Pump Up The Jam!!!

There's a reason why I refer to cardio as being on a "hamster wheel" - a whole lot of spinning wheels and no real progress.  I don't run outdoors because I've got bad knees.  So I'm relegated to the selection of ellipticals, bikes, mills, and stairs.  At the gym, I typically opt for the stairmill.  While I can be self-conscious about being higher up and more on display (especially with the machines that overlook the lobby), it does allow a prime position for "people watching" to help pass the time.  At home, I have an elliptical in the basement.  This allows for free expression of my tiredness and frustrations and I don't have to worried about being "watched" by others.  Between the two, and the occasional group fitness class, I've got a pretty good variety for my workouts to keep things interesting.

A lot of things can influence the quality of my workout:  if I slept well the night before, overall mood, worrying about something, if I'm physically or mentally worn-out.  It's very easy to lose steam while chugging along.  If the pace is dictated to me, by the stairmill or treadmill, I just plod along until I'm done.  The timer or the calorie count will tell me.  When on the elliptical, I still rely those measures (primarily the calorie count), but I have to rely on myself to maintain a particular pace. I've found that when I watch TV with the sound on or listen to an audiobook, I'm more likely to have a slower pace. So I tend to save those for the stairmill and treadmill. To keep it moving on the elliptical, it really helps to have a good mix of music that pumps me up.

Some of the tracks on my playlist include:

• Baby Got Back - Sir Mix-a-Lot
• Bad Medicine - Bon Jovi
• Boom Boom Pow - Black Eyed Peas
• Control Myself - LL Cool J
• Don't Cha - Pussycat Dolls
• Everybody Get Up - Pretty Ricky and Pitbull
• Good Vibrations - Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch
• I Got It - Donnie Wahlberg
• I've Got The Power - Snap
• Just Dance - Lady GaGa
• Sexy Back - Justin Timberlake
• Move This - Technotronic
• Sand Storm - Darude
• Shake It - Metro Station
• We Run This - Missy Elliott
• OMG - Usher
• Poison - Bell Biv DeVoe

In all, I have about 150 songs in the playlist and I keep my iPod on shuffle to keep the variety fresh. As is pretty apparent from the selection listed above, I tend to go for the Top 40, Pop, Hip-Hop, Dance, and Club. I did download some of the Biggest Loser workout mixes from iTunes and have been pretty happy with a lot of them. Key for me is an upbeat rhythm that can pump me up. Especially when I'm starting to drag and feeling tired, that "just right" song can really revive me.

I will caution, however, to be careful when listening to music while on any cardio machine. There have been numerous times when I've tried to bust out a few dance moves and, instead, managed to lose my balance, trip over my feet, or nearly fling myself off the machine. My recommendation: save the rump-shaking for group fitness!

Food Log:

• Breakfast
• 4 egg whites and 2 eggs with salsa
• Snack
• Green beans with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray and spray salad dressing
• Tablespoon of peanut butter
• Dinner
• Protein shake with Splenda and cinnamon added
• Tablespoon of peanut butter
• Didn't have regular dinner of chicken, veggies, and almonds because of an upset stomach.  It was NOT in response to the slightly higher weigh-in this morning.  Let's just say the living room has been dominated by the sounds of trumpeting elephants all evening.  (Sorry if that's TMI!)
• Snack
• Generous tablespoon of peanut butter

Exercise:

• Time: 65 minutes
• Level: Level 1 for 1 minute, Level 4 for 63 minutes, Level 1 for 1 minute
• Distance: Just over 5 miles
• Calories: 700+

Today's Weigh-In: 147.7