Thursday, August 19, 2010

RIP

Pictured here is my elliptical machine, just before it was released from service due to exhaustion. Not my exhaustion, mind you. 

I've been using an elliptical to workout for a while.  For the last 7 years, I've had one at home.  The advantage of this arrangement is that I could workout whenever I liked.  The disadvantage was that my workouts were never quite perfect.  For one thing, I could be interrupted by a number of domestic issues (from snack provision to bootie-wiping and homework assistance; there was always something).  For another, at-home machines simply cannot generate the same range of workout options as gym-grade machines.  But it was a mandatory compromise: I needed to workout to keep my psyche on an even keel and I needed to do it at home so I could keep an eye on the boy.

Though I longed for a gym membership, I set it aside as a pipe dream.  Then my machine broke, just when I needed it most because JT was scheduled to be at Camp Ex for a week.  As a temporary measure, I scored a free 10 day pass at a local gym.  And I continued the search for a replacement home elliptical.

That didn't go all that well once I realized the range of options at the gym: weights, spin classes, a variety of ellipticals and other cardio machines……..all the features of workout fantasies, should you suffer from this particular affliction.  Shopping for home ellipticals after working out on gym ellipticals was a bit like driving a BMW one day and a Yugo the next.  And I was hooked on the Beamer.

Though I am by no means a selfless person, much of my day-to-day existence is devoted to taking care of other people's needs.  Every once in a while I have a meltdown related to this fact.  A quality workout is a way to care for myself so that I remain capable of caring for others.  It's a way of ensuring my own marginal sanity in a life that I still find difficult. 

So even though JT's detention at Camp Parenting Time has ended for the year, I've still got my gym pass.  JT and I will have to work out the logistics of a workout plan which will now take me out of the house.  No doubt it won't go as smoothly as I would wish.  But it's not a luxury for me to work out and it's long-overdue for me to come first for a few of hours each week.

1 comment:

Nichole said...

Yes, yes, yes. I finally got fed up with being a fatty, never getting out of the house, and putting 5 other people ahead of me. We got our YMCA membership in January, and we are so much better because of it. Now that three kids are in school, I can drop them off, take Soren to the on site daycare, and get my ass movin'. I figured the kids and hubby are going to need me around for a long time to do their laundry and such, and me being healthy is a big part of that.