Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Gym Jump

I'm going home for a long weekend tomorrow afternoon, so for today's lunch I tried to use up as much perishable food as possible!


I had a big salad with half a bag of lettuce, a tomato, three carrots and half a block of raw tempeh, topped with mustard (I'm out of hummus...sniff sniff) and eaten with two slices of plain whole-wheat toast.


As well as a sliced apple and a chunk of raw chocolate cake.


I love eating chocolate midday :)


* * *

Earlier this morning, I headed to the gym for a cardio workout. I did this speed work run on the treadmill, then followed it up with some stretching:


I've had a little bit of a cold recently, and all I have to say is that it is not pleasant to run with a dripping nose. My t-shirt sleeves made nice tissues, though.

I was planning on running while watching some Sex and the City on E!, but once I got going I realized that the TV on my treadmill was broken. I had my iPod, so it wasn't worth the effort to change machines, but I've noticed lately that probably a third of the machines of my gym have something wrong with them- broken TVs, wonky computer systems that mess up the resistance/speed, super-squeaky parts, etc. Suffice to say that it's quite annoying!  Though I won't disclose the gym I go to for safety reasons, it's definitely pretty cheap compared to many NYC gyms. I'm debating whether I should look into other gyms and see if there's a better local alternative within my price range. What do you think?

The most important things to me are:
 1. Location- My current gym is a 5 minute walk, which I love.
 2. Working machines- Ehh. See above.
 3. Cost- It's more expensive than my PA gym, but for NYC it's not bad.
 4. Classes- Barely any are offered, and the ones I've taken I haven't been impressed by.

What do you look for in a gym? What amenities do you need to have, and what are you willing to do without?