Well, okay, March didn't go exactly as planned. Not to make excuses, I could have been better about going to the gym when I was well, but I have been horribly sick for the last week and a half. I missed five days of work and had such a persistent fever that I finally went in to see a doctor, where I was diagnosed with having pneumonia and a urinary tract infection. (I apologize if that's TMI). I've been taking antibiotics and I'm going in tonight for a catscan, so hopefully my iron-pumping ways will soon be back to normal.

Lonely blog sad.

Where is Mark?  he promised he'd be going to the gym on March 8th, but I have yet to get a verification.

Technical difficulties?  Or Mark just not making it to the gym?

Well, until Mark's absence is explained, here's some interesting links/images.  Over brunch a couple weeks ago, I joking said to Mark that I like to measure inflation with the cost of Little Debby's.

Mark pointed out that food was not a good indicator of inflation, for two reasons:

1.  Food subsidies.
2.  the food industry's aversion to raise prices.


I'll agree with him on the subsidies.  But the food industry only has two options to prevent raising prices:  cutting profit margins and repackaging. They can only cut the profit margin so much, and repackaging typically means shrinking the amount you get in a standard unit.  For example, take a look at your peanut butter jar next time it's empty.  You'll notice it has a divot in the bottom.  Peanut butter jars didn't always have that divot.  They added it.  So it looks the same as the old 16 oz  jar, but suddenly you're only getting 14.5 oz and paying the same price.

However, repacking doesn't mean the food price has stayed steady- you're paying more per ounce than you were before, even if you're paying the same amount per unit.

So my claim about little debbies- kind of right, kind of wrong.  Prices have gone up, and portions of the snack cake have gone down.  However, due to subsidies, it has not kept pace with inflation.


Recently, I found some interesting articles that illustrate this- and  maybe explains why American have become such fatties.

Until we hear from Mark, please enjoy these pictures/articles about food prices.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/whats-wrong-with-this-chart/

Both found via the Consumerist.

Visit 10: Gettin' ripped.

Mark stopping by the gym on his way to be an extra in the Sopranos reunion special.  His character's name is Dan "Dancin'" Mancini.

One Down, Eleven to Go

February's in the books, and March should be even easier considering that I no longer have a beard and as a result am lighter and more aerodynamic. One thing I've learned over the last month is that it's better to go to the gym after 8pm. Before that time, the locker room is crowded three deep, all the elliptical machines with functioning TVs are taken and the hot tub is overrun with sad-looking middle-aged guys. As someone who is quickly becoming a sad-looking middle-aged guy, I find this especially depressing. For some reason, at 8pm, all this seems to magically change. The lockers clear out, the ellipticals and weights are deserted, and all the dumpy middle-aged guys flee the hot tub, presumably in order to get home in time to watch CSI.

February Results

Congratulations to Mark Russell.  He has officially earned $10 dollars for faithfully visiting the gym during the month of Feburary.

Good job, Mark.  Although don't get cocky.  It's still early.  And you have many more visits to the gym in front of you...

Gym visit #7

To celebrate Mark's seventh visit to the gym, I would like to post this picture of Mark working hard at the gym, apparently in the "hoops" section.

 

Two more visits, and you're the big winner for February... 

Visit #5

You can add number 5 to your little calendar, Todd, as I phoned in my latest visit last night. I am finding that later at night is my favorite time to go to the gym. The place is emptier, sometimes I can have the basketball court or the pool all to myself, and it cuts down on the number of 70 year old naked dicks I have to look at in the locker room.

I am quickly settling into a routine. I start out at the weights, then I move up to the cardio room where I usually use the elliptical machine for half an hour, then I do a light shoot around at the basketball court followed by swimming a few lanes in the pool and ending everything with a nice soak in the hot tub. My visits usually last about an hour and a half to two hours.

The worst thing about going to the gym is the locker room, which is usually crowded and poorly provisioned. At any given time, about half the showers seem like they're out of order and since they don't let you keep a permanent locker, you're always having to haul stuff in and out of there. There's barely enough room to get dressed, so I usually try to go to the gym already dressed in workout clothes. The second worst thing is the assinine workout music they usually play over the loudspeakers. Are there any studies that indicate that listening to C&C Music Factory improves muscle reconstruction? I doubt it.

On the whole, though, I've been enjoying the gym. It kind of reminds me of the Roman baths of old.

updates

Mark called in his 4th visit to the gym tonight- and I wanted to call attention to a new feature. I am logging all of Mark's visits on the calendar on the top left hand of this blog. Now we can all quickly see how many visits Mark has made to the gym.