Housewife No More

I can no longer carry the title of “Lady of Leisure” because I got a job! That’s right, I’ve given up sleeping in, eating bon-bons, being at my husband’s every beck and call (that’s what housewives do, right?) so I can work at….

A gym! (I actually started work the same day Stephen left for the field. Oh, the timing of the Army.) It’s not something really cool like being a trainer or teaching zumba (though that certainly would be interesting). Instead, I’m just a general employee aka “recreation aid,” and I could not be more excited about it. This is the kind of job I wanted.

I love teaching. It’s my passion and five years in the classroom really isn’t enough, but where I’m at in my life right now, this is right up my alley. I wanted a position that wasn’t emotionally demanding (and oh boy is teaching ever emotionally demanding!), I wanted something that I wouldn’t have to take home at night, I wanted to work on post, I wanted to be around people my own age (no offense to 12 and 13 year-olds, but there is something to be said for adult conversation) and the gym fits all these perfectly!

I’m not sure what this means for my career. Maybe it’ll be harder to get hired as a teacher in the future, or maybe I’ll decide that I never want to teach again. (Although I do feel a touch of sadness every time I say “I used to be a teacher.”) I just know that this is my speed right now.

I worked at a gym once before during my junior year of college, so in a weird way, working at the gym makes me feel young again. Then again, the physical aspects (cleaning, bending, reaching, lifting) remind me that I’m not that young. Ha!

My university gym. I know it looks unimpressive here, but the inside is the shizz. Since I graduated way back when, they have continued to improve it. Two words for you: leisure pool.

So there you have it. I went from being a badass teacher to a badass housewife to a badass gym employee. Or something like that.

Anyone else step away from their “career” to work “just a job?”

Hardcore

One of the first places Stephen and I explored after arriving in El Paso was the gym at Fort Bliss. Bliss actually has something like 8 gyms (!) but the one closest to us is the biggest and the newest. How can you argue with a 10,000 square foot weight room, a cardio room with over 200 machines, a steam room, two basketball courts, a snack bar, an indoor track, group exercise classes at all times during the day, and it’s free! (Well, you gotta pay for your own snacks, but everything else is free free free!)

The gym. Oooh. Ahhh.

I was most intrigued by the group fitness classes. The one and only time I ever did a group fitness thing was the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school: The Athlete’s Course (TAC). While TAC was awesome, it was also really hard. I think it’s probably comparable to boot camp nowadays. We did sprints across the football field, weight lifted, did resistance and agility training. It was mostly attended by football players with a small spattering of us female athletes. And the guy who was in charge yelled at us. A lot. I got in awesome shape after doing that two hours each morning week after week, but I have no desire to repeat it, thank you very much.

Thankfully casual drop-in class at the gym are not quite that scary. I got my first taste with a 30 minute class called Hardcore. As the name implies, it’s about ab work. I was talking to the trainer before class started and she was so sweet. I expressed to her that I was nervous that I couldn’t keep up, but she encouraged me to just give it a try.

Class began with us leaving the fitness room (huh?!) and going downstairs to the TRX straps.

TRX straps – also known as the torture chamber for your abs.

Whosawhatsits? I like to think I’m informed when it comes to exercise trends (I do read healthy living blogs after all), but TRX straps were new to me. TRX straps use suspension training and your body weight to incorporate balance, flexibility, strength, and core work into one.

There are a million ways you can use the straps, but for the most part, we put our feet into them and then assumed plank positions, did crunches, did push-ups. The grand finale was a plank/push-up/crunch combination.

This is exactly what I did! Only my form didn’t look quite like this.

Every time the trainer would demo or explain a new move, I would say, “holy shhht” or something equivalent. The other people in the class (thankfully there were only five of them to witness my struggles) seemed to just go with it. They were strong-abed workout drones. I was the first person to take a break when we’d do planks, I had to do modified push-ups, I’m certain I was red-faced the entire time. No abs of steel for me.

For the next week few days, I felt my abs with every little movement I did. Taking dishes out of the dishwasher? I felt it in my abs. Rolling over in bed? Hello abdominals! Petting Geronimo? Bring the abs along with you! My muscles were making themselves known. I was sore sore sore. But I loved it. I don’t like struggling in class, but I like knowing that my body got a killer workout. Would you believe it, I even went back on another day to use the TRX straps by myself.

I already told the trainer that I’ll be back in her class. I foresee it taking me many moons to actually get a hard core, but I’m not giving up!

Have you ever done TRX workouts? What’d you think? Any group fitness fans? I’m not much of a joiner but considering how good this workout was, I’m contemplating attending some of the other classes.

It’s All I Could Manage

I realized that I haven’t talked about running or fitness at all lately. The reason for that is I haven’t been very actively.  *Dun-dun-dun.* (That was dramatic music.) With unpacking bogging me down, I just haven’t squeezed much in. (And by “haven’t squeezed much in” I of course mean “I’ve done nothing.”) Today (four days sans workout) I knew that I had to do something.

Looks like a nice day for a run, eh?

I put on my workout clothes, and gave myself the old “it doesn’t have to be fast, it doesn’t have to be far” pep talk. This is usually really effective for me. I lower my expectations because I realize that anything is better than nothing. My Garmin wasn’t charged, which helped me brush aside worries about pace. Instead, I just started the timer on my phone, grabbed Geronimo, and ran.

We took it easy with a slow jog from our house to the park nearby and did a few loops. My plan was to drop Geronimo off at home and then run a few more miles on my own…

…But I just didn’t. I wasn’t feeling motivated. I was feeling hot, I was feeling tired (achy back, tired feet, sore neck), and it couldn’t compete with my the cool air conditioning and overstuffed furniture in my house.

I went inside, kicked off my shoes, plopped on the couch, and did not feel one ounce bad about it. I probably should have sucked it up and gone back out. But but but I’m not going to feel bad about it or beat myself up. Sometimes one miles is all we can mange. Sometimes I can’t even get myself to go that far! Usually one mile leads to more; this time it didn’t. I’m proud of myself for getting out there and giving what I could, even if it was just one measly mile.

Do you do short workouts or are they just not worth it to you? How’s are your May workouts going so far? Stalling out like me or blowing throw the month?