Should I Stay or Should I Go
Way back in July of 2009, xhollydayx and I pre-paid up for 18 months of gym memberships at the Rocky River FitWorks. The price was reasonable, especially since my employer paid for 90% of my fees. I went 2-3 times a week for a solid nine months or so. Then, as usually happens to me, I missed a week and fell out of the habit. A sprained ankle during ultimate last summer with accompanying knee pain put the last nail in the coffin; I don't think I've been back since June.
So on the face of it, now that the contract is up (I got a bill in the mail for the next month) I should go cancel it, since I wasn't using it. I suspect my weight wouldn't be much effected. It turns out that walking two dogs anywhere from 45 minutes a day (winter) to 90 minutes a day (all other seasons) combined with my surprisingly healthy diet has kept my weight in the same place for ages. In fact, my job actually had a contest over the holidays. You weighed yourself on the day before Thanksgiving, and again on the first day back after New Year's, and if you didn't gain weight in the interval you got a Target gift card. My weight for that typically high calorie span was unchanged, or at least within standard deviation; I went down 1.7 pounds.
Of course, there are other reasons to work out besides weight control. Muscle tone is a good thing; it'd reduce chances of re-injuring my knee or my back. Walks, no matter how extensive, aren't great for cardio, and although my weight isn't increasing it's definitely shifting around in unflattering ways. While I acknowledge all of these issues, I have trouble justifying a real workout schedule minus a tangible goal.
For example, in high school I played football. With the goal of "start on varsity" I was in the gym 4 days a week, and ran 2+ miles a day all summer. After college I was accepted into USMC OCS. I hit the gym twice a day, six days a week, and averaged 50 miles of road running a week in a North Dakota winter. However, absent those two periods of time, I've never had a real end goal for working out, so although I've had stretches of solid exercising (all of my co-op in 1998, most of 2003 when I lived next store to the gym, etc) eventually I slack off and I stop. So what I really need is a goal.
I've already shown that a goal as nebulous as "stay healthy" just won't cut it. Although my knee is better, it's not up to the stress of running 5Ks, let alone longer distances, and I doubt it ever will be. Or at least not on asphalt or concrete, which is pretty much the option around here. The knee also acts up on bikes, at least based on my experience.
So if you any ideas for a goal that would motivate me to do lots of workouts, I'd love to hear them. Otherwise I suspect that if I renew my gym membership (and I might as well since my job pays for it) that'll I'll just fall off the wagon at some point.
So on the face of it, now that the contract is up (I got a bill in the mail for the next month) I should go cancel it, since I wasn't using it. I suspect my weight wouldn't be much effected. It turns out that walking two dogs anywhere from 45 minutes a day (winter) to 90 minutes a day (all other seasons) combined with my surprisingly healthy diet has kept my weight in the same place for ages. In fact, my job actually had a contest over the holidays. You weighed yourself on the day before Thanksgiving, and again on the first day back after New Year's, and if you didn't gain weight in the interval you got a Target gift card. My weight for that typically high calorie span was unchanged, or at least within standard deviation; I went down 1.7 pounds.
Of course, there are other reasons to work out besides weight control. Muscle tone is a good thing; it'd reduce chances of re-injuring my knee or my back. Walks, no matter how extensive, aren't great for cardio, and although my weight isn't increasing it's definitely shifting around in unflattering ways. While I acknowledge all of these issues, I have trouble justifying a real workout schedule minus a tangible goal.
For example, in high school I played football. With the goal of "start on varsity" I was in the gym 4 days a week, and ran 2+ miles a day all summer. After college I was accepted into USMC OCS. I hit the gym twice a day, six days a week, and averaged 50 miles of road running a week in a North Dakota winter. However, absent those two periods of time, I've never had a real end goal for working out, so although I've had stretches of solid exercising (all of my co-op in 1998, most of 2003 when I lived next store to the gym, etc) eventually I slack off and I stop. So what I really need is a goal.
I've already shown that a goal as nebulous as "stay healthy" just won't cut it. Although my knee is better, it's not up to the stress of running 5Ks, let alone longer distances, and I doubt it ever will be. Or at least not on asphalt or concrete, which is pretty much the option around here. The knee also acts up on bikes, at least based on my experience.
So if you any ideas for a goal that would motivate me to do lots of workouts, I'd love to hear them. Otherwise I suspect that if I renew my gym membership (and I might as well since my job pays for it) that'll I'll just fall off the wagon at some point.