It's Fun to Stay at the YMCA!

I don't know how much fun it would be to actually stay there, but, after months of debate, Mark and I finally took the plunge over the weekend and signed up for a family membership at the YMCA. The membership is really reasonable and gives us 50% off classes, so the savings on Lainey’s swim lessons gives us a free month right there. Plus, we want to sign her up for gymnastics in the fall—BOOM another free month!

As most know, I’ve never been in love with the gym (or physical activity in general). Pre-kids, Mark would have to drag me there on Saturday mornings with the promise of some sort of yummy food afterward. But, Mark definitely needs his workouts and with the added stress of his job lately, I want him to have a place to go and blow off some steam. Also, I want to set an example for the kids that exercise and taking care of ourselves is important and should be a priority. So, we’re working out a schedule to allow us both to get there at least twice a week (and I’m hoping Mark can get a third). 

I’m doing Wednesdays, Mark Thursdays, and then we’ll both go once on the weekends. They do offer childcare, but given we work all week, we really don’t like giving up time with the kids on the weekends, so we’ll probably get our gym time in during naps.

I had my first visit last night. The cardio machines are super nice! Way better than any gym I’ve belonged to before. They all have TVs and iPhone adapters for your viewing needs. I jumped on an elliptical (my machine of choice) and starting going hard. It felt pretty good! I thought, “oh yeah, I can still do this. What’s a little two-year slump?” (Yes, friends, the last time I did any cardio heavier than dance parties with the kids was before Nick was born—YIKES!). I’m moving along to my tunes, feeling like a badass, big stupid smile on my face, and then it started to feel a little tough. My thighs were feeling the burn and my breathing was definitely getting heavy. Thinking I was probably 15 minutes or so into my session, I look down and see I had only been at it for eight minutes. EIGHT MINUTES?!!! Surely, the display was incorrect? Guess those dance parties weren’t keeping me as fit as I thought. I took my pace down a bit, but kept going. My itunes seemed to know just the song to play next to keep me motivated. I started to pick up the pace again—oh yeah, back on track!—then I looked at the time again. Bad move. I’d only gone another four minutes. GROAN!!! In the end, I did do a full 30 minutes on the elliptical (so what if 10 of them were more of a cool down than actual cardio). But, really what did I expect? I’m almost 36 and haven’t been working out regularly for far too long a time. So it wasn’t a great workout, but it’s a start!