Tag: Dad Bod

  • Back at the Gym

    Okay, I will say that I have been away from the gym for three months. Somewhere in the middle of June I stopped going to work out. The reasons why I stopped going were a bit complicated: The school year was coming to an end, we had a family vacation coming up that I needed to prep for, and I just didn’t feel like going any more.

    Now, I did go to the gym for at least once a week for five months. As the four of you who read this may know, in all that time, I didn’t lose any weight, nor reap the benefits of working out like better sleep, more focus, positive feelings. I still felt and looked like me, just with more sweat and body order.

    So why go back?

    Because I do know that good things happen when you work out, like living longer and shit. I fell off the bandwagon this summer, but I did take into account that I should eat and drink as much as possible if I stopped going to the gym. I had a “Summer of Ice Cream” if that gives you an idea of how I behaved. But, I do want to spend as much time as possible with my kid and wife, and the easiest way to accomplish that is to work out at least thirty minutes a day for three to four times a week.

    Yeah…

    As you can tell, I was never an “eat your vegetables” kind of guy, but I wanted to make the commitment of going to the gym for a year. I will need to come up with some sort of penance for taking that time off, but I would like to follow through all the way to January 2023, and then see where I am at.

    I know what my problem is. Well, I know what two of my problems are. First, I don’t have a clear goal. I just want to stay alive, but that goal has no bench mark to it other than being able to wake up tomorrow. If I actually said something like, I want to lose twenty pounds, or run a 5k, or fit into my old pants and shirts, then that would mean I would really have to work at it, and not do this kid glove thing. The second problem is that I don’t want to admit that I am getting older. That’s really all this is. I’m middle aged, balding and putting on a classic “Dad Bod” gut. I can only buy so many untucked shirts, and stretchy khaki pants, before I give in to t-shirts and sweats. I never had to worry about this stuff before, and now I have to be concerned about weight, health and shit, which only makes me feel older. (Ahh, the classic self-pity middle aged man. Not just for Updike and Roth novels!) I also know that if I don’t want to feel this way, I should either accept who I am right now, or I should make more of an effort in the gym.

    And I just can’t commit to one or the other.

    So, I’ll keep going to the gym, and hope at some point it will click for me, or metaphorically, I will flip the switch and commit to whatever path.

    I mean, I’m paying for the gym, so I might as well go.

    (And if you would like to commit to something, why not commit to giving my blog a like, or a comment, or even share it with your friends. You know, GAINS!)

  • Going Back to the Gym

    Not many people know this about me, but I haven’t been to the gym in almost three months. And now that I say it, I think I have told people this information before. Anyway, let’s all act like this is new, and not me rehashing a subject to meet my daily blog quota.

    I got in shape for “Swimsuit Season” by not getting in shape. I know that this was a bold choice, but after spending the Summer at the beach and water parks, I can see that for other middle-aged men, I was not alone in this decision. My dad bod is stellar!

    I stopped going to the gym because the school year came to an end, and I wanted to spend my time with the kid. And I also wanted to sleep in. But, I admit that was not the correct decision, as now I have to redevelop my habit of going to the gym.

    And I hate going to the gym.

    But I go to a nice gym in the neighborhood, which makes it not so bad.

    Yup, come Thursday, when the kid is back in school, I will be able to drop her off in the morning and then head over to the gym, which was the old system. And I do need to get back into it. I don’t like working out, but I also don’t want to die early. All the extra time I can have with the wife and kid is apricated, and the easiest way to attain that is just go work out for thirty minutes a day. So, it’s a pretty good deal.

    But I am lazy. I mean, I will do it, but I am really lazy. And I will hate every minute of it. And I will come home and the wife will ask me how my workout was, and I will shrug with an expression of not caring either way.

    My wife, on the other hand, when she come back from a yoga class, she’s all jazzed up, and excited, and happy, and full of energy. Good for her, and I’m happy that she gets that out of her workouts, but that’s not for me.

    Maybe one day, but not today.