I rock!

I packed my pack last night. I checked and rechecked to make sure I had everything I needed. I bought bananas just for the occassion. I was up at 5:30 this morning and on the bus at 6:10. I hit the gym by 6:20. Yay for me! It has been almost a year since I've last been to the gym. They have new elliptical trainers! Yay for new elliptical trainers. (And yes, skinny people everywhere claim the elliptical trainers are like a magnet for fat people. They burn a huge amount of calories and are kind to the knees, what more could I want?) I only went for 20 minutes (and a 5 min cooldown) because I didn't want to die my first day back in the gym, but I'm psyched and ready to go again tomorrow. And for the record, Pearl Jam's Release Me is probably the best cooldown song I've ever found. It is either right at 5 minutes or just under (like 4:30?) and it provides a kind of trudging beat that I find good to slow down to. Plus I just love the song. :)

Edited to add this picture of an elliptical trainer. I love it because it is a gentle gliding kind of thing rather than picking up your feet. I never use the arm option because that's just too much for me to manage. I usually don't hold onto the handles at all. I only will hang on a little bit when I'm doing reverse motion because it helps keep me from falling off the damn thing. It looks kind of intimidating but really when I was going regularly I could burn like 600 calories in just 30 min of working out. How can you not love that? Plus once you get used to it, it actually feels really good to me. Like a treadmill it has various levels (or heights I guess) so that it simulates either running (lowest setting) or stairclimbing (highest). And according to sports medicine guy it is good for my achilles tendonitis so I'm all over it.