As my title suggests I made first trip to Planet Fitness this morning. As far as I can tell, I think I'm really going to enjoy having a membership there. I arrived around 7:20 (after wandering around Meijer for 20 minutes looking for a lock for the locker room) and there were about a dozen or so other patrons in the gym. I was able to easily get on a treadmill and get my week 3, day 1 of C25k finished. I took a look at both of the circuits they have set up, a 12-minute ab routine and 30-minute whole body resistance circuit but I didn't get a chance to try either of them. Mostly because I'm not really sure how you're supposed to go about it. I mean, I know what a circuit is but everything is driven by this light system which my early AM brain was not capable of figuring out. There is a class on Tuesday and Thursday nights that focuses specifically on using the circuits so I figure I'll swing in on one of those to figure out what I'm doing. I might as well get the most out of my membership, right??
Even though I skipped the circuits I did manage to get a pretty good lift in. I focused mainly on machines this morning because, while I know how to use equipment, every brand is just a little different and sometimes it's hard to figure out how certain pieces of equipment work. If I'm going to get stumped by the machines I'd much rather do it without 70 people watching or a line forming behind me. I have to admit, I'm really glad I did it this way because I could not figure out the leg press for the life of me which is sad because the leg press is, or at least should be, one of the most intuitive pieces of equipment in a gym. Oh well, I managed in the end so I guess it all worked out :-)
After lifting I was going to head out but I just felt really good so I thought I'd give the elliptical a try. I have a love/hate relationship with ellipticals. I loved the ones at Luther. They were perfect for my stride. I was able to use them, find a good rhythm and not feel awkward at higher speeds. Every other elliptical I've tried has been a let down. I just can't seem to make them work. I don't know if it's the stride length or the angle but something just doesn't fit. I didn't have high expectations when I got on the elliptical this morning but was promptly surprised. The machines at PF fit me exceptionally well. I only planned on doing 10 minutes but ended up going 25.
All in all, I was very pleased. Very pleased indeed!
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Boot camp baby!
OK, I did it. Even though it scares the holy bagpipes out of me (see, no swears) I signed up for my first ever boot camp. I'm going to be honest, when I woke up this morning I had no intentions of joining a boot camp. However, after a brief chat with another supervisor in my department, I suddenly had an overwhelming desire to sign up and see what I could get this old body of mine to do.
My original intention was to sign up for the same class that four other women in my department are doing. It meets on Thursday nights for one hour starting at 5:15. It would have been perfect because I could just walk over with the gals, get my sweat on and then catch the bus home for a shower. However, when I went to sign up, the class was already full...boo. I was just going to give up on the idea but then I decided that I was really looking forward to the prospect of getting my butt handed to me on a platter for 15 weeks. So, I did a bit of investigating (read Google-mapping) and found that on Wednesday nights I could easily take the class at the NIB building. It's no more than a half-mile walk to the building on an outdoor route and if it's cold, I can cover most of the distance (a little less efficiently mind you) by cutting through the other hospitals. Again, it meets at 5:15 and will get me out just in time to catch a bus back to my car!
I figure that two nights a week of spinning and one night of boot camp will offer some nice variety to my workout routine. I got a chance to check out Planet Fitness tonight and I was really impressed. They have a good number of what appear to be really nice cardio machines but they also have this 30 minute cardio/resistance circuit set up. I still haven't had a chance to get to Anytime Fitness but I think I'm strongly leaning towards Planet. The price is right and I really liked the facility.
Anyway, I think that's it. I'll let you know how my first boot camp goes next week. I just hope my instructor doesn't resemble this guy...
My original intention was to sign up for the same class that four other women in my department are doing. It meets on Thursday nights for one hour starting at 5:15. It would have been perfect because I could just walk over with the gals, get my sweat on and then catch the bus home for a shower. However, when I went to sign up, the class was already full...boo. I was just going to give up on the idea but then I decided that I was really looking forward to the prospect of getting my butt handed to me on a platter for 15 weeks. So, I did a bit of investigating (read Google-mapping) and found that on Wednesday nights I could easily take the class at the NIB building. It's no more than a half-mile walk to the building on an outdoor route and if it's cold, I can cover most of the distance (a little less efficiently mind you) by cutting through the other hospitals. Again, it meets at 5:15 and will get me out just in time to catch a bus back to my car!
I figure that two nights a week of spinning and one night of boot camp will offer some nice variety to my workout routine. I got a chance to check out Planet Fitness tonight and I was really impressed. They have a good number of what appear to be really nice cardio machines but they also have this 30 minute cardio/resistance circuit set up. I still haven't had a chance to get to Anytime Fitness but I think I'm strongly leaning towards Planet. The price is right and I really liked the facility.
Anyway, I think that's it. I'll let you know how my first boot camp goes next week. I just hope my instructor doesn't resemble this guy...
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Year end and looking forward
Happy 2013! I have to admit, I'm really glad that the Mayans were wrong and that the world didn't end last month. I have so many things left to accomplish in life and I'm hoping to get a good start on that to-do list in 2013.
The end of 2012 ended without much flourish or bang. I had a fairly nice Christmas and new year. I spent Christmas with a friend and her family. It was very nice to have a place to go as opposed to staying home alone. I did that one year and it was awful. However, I think this year it wouldn't have been so bad. After being away from home for so long I think I've gotten used to spending major days on my own. I think that's part of growing up. I've come to realize that any days spent with the people I love most in the world are special, regardless of where they fall on the calendar. Anyway, Santa was good to me this year. I got a new Blu-Ray player, a few movies, an insulated water bottle that I've been looking at FOREVER and refused to pay for, a lovely care package and socks, socks and more socks! I also got a really nice bottle of sparkling wine from one of our doctors. Oh yeah, did I mention the chocolate? I LOVE chocolate!
My new years eve was very quiet. I had plans with friends and they had to bail at the last minute. I was bummed because I didn't really have time to make new plans (3:00 on NYE is too late for plan making) but I had a decent night. I ended up cooking a nice dinner and drinking the aforementioned bottle of wine. I didn't set out to drink the whole bottle but before I noticed it was gone, it was gone. The only downside to drinking the whole bottle is that it made me overly sleepy a lot sooner than I was hoping. I tried to make it to midnight but at some point I must have passed out because I was awake and watching a movie and the next thing I know my phone is vibrating on the sofa arm next to my head. I'd have to ask Jessica to be sure but I don't think the 'I wasn't just drooling on my couch pillows' tone that I was attempting to pull off was very convincing. At least she had the good grace to not call me out on it. I really hope I wasn't on speaker phone...
Now it's back to business as usual. Work has been really slow through the holiday week. It's nice to have a day to catch up on things but by the end of the fourth slow day in a row it starts to get old. I did find a website online where I could read the Hunger Games books for free so that was at least a nice way to spend some of my time, even if I should have been working. Although, in my defense, there was literally nothing to do. We got all of the stocking, cleaning and paperwork done on slow day one. Basically we had no busy-work left and no patients to fill our time. It was bad. I could have used PTO but I hate wasting PTO when I could save it for fun times with my friends from home. Oh well, if a few slow days is my worst complaint at work I'm pretty lucky.
As 2013 was approaching, I was thinking a lot about my resolutions for the year. Last year I set two real goals, one fitness and one life resolution. I didn't do well on either. I'm not saying last year was completely wasted, I did run my first 5K, however, I followed it up with my second 5K which was a disaster (excepting the fabulous company I had). It's really frustrating to me that I'm in worse shape right now than I was at this time last year. I have nothing and nobody to blame but myself and my lack of dedication. So, my fitness resolution is very simple: do better in 2013 than I did in 2012. I figure this can't be that hard to accomplish but it's open enough to grow into what I want.
I think that my other resolution, my life goal, is going to be the harder of the two. I've recently decided that there is simply too much profanity in my life. I feel like the well placed swears that are meant to really show impact no longer do because I curse too freely otherwise. Because of this, I have decided that I am going to omit profanity from my life. I don't know that I will be entirely successful, this could be a very arduous task but I want to really cut down on my sailor talk. I'm 36 hours into the new year; so far, so good!
Lastly, I'm currently searching for a new gym. They still haven't fixed the equipment in the exercise room at my apartment (I would really like to use a few vulgar words at them) and I'm tired of waiting for them to get around to it. I've put my feelers out and I'm going to be touring the Anytime Fitness and Planet Fitness gyms closest to me. As far as I can tell the only really difference is the price but I'll hold off on judging until I see the actual facilities and talk about the options I'd have available at each.
The end of 2012 ended without much flourish or bang. I had a fairly nice Christmas and new year. I spent Christmas with a friend and her family. It was very nice to have a place to go as opposed to staying home alone. I did that one year and it was awful. However, I think this year it wouldn't have been so bad. After being away from home for so long I think I've gotten used to spending major days on my own. I think that's part of growing up. I've come to realize that any days spent with the people I love most in the world are special, regardless of where they fall on the calendar. Anyway, Santa was good to me this year. I got a new Blu-Ray player, a few movies, an insulated water bottle that I've been looking at FOREVER and refused to pay for, a lovely care package and socks, socks and more socks! I also got a really nice bottle of sparkling wine from one of our doctors. Oh yeah, did I mention the chocolate? I LOVE chocolate!
My new years eve was very quiet. I had plans with friends and they had to bail at the last minute. I was bummed because I didn't really have time to make new plans (3:00 on NYE is too late for plan making) but I had a decent night. I ended up cooking a nice dinner and drinking the aforementioned bottle of wine. I didn't set out to drink the whole bottle but before I noticed it was gone, it was gone. The only downside to drinking the whole bottle is that it made me overly sleepy a lot sooner than I was hoping. I tried to make it to midnight but at some point I must have passed out because I was awake and watching a movie and the next thing I know my phone is vibrating on the sofa arm next to my head. I'd have to ask Jessica to be sure but I don't think the 'I wasn't just drooling on my couch pillows' tone that I was attempting to pull off was very convincing. At least she had the good grace to not call me out on it. I really hope I wasn't on speaker phone...
Now it's back to business as usual. Work has been really slow through the holiday week. It's nice to have a day to catch up on things but by the end of the fourth slow day in a row it starts to get old. I did find a website online where I could read the Hunger Games books for free so that was at least a nice way to spend some of my time, even if I should have been working. Although, in my defense, there was literally nothing to do. We got all of the stocking, cleaning and paperwork done on slow day one. Basically we had no busy-work left and no patients to fill our time. It was bad. I could have used PTO but I hate wasting PTO when I could save it for fun times with my friends from home. Oh well, if a few slow days is my worst complaint at work I'm pretty lucky.
As 2013 was approaching, I was thinking a lot about my resolutions for the year. Last year I set two real goals, one fitness and one life resolution. I didn't do well on either. I'm not saying last year was completely wasted, I did run my first 5K, however, I followed it up with my second 5K which was a disaster (excepting the fabulous company I had). It's really frustrating to me that I'm in worse shape right now than I was at this time last year. I have nothing and nobody to blame but myself and my lack of dedication. So, my fitness resolution is very simple: do better in 2013 than I did in 2012. I figure this can't be that hard to accomplish but it's open enough to grow into what I want.
I think that my other resolution, my life goal, is going to be the harder of the two. I've recently decided that there is simply too much profanity in my life. I feel like the well placed swears that are meant to really show impact no longer do because I curse too freely otherwise. Because of this, I have decided that I am going to omit profanity from my life. I don't know that I will be entirely successful, this could be a very arduous task but I want to really cut down on my sailor talk. I'm 36 hours into the new year; so far, so good!
Lastly, I'm currently searching for a new gym. They still haven't fixed the equipment in the exercise room at my apartment (I would really like to use a few vulgar words at them) and I'm tired of waiting for them to get around to it. I've put my feelers out and I'm going to be touring the Anytime Fitness and Planet Fitness gyms closest to me. As far as I can tell the only really difference is the price but I'll hold off on judging until I see the actual facilities and talk about the options I'd have available at each.
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