I just got back from taking Baby to the vet for her spaying.  She’s a year old Lab mix that I got from a rescue shelter last fall.  She didn’t want to go with the vet assistant.  I’m not worried about her – I’ve been with this vet clinic for 8 years and my daughter once worked there, so I trust them to be good – but I know she’s scared and I wish I could do more to reassure her.  She’s been to the vet several times, but she’s never stayed there overnight alone (without Lucky, that is).  Oh well.  She’ll be fine.  I’ll pick her up Saturday morning.

In the meantime, today is shoulder day at the gym.  They’ve always been my weakest link, but they’ve been getting stronger this last month.  I’m going to push them hard today, make ‘em grow.

Un-happying news:  It’s supposed to rain beginning late this afternoon and going on for the next 3 days.  Blech.

I want to leave you today with this excerpt from the book I’m reading:

    “Like most women my age…I was trained to be a nice girl growing up.  I spent most of my life following the litany of things nice girls do – and the things nice girls don’t do.  When you are raised to be a nice girl, the list of things you cannot do is long.  But it’s best if you memorize it.  You wouldn’t want to be mistaken for someone who’s not nice.
    “You must always defer to other people, especially men. … You must always be polite and you  must never say what you think.  When you are a nice girl, you put your desires last.  This is because you’re nice and you want other people to know it (otherwise, what’s the point?)  You must always worry about the other person.  You must ask yourself, what does that other person think?  You  must make sure you ask this question every time you encounter another person, which means you ask this question a lot.”

And people wonder why I have an easily tapped molten river of rage flowing through my core.  Or why punching the rubber dummy is cathartic.

I love exercising.  Specifically, I love lifting weights.  I also enjoy cardio – the elliptical or the treadmill or even the bike – but that’s not what draws me to the gym over and over, or pulls me back into the gym after long layoffs like I had in 2007 with the tendinitis and all the traveling.

I love the strength and muscle mass gains I’m able to make from week to week.  I love the feeling of compact power my body has when it is strong.  I love the feel of sweat pouring off me and the burn of lactic acid because I know that leads to the strength and more muscle.

Yesterday, I did the leg press with 280 lbs.  That’s an all time high for me.
(This is the movement; this is not me.  Photo borrowed from Wikipedia.)

 
280 lbs is more than my bodyweight.  It’s four 45 lb plates plus four 25 lb plates.

I admire the look of female bodybuilders and powerlifters, but I don’t want to compete.  I have no desire to go through the painful pre-contest regime, the drugs, or to be judged on my appearance.  My goal is to get as strong as I can get, to become leaner than I am now, and to be fit and healthy.  And to have fun doing it.

To me, seeing if I can lift more iron than I could last week…. that’s fun.

Happy April!

Yesterday’s workout at the gym did go much better than Sunday’s. 

I’m up early today and have nothing to blog about yet, so I found this cartoon to share with you.

Sounds good to me.  I love Egg McMuffins.  It’s about the only thing from McDs that I can stand to eat anyway.  The rest of it is pseudo-food.