Do you do the Gym?
Posted at 4:52 am on November 17, 2009 by Farrah
I have never really been one of those girls who loves exercise. I cheered a bit in jr. high and high school but was never really much of an athlete. My dad, a big-time runner and gym-goer, tried to get me fired up about some sort of sport when I was younger. He tried to teach me tennis (which was pretty fun) and competitive swimming (which I stunk at) and even softball (which was ok but I was just not cut out for it). At different times in my life, I have gotten on these health-kicks where I will join a gym and go semi-regularly for a few months and then slowly get tired of it and stop going. After a personal tragedy several years ago, I took a couple yoga and Pilates classes and fell in love with it. I guess that is the thing that I stuck with the longest and actually kinda miss. Yeah, I miss it because that too eventually worked it’s way out of my daily/weekly schedule.
I totally see the benefits to exercise. I am a nurse, so I know how it is good for your body and your overall health. I admire people who get themselves to the gym daily or weekly and take care of themselves. And as my youngest starts to breastfeed less and I continue to eat the calories of a breastfeeding mama, I will probably start seeing some motivation to exercise when I try to fit into my favorite jeans or when I look at our family pictures this fall. But I still don’t think I’ll be hitting the gym.
There is something about all those people sweating in the same place, on the same equipment that makes this
semi-germ-a-phobe mother cringe a bit. (I know they wipe things down, but still….) I am also not a big fan of seeing myself or anyone else in spandex. Never pretty. Mostly though, it is the time thing. I barely have time to shower every other day much less fit in an hour work-out plus driving to the gym and finding a place for the kiddos… blah, blah, blah. It sounds like a bunch of excuses for laziness. And maybe it is. I have just never been able to stick to any kind of gym regimen. It is just not me. I do have a couple yoga and pilates DVDs that I occasionally do at home. I’ll probably be busting those out soon to combat my lack of caloric restraint. But that is the extent of my exercise routine. And I use the word routine very loosely.
But I am pretty sure that no matter how many pounds I put on, you won’t see me at the gym. I keep my sweat and tight fitting clothing to myself. Anyone have a Wii they want to loan/give me? I might could get into that. But there is no guarantee which is probably why my Hubby won’t buy me one. He knows my stinky track-record on things in this genre.
If you are a gym-goer and have some secret tricks for gym perseverance you would like to share, please do! I am certainly open to suggestions. But for the time being, I will pray my baby doesn’t wean until I can get my exercise-act together. I gotta burn those late-night calories someway and it most likely won’t be on the treadmill.
I have heard the Wii actually doesn’t burn many calories-about the same as a leisurily walk. So I guess there is some benefit to it, but for me, not enough to spend the several hundred dollars to buy it. I used to do a lot of the “Biggest Loser” DVDs-they were nice because you could choose-at the beginning-to do a 10 minute work out up to a 60+ minute workout. Plus, you could choose if you wanted to do cardio that day, weights, a combo, etc. And no fast forwarding-just tell it in the menu I want to do workout A and C in that order and play and it went.
Good luck! PS. I found netflix especially helpful while trying out workout DVDs because I’d say 75% were a bust.
Yeah, I’ve never been super into the gym either. For pretty similar reasons. I was a member at a woman’s gym for about a year and a half & that was better then anything I’d done. The one nice thing was once I was there I had no excuse…I had to work out. When I’m home I have a million reasons not to work out although I much prefer my workouts at home when I do them. I was on a real kick with my P90x until I started working! Now I’m not sure how to fit in such lengthy workouts. They are very effective ..but pretty intense.