Embarassing thing #749264

In my everlasting attempts at trimming down my baby pooch, I've been searching for a way to work out without defending myself from constant dog and toddler assaults. My previous inclination was to join a gym, but many a thing happened immediately after I decided to do it, with the #1 strike against a gym membership was having to put Mia in daycare. I didn't want to commit to the two year membership, and I didn't want to have to spend MORE time away from my child than work was already making me.

I don't have many friends that have children. I do, however, have quite a few far away facebook friends who do have children though, and although it might be considered borderline cyber stalking, I try to keep watch on their profiles for Mommy-related tips. I noticed one of my facebook Mom-friends was frequently posting about Stroller Strides, which intrigued me, so I did a web-search. No stroller strides in Las Vegas, but please give us your email address if you'd like us to e-mail you if someone opens a franchise.

Well, several weeks ago, I got an email that Stroller Strides was starting a Las Vegas location, and click here if you'd like to view a schedule of classes. As almost everything else in this city, Stroller Strides Las Vegas seemed to be geared toward the Stay at Home Mom whose husbands make enough money for them to afford the pretty high monthly membership fee. But, after exchanging a few emails with the very nice and enthusiastic owner, she decided that people had expressed enough interest in a Saturday morning class, and if I was only going to be attending one class per week, there was an option for a 10 class pass for a not ungodly amount per class. Excellent. I signed up and this past Saturday was my first class.

As soon as Mia and I showed up, we did our introductions and I promptly gave my "I haven't worked out in 15 months" disclaimer, and everyone assured me that I'd be just fine. I lined up next to the other Moms in their BOB strollers with my thankfully appropriate enough City Mini (I have a serious case of stroller inferiority complex, despite LOVING my City Mini and recommending it to everyone who doesn't want to spend more than $250 on a stroller) and got to my jogging in place.

The Stroller Strides exercises are pretty basic, where we did a circuit through a local park. We do brisk stroller walking on the paths and stop every 500 feet or so to do some strength training. The music was perfectly synched where it played pop music during the walking, and kids music during the strength exercises. During the stops, the Moms interact with the babies in their strollers. For example, we did something they call "Peekaboo Squats", where you basically play peekaboo with your baby as you squat in front of them. There was some other things, like doing "If you're happy and you know it" while doing a chair squat against the wall. It was good, and it was mostly just really fun to be with other Moms acting ridiculous in front of their children, and having the babies love it.

Until the 45 minute mark of the 60 minute class, when I realized that the half a nectarine and the one bottle of water was insufficient for an outdoor Las Vegas workout. During the follow-the-leader drill, I had to pull over and actually sit on the ground. It was so sudden. I was totally fine one minute, and the next my head was spinning, and I grabbed Mia's pack of Teddy Grahams from her hand and shoved a fistful in my mouth, grabbed one of the instructors water bottles (she had very kindly offered and sprinkled some on the back of my neck) and chugged it down. Five minutes later, everything except my ego was fine, and I was able to join in for the last 10 minutes of abs and stretching.

Everyone was very nice and assured me that I was neither the first nor the last that this would happen to, saying that if you've never worked out outside in Las Vegas, this is bound to happen to you, and next time, make sure you at least have a bowl of cereal with that nectarine! Being highly skilled in the self-deprecating humor department, was able to recover relatively well. I also [loudly] informed the instructor that I would be out of town next Saturday, so not to think that I was wimping out. I'd be back the week after that to punch the first class on my 10 class pass.

The Man Diets

Today is my friday! One of my best high school friends is coming to visit tomorrow through the weekend, and I spent the first two days of the week making sure I wouldn't have to come in Thursday morning as I initially thought I would. The good (and not so good) news is that I did manage to get everything checked off my to-do list. So, with the exception of my 15 remaining hours of CLE to be completed by the 30th, I'm free as a bird (so long as I'm within earshot of my the extremely fascinating gentleman speaking through my computer about the complexities of e-discovery).

Anyway, about three weeks ago, I started diligently logging my food intake using My Fitness Pal (thanks BeeBee!) Evidently, I had turned into a very annoying person, quickly searching my App for the calorie count of quite a few of the things B was putting in his mouth. "Did you just eat that whole bag of popcorn?? That's ---- calories!" I'm down three pounds, which is not a huge accomplishment, but at least shows that my goal of one pound per week is manageable, sustainable, and that so far, it's working. Bonus, it has also been effective at annoying my husband into downloading the app for himself and logging his own food intake!

So, based on B's height and weight and goal (the same as mine, 1 lb per week), he's allowed 2100 calories a day. That seems awfully high to me, seeing as I'm allowed 1400. But, my Fitness Pal is not wrong. Everytime I diet, I am always begging him to follow along. "It'll be so much easier for me to do this if you're doing it with me!". Well, not so when your husband sits down at the end of the day, checks his iPhone and sees that he's got x amount of calories left over after dinner. "OH, let me just eat some of these twizzlers left over from the movies on Saturday!" Great, enjoy those twizzlers while I sip my crystal light. Be careful what you ask for!

To Gym or not to Gym?

My office's new location is right across the street from a big big big gym. Membership there is not expensive, especially compared to the gym membership that I had during law school in Chicago. At the time, I paid about $80 a month for a membership. It was nice, but basic. Cardio equipment, weights, a few group classes, pilates and a locker room. The one across the street from my office (with a location about a 3 minute drive from my apartment) is $31 per month and a 25 month commitment, which can be broken if I lose my job or move away from Vegas. It's cheaper without childcare, but if I can't have childcare, then I'll just work out at our terrible apartment complex gym for free.

I had thought about joining last summer, but just ruled it out as something that I might not take full advantage of. This time, I feel that since I've actually been working out regularly with DVDs and Netflix at home, that I am physically ready to take advantage of a gym. This gym is nice, too. It's got indoor pools, sauna, steam rooms, lots and lots of cardio and weight machines, lots and lots of group classes at all times of the day, racketball courts (not that I would use them - I play tennis and squash) and a running track. The membership gives you access to six locations throughout the valley, so even if we were to move (please, I want to move!) we'd likely still be close to a location.

I kind of want to do it. $31 a month really isn't much, I just hate committing to paying for something for that long. Should I join? What do you think?