Exercise...

As I pull together all the financial crap for the separation to come, (and more about that in the T13 on Thursday!) I keep reviewing the money I spend to go to the gym. I have a "membership" at Good Life Gym but it's not a membership at all, it's a donation to their corporate entity. And THIS is what ticks me off about gyms.

*RANT ON*
OK... so you get into the groove, you decide going to the gym is a great idea and you actually get in the door. SO then THEY suck you in and you get a trainer... "to meet your very own specific fitness needs."

oh really?!

While chatting with the girls in the change room after the training session you learn, interestingly enough, YOUR fitness needs and the ones of the women right next to you ( one of whom just happens to be 55 pounds overweight, never been on a treadmill in her life, never been in a programme in her life) has the SAME training programme as you do!

WTF???

Next training session I ask my "Elite Trainer" for whom I am paying an extra $10 per hour because ... she is "elite" WHY my programme is the same as the big blonde lady!

"Well, " says Ms Elite, "we have to have a baseline to measure from." "But I've done all this before and the circuit you've given me doesn't challenge me and isn't helping me with my old lady arms or my thunder thighs. I want to target those zones and you're giving me a general programme, I don't like that and I am paying. "

Elite trainer takes me to a corner of the gym, with the big red stability ball, and while I am trying to do ab crunches while rolling away on a ball, she says, " you're right Marie, but here's the racket, " and proceeds to tell me that the manager in the gym has ordered, *ordered* that all shall follow the same programme to ensure uniformity in timing and scheduling so the revenue stream for this brand new gym location can increase faster than any of the other gyms in the city, She wants to win a revenue award. I am so not impressed! Here I am thinking they are here to motivate me, to be my friend, to help me reach my goals. No.... they are NOT.

They are a business.
They want my money.
ANY WAY they can get it.

So, being who I am, I am not very impressed with the lack of clubbiness I am hearing about, so after training, I go to said manager and tell her I am not happy on the basic training and I want her to "order" my Ms Elite Trainer to challenge me with a truly "designed for me" programme. I got a song and dance about finishing the current before moving on and blah blah blah.

So in the end I did get what I wanted and did quite well at it if I do say so myself. However, I caught a really horrible cold, stopped going to the gym because of it, the cold turned into the rest of the summer - took the time off from the gym which then turned into a horrible sacroiliac injury when I stopped paying for 6 months. A week before a deadline I re-instated payments, but still didn't get to the gym. And did those people at the gym who insist on bar code tagged member card EVER once inquire... or ask where I was? Of course not. It's not about fitness at all. ever. It's about the money. They take it and they run all the way to the bank!
*RANT OFF*

Now, with all this silly stress and nonsense you'd think that riding a bike to nowhere or walking to nowhere on the treadmill while listening to bad music or being forced to watch whatever stupid sport is playing on ALL FIVE TVs, should not be so taxing.

But it is.

I need motivation. I also need to know what to eat before I go to the gym. If I go home after work, I won't go to the gym I won't get up a 5 AM to go to the gym for a 6 AM door crasher opening. What to eat at 4 PM to have the energy to work out for a 45 minute period. I really don't want to be fainting or having head rushes at the gym.

But that's a whole other story.