Yesterday I did something that I had been putting off all weekend: I went to the gym.
All weekend, I wanted to go to the gym – at least that little part of me that enjoys the endorphins and feeling good afterward did. But the rest of me thought, It’s my last weekend of vacation. I went 7 times already over my break, one more than my goal. I’m tired. I should hang out with Drew while he’s home.
Not to mention, it’s New Year’s weekend (is that a thing?) and all the well-meaning New Year’s gym resolution makers will be flooding my little corner of 24 Hour Fitness. Do I really want to get bumped to a treadmill because all the ellipticals are taken?
So I waited until Monday and then went around noon, when I figured everyone would be at work already. I was still a little anxious about getting in there, but it wasn’t bad at all. I don’t look forward to trying to go after work, but if I can just stick it out for now, everything will probably be back to normal in a month or so, right?
This is the first time ever that I’ve been able to start the new year with such a sense of superiority and satisfaction. I’m not trying to create any new impossible habits or anything. I’m just trying to keep up the habits I’ve been enforcing lately. I like this feeling. I lost twenty pounds over the last year, and that was all in about 6 months of actually trying. So I’m upping the ante a little this year, and shooting for another thirty. (That’s my resolution #4.)
On that note, Drew pulled out a coat he hasn’t worn since New York, and found a receipt in his pocket. It’s from April 2009, deep in our Atkins phase. Disclaimer: the Atkins website does not say that when you do Atkins you can just eat butter and bacon. The official program promotes limiting carbs, and eating lean proteins and vegetables. If you eat the way they say you should, it’s super healthy and nice.
The problem is, no one can live like that forever. Which Drew and I discovered quickly, as you can see, since we started Atkins in March, and by April we had already figured out all the ways to eat Atkins-friendly junk food.
Two packs of salami, garden vegetable cream cheese, Diet Coke, Coke Zero Cherry, and sugar-free chocolate pudding. Yum. This is what I like about weight watchers – not to sound like their commercial or anything, but it is a way of life. I just keep thinking, “Stop dieting, start living.” Good slogan.
I still shudder when I pass the sugar-free candy in Rite-Aid. Ugh.
I’ll be revisiting the New Year’s Resolutions concept in a little bit, but for now I’m off work until January 4th, so I’m doing…old-year resolutions. End-of-the-year resolutions. In the 2 weeks I have off work, I am determined to accomplish the following:
-Hit the gym 6 times. It sounds pretty reasonable, but I’ve also booked myself into seeing everyone who’s back in California for the holidays, including 3 overnight trips in Lakeport. So basically every day I’m not on the road, I’m at the gym.
-Do some deep cleaning of the apartment. Specifically I want to clean out the fridge, scrub the bathroom, and organize all the stuff that’s just been floating around. Tonight I unpacked and shelved two boxes of books, so there’s my head start.
-Organize my iTunes and sync up my iPod. Since I got my new laptop, I’ve managed to transfer all my music, but I haven’t really done anything to clean it up. So I’ma tackle that. Also, I have a list of new songs I want to download, just to make sure I’m up to date with Bruno Mars and Pink.
And tonight I added to that list:
-Manage to make a dinner that makes Drew go, “Mmm! This is DELICIOUS!!” He’s been pretty complimentary about the stuff I’ve been making lately, but I want to really impress him. (At least I know he won’t fake it on me.)
New Year’s Resolutions are being crafted. Also a confessional post.
I know this is silly, but I’m inordinately proud of myself for completing NaNoWriMo this year.
The past two year I’ve done it, I haven’t really written a “novel” – I’ve written more like “50,000 words that are mostly stories about someone who bears an uncanny resemblance to me, and occasionally straight-up journal entries.” So I’ve gotten to 50,000 but it’s sort of been cheating.
This year I stuck to it and wrote an entire story about one person – and yes, you might be able to point out a large number of things that she and I have in common, but so what? – and it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. I suspect there is some good stuff in there, too, which excites me. I’ll find out when I reread (but Stephen King says to give it at least 6 weeks before then).
In April, the same team of people responsible for Nanowrimo hosts Script Frenzy, which is 100 pages of scripted material. I am so there.
Dude, look at these stats. I was so far behind for most of this:
I’m so grateful for those Week Three sprints.
So today I’ve been able to relax a little bit and run a bunch of errands (probably one of my most favorite things in the entire world). I recently got the chance to wash all my clothes (usually I kind of cycle things through, and the bottom of the basket collects things that I don’t really care about), so my dresser drawers are stuffed with clean things. That feels nice. I’m going to go read Deathly Hallows and feel smug.
Often, in order to get myself to do something, I have to set up a system of bribes and rewards.
When I get home from the gym (especially later at night) and find a parking spot near our building (especially one of the primo ones), I feel like God is working with my system to reward me for that gym time.
I went 14 times in my first month of membership, which I think sets a good standard, and works out to $2.29 per visit.
Today was notable for a few reasons. I’ll go chronologically.
First of all, I started my new temporary part-time data entry job at the SF Opera today. So far, I love it. I really like every single person I met today, and the environment seems friendly and comfortable. I love the office (the admin offices I’m in are on Ivy Street, not in the Opera House) and it reminds me of New York lofty spaces, like the TACT (The Actors Company Theatre) office. For that matter, I love the Opera House itself, and will try to go there as often as possible. I like taking BART into San Francisco and walking a few blocks through the city. Granted, the job is not particularly challenging, but I don’t mind data entry, and there’s enough information that it’s not just like typing and hitting return, typing and hitting return. I like the Tessitura database system. I am happy. My new goal is to impress the pants off of them in the next 6 weeks and get a real full time job there.
The second notable thing was that today was the last day on my one-week free pass at 24 Hour Fitness. I celebrated with strength training, which the internet tells me burns more calories than cardio.
When I went in last week to 24 Hour Fitness, the woman I talked to was very nice and encouraged me to take advantage of their membership offers, but understood when I said I wanted to wait a week. She also revealed that if I have a friend or family member with a 24HF membership, I can piggy-back on their membership and get a discount. So…I will be doing that. (Thanks, Molly!)
I actually like the 24HF facility better than Bally. There are more women working, which I appreciate, and everyone has been friendly when I show them my pass and then they leave me alone. Oh! And, each machine has a little box on it, and you plug your headphones into it and then you can change the station so you can listen to whatever’s on TV. Instead of just reading subtitles. So the other day I watched this episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, slash, Real Housewives. The questions were themed accordingly, and each contestant was a “housewife” and then had a Real Housewife as her partner. No one won more than $10,000.
So I’m happy there and I am going to sign up for membership…but there was a crazy long line at the front desk today, I think there was some kind of mother-and-child Zumba class.
The third great thing about today: I think I can say with conviction that I have been fully accepted by Drew’s friends. I was invited over solo tonight (Drew had to work) for a ceremonial watching-the-making-of and assisting-in-the-eating-of gyoza, accompanied by rice and (inexplicably) meatloaf. Once everyone was gathered we all partook of the sacred Strawberry Shortcake, and there was much cheering. I think I can say I have fully infiltrated now.
So “John” calls me 4 times in 2 days, and with some coaching from Molly and Drew I’m ready to stand up to him. I call him back (his voicemails were all marked “urgent” by the way, which annoyed me) and get him on the phone. (BTW, this really happened, I wish I had recorded it or something because I was super proud of myself.)
“Okay, listen,” I say, “I just wanted to call you to let you know that I was really disappointed and frustrated by the way things went yesterday.” He starts to make some kind of “oh no, how could that be?” noise but I barrel over him. “All I wanted was to come in and do some cardio, and you guys wouldn’t leave me alone. I fully intended to use the free guest pass – YOUR CLUB’S PROMOTION – for a week, and then pay for membership. You had my money. But you kept trying to pitch to me, and now I’m not coming back in.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he says. “My manager and I just wanted to let you know about the deals and discounts, and we’re trying to help you get the best rate. It seemed like you were on the fence about it–”
“How was I “on the fence”? I keep telling you and I kept telling you yesterday that I knew what I wanted, and you guys wouldn’t let me go.”
“It’s just dollars and cents, and we’re just trying to help you save money–”
“John, you’re still trying to sell to me RIGHT NOW, even though I’m telling you it’s not going to work. I just wanted to let you know that your strategies were a turnoff and way over the top, and you lost me as a customer. AND, I was just on Yelp for the South City Bally, and it looks like a lot of people have had this experience. [He and the manager were both actually mentioned by name.] And I think it’s worth you guys sitting down and talking about it because apparently it’s not working.”
“Well, Syche, you’re still welcome to use your guest pass through the end of the week. So why don’t you just hold on to my number and give me a call back when you’ve thought about this.”
7-8 seconds of silence while I process what he just said, almost respond with, “Okay, bye,” then pull it together.
“Nope, I’m done thinking about this, and I’m not going to change my mind. I’m going to find another club and you don’t have to keep calling me to “check in with me.” It’s not happening.” He starts talking again. “Okay, thanks, bye.” Click. (In a movie or book he would hear the dial tone here, but not on my watch.)
Then I got a promo email from them with the manager’s full name in it. I unsubscribed but part of me is wondering if I should send him an email. That part of me is also sort of hoping John will call back today so I can give him the short prepared speech I worked on last night, which ends with, “and if you call me again, I’m reporting you to the Better Business Bureau.” Drama queen.
Also, I’m still super sore from the (short, tiny) workout he put me through 2 days ago. The hamstring and ab soreness? I recognize and accept. The backache? I’m not so okay with. Hoping this will all dissipate soon, as it’s embarrassing to have to go down the stairs like a 2-year-old (step, together, step, together). I’m going to try to walk it off some today.
PPS. Would you look at that? The promotion they kept saying was ending on June 30th.
Over the last few months I have thought about and formulated (but never quite typed up and posted) blog entries about the Mill Valley Health Club, including such subjects as:
“Congratulate Me, O Friends, For I Have Been to the Gym and Then Gone Back Again and Again”
“I Can Run 10-Minute Miles on the Elliptical, Does That Still Count?” and my personal favorite, “Steam Rooms and the Women Who Love Them Even Though I Think They’re Sort of Scary” (that one still may be in the works).
The Mill Valley Health Club was one of the perks of working at Marin Theatre Company – every one of their staff, cast and crew gets free use of the health club. After one and a half shows, I finally went, thinking I was being idiotic to not take advantage of such a great opportunity. Well, let me tell you, the MVHC is wonderful. It’s mellow and has lots of big windows, high ceilings with fans everywhere, enough equipment that I almost always got to use my favored machines, and it even has lavender-scented sanitizing wipes. The locker rooms and clean and sweet and the showers were clean and provided shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and even shaving gel. The steam room was fine too, although that’s another story.
Well, I don’t work for MTC anymore (sad face) so I can’t go to the health club anymore (sad face) unless I wanted to pay for it, and I bet it doesn’t come cheap, and pay bridge toll every time I go. So today I decided to look into some gyms around here. Bally has a lot of commercials on TV, and they have that deal where you get a week-long free guest pass, and then they are doing this other deal where they waive the initiation fee and you get the first 3 months for $27 each. If you go on their website, you’ll see that it expires on [today’s date] but I’ve been checking back and it’s consistently expiring on [today’s date] so I think that’s a sale point.
So I signed up for my guest pass today, printed it out, and was all set to go this evening. Then I get a call from “John” at Bally, wanting to know when I’m coming in, and I remember this from the time I was going to use a guest pass at Bally in New York – they want to try to pitch to you. I’m like, I can hold him off. And I don’t want to be all slinking around or anything, so I decide to roll with it.
I go in this evening around 5:00 and ask for “John” like he told me to. He comes over and takes me around to show me the gym, and also asks all the same questions he’d asked on the phone, about my fitness goals, what I’ve been doing, what I’m interested in doing here, what time of day I’ll be coming in, etc. Now, all I really want right now is a place I can go and use an elliptical, maybe a treadmill sometimes, and just do cardio. I have Jillian Michaels for the Shred stuff, and maybe I’ll start incorporating more of that someday, but right now I’m fulfilling a need for cardio in my life. He’s not really interested in hearing about that though. He tells me that since I’ve never worked out with a trainer, he’s going to give me a special training session today. I’m like, Okayyyy…not what I signed up for, but again, I decide to roll with it and see what I can take away.
So he starts me on an elliptical, but it’s only for 20 minutes (psshh) and it’s the “fat burn” mode, in which you’re supposed to keep your heart rate down to like 126. I’m trying to do that but I’m going like under 3 miles an hour and this is soooo laaaaaaaaaaame and boooooooring. So I give it up and just start running like usual, but it’s just flat and level 1 and easy even though it keeps beeping at me to lower my heart rate. Whatevs. After 20 minutes he comes back over and we go do “some exercises,” and he puts me through squats and lunges using a bar, and then some arm and ab stuff on a ball, and then right before he starts whatever’s next, I say, “Is that the time? I actually have to get going.” It’s 6:00 on the dot.
“So soon?” he says. “Yeah, I have to get home and shower, I’m supposed to be somewhere at 6:30.” Lies, all lies. “Okay, well, you have a minute so I can go over some stuff with you?” “Sure,” I say. We go into a little cubicle where he lays the hard sell on me, and I keep repeating, “It sounds great, yeah, that’s a huge discount, but I don’t want to sign up for anything today.” Then he goes over how little it is per day if you pay for 3 years up front ($499 for 3 years – about 45 cents a day!). I say, “Yeah, wow, but I don’t want to sign up today.” Then he leans in and tells me he’s going to add his personal discount on top of the other discounts. How’s that? “That’s really great. I don’t want to sign up for anything today.” Then he says he has to go check something, and comes back with the manager (or something) of the center, who proceeds to give me the harder sell.
You may ask why I just didn’t get up and take off. Because they take your driver’s license away from you at the front desk and hold on to it. Which is skeezy.
The manager (or something) hard sells me, leans in and tells me he’s going to authorize a discount that John here isn’t allowed to, then offers the same discount that John here just offered me. I thought about calling them on it but didn’t. The manager will not listen to my repeated “I’m not signing up for anything today,” plus, he keeps saying things like “if you want to lose the weight” or “lose that weight” and I”m like, can you please not essentially point at me like that? Let’s talk in euphemisms a little here. They kept me in that cubicle for 30 minutes, hard selling at me, and not listening to me at all. Finally I started saying things like, “But you guys offer this free week guest pass so people can try the gym out, why won’t you let me use the full week?” The manager (or something) just keeps talking about how I have to commit to this, and how only I am holding me back. I don’t want to hold me back. I just want to come in for a free week, run on the machines, and then next weekend, sign up for membership.
Also, the way the manager (or something) kept talking about how you can’t make changes without a gym, or how you can’t make changes in a week, was really starting to offend me. I mean, he’s looking at me sitting there, and I know I look like a hot mess because I’ve just been exercising, I forgot to bring a bobby pin so my hair is all over the place and I can feel how sweaty I am…but he doesn’t know me. He doesn’t know that I have actually made a difference over the last few months. He just knows the number he wrote down when I entered my weight into the machine, he doesn’t know how that’s changed recently. I know you don’t need a gym, especially not Bally Fitness, in order to make changes in your life, and I resent the implication that I’m just going to founder around out there without John the personal trainer to keep me on track.
Speaking of John, he’s supposed to call me tonight so I can say whether I’ve decided to keep my guest pass for a week (it’s their promotion!! why won’t they let me use it??) or trade it in for my super discounted awesome amazing fun cool bust out style membership. Yeah…I’m pretty sure I’ll be letting that call roll to voicemail. And then deleting it.
The funny thing is, this is why I was bad at sales. Because the first time someone said to me, “That’s great, you know, I’m really not interested now, but I think in a week I will be,” I would say, “Awesome! Here’s my card. Lemme know.” I think pushing someone like that when she is CLEARLY NOT GOING TO CHANGE HER MIND is stupid and waste of time. A waste of time! Did I mention I didn’t get out of there until 6:30?
The messed up part (for them) is that I was totally ready to pay them money for the privilege of using their facilities. And now? I’m not going back AT ALL. There are other gyms in the area (which he readily told me about in order to talk them down and Bally up) and if all else fails, there’s the treadmill and machines in our apartment’s fitness room, and there’s outdoors! There’s always outdoors!
Today I went for a “run” out at Crystal Springs Reservoir. When I was almost back to the car, I was getting pretty tired and had decided to stop jogging and walk when I got to “that line of shadow up ahead.” Right before I got to the shadow, a butterfly appeared beside me and flew on at my jogging pace next to me. I thought, “This butterfly wants to see me succeed! He wants me to keep running! Thank you, butterfly, thank you!” Just then, he darted up and I saw him fluttering away with another butterfly, clearly going to make a butterfly love nest.
The Cameraphone Diaries 