Healthy Cost

It seems like every once in a while I get this idea in the back of my head that I want to exercise and be healthy.  It's a dark, terrible thought as I enjoy coming home from work and doing nothing.  It is usually in the winter months when it gets dark outside early and we spend so much time in the house because of the cold.  Around the beginning of the year, I looked into a couple of local fitness centers and the YMCA that are close to us.  It should not come as a surprise, but exercising is expensive.  I was just curious about the cost and was honestly taken a little aback by it. 

I understand that the costs go into paying employees and the upkeep of the facilities and all that, but goddamn.  A membership for two adults at the local YMCA is just under $120 a month (or $70 for individual membership).  There are also facilities like Anytime Fitness, Snap Fitness, LA Fitness, etc. in the area.  Memberships ranging from $30-$50 dollars depending on the company.  That is just from a quick search of prices.  Who knows if there are any fees for registration or monthly dues.  Are those a thing?   

We could afford any of these places, but it would be something that we would have to budget out.  We are just getting over the fact that we replaced the furnace a few months ago.  Personally, it was a bit of a shock to see the prices.  Not a 'find me a fainting couch' type of shock, more of a 'huh, I was not expecting that' type of shock.  Like I said, I totally understand the reason for the prices.  It would be just as easy to go out and buy a bike and exercise that way or find some walking paths at local parks.  On the other hand, walking and biking during the winter months do not sound quite so fun. 

Being motivated to get out of the house and exercise is tough.  My thought is if I were putting money on a monthly basis towards a facility, I would want to get out and use it.  I'm paying for it, you know?  Wouldn't want to be wasting the money on something I don't use.

Yoga for Kids

For the longest time I have been wanting to write about this, but have always found other subjects and this just kept getting pushed to the back of the shelf.  Well, when I woke up two hours before my alarm went off, I found this idea kicking around my head and finally am getting around to write about this.

We sell yoga videos for kids at work.  Well, not videos.  Video.  One, but if you can find one there's bound to be more.  When I walk past it, I can't help but think that it's both good and bad.  It's good because it gets kids up and about.  It gets them off their asses and exercising, you can't argue that point.  But I don't remember growing up and having an exercise video I watched to keep me active.  I went outside and played or I went downstairs and ran around down there.  In fact, I can remember my mom owning a few workout VHS (look it up people not born before the 90s) but I do not remember her saying 'here kids, watch this and work out.'  She sent us outside to play with the neighbor kids.  Even in the winter time, we went outside.  We dug tunnels in the back yard.  We went to the Michigan Bell building and went sledding on the huge snow piles from the parking lots that I have always hoped the workers made for the neighborhood kids.   

When you are young enough, you don't realize that you are exercising and that it is good for you when you are playing.  You go out and run around because you are having fun.  You are playing with other kids, but you are outside.  Now, here is where I think that having an exercise video for kids is bad.  If you have a kid exercising using a video, they are still inside.  As people talk about our kids living a more sedentary lifestyle the easiest way to put an end to that is to get them out of the house.  Make them go out and play kick the can or kickball or dodge ball or tag (or freeze tag, or tv tag, or one of the thousands of types of tag we use to play as kids).  Make them get out of the house and get some fresh air, it does a body good. 





Either way, it's good for kids to get away from sitting around and exercising.  Even if the exercising takes place in front of the television that is the root of some of this evil.

The ten pound challenge

While making the transition from winter clothes to spring and summer clothes, A collected a box of items that were just a little too tight to fit into.  I asked her about the box and she said it's full of clothes that she wants to keep, but needs to lose about ten pounds.  We then joked a little bit about a ten pound box and went into the whole 'yeah, we really do need to start exercising and losing weight' discussion.  I then started to think about some clothes that are in the closet and dresser and came up with a mental ten pound box of my own.  We're getting old, our metabolism is starting to slow, beer tastes good, exercising sucks.  Whatever excuse you want to make for yourself, the fact is the majority of us out there can afford to lose ten pounds. 

One reason why I thought of this was because I couldn't sleep last night.  I tossed and turned just about every hour.  I would fall asleep for a little bit, wake up, and then turn over and fall back asleep.  Repeat this process for five hours and you have my evening.  During one of my moments of being awake, this thought came to me, why not set a goal of losing ten pounds to fit into these clothes that we have held onto?

I know that when I got my physical this year, one of the things my doctor stressed, other than getting a colonoscopy next year, was losing weight.  He wasn't exactly friendly about it, in fact, he came off rather dick-ish about it.  At any rate, over the past five years (or since I've been living in Kansas, is there a corelation, who knows) I've put on about fifteen pounds.  I guess you never really think of it when it's just four pounds here, or two pounds there, but the shit adds up.

So here is the plan.  Lose ten pounds.  That's it.  Through exercise, smart eating, and portion control (something I apparently have a problem with according to A).  The toughest part will be exercising.  I do not enjoy it.  I don't understand people that do enjoy it, but alas, that's just part of the game.

Camp and working out

We got back from camping with some friends today. It was nice and relaxing. The weather was perfect for it too, it wasn't too hot if you were in the shade. Some more clouds would have been even better, but oh well. And we made fire! What is camping without fire?

I have been thinking recently about starting to swim again. I don't know why, I just started thinking about it. My brother has gotten back into it, and he has good reason to. He partook in an open water swim in Seattle. Which is great, it made me miss it a little. The only problem is that I don't have something like that to shoot for. It isn't like they have the open water swim of the Arkansas (that's pronounced ar-kan-saw, not ar-kansas) River. There are no larger open water areas in state in which to have said open water competitions.

So if I were to start getting into it, it would be just for exercise. And I think that once I were to get into it, it would start to get easier, but it is the whole getting started thing that is a big road block.

healthy day

The Tigers are on TV right now so no music....I love baseball season.  

One thing that I do enjoy about the spring is that the weather is nice enough to go outside and walk.  It is in the mid fifties to low sixties with some wind.  And sunny.  Very nice.  In Kansas, the summer season is horrible for outdoor exercising because of the temperature.  It gets into the triple digits and all you want to do is go sit by the pool, which we have at the apartment complex!  

So we went for a walk today.  Nothing extreme, just about thirty minutes around the neighborhood behind the apartment.  It is one of the cookie cutter neighborhoods where all the houses look the same.  The urban sprawl that takes away fields and trees around this area.  

Afterwards, I had a nice and green lunch.  Salad with some 'not salad'.  The term 'not salad' was brought into our language by Kim and Marc.  'Not salad' consists of stuff like cheese, bacon bits, croutons, salad dressing, etc.  The good stuff.  The stuff that makes salad tolerable.  The way I see it, as long as the salad outweighs the 'not salad', it is still good for me.  

All in all, a healthy day.  Now I am sitting down and enjoying the Tigers winning their game right now (2-0, bottom of the 6th).