I still haven't gotten back on the elliptical because my foot took longer to recover from my gout flare-up that I thought. But I still have some good news...

It's become increasingly apparent that, despite some success, I have a problem with discipline in my weight-loss quest.

Sorry for the delayed update this week, but I've got good news: I appear to have pushed through the dog days and gotten my second wind.

So this week's weigh-in was not much better than last week's. I maintained my weight of 181, despite five days of high-intensity workouts. What's the deal?

I've not posted in a while, but I promise you it's not because I've quit working out or counting my calories. Both are still going strong, I'm glad to report. However, today I had my first setback since I renewed my vow to exercise and lose weight.

What's on your exercise playlist? Do you even have one?

For me, and many others, music makes a workout seem to go faster. And the right song can often give you an energy boost when you need it most. But I've never found that perfect mix of music.

I'm pretty schizophrenic with my workout music. As I mentioned before, I have a "Workout Mix" on my iPod, but I often find myself skipping over most of the choices and going into the general library to find the right song at the right moment.

Sometimes ... no, a lot of times, that's a challenge. Full disclosure: I'm a huge dork. I'm a big fan of movie scores (the instrumental music you hear in movies) and they make up about 99 percent of the 25,000 selections on my iPod. Though a rousing piece from a sports movie can offer a pick-me-up from time to time (think "Rocky" or "Rudy"), I find the usefulness of film music as a workout tool pretty limited. That "Workout Mix" I mentioned? Yeah, all movie scores.

So I usually turn to upbeat rock music, usually from the '80s. Skid Row, Van Halen, Twisted Sister, Def Leppard, even Stryper (remember them?). But I also have Michael Jackson, the Bee Gees (just one song, "Nights on Broadway"), Ozzy Osbourne, Jason Mraz and probably a dozen others from the past 30 years or so. Those get the job done, but I can't help but think there's a perfect playlist out there somewhere. At least, perfect for me.

That said, I'm open to recommendations. What's on your playlist? What songs get you pumped and ready to burn calories? I'm not pretentious about music. A good song is a good song, no matter the genre. I'm looking for a list that's between 35 and 40 minutes long, give or take.

Send suggestions to jason.foster@newsobserver.com. I'll have iTunes fired up and ready to download.