Fitness

Starting in September I started taking some fitness classes. It is now March and I'm thinking of joining a gym this summer!

While I've never been the most active person in the world (never regularly working out) I'm okay running after the kids and can go for walks and bike rides just fine. After Jon's surgery (almost one year ago), he started weightlifting, discovered he loved it and goes to the gym every day to lift. I know that fitness is important in terms of general health, but it is difficult, I think, as a SAHM to find ways to actually work out with the kids. Recently I tried to do a video at home with Lucy, and that lasted all of 10 minutes.

Anyway, back in September I signed up for one night class through our city's sports and rec department and signed up for one class at a business that caters to moms, so I could take Lucy to my workouts. So, since September, and not counting winter break, I've been taking two weight training classes a week. While I haven't really lost any weight or seen any changes in my body, I can tell that I have gained strength. I can now bench press with two 15-pound dumbbells instead of my starting point of 8. Could I do 20? Probably.

When I first started, I was doing it for Oscar, Bella, Tittle and Firefly. I was doing it to show them how strong their mom could become. At some point, my thinking changed. I wasn't doing it just for them anymore. I was doing it for me, too. I needed to show myself, Gus and Lucy how strong I can be. If I want to live as long as I can with my diabetes, I need to take better care of myself, and fitness needs to be a part of that. The only problems: the place that I can bring Lucy to increased their prices more than I want to pay and if Jon is ever gone, I might not be able to attend my night class as there is no child care.

The spring session just ended this week at the place I can bring Lucy, and I haven't signed up for the next session which begins April 18 (too expensive for me). Starting next week, I have two night classes through the city, but the problem of potentially missing class if Jon's out of town on a business trip remains. There have been two times that I've had friends watch Gus and Lucy so I can go to my night class in the past, but if my friends aren't available I don't want to have to pay $20 for a babysitter to watch the kids so I can go exercise for 45-minutes.

So, I have these two night classes that run through the late part of May, and then I have no fitness classes scheduled. I have learned that I am not like Jon, and I cannot just go to the gym. I don't have the time, effort or energy to put into learning good programs and implementing them. Where I am in my fitness journey right now, I NEED a class at a scheduled time with an instructor that can check my form and come up with the exercises we do each time. I have a list of five gyms that offer childcare that are reasonably close to where I live. I want to spend a little more time contemplating what it is that I'm really searching for in a gym and then it's time to go gym shopping.

While I know I'll be intimidated starting at a gym, I know that with a membership I will be able to exercise more than twice a week, often times during the day without taking away from family time at night, and I'll hopefully have good instructors that I feel are a good fit for me. And, the bonus would be if Jon and I are at the same gym that we can go together on the weekends and help support each other in being healthy.