Back to the Gym.....

Awesome boyfriend came home all excited this weekend saying that he had a surprise for me.  I like surprises and assumed that this one was something shiny from Pandora or maybe that we were going out to eat somewhere with good steaks.  When he pulled out a gym membership I was quite surprised indeed!

I think that I have shared multiple times with you all that I am quite a lazy person.  On the weekends I like to sleep in until a ridiculous hour, and sometimes I don't get out of my pajamas and shower until late into the afternoon.  You can imagine that this does not coincide with the thought of giving 5-10 hours a week to the gym.

We were working out hard during the week and running
most weekends when we took this picture.  It was shortly
before we made the big move.  

Believe it or not, before we moved to Maryland awesome boyfriend and I were pretty fit people.  We lived across the street from a beautiful public park where we would run with the dogs, go for walks and picnics, and the like.  We also used to work out in the gym 4 or 5 days a week.  Moving to Maryland in August of 2011 gave us a great excuse to sit on our lazy butts and catch up on reality TV for almost a year.  But the time has come to get moving again, and truth be told I'm kind of glad.  I've hit something of a plateau with my body, and although I am happy with my current dress size, I wouldn't mind if everything was a little bit tighter all over.  Also, I enjoyed running outside as did the puppies, and I think it would be a good thing for all of us to get back to.

image via

The gym that awesome boyfriend picked for us is amazing.  It's one of the most well equipped gyms I've ever worked out in, and this is great because I get bored easily.  There are indoor and outdoor pools, racket ball and squash courts, a rock wall, basketball courts, and Pilates and yoga studios, in addition to a wide variety of classes, and traditional gym equipment (treadmills, weight lifting machines, free weights, etc).  If you have a Lifetime Fitness in your area, I highly recommend you stop by and check it out.  Our two person membership is costing around $120 a month, which is slightly more than we were spending in North Carolina, but probably a reasonable price for this area, and for all of the features that we are getting.

I'm going to try to get in the gym at least 3 days a week, hopefully more like 5 or 6.  I'm conscious that the fall semester is going to start soon and I'll have evening classes and studying to contend with, so we'll see how that goes.  I'll be posting all of my progress here (the good, the bad, and the ugly) so stay tuned for work out schedule and strength training reports.  Welcome back!