February 21st, 2018

 Most women I know go into a mad panic in the spring after hibernating in cozy layers all winter.  It merely takes the slightest hint of a whisper of two words to make most of us break into a post -cocoa- (with extra marshmellows)-in-front-of-the-fire panic and those two words are:  Swimsuit Season.

​Those of you who live elsewhere still have a few months before this reality sets in.  Here, it never really went away.  Permanent swimsuit season and hurricanes are the only two downsides of living here.  

​I've completely given up on paying any attention to the numbers of the scale. (although I know that there are five stubborn pounds that refuse to go away no matter how much I've told them to leave!) That ship has sailed.  I just want to not only fit in my clothes but to look halfway decent in them.  But mostly I'd like to be on the beach in actual beachclothes without feeling too self-conscious.  That's quantified because I suspect that I will always feel a wee bit self-conscious in swimwear. It's just part of who I am.

​I go to the beach nearly every day.  But this is my current version of beachwear:
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 Yeah, I'm classy.  But I'm also honest with myself about how I look and how I feel about how I look.  Which is why I started taking Pilates Classes twice a week many months ago.  I actually really enjoy the classes now that I've gotten the hang of it.  And I walk. I walk a lot!  I bike sometimes. I hike with my sister at least once a week. You'd think all of this would have made a difference.  I certainly thought it would.  I was wrong.

​This getting older nonsense is such a buncha crap.  All of the sneaky stuff that happens that nobody tells you about. Like the sudden appearance of a little roll around the waist that never existed before.  What the heck is this?  In regular clothes I can dress in disguise.  Cute Floaty little tops have been a godsend. But swimwear hides nothing.  So Okay, clearly I have to step it up.

​Tim joined a gym a few weeks ago. This one, Planet Fitness.  He asked me at the time if I wanted to join and I gave him, "The Look".  The one that says volumes.   He already knows how I feel about The Gym. I am not a "gym" person.  I tried.  When we lived in Colorado we joined a gym.  It was gorgeous.  Truly beautifully appointed with multiple pools, a zillion or so machines of every sort, big rooms for various sorts of classes,  and I never ever was comfortable there. I tried. I really tried.  I had a personal trainer for awhile.  I showed up and worked out with her faithfully for however many weeks it was.  Never once enjoyed it.  After my time with the personal trainer came to an end, I went less and less often until I canceled my membership entirely and moved on with my life.  

​And now I am at this point.  I've always believed that if what I am doing is not giving me the results I want, then I need to do something else.  So yesterday I asked Tim if I could go with him, just once, to check out this new gym. His place. He was delighted.  It is a testament to what a good person he is that he would be happy to have me there considering my general feeling about gyms.  So I gave myself an attitude adjustment and we went this morning.

​Ok the things about this Planet Fitness place that I like are: that it's very clean without that nasty cleaning smell. I like that.  Check in was very quick and pleasant.  Then Tim took me to his favourite place. The 30 minutes circuit.  Apparently the idea is that you spend 1 minute on each of 20 different machines with a 30 second break in between each.  Interesting.  It sounds efficient. I like efficient.  So that is what we did.  ​It was quick, it felt as if I had accomplished a little something and it wasn't crowded. I like that too. The time passed very fast. I am hugely in favour of that.

I don't know if going to Planet Fitness is going to be the thing that finally once and for all helps me over this little annoying 5 elle bee bump in the road that I'm trying to get over, but I'm going to give it a whirl.  I'm compromising.  I will continue to do my twice a week pilates.  I'll keep walking and hiking and biking but I will add one day a week at the gym with Tim doing this 30 minutes circuit thingie.  I'll try it for awhile and see if it makes the difference.

​Biggest upside, I get to go shopping. Hey I need new gym clothes!