Monday, April 25, 2005

It's good to have a friend...and a tan

It's been five days since my last blog entry and I'm feeling deprived, so I'm rushing to write this before I leave for my bowling league. I guess blogging, like exercising, diet planning and supplementation, becomes a habit after awhile.

I went to Sports Authority on Saturday to buy some more dumbells. They had hex dumbells on sale for $0.49 a pound, so I bought the 45's and 50's that I needed to complete our dumbell collection. I bought a mat for the exercise bike and some puzzle-piece foam tiles to create a scuff-free surface to put all those dumbells on. When I got up to the checkout, the cashier was talking to two young guys who wanted a job application. They left and she said, "I'm so embarassed. I told him he had to be 18 to apply and he is actually 19. He looked about 14." I told her that I also thought he was much younger than 18 and we played the age-guessing game. She leaned over the counter with her scanner and scanned the dumbells, while I maneuvered the cart so she could reach them. I told her about Body for Life and our home gym. When she rang up the total, she whistled softly and showed it to me. Geez, this stuff adds up fast. Then she smiled and said, "You're my friend today," and proceeded to whip out her "friends and family discount" card and take 25% off the entire purchase! I was dumbfounded, but she explained that the friendly customers are worth keeping. So I thanked her for letting me be her friend and went on my way with a decidedly better mood.

Now, I've been agonizing over the subject of tanning for a long time. I see all the pictures in Body for Life books, videos, web sites, etc. , and the after pictures usually use the tan to good effect. Well, I haven't tanned since I was in college and I haven't been really dark since I was in gradeschool and lived at the pool all summer. Due to the French blood buried in my Irish-German background, I do tan once I get past the initial burn. But it's so unhealthy and I have a scar on my face that I'm still pretty careful about tanning or burning. For me, one good tan would certainly be a guilty pleasure. I look good tan, but I don't want to die young (of course, it's probably too late for dying "young" anyway). So maybe this one time.

Well, a new tanning place just opened down the street from my house. It's the only business (besides the carwash) in a tiny business district about five minutes walk from my house. As I drove by the place on the way home from my 25% discount adventure, I saw they were having a grand opening at the tanning salon. They had a grill going, a small Corvette and classic car show in one corner of the parking lot, a jumparound for the kids, and a lot of streamers and balloons. So I pulled in. I went inside and there were very few customers, so they greeted me like royalty. I had a coupon for a month of free tanning on their most basic tanning bed. But they had a deal (which I took) to use any of their tanning beds, from the highest to the lowest, for a month, for $30.00. Because I was signing up during their grand opening, they gave me a t-shirt, can cooler, free lotion and other stuff. Then, they set me up with the highest level tanning bed and let me try it out. I have to admit that my modesty kicked in while I was lying there practically naked on this tanning bed with a whole bunch of people right outside the door. But I just decided that it was one more BFL adventure to add to the rest of the new experiences that have come my way in these four short weeks. Plus, now I can probably tan without burning since they are being super careful with me due to my quick-burn skin type. I still feel guilty about tanning, but just this once, it's too tempting to resist.

Other than that, week four was a blast. I had some great workouts and learned many new things. I'm actually kicking my calories up a notch, but not too much. Some days, I've been down to 1000 calories, which is just too low. I'm going to try to stay closer to 1500. Cheryl too some four week shots of me which should show up on our web site later this week. She decided she didn't want pictures at this stage and I didn't push the issue. We are doing a full blown photo shoot at eight weeks to get ready for the final photos. We are going to do them ourselves. Studio photography is something I've studied for years, so we're going to give it a shot. Between the two of us, we make a pretty good photographer, so I think we should do okay.

I promise I'll blog sooner than five days this time. Ciao!

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