post-baby exercise planning

Last night we made one of (if not THE) our last trips to our gym of the last four years.  Almost as soon as we knew about the adoption we knew we'd have to cancel our membership...so we went to cancel a few weeks ago and now it's done. Due to the cancellation rules, we ended up still having to pay for another month and we have access through the middle of November, but then it's done. No more gym.

It was an easy decision to make. First and foremost, our gym is quite small and doesn't have childcare. That pretty much made cancelling our membership a no-brainer. We're not toting a baby around the gym, and we're not going to try to arrange childcare for her (after she's been in childcare for the entire workday already) so that we can go work out. We could theoretically go to the gym separately, but we've never had much success doing that, so I don't really see that being something we'd do often enough to make it worth the money we pay them every month. So basically the logistics of gym-workouts (not to mention that our gym is 15 minutes away from home and NOT in the direction of Athens/work) made it a simple decision. Not to mention now we can pocket that money every month, which is a huge bonus when you're trying to figure out a new budget that includes OH CRAP FORMULA IS EXPENSIVE.

It also made it easier that for probably the last 7 months or so we've been weaning ourselves off the gym anyway. We started training for the triathlon in April and that immediately had us doing most of our working out at home (or close to home, at a pool) for our biking and running. We ended up just liking that better...running on a treadmill has a lot of perks (like air conditioning, easy access to a potty, televisions to distract you, the ability to change the elevation immediately if a hill is too hard...actually, everything about a treadmill is better than actually running outside, now that I think about it. Dangit. What have I done.), but running around our neighborhood and nearby streets is just as effective and also saves us from a half hour of driving to/from the gym. Biking outside is WAY better than biking on a stationary bike. And we also have a small assortment of weights, ropes, punching bags, and other various at-home workout 'equipment' that let us get a more well-rounded workout experience if we wanted. So we really got in the habit of almost never going to the gym, unless it was raining or extraordinarily hot (which, don't get me wrong-- it frequently is...), and found out that sometimes we worked out even better/more often if we stuck to doing it at home. Like if we had only 30 or 40 minutes to squeeze in a workout-- that's not even long enough to drive to/from the gym. But it's plenty long enough to throw on your shorts and running shoes and knock out a couple miles on the streets around your house. 

Then in September or so I discovered that running in the morning, while tough (mostly the part where you have to crawl out of bed an hour earlier), is actually really do-able for us. And so we've started doing that a few times a week. I'm not sure how sustainable that's going to be through the winter-- my asthma issues are cold-weather and exercised-induced, so while I'm used to dealing with the issues that aerobic exercise always bring on, throwing in the extra variable of FREAKING COLD may be more than I'm comfortable pressing through...but, maybe I'll figure something out. And it's really only freezing cold for a short time here. 

So anyway, what we've been thinking through and talking about is this: what are we going to do for exercise once Ellison is here? Although we're no stellar athletes by any stretch of the imagination, we have managed to make exercise a regular feature of our lives for the last four years, and I don't want to consider what would happen (to my mental health AND my thighs) if we stopped. I know we're going to be exhausted from the baby. I'm not under any illusions that I'll have some magical situation where I wake up fully rested every morning, itching to go on a run. But I also know that I want to keep exercising regularly. It makes me a happier person. It's healthy. It gives me energy. And I can't afford to get fat and replace all my clothes. Lots of reasons to take a half-hour of my time and do something with it. 

In a way, Matt and I feel like God was sort of preparing us for this next season of exercising over the last few months. We used to be really gym-dependent for our workouts. I pretty much only took group classes. He pretty much used fancy machines. We can't easily replicate those experiences at home. But now we're used to the at-home thing. And so now we just have to figure out when/where/how we can keep it up with the baby in tow. I don't know if any of these ideas will actually work out, but I feel better knowing that at least we've thought about it and have some things to try when the time comes.

Our 'Things that Might Work' for Exercising After the Baby:

-Running with the stroller. Duh. If Ellison likes the stroller and/or sleeps, then we could do this pretty much any time, right? Early morning runs could still work (if we can keep her warm enough) or in the evenings after work. This seems like a no-brainer.

-Running one at a time. One of us stays home with Ellison, the other runs. Swap. This would work at any time of the day...if she's already sleeping or needs to eat or whatever...this seems pretty logical.

-Biking with Ellison in a bike seat or trailer. This will have to wait until she's quite a bit bigger and also will require purchasing equipment, but this could be a good option in the future. Except I think I might be too scared to put her in one of those trailers. So we'll see.

-Videos at home. We have a decent spread of workout DVDs already and could add in some more (or something really fancy like Insanity or P90X). We could do these together or separately, when Ellison is asleep or awake (if she has a swing or something), rain or shine...seems like this would be a super flexible way to get in a workout.

-Gym at my work. There is a really really teeny workout room at my work (maybe 3 cardio machines, a weight bench, some free weights, jumpropes...REALLY SMALL) and an indoor track. There are also showers and locker rooms. So we COULD use that stuff (for free) whenever we wanted, but that would mean either going to work earlier (having Ellison in childcare longer) or staying later (ditto), so I'm not really sure. I guess if we wanted to do it after work we could also go GET Ellison and bring her back to my work and then take turns watching her/working out, but that seems kind of like a lot of work. And I just think we're going to want to spend time with her and not the kind of time where you're passing her back and forth between sets. But who knows.

-Later, if time and budget allow, join a gym in Athens that has childcare. Then we can stop and work out on the way home from work, so it won't be any extra driving- just the time of ACTUALLY exercising.

So those are some of the things we've thought about trying. I wanted to write them down so that in a month or two, when it's been 6 weeks since I last saw my running shoes and I'm wondering how on earth I ever thought I could work out with a newborn around, maybe I'll look back and see these genius ideas and give one of them a try. Or maybe not. But it can't hurt.

One other thing I'm doing is reading blogs of moms that make exercise a priority. Some of them are doing insane things like running ultras, some of them are just regular working moms who still manage to make exercise a part of their lifestyle. Either way, they all inspire me to not just settle for a sedentary lifestyle and they demonstrate that it can be done. I need that inspiration...even now, while I don't have a kid, I sometimes convince myself that I'm 'too busy' to exercise. And then I remember all these women with multiple kids, jobs, pets, commitments, and if THEY can still make exercise a priority, then I need to shut up and take my flabby buns on a jog. 

That said-- I did not go running this morning because I worked out too hard at the gym last night and I'm too sore to run today. Ha. I am the best excuse maker EVER!!