Oops, I did it again

I am somewhat embarrassed by the fact that I’ve done the ‘typical’ New Year thing and joined a gym.  I pride myself in being a little different, so doing this seems like I’m following a crowd…but goodness, it isn’t a bad crowd to follow, right?  I chose the closest gym to my house (3 minutes) which actually isn’t the “best” gym but has enough to keep busy.  I think easy access is one of my tickets to success.

Here is my gym/fitness story.  I have had some great successes in my past with keeping fit and staying in shape.  I even ran a marathon and did a sprint triathlon.  However, I also have a history of injury that puts me right back to ground zero.  Deciding to build a significant habit again…and again…and again can be a little daunting.

The business of fitness brings up my “all or nothing” habits which create a little manic and overzealous approach and then injury comes and I stop cold turkey.  My last big push was in 2006 (yes 8 years ago).  I was left with bad knees and a permanent issue with my shoulder.  These ‘injuries’ were manifesting before and got re-activated at that time.

As of late, I have been doing moderate exercise with walking, light weights and spurts of ‘classes’ from time-to-time.  I’ve been content with this but knew that I would want to get back in better shape at some point…my mid section is asking for more (and arms too)!  So, for the past year I’ve been talking to myself about a gym but have been cautious about what I am making ‘joining a gym’ mean.  I want to make sure I am honest with myself and also be very deliberate with adding this into my life.  Here are some of my wishes for this:

• I want to honor my fiscal investment and go on a consistent basis.
• I want to work within my limits and develop a healthy relationship with fitness.
• I want to ease into my habit…baby steps.
• I want to build a consistent (but flexible) routine.
• I want to avoid injury and ‘set backs’.
• I want to HAVE FUN doing it.
• BONUS: I want to meet like-minded people to add to my network of friend/acquaintances.

So, there it is, I am accepting what has been in the past and creating a new story and relationship with this fitness thing.  I get to DECIDE how this works in my life.  The overall intention is HEALTH and VITALITY!