kevindooley, Flickr Creative Commons

I’ll let you in on a little secret. In 2006 I was in really good shape…at least for me. I belonged to a kickboxing gym and went to classes three or four times a week. Then I joined the gym’s demo team, and added a practice onto my normal gym schedule. After about nine months, I was pretty jacked. I could do a pull-up for the first time since I was in grade school. But then I moved.

When I left Connecticut and went to New York I wasn’t particularly concerned with staying in shape. I lived on the 7th floor of a building that, for all practical purposes, had no elevator. I went down those stairs, then walked about 10 blocks to the subway, got off the train and walked a few avenues over to my office, and then did the whole  thing in reverse at the end of the day. Add to that all the times I went up and down the stairs to get dinner or drinks, and I dropped about five pounds in a month without even trying.

Then my sublet was up and I moved to New Jersey. I made an effort to use the stairs (4 stories) and walk from Port Authority to my office, and used the stairs at work. I also tried to hit my company’s gym for kickboxing classes but that meant leaving mid-day, walking six blocks to the gym, showering, etc. Not exactly convenient. Then I moved again, back to Connecticut, where life became even more sedentary. I tried traditional gyms but they just didn’t keep my interest. I tried the Wii, which worked for a while but once I got out of the groove it went downhill.

Last winter I started walking dogs at my local pound a couple times a week. Then, once the weather got nice, I started walking at a local insane asylum (nope, I’m not kidding) on the walking trails. But now that it’s cold again I could feel the pounds packing on. So, I’ve decided to start looking for a gym.

I got a free week-long pass to the gym down the road from me and started trying out classes. I started pilates, which I haven’t taken in…I don’t even really know how long. Years. My abs were killing me. Then I went to a kickboxing class. Boy did I miss it!  I’m picky about my kickboxing classes, but I liked this one very much. I had every intention of going back and officially joining the gym…and then the snow hit.

As you may have heard, it’s been snowing here in the north east just about every time you turn around. For me, this means a lot of shoveling. I don’t actually mind shoveling, because it seems like an honest form of exercise. (I always wonder why people are willing to spend a lot of money on gyms so they can lift weights or run on a treadmill, but they avoid shoveling or walking anywhere.) The problems really occur when it snows overnight and I wake up to 12 inches of snows–normally I’d go out and shovel every few hours/inches so that it never gets overwhelming. Lately, that just hasn’t been possible.

It’s supposed to snow again starting early tomorrow morning, and then it’s going to turn to ice. I have a feeling I’ll be spending another day shoveling/toning my arms but the real goal is to get back to the gym this week and officially join! Hopefully the weather allows it!