The Gym Rat is Back

I went to the gym today for the first time in six months.  There’s a few reasons I haven’t been, which I won’t go in to, but this morning I woke up, and said enough is enough.

The fact that we decided to skip band practice didn’t hurt.

So, I got my gear on, threw the iPod in the arm band, filled my water bottle, and headed off.

I took it fairly easy, just fifteen minutes on the elliptical and twenty walking at a slight incline.   I burned 275 calories.  Not bad at all for the first time after six months.

I had completely forgotten how great/awful it feels to go to the gym.   I won’t ever be one of those freaks that tells you working out feels good.  It hurts.   It hurts my knees.   I get cramps in my sides.   I breathe heavily.   I sweat A LOT.  At the same time, it’s still good to feel the air moving in and out of my lungs, and I love that zoned out mind wandering feeling that I get in the middle of the workout.  

So now I just have to keep up the good work, and keep going.

Back to the Gym

I used to have a very good gym habit.  At one point, I was going as many as five times per week.  Of course, I also lived around the corner from my gym.

After an illness, and moving, I’ve just fallen out of the habit.   So even though I haven’t made any resolutions about such things, I do realize that I would like to get back into the routine.  Even if I only go half as much as I was going when it was practically in my kitchen, that wouldn’t be half bad.   Especially since I’m contemplating walking the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in July.

I went this evening, and I did 20 minutes on the elliptical at half the level that I used to do for 40 minutes.   That was a little bit of an ego blow, but Rome wasn’t built in a day, right?    I probably could have pushed through and done another 10 minutes, but I figured it would be better to start out slow, even slower than I thought I needed.

So, I burned 200 calories.   Yay me!  Now I’m sitting here with a ThermaCare heat wrap on my bum knee.  Arthritis sucks.  This is part of the reason why I’m not sure about doing the 39.2 mile breast cancer walk.    However, if I keep going to the gym, and build up my knee, I may be just fine.

So here’s what I’m taking away from this: I just need to keep going, I need to pick up more of these wraps, and damn my new iPod is really that cool.