This Boy Elroy

I don't get it.

The Golds on Market street is to the gay men of the Castro as the Acropolis was to the ancient Athenians. Not just a place to work out, it is a bazaar of all kinds of activity and transaction.

Fair enough, I'm all about user defined spaces.

There's one thing I don't get though. Given how close the gym is to most everyones home why do so many men feel a need to bring their steamer trunks of beauty materials to the gym? The locker room is like being backstage at the Ziegfeld Follies and everyone is preparing for their big moment on stage. Forget about washing your hands at a sink after your workout. Oh no, you have to wait for the ladies to finish blowdrying their hair and applying their setting lotion before you can do that.

I just want to know if these people have bathrooms at home? Perhaps they sublease their bathrooms at home to subsidize part if their rent? I'm open to explanation.

Calf Anyone?

I had a very odd dream last night that I think could be a sign that I am perhaps taking my workouts and nutrition a bit too seriously. On a typical day I eat between 250-300g of protein per day, it's not all in the form of solid food, much of it is supplemented with smoothies/shakes. Times when I know I won't be able to reach my protein intake goal I must admit that I get a bit edgy and start to panic about getting enough protein, this is where I think my dream stemmed from.

So in the dream I was at home and had no meat, there was no meat to be found in Dallas. I was just in from the gym and was in one of my weird "must have protein fits." This is where it gets gross/odd. I look down at my calves and decide the look pretty meaty so I cut some meat off my leg. In my dream I even commented on how nice the meat looked. The cutting didn't hurt, there wasn't any blood, and I was sure that my calves would just grow back. Everything was so damn surreal that in my dream I even said to myself while I was flexing my carved calves in the mirror, "This has got to be a dream."

Needless to say I woke up in the middle of the night and grabbed my calves to make sure they were in one piece.

Gratuitous

Well that certainly was an exciting super Tuesday, no? I thought it was interesting on both sides. Perhaps this could be decided in Texas? It is the second most populous state and has a large number of delegates. Imagine, my vote actually counting towards something in Texas! Too cool!

I don't really have much else to report right now so here's a gratuitous photo of me flexing my arms.

Oh my gods, I'm turning into Brett Cajun.

Gyminee

Like I said, I want to continue the progress I've made with my physical fitness in 2007 into 2008. Yesterday I was informed by Justin about a site called Gyminee. Don't let the cutesy web 2.0 name scare you off this site is hardcore. Gyminee allows you to keep track of your workout progress, schedule workouts, keep a nutrition log, and has a wide array of workout programs to follow if you're a beginner. Best of all, it's free and it has a splendid iPhone/iPod Touch web app.

After one day I'm totally hooked. I entered in my workout info and added all my favorite foods that I eat to the nutrition database. I've tried similar applications and I've even kept my own nutrition and workout spreadsheets myself on Google Docs. It was a lot of work but it definitely was one of the key factors in my success. Gyminee simplifies all of that work and the creators of the site are really great about making it all about achieving fitness goals. Last night I was tickled to find out my gym has free WiFi so I was able to enter in my data while I did my workout on my Touch. My favorite feature is the daily fitness report where you get a pie chart of your macronutrient intake (% of fat, protein, carbs) and your net calories for the day (Calories consumed minus calories burned during exercise minus your metabolic rate, i.e. the amount of calories you burn just sitting on your ass doing nothing). One of the more fun stats it gives is the total amount of weight you lifted in one workout; during my back workout last night I lifted 47450 lbs.

If one of your goals this year is to get in shape I highly recommend Gyminee. Of course it wouldn't be a true web 2.0 site without a social networking angle so If you join add me as a GymBuddy and let me know.

Weekend Stuff

We now have internet at home en force! The DSL arrived on Wednesday and the cable was fixed on Thursday. How's that for a total turnaround, went from no internet to two high speed connections - wahoooo! To our delight we've discovered that cable internet cannot be sent without also sending digital cable. Our new TV has a digital tuner in it so we get digital cable at no extra cost. Discovery HD is my new favorite channel for mental masturbation, I'm leaning all about sharks, the gardens of England, and how skyscrapers are built. I am a whore for useless information - Trivial Pursuit anyone? Anyway, we've decided to keep both the cable and the DSL, we're nuts I know, but we're getting digital HD channels! The way we see it is if one craps out we'll have the other to fall back on (when we don't have internet our moods become very sullen and bitchy) and now our PS3 has it's very own internet connection. Have I told you that we can rationalize just about anything?

In other news, we joined a new gym this weekend. Our current place was becoming a bit boring for us. It's a nice gym, good equipment and all, but we've been there for two years now and wanted a change of scenery. I was really impressed with Gold's when I used the one in San Jose for a week when I was there so I decided to check out the one near us here. Brad and I have had two workouts there so far and we're very pleased. Brad really likes the cardio cinema, which is basically a movie theater with cardio machines in it. I must admit in this summer heat it's nice to be in a cold dark room doing cardio all the while being distracted by a movie. The clientele was a bit skewed this weekend, to our delight though, because there was a bodybuilding competition in town. We saw this guy and this guy. You never realize how massive these guys are until you see them in person, their arms are the size of Brad's torso.

That's all for now. Time to make lunch and play some God Of War for the rest of the day before sushi dinner tonight with a friend.

Compliment plus TMI

On my way out from work yesterday I was down in the break room making myself a protein shake before heading off to the gym. One of our cleaning ladies for the building was down there, the one who cleans my office actually. She's usually quite talkative and candid and today was a perfect example. The following ensued:

Cleaning Lady: You work out don't you?

Me: (sheepishly) Yeah, I do.

Cleaning Lady: Yeah. I thought so, I can tell.

Me: (sheepishly) Heh, thanks.

Cleaning Lady: Can I tell you something without you taking it the wrong way? I mean I don't want to get in trouble with sexual harassment and all.

Me: (intrigued) No, go ahead, I don't mind.

Cleaning Lady: Well I see you in the hallways sometime and I just want to squeeze your arms!

That was very delightful, but then came the TMI. She proceeded to tell me about how when she worked out in the past she gained too much muscle. A friend of hers, who is a personal trainer, told her that she probably had too many "man horomones" in her body. His suspicion was affirmed when she went on to tell me that she told him that she shaves - her face. Interesting.

Gold star for cleaning lady though, she absolutely creeped me out a little bit and made my day at the same time!

This is how I work out, and you?

I spent a good part of last night (more than I care to admit) watching this over and over again and laughing my ass off.