Shaking things up

I’ve been so bad with working out lately.

Work out at a gym.

Work out at home.

Work out with a video.

Walk the neighborhood.

Mornings.

Evenings.

Lunch hour.

Doesn’t matter.  Nothing works for very long.  I get bored.  But I have to shake things up or it will be yet another long winter where I fall off the workout wagon and gain back the 7 pounds I’ve managed to lose, and then some.  Next thing I know it’s May and I have 20 pounds to lose by summer. 

It just doesn’t happen. 

I have no excuse really.  My employer is a part of this healthy lifestyles program thru our health care provider.  They offer free gym memberships with participating gyms.  That’s right.  FREE!   So what’s my problem?

When I signed up for my gym of choice, it was the only gym in my city on the list.  I decided it was the best idea to choose one near home.  Only problem is I work about 35 miles from home.  I did ok for a while, I’d change my clothes at work so I wouldn’t just drive home and skip the gym.  But this gym is pretty dinky.  I thought I was stuck with my selection for at the very least, a year.  But, not too long ago I happened to find out we can now be a member of as many gyms as we want.  A woman at work who lost like 30 pounds said she belongs to 3 gyms to get the variety of classes she likes.  Lightbulb! 

My problem is the gyms near me that participate, and there aren’t many, do not include their classes.  They’re extra.  Sigh . . . I really don’t want to start paying for classes when I’m fortunate to save money for not having to pay for the gym.  I want the cow AND the milk dammit!

So today I checked out a gym downtown near my office.   This one includes their classes.  Problem is, it’s not entirely convenient.  It’s several blocks away.  Probably a good 12 minute walk.  They aren’t offering any classes in the morning but they have them during the lunch hour and at 5:30.  I could walk, but that’s almost 25 minutes of my lunch hour spent getting changed and just getting there.  Add in a 45 minute class, freshening up and heading back and I’m now at 1.5 hours at least.  I’m just an assistant and can’t get away with that sort of thing.  

I could take this free trolley thing and it would probably shave off half the time it takes to get there, but the trick is catching one.  Miss it and forget it.  You’re hoofing it.  I suppose I c0uld just count the walking as “exercise” but I don’t.  It doesn’t do enough for me.  It took me almost 25 minutes to get signed up and the ladies I went there with were almost done with their workouts.  I decided to just head back.  But at least I took the first step in setting myself up with another option.

Since we can belong to more than one gym, I didn’t stop there.  I decided to go to a much better and newly listed gym in my home city.  Their classes are extra money, but not terrible.  It took some time to sign up again but this time I decided to stay and workout.  I was not about to set foot into two separate gyms today with gym bag on my arm and not workout.  It took some effort on my part since I’ve been away from it for a few weeks, but I pushed myself.

I’m glad I did.  It felt good to get back into it.  I’ve got to keep it up this time because how can I not?  I have options now.  A gym near home and a gym near work.  As long as I have a packed gym bag with me at all times, I will be ready for anything.  No excuses!