Last weekend while carrying in the groceries, I realized that the angle I held the bags at seemed to be working my stomach muscles. And we all know that I wouldn’t care how big I am if I just had a flat stomach and lost the granny arms.

So, I talked my husband into letting me buy two 5 lb barbells to sort of work out with. When I say talked into, I mean “Honey, I want some weights.” Anyway, so this weekend we drove out to KMart and checked out their neoprene coated barbells.

You know, it’s a lot harder to choose weights than you’d think.

At first, 5 lbs seemed too light. It wasn’t doing anything for my muscles. Then I tried 10 lbs. That seemed to light as well at first, but quickly became too heavy. Then I tried 8 pounders, which seemed just fine to me, but as I don’t work out much, I was concerned about injuring myself.

I picked up these little 2 pounders thinking they were kind of cute. I was surprised to find that even though they weighed so little, the grip was smaller, which actually worked my muscles more.

Still, I didn’t want to pay for 4 barbells to do different exercises with, so I finally settled back on the 5 lbs that I originally wanted.

I think I made the right choice. While they indeed are not very heavy, after several minutes of exercises, or even just 1 minute trying to hold them out straight, you feel the weight. Any heavier, and I wouldn’t be able to do these exercises that I think will benefit me most. 2 pounders might do it for me, but I think I’d quickly outgrow them.

We’ll see how it works. I’m trying a lot of new things. Hubby and I are taking short walks after work (very short- about a block), drinking spearmint tea, and using weights to work my muscles better. If we walked farther, I’d have gotten ankle weights, but I don’t think they’d do any good for the short distance we go, and I don’t pick my feet up when on the Gazelle.

We shall see.