My new year’s resolution was to become more physically fit.
Here’s the thing about becoming physically fit. It’s not actually very interesting. At all. It largely consists of picking up heavy things and putting them down again, combined with getting your heart rate up. You don’t have to know the difference between a tricep and an ab. (And even if you do, it doesn’t make any difference. You have to pick things up and put them down again just as many times.)
So I’ve gone down two belt sizes, I’ve got more definition, etc.—it’s working out. But, really, it’s just not interesting, to me or to you. It’s not like diet, where there’s so much to learn about farming and subsidies and chemistry. I tried to read up on this stuff, and I don’t care. Because, again, the picking up and the putting down.
The good bit about being fit and getting regular exercise is this: I do not feel guilty about eating what I like, within the confines of everything that I learned about diet from my 2006 new year’s resolution. Being active gives me peace of mind about my diet and, ultimately, my health. If I want to have a bacon cheeseburger at Riverside or a frappe from Chaps, I do so without concern for my fitness. I can afford it, calorically-speaking.
I intend to remain a member of the gym, though I hope to eventually be responsible enough to not need the guilt of spending money on a membership hanging over my head to actually exercise. Maybe come January I’ll have a new year’s resolution that’s more interesting to blog about.
Hi, Waldo.
I hear what you’re saying about exercising at the gym — so might I suggest that you go outside? Seriously, I can’t stand gym exercise either, but in running and biking around C’ville you’ll discover a lot about the topography, hydrology, and ecology of the area. You’ll start to think a lot more seriously about where all the runoff goes, what is blooming when, and what grows on which side of the hill. You’ll notice the small details of human settlement, too — lawn art, painted-over signs, remnants of old buildings, etc. “Alpine walking” with hiking poles looks pretty goofy, but it’s a good way to get a full-body workout in the outdoors in a climate that’s too warm for XC skiing. Give it a try, some time.
Besides sharing your boredom with the inanity of picking things up and putting them down again, I could never, ever, EVER go to a gym. It’s just such a bizaare, crazy environment that I couldn’t even begin to take anything there even remotely seriously. Every time I’m in an environment like that my brain turns into one of those David Foster Wallace essays about Boat Cruises and County Fairs. I spend so much time analyzing how strange the environment is that I cease to be functional. I feel similarly about jogging; it’s just TOO fundamentally ridiculous for my brain to handle.
So in the vague interest of staying in a condition that begins to resemble health, I’ve just started walking everywhere all the time. I re-learned how to ride a bike, and had 8 months of glorious excercise and joy before my boss asked for his bike back. Now I need to get myself one for my Christmasbirthday.
It seems like a reasonable, low-key, fun way to stay in shape. Because, you know — actually CHANGING my diet of cheeseburgers and gin / habit of never sleeping is CLEARLY not an option.