That seems like a good “clickbait” blog post title! And, in proper internet style, I won’t reveal my “jaw-dropping discovery” until the end of the article! (Spoiler alert: you might think it’s lame…)
I joined a gym in October 2017. That was a full 10 months ago from today, August 4, 2018. My attendance was good at first – I was faithfully going to a weight training class on Saturday mornings and a yoga class on Sunday afternoons. I struggled to get to the gym during the week, for lots of reasons, excuses, whatever. Let’s just say I have had obstacles getting to the gym during the week.
I felt pretty good about going twice over the weekend and I enjoyed the post workout soreness I would have lasting usually until Wednesday. The weight training class was definitely challenging me physically, and I thought following it up the next day with yoga stretches was a nice combination.
But, I wasn’t consistent. The holidays came and I was busy on the weekends, so it got hard to fit in trips to the gym. After the holidays, during the winter and early spring when I should have been getting back into my Saturday morning/Sunday afternoon routine, I just… didn’t. I was convinced that my family needed my time and attention and I just couldn’t be spared to go to the gym every weekend. It wasn’t that I quit going entirely! I went sometimes. It’s just that I no longer had a routine so my attendance to the workout classes I enjoy became really sporadic. Spring melted into summer without any improvement in my workout patterns.
Now, I’m nearing the first anniversary of my gym membership. I’m not the svelte, strong woman I thought I’d be after nearly a year of working out. Last fall, I so loved my yoga classes and admired my yoga instructors that I even fantasized about working up to becoming a yoga instructor myself! That seems laughable now.
I wasn’t expecting to have any sudden revelations while I was at the gym this morning, but I guess you can’t control when they happen. It was this: I haven’t been transformed into a bodybuilder model or a beginner yoga instructor over the last 10 months, but I have overall improved my health and strength. My posture is better. My body is more flexible. My arms are more toned. I’m sleeping better. The casual observer wouldn’t even notice these changes, but they are real. My jaw-dropping discovery is that incremental improvement is still improvement.
I need to stop beating myself up for not transforming myself the way I fantasized. I just need to to keep doing better than before. Here’s to the next 10 months!
