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OK, NEG, you made me feel guilty, sitting around all day while the sun is shining brightly and it's 70 degrees in my neighborhood.
So yesterday, I decided to take a walk around my development -- for the first time since I moved here almost a year ago. I'm not a fan of the outdoors, but I thought, enough of sitting in my house all day, moving from computer chair to living room couch to kitchen chair.
It was really very nice, I have to say, and I walked briskly around for about a half hour and called it quits. And here is the good part: I did it again today! Two days in a row of exercising!
I feel your pain about the Y, though. I used to belong to the Y before I moved here, and I had to force myself to go. Yours sounds nicer -- we didn't have a pool at ours. Even if there had been a pool, I'd have found some excuse not to go. I do hate to exercise -- I think it is a result of years of enforced PE classes in junior high and high school.
Over my coconut ice cream (reward for going to the Y earlier), I wonder: why don't those beautiful young skinny women on Downton Abbey have to go to the gym? All they do is eat at table and sit around drawing rooms. I was born in the wrong era.
Over my coconut ice cream (reward for going to the Y earlier), I wonder: why don't those beautiful young skinny women on Downton Abbey have to go to the gym? All they do is eat at table and sit around drawing rooms. I was born in the wrong era.
Yes, they don't lift a finger do they? But then the Dowager looks a bit round so the young ones will add a few lbs. here and there as age creeps up on them.
As far as joining a gym, which I have done over my lifetime, I admitted to myself a long time ago that I am just not a "joiner", work is as much "joining" as I can tolerate.
This is the last thing I want to do, but I realize finally at the age of 66 that living in the North I am not getting the outdoor exercise I want to believe I'm getting. I'm turning into a couch potato. I'm unnerved by this. I have never done a gym on a regular basis, and in the past when I've tried it, I've had an aversion to the equipment (doing the settings on each, worrying about germs from previous users, feeling bored with the routines, etc). I have to do something or I'm going to croak. I need some advice on this, and encouragement. I realize most of you have been doing the gym for years, and it's old hat to you. I am going kicking and screaming.
We miss the gym, the whirlpool, the steam room, the sauna, the indoor swimming pool, meeting new friends our own age...........oh yeah the quickly-get-you-strong and in shape exercise equipment!
Our gym(s) always had (free) trainers to be sure you understood how to safely use the equipment without hurting yourself and now with anti-germ wipes you should feel better about the cleanliness of it too. We did the actual working out with the equipment part for maybe 15-20 minutes then ran off to the pool, etc.
It was fun, it Should be fun, if you are not having fun then the whole stress of it all makes it maybe worse than being a "couch potato" you just need to find the right gym/program for you.
NEG, I just read most of your story. Although I am (THANK GOODNESS) not in New England at the moment, I think I know just how you feel. I agree with the comment about the yoga class starting at 6:30 am and do they sleep there?
Though my medical plan I have been paying just $25/month for the past year to use the pool at the Y. Do I go? Nope. In the winter it's frigid and I would probably fall on the ice getting to the car. It's happened before.
The rest of the year I just don't feel like calling and signing up the day before to use the pool. Of course there is free swim about 1pm but by then I've lost all interest or I am out doing other things if the weather permits.
I only have a week before I have return to the arctic. Dread. But there must be a way. Setting some sort of schedule and sticking to it. Of course the weather will wreck any schedule and undermine the best of plans.
I am so glad to see that I am not alone in having these debates in my head about whether to go to a gym, or not. My wife and I have been, many years ago a member of the Y, and the last place we lived, we were a member of Gold's Gym. We really liked the feeling of the workout, and the feeling of knowing we are doing something good for ourselves, but for the past couple of years we haven't had the desire to pick a day, and time, and drive into town to workout. We went last week to Planet Fitness for a tour of the facility, and really liked it, but that seems to be the extent of it. I am guessing a lot of the problem is motivation, and with us, that is in short supply. I haven't given up, though. The membership application is still laying on the kitchen table, I think.
When the weather has been bad, like last winter, I used YouTube for my workouts along with Leslie Sansone DVD's and the execise programs On Demand.
Sansone's DVDs are the best. It was 6 years ago this week I popped one in and I've been going ever since. I do like running/walking outdoors but around here heat is a bigger factor than cold, and without Sansone I'd probably be a couch potato from May till September every year.
Quote:
Originally Posted by newenglandgirl
I wonder: why don't those beautiful young skinny women on Downton Abbey have to go to the gym? All they do is eat at table and sit around drawing rooms. I was born in the wrong era.
They sit at the table but they never eat, they just sip wine and gossip. And at tea time they completely ignore all those sumptuous cakes and just sip tea while they gossip.
Over my coconut ice cream (reward for going to the Y earlier), I wonder: why don't those beautiful young skinny women on Downton Abbey have to go to the gym? All they do is eat at table and sit around drawing rooms. I was born in the wrong era.
my reward is the no sugar added blue bunny ice cream. it is amazing stuff. I think when I retire I want to be the blue bunny spokesman the stuff is that good and a fraction of the sugar, calories and fat of regular
I am not a joiner either. I can't even tell you how many times I have joined gyms and not gone. I won't do it any more. Never, ever. And I am not going to set an alarm clock for the purposes of working out.
For me, the hardest part is the first step out the door. Honest. It's all downhill from there!
I have three big dogs who need exercise. That's part of my motivation. When it's not hot, I run, walk, and ride my bike. When it's hot I swim, walk, and ride my bike. Easy for me to say, I live in Vegas. But I did almost the same things when I lived in Minnesota. I had ice grips on my running shoes. If I still lived in cold country I think I would get some machine to put in my home.
I am not a joiner either. I can't even tell you how many times I have joined gyms and not gone. I won't do it any more. Never, ever. And I am not going to set an alarm clock for the purposes of working out.
For me, the hardest part is the first step out the door. Honest. It's all downhill from there!
I have three big dogs who need exercise. That's part of my motivation. When it's not hot, I run, walk, and ride my bike. When it's hot I swim, walk, and ride my bike. Easy for me to say, I live in Vegas. But I did almost the same things when I lived in Minnesota. I had ice grips on my running shoes. If I still lived in cold country I think I would get some machine to put in my home.
Good luck! This is a hard habit to form.
Amen, Sister! In the past several years I have tried going to the gym at the Y and then the gym at the Senior Center. I never made it to the Y and I only made it one time to the Senior Center.
I've only walked my small dog one or two times since the temperature dropped to freezing. (Last time I almost fell on my a** when the little bugger pulled me across a patch of ice.) I know I should buy exercise equipment but I dread having to move, sell or donate the items if I move to a warmer climate.
Regardless, no more joining gyms for me!!
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