Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Can't Go To The Gym

It's been a couple, if not a few, weeks since I've gone to the gym.  And to be honest, it has been for a lack of trying.  I mean, I know I should go work out, and a part of me wants to work out -- sometimes.  But I haven't been able to go.

Ultimately, it's me.  I just haven't really committed myself into exercising.  I feel out of shape, and I think I could have done more to combat my insouciance and just get my butt into the community center.  With that said, I have had other ... yeah, let's call them excuses that have stymied me.

Let's start small and petty.  I was going to work out after work Monday.  But once again, work in The Fourth Department made me get out of there late.  Combine that with me needing to go to the library to both print out the bracket and e-mail my alma mater's alumni association a report for this volunteer event I set up.  By the time I left the library, it was close to 8 p.m.  The gym I go to closes at around 10, but there is this indoor volleyball group that I was afraid would end at around 8.  The locker room is small, and I didn't want to be around a bunch of nude men while I was changing clothes.  If I got there earlier, I was pretty sure I would avoid that, but not around 8.  So I went home and used the stair climber at home instead.

I tried going there a few days before.  But I lolled around, looking at my phone, before hopping out of bed a bit past 7, which is a tad late for me to go out to exercise.  Then I waited ten minutes at a train crossing.  And then, once I got to the front desk of the community center, there was this old lady who also wanted to use the exercise room.  She was coughing up a whole lung while asking dumb questions about the exercise room.  I walked down to the locker room and thought, nah, I don't want to be working out in the same room as that person.  And on my way out, I saw that lady, presumably in the clothes she would be exercising in, smoking a cigarette.

So I went home and used the stair climber at home instead.  I had this quasi-obsession of using that thing while my parents were gone.  Specifically, that stair climber has four settings, two of 20 minutes and two of 30, that I wanted to go through.  Moreover, I had to go through one cycle of each of the settings or else my OCD would really act up.  I completed that cycle before leaving for Hawai'i last year, so I thought about going through one more cycle, even though I really wanted to work out at the gym because it has more equipment and TVs.  But running into this lady reminded me of a perk of working out at home which I occasionally had to deal with at that exercise room: I am totally by myself, and don't have to worry about other people breathing out potentially sick germs.  Hell, I can also work out naked!

I was afraid running out to the community center would ruin my chances of completing a second cycle.  But seeing this dirty lady, and then needing to spend time at the library, allowed me to finish up the last two settings and complete a second cycle on the stair climber.  Oh, and Mother has weight I use for a little weight training.  Oh, and Father gave me this push-up bar that I also use when I'm working out at home.  OK, so I do have a few things to work out with at home.  Still want to go out to the gym.

I wanted to go Thursday, and maybe catch some tournament Games if I go in the evening.  But there's yet another goddamn snowstorm that appears to be bad enough that driving out to the community center isn't wise.  That's hasn't been the first time this winter I wanted to go out and work out but couldn't because of a snowstorm.  But really, the dreariness of the winter, in particular night coming on so early, had slowly eroded any energy I had after work to go drive out there.  I knew that I had to fight that inertia because otherwise I would be very out of shape, but I couldn't motivate myself to get up and get out often enough.  And so I stayed at home, mostly in bed, fat.

Daylight Saving(s) Time should be an effort to combat that.  The change happened Sunday and I already feel more energy after work because it's brighter later.  I think I will be even more motivated once my parents are home because I don't really want to be at home the same time as them a whole lot.  But in retrospect, yeah, I think I allowed too many obstacles to stop me from exercising.

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