ZenGwen

Kind of disappointed to see Rand on there.

Glad to be of service.

This! Or, my co-workers discuss Olympic events like the new Women's Boxing and how it was hard for them to watch it, with many sidelong glances at me, just waiting for me to blow up aboutg "unfeminine" sports.

This. It's everywhere. Came upon this example while looking for advice on a wrist injury this morning.... the article was useless, incidentally. Because if you are a Lady Lifter, you are either doing 70 reps with two pounds, or you're Irene Andersen.

"Wow, check out those biceps! Hey... could you move this sofa for me?" Eating a protein bar and a friend or co-worker gives me a "tip" that the high-sugar, 90 calorie, lotsa carbs, trace protein "Diet bars" are on 2 for 1 at the drug store. After 10 years of getting me girly stuff I don't use, family gives up and starts buying me running gear I don't use.

Russian. Honeymoon will be to St. Petersburg.

Carrying a gym bag instead of a handbag.

Yes! Related: I've now lost so much weight that my thongs are baggy. I didn't know that could happen.

I seem to be posting a whole lot of images as responses today, but this pretty much sums up how I feel about this stuff...

Go out to a coffee with girlfriends, sit there wondering what the macros are on my latte. Size 6 waist, size 10 quads. Never get comments on clothes or hair any more (okay that's not true, but only because my hair is neon), just on muscles. This is all totally valid. Hehe. Loving this stuff, keep it coming.

In the same vein as "first world problems"... I'll start... I think I got protein powder in my makeup.

That's so great! Congratulations!

Yeah, seriously. I didn't think flexibility was that big a deal, until I started squatting properly, going all the way down, below parallel. My boyfriend tried to do the same thing, and just can't get down past about 3-4 inches above parallel, even when he's just doing body weight squats. Now I'm glad I did a couple months of Pilates when I was starting with weights, although I was pretty flexible to start with. "Flower power bullshit". Geez. What a bad (and ignorant) attitude.

Yesterday I was super-lazy in the morning and thus had to go to the gym after work instead of before work. This meant that the weights section (which has some regulars in the morning, but is mostly pretty empty) was absolutely packed. For the most part this is fine. I've been there at peak hours before, and while it's full almost exclusively of curlbros, they're all very friendly and nice, and super-accommodating as soon as I grab dumbbells larger than they're using, so it's okay. But, last night, there were a couple of jerks. The squat rack was already being used, by a guy who said he'd just started. The assisted pull-up machine is right next to it, so while I was waiting I took all the weight off it and did a couple sets of pull-ups. Once the guy had finished with the rack, I took the neck pad off the bar, and did my first set at 60 kg. While I was leaning against the bar and resting for my next set, a couple of guys get to the weights section and make a bee-line for the rack. Seeing me in it, one of them raises an eyebrow, sneers slightly and asks "Are you using the rack?" No, jerk, I'm just posing with some weights in the middle of this super-crowded gym. I look super-sexy in my baggy old dragon t-shirt, you see, and I want to show off. I politely told him I had four sets left. He and his buddy had the same idea about the assisted pull-up machine while they were waiting, but both used it with so much weight on they must have hardly been lifting anything, and I felt rather smug. I felt less smug and more angry when I noticed, later, that they hadn't wanted the rack for anything that you actually needed to use the rack for. They were doing that thing where you put a weight on one end of a barbell, put the other end in a corner, and lift it. They were using the corner of the rack for this, at peak hours when everyone wanted to use it, and there were other barbells available to do such things with. Not only that, but they were alternating between that and curls with tiny dumbbells, and just left the dumbbells on the floor by the rack when they were done. I put them away. The guys were using some weights machines that face the dumbbell racks, only a couple of feet away, so they should have seen me do it. I hope they felt at least a little chagrined.