Sunday evenings in winter are depressing, especially if you haven’t done anything all weekend.
I did do some stuff:
Friday evening I hung out with some friends at Therapy (very crowded) and then watched the Sci-Fi Channel with them.
Yesterday I got up early. Praise be.
I went to the gym, where my biceps, still almost nonexistent, nevertheless appeared able to perform more reps of a particular weight than they could on Wednesday. So while I can’t really see any results yet with my eyes, I guess something must be happening.
I also did my taxes yesterday, though I haven’t filed them yet. I’m really frustrated, because TurboTax tells me I should get a $26 refund from New York while my own calculations tell me I owe New York several hundred dollars. I’ve double checked both my TurboTax inputs and my own calculations. Whom do I trust? And why am I so stressed out by this when I still have two and half months in which to do my taxes? I don’t know. But I like to get my taxes over and done with.
Last night we went out to a Greek restaurant for dinner with my family. Afterwards, we came home and I tried to solve my tax problem again. Unsuccessfully. Doing my taxes on a Saturday night – what a party animal!
Today I went to the gym again and did cardio on the elliptical machine. I’ve found that both the Altar Boyz cast album and “Schoolhouse Rock” songs are great cardio accompaniment.
The rest of the day I’ve been reading the Sunday paper.
And that’s that. We haven’t done anything else all weekend – haven’t gone anywhere interesting, no new neighborhoods, no museums with insightful or entertaining exhibits – nothing. And this is Manhattan.
And tomorrow is Monday and I get to start the whole thing over again.
Sounds like a decent weekend to me! :)
I’m working on taxes tonight too. Yuck.
Welcome to living in Manhattan. The weekends are not always so fabulous. Nor should they be. Wait ’til you’ve lived here 13 years (8 with a partner).
Tech support here. Go to the “Print and File” tab -> “Print For Your Records,” and save a PDF of your state return so you can compare TurboTax’s logic to your own. If you are using TurboTax for the Web, you’ll have to pay first. There are promotion codes available all over the Web to save a few bucks; perhaps check the Web sites for your bank or 401(k)/mutual funds first. The TurboTax workflow tends to imply that right after you pay, you’ll be filing your returns, but you can actually pay now and come back months later to file.
As for your biceps, you have other commenters who are more expert. But “a watched pot never boils” will never feel more true than at the gym, so seek patience and inner peace and try not to drive yourself crazy the first few months. If your arms have a little pump for a few hours after working out, amuse yourself with that. But your biceps may get *smaller* before they get bigger, tightening to improve their work efficiency. Then for a while your biceps may merely “fill the skin” of your upper arms better. Keep working them two to three times a week, allow them two months to tone and four months to start to “grow,” and maybe if you’re lucky it will happen a bit faster. (People with more athletic experience in their background don’t always realize how slow it tends to go for “the rest of us.” And if you hope for vascular upper arms — well, I’ve never had the consistency, but keep going to that gym.)
If you can do 10 to 12 reps, nice, but it’s time to up that weight a notch. You can get two-thirds of your upper arm mass from your triceps; if your inner elbows begin aching when you hold your arms out straight, your triceps should probably get more work. Pull-ups, and lat pulldowns in the style of pull-ups, can blast both your biceps and back muscles at once. Don’t know if you can do any pull-ups. But if you can find a pull-up bar that you can just reach while standing, try lifting off with your feet but using your back and arms to lower yourself as slowly as possible. (Which may not be all that slowly!) Or have a trainer offer some support; either way, you may have to cope with feeling a little ridiculous in a public gym for a couple months. Six to eight each: “traditional” underhand narrow grip facing toward the bar; overhand wide grip facing away from the bar; overhand narrow grip facing away from the bar; or whatever your trainer specifies. The ache you feel the next day will teach you something about working out. Then, alternate with lat pulldowns at a weight you can manage on your next visit. And make sure you’re eating a good day’s protein, but watch your weight and your waist because you can add fat faster than muscle when starting out.
See also:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/US/story?id=1461359
Okay, going to breathe now…
“I always felt an ineluctable guilt when I was just taking it easy in New York when all those grand museums, libraries, plays, concerts and that whole vast of infinitude of cultural opportunities beckoned me with promises of enrichment.” –Pat Conroy, Prince of Tides
Interesting, I’ve tried Schoolhouse Rock and the remakes of all the songs by “rock” bands and I can’t suffer through the elliptical listening to them.