The Best $125 I've Ever Spent

A year ago, the start of 2011, I was bound and determined to lose weight.
I know, I know.  That sounds like every other resolutioner in the world.  But I WAS going to do it. I was going to stick with it.

I had had my second child in October of 2010, and had not lost all of the baby weight.  Actually, I hadn't lost all of the baby weight from baby #1 (and if we're being totally honest, I hadn't lost all of the college/early marriage weight I had gained either). 


2011 was going to be MY year.


For me, the key to losing weight is both diet AND exercise.  I can't do one without the other.  But how was I going to find the time to workout when I had a busy 2 year old at home and a not even 3 month old baby who was nursing non-stop.  Oh, and let's add the fact that I work full-time and I've got a husband too.  And I wasn't sleeping.  I wasn't sure how I would find the time or the energy.


I had started a new job in April of 2010, which allowed for so much more flexibility than the job I had held for the previous 6 years. While talking to one of my co-workers at the end of December about how to try and balance getting in a workout in my busy schedule she told me about the town's rec center which is less than 1 mile from where we work.  That was where she went at lunch to workout.


I informed my co-worker that I wasn't a resident in this town, so I couldn't join the rec center.  Then she told me that since we WORK in the town (and pay taxes, of course) that we qualified for a business membership!
Oh my gosh, how awesome!  It's like the clouds parted and the sun came shining down!


The kicker though, was that there were only a limited number of business memberships that they allowed each year, and they go on sale the first business day of January.  When they're gone, they're gone. 
I was waiting at the doors when the opened at 9:00am on January 2nd last year.  And I got my membership!


For only $125 I had access to the rec center's exercise facility, and of course the locker rooms and showers.
That's less than $11 per month for a gym membership!


The even better thing...it's not crowded.  EVER.  At least not at lunch when I go to workout.  In an entire year, there have only been 2 (TWO) times when I could not get on a treadmill to run.  In those two instances, I chose the elliptical instead.  (And to be fair, a treadmill opened up after about 10 minutes each time.  But when you've only got 20-30 minutes to workout, there's no time to wait)!


Since this is a rec center, it doesn't have the state of the art everything.  For instance, piece of cardio equipment doesn't come with it's own personal TV and fan.  But the equipment is new and there is plenty of equipment whenever I need to workout.  There are TV's to watch, and each piece of cardio equipment has it's own plug-in for headphones so you can choose which TV channel you want to listen to.  And since it's never crowded, I can change the TV's to pretty much any channel I want, because there aren't people already watching something.


This rec center membership has been life-saving for me.  It has allowed me to workout a few times per week, every week, for an entire year. 
I know that if I was trying to workout in the morning or after work, I would be much more likely to skip workouts when life gets busy and in the way. The lunch-hour workout is amazing.  I have energy when I go to workout (because I'm not still trying to wake-up at say, 4:30am).  On the flip side, I'm not dragging either from being at work all day.  It gives me energy for the second half of my work day.  I don't always get in the best workout, but a small workout is better than no workout at all. And it's consistent.  And I LOVE it.


My lunch workouts motivated 3 other women that I work with to get a 2012 membership to the rec center to try and get a little exercise in their day.  Wow did that feel good to know that my actions have motivated others to get healthy!


If you have been struggling to figure out how you can fit a workout into your busy schedule, I highly recommend trying a lunch hour workout.  And it doesn't take a gym membership to do either.  Even just putting on a pair of tennis shoes and walking around your work parking lot can do the trick (yup, I've done that too.) 


Here's to a happy and HEALTHY 2012!