A Little Late for Resolutions But...

I think I've finally decided to push myself into better health. My husband has been trying to get me to actively go to the gym on a weekly basis for several years now. It’s been extremely frustrating for him, I can imagine. Working out is something that he enjoys doing, and it’s a healthy hobby. I’ve tried to adopt that into my lifestyle, and I’ve gone in and out of it for the past four years. I guess I just feel a little uncomfortable and somewhat distracted when I work out in the presence of a bunch of people.
When I was a teenager, I was a lot better about exercising. My diet wasn’t necessarily in check, but I went outside and did a lot of cardio-based exercises. I rode my bike practically everywhere [This tends to explain why my calves are bigger than a lot of women’s.]. Once the weather started to get even a tiny bit warmer, I would bust it out and ride it to school over taking the bus or hitching a ride from a friend. As an added challenge, I would race the school bus home, which proved to be difficult, but I managed to do it a couple times. It’s the little things that get me excited and happy.

Now I’m finding that winter is taking a toll on me more and more every year. I see myself getting more senile and depressed each time it comes around. I do less and less, and I never feel like going out. Going to the gym is at the bottom of my list, which sucks because I want to be active. Bottom line: I just don’t want to go out. I do have the motivation to do something but no means of doing it at home (i.e. a decent weight set/resistance bands, curl bars/straight bars, benches, etc.). It makes me wish we had our own gym set.

I know a lot of people say, “I’m going to start working out but rather than getting a gym membership, I’m going to buy a Bowflex and work out at home! I’ll have washboard abs in no time!” Cut to two days after they’ve received the product, and it’s already catching dust. They never really had the true incentive to stick to a workout.
I don’t want to spend money on a Bowflex or Coreliminator (or whatever it's called). I don’t weigh 500 pounds and think I need to lose weight to get that beach body this summer. I just need weights, bars, bands, etc. to get myself going so I can be active again. Being bottled up in a house without being able to exercise for the duration of winter is no fun; especially for someone who loves being outdoors when it’s warm [Well—let’s face it—who doesn’t?].

Over the course of almost a year, I’ve seen these P90X infomercials running on occasion. The first time I saw one was when I couldn’t fall asleep one night and was up coughing, hacking, sneezing, and anything and everything else you want to throw in there (nice timing, right?). After having watched a few minutes of it, I was actually kind of impressed that they had a fairly legit workout program out there. You don’t know how sick I am of seeing ads for aerobic exercises, new machines to help you do crunches “more efficiently”, L.A. Weight Loss, and the like. They’re all a joke, and if they’re exercise DVDs, they make no mention of changing your diet; if they’re diet programs, they make no mention of exercise. Everyone is looking for the easy way to lose weight or be in shape without having to do any (or much) work.

Now, I obviously don’t need to lose weight because if you’ve ever seen me, I’m a stick compared to some people, so that’s not my motivation for wanting to get exercise. I just want to be in shape so I can feel better about myself and possibly have some more energy. That’s why I think I’m going to try P90X to see if it works for me. I’ve watched a lot of the different workouts they have in this series, and that’s enough to wear you out and make you work for everything you want. It’s better because the people they have on there aren’t just standing there smiling without a drop of sweat while they do these exercises. They’re actually struggling to get reps out. To me, that makes more sense and gives people a more realistic view of exercise instead of false hopes. Plus, they give you a diet guide, so it’s not just delving into the exercise aspect of it and completely ignoring the fact that you can’t drink Coke and eat Fritos while you’re doing this. Also, the fact that it contains pure weightlifting (with more than dinky, 1-pound dumbbells, mind you) doesn’t hurt.

I think the nicest thing about this program is that you don’t need tons of equipment to do the exercises. You just need dumbbells and a pull-up bar, basically, and if you don’t have the bar, then resistance bands with a door anchor can do the trick. It’s not exactly the same as doing a pull-up, but I guess faux pull-ups will have to be my workout for the time being.

I think this is a program I’m going to stick out and go through for 90 days (at least), and we’ll see how I look after that. I’ll get my diet in check and do these workouts relentlessly. My husband said he might even do a few with me, which would be cool. It’s nice to have a partner. Don’t expect any progress photos to be displayed on here. I’ll probably take some, but I can’t see myself showing the “interwebs” my midriff, so you’ll have to take a cold shower and forget about it…ha…ha…and ha.