 100 situps of various types, and 25 sweaty minutes on the elliptical machine. I wish there was a better name for that machine; I'm tempted to call it a stairmaster, as it's a cross between that and a cross-country ski machine. It's not an easy machine, that's what I want to get across here. I always want to quit after the first 5 minutes. Ergh.
Writing log:
I think I need to take photoshop off my computer if I ever want to write again!
I'm currently reading:
Woman: An Intimate Geography by Natalie Angier
The New Atlantis by Ursula K. LeGuin

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