The Gym - Go Figure!

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So that cold draft you've been feeling? It's hell freezing over and it's all my fault. I joined a gym.

What the ...? I never thought I'd be saying this, but I actually enjoy it. Go figure! It was a New Year's Resolution. I'm probably the laziest, most unmotivated person I know, and yet I've been dragging my butt to the gym at least four days a week for three weeks now. And liking it, mostly. Well, the cardio part is pretty boring. The only way through it is to just do it. Yes I do realize that rhymes. And yes, like the Nike slogan. Also, it reminds me of something I heard a woman say in the locker room the first week I was there. She said to someone, "I'm doing it," and I thought that would be a wonderful advertising slogan, better than "just do it."

Anyway, cardio = boring. You get your heart pumping and you sweat. Whoop de doo. For the first two weeks I put my mp3 player on shuffle & just skipped past any slow tempo songs that popped up. That helped. Then I discovered last week (in keeping with the "no electronics" week at Joe's school) that the Stephen King book I've been reading fits nicely over the display panel of the exercise bike, so I just hold the page open with two fingers & pedal away. Time passes more quickly reading than it does with music and I'm able to keep my heart rate up while reading. Again, go figure!

The most surprising thing: I really enjoy the weight machines. My favorites are a "free motion" rowing machine & the big overhead bent bar pull down thing. It feels so good to stretch & strenghten muscles. I love it! In a million years you couldn't have convinced me that I would love it, but I really do. It feels good doing it and it feels good after. It is most certainly releasing some kind of muscle endorphins or something.

After cardio & strength training (don't I sound like I know what I"m talking about!?) sometimes I just come home, but sometimes I stick around to enjoy the jacuzzi, pool, sauna, and steam room. Why do these things all feel so good?

The bad part is, 3 weeks in, I haven't lost a single pound. All this exercising has stimulated my appetite but apparently not my metabolism. I keep getting hungry like I haven't eaten for days. But oh, I've been eating all right. I need to knock it off!

So there you go: a new blog post and a new good habit of getting some exercise. People can change. Go figure!