owie

On Sunday, my wife and I signed up for a membership at Bally's, which has a club about 7 minutes away from us. I have up to this point in my life scorned health club memberships, believing them to be a waste of money for something you can do on your own for free. I realized, however, that in order to get in the kind of shape I want to be in, I need to incorporate some weights and whatnot into my exercise. Just running will help me lose weight...but I need some other stuff too. So we signed up on Sunday, and this morning I had an "introductory meeting" with a personal trainer named Ray.

I was a bit intimidated about going into the gym, having never been in one before, and feeling vastly out of place in such an arena. I was also worried that my trainer would be some big hardcore dude that would spit with contempt when confronted with my weight-lifting ability. Thankfully Ray was a nice guy, probably in his 50's or maybe early 60's. He went through a workout with me, mostly resistance stuff. I did a lot of sitting on a ball against a wall, pushups, jackknifes (a new terror to me), and other such stuff. He was patient and did a good job of explaining why we did what we did. If I were independently wealthy, I might pay to have more time with him so he could really get me going on the right workout track. I have no doubt that were I to spend a few months with him, I would start to get into better shape, and have better muscles all around.

Anyway the bottom line is, I am glad I'm signed up, even though I feel weak right now. Apparently Ricky has a membership there and has been dying for someone to work out with, so we will probably be doing that some in the near future.

Part of my motivation is the fact that I have a family history of heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Apparently at my current weight I have a 5300% increased chance of getting diabetes. That is not a typo. So for any number of reasons, it's time to stop messing around and at 24 take my health seriously.

I want to live long enough to become some awesome kind of cyborg.