I love my new gym
After my poor health last weekend, Monday was the day I decided I needed to turn things around. I bought my own food, ate vegetables, walked to work, tried to be cheerful, and joined a new gym.
I actually was a member of another gym, in fact probably still am because they haven't confirmed receipt of my resignation yet. It was my first gym, and I actually did go regularly when I was unemployed and during MBA school. The ex joined first and talked me into it, and we used to go together in the morning or evening, and it was something we did together.
After our split it was cool if we ran into each other there, but then I started to kind of dread it. And also, working full-time and being over-committed to after-work activities as I am, I couldn't find the right time of day to go. I tried getting up at 6, but with a habit of staying up until 2, and now that it's winter and so dark and cold at 6, that totally has not been working. I was paying an average of about $100 per visit, given the frequency that I'd actually make it there, so I suspended my membership for a few months to think it over.
My suspension lapsed last month and I paid a whole month's membership to a building I hardly even walked by. So obviously I wasn't motivated to go. And I think it was partly, well, maybe largely, because of him. I haven't seen him for six months. Two emails, one on each birthday, and otherwise no contact at all. So the more he becomes a figure of my distant past, the more I am loathe to run into him while going about my life doing something else. And then, of course, there was no telling that he might be there with her, she might be in town - who would warn me? - and they might be there together, and then I'd have to claw her eyes out in my own gym, rather than out on the street or somewhere as I'd always planned, and I'd be barred anyway. (Kidding! Censors. Kidding, not a genuine threat, I promise!)
So Monday I decided to just walk up and inquire at the new Fitness First that's opened around the corner from work. I was just going to look, and inquire, and see what their rates were. But you know how gym sales guys are. "So, having had a look around, does this look like someplace that you would come to regularly? Does it seem to meet all of your needs?" and then jump quickly to, "If you sign up today I can waive 85% of the joining fee," and before I knew it I was signing on a dotted line and getting a membership card.
I wasn't able to actually go over there until tonight after work. Fridays are always uncrowded in gyms, so I knew it would be nice. But it was extra nice! Fantastic! Wonderful! I love my new gym! It is fantastically well-appointed, with brand new restrooms like you'd have in a very fancy restaurant, and hair dryers and an iron and ironing board, and paper towels on the walls everywhere for mopping sweat from the machines, and a sauna and new carpet and huge banks of TVs. They have about 500 of every kind of machine, so not only did I find a treadmill but I had two on either side of me free. And there are so many members that you have complete and utter anonymity. There are tons and tons of beautiful people there, but everyone is just doing their thing, there's no attitude and people pay no attention to each other. I did find one person older and one person much fatter, which I always try to do (but no one worse dressed - I must get some snazzy new exer-clothes). I didn't find a woman who was older and fatter, but that was because there were hardly any women there at all, I suppose not surprising since the gym is about ten steps off of Oxford Street, and a block from where the Mardi Gras parade starts. But it was so comfortable! And the stretching area, which is acres wide so you don't get in anyone's way, looks out at big glass windows, and outside you can see Centre Point Tower. How cool is that? A Sydney landmark, right outside the window of the stretching area?
My persuasive sales guy had told me that people who belong to a gym near home tend to go an average of 1.3 times a week, whereas people who belong to a gym near work tend to go 2.9 times a week (or some figures like that). I believe him! It's heaps, heaps easier to go the gym directly from work, and not from the cozy comfort and distractingness of home. You're already out in the world doing out in the world kind of stuff. Gym is just one more.
Also, my boss has offered to pay for my membership. So it's all good!
I love my new gym. I think I might actually go more than once a month, to this one! And the best thing is, there is no way my ex would ever run into me there, because he would never, ever dream that I would join up to a huge, glitzy, anonymous place like that. Hooray!
I actually was a member of another gym, in fact probably still am because they haven't confirmed receipt of my resignation yet. It was my first gym, and I actually did go regularly when I was unemployed and during MBA school. The ex joined first and talked me into it, and we used to go together in the morning or evening, and it was something we did together.
After our split it was cool if we ran into each other there, but then I started to kind of dread it. And also, working full-time and being over-committed to after-work activities as I am, I couldn't find the right time of day to go. I tried getting up at 6, but with a habit of staying up until 2, and now that it's winter and so dark and cold at 6, that totally has not been working. I was paying an average of about $100 per visit, given the frequency that I'd actually make it there, so I suspended my membership for a few months to think it over.
My suspension lapsed last month and I paid a whole month's membership to a building I hardly even walked by. So obviously I wasn't motivated to go. And I think it was partly, well, maybe largely, because of him. I haven't seen him for six months. Two emails, one on each birthday, and otherwise no contact at all. So the more he becomes a figure of my distant past, the more I am loathe to run into him while going about my life doing something else. And then, of course, there was no telling that he might be there with her, she might be in town - who would warn me? - and they might be there together, and then I'd have to claw her eyes out in my own gym, rather than out on the street or somewhere as I'd always planned, and I'd be barred anyway. (Kidding! Censors. Kidding, not a genuine threat, I promise!)
So Monday I decided to just walk up and inquire at the new Fitness First that's opened around the corner from work. I was just going to look, and inquire, and see what their rates were. But you know how gym sales guys are. "So, having had a look around, does this look like someplace that you would come to regularly? Does it seem to meet all of your needs?" and then jump quickly to, "If you sign up today I can waive 85% of the joining fee," and before I knew it I was signing on a dotted line and getting a membership card.
I wasn't able to actually go over there until tonight after work. Fridays are always uncrowded in gyms, so I knew it would be nice. But it was extra nice! Fantastic! Wonderful! I love my new gym! It is fantastically well-appointed, with brand new restrooms like you'd have in a very fancy restaurant, and hair dryers and an iron and ironing board, and paper towels on the walls everywhere for mopping sweat from the machines, and a sauna and new carpet and huge banks of TVs. They have about 500 of every kind of machine, so not only did I find a treadmill but I had two on either side of me free. And there are so many members that you have complete and utter anonymity. There are tons and tons of beautiful people there, but everyone is just doing their thing, there's no attitude and people pay no attention to each other. I did find one person older and one person much fatter, which I always try to do (but no one worse dressed - I must get some snazzy new exer-clothes). I didn't find a woman who was older and fatter, but that was because there were hardly any women there at all, I suppose not surprising since the gym is about ten steps off of Oxford Street, and a block from where the Mardi Gras parade starts. But it was so comfortable! And the stretching area, which is acres wide so you don't get in anyone's way, looks out at big glass windows, and outside you can see Centre Point Tower. How cool is that? A Sydney landmark, right outside the window of the stretching area?
My persuasive sales guy had told me that people who belong to a gym near home tend to go an average of 1.3 times a week, whereas people who belong to a gym near work tend to go 2.9 times a week (or some figures like that). I believe him! It's heaps, heaps easier to go the gym directly from work, and not from the cozy comfort and distractingness of home. You're already out in the world doing out in the world kind of stuff. Gym is just one more.
Also, my boss has offered to pay for my membership. So it's all good!
I love my new gym. I think I might actually go more than once a month, to this one! And the best thing is, there is no way my ex would ever run into me there, because he would never, ever dream that I would join up to a huge, glitzy, anonymous place like that. Hooray!
posted by Ellen at 10:40 pm
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