Wasted June

At the gym anoche, I asked the front desk person if their computer kept track of how often I'd gone to the gym.

Indeed it did. For this month and last month, anyway. I took a look.

Not Encouraging.

It turns out that in June, I only went to the gym five times. This is bad, for many obvious reasons, the two most important being 1) I cannot get into shape if I do not exercise, and 2) I am wasting money. The gym costs $199 for three months. So July was about $66.33. This means that each trip to the gym -- usually lasting less than an hour -- cost me a bit over $13. Now, I can think of many things I would pay $13/hour for. A good meal. Drinks with friends. Sweating at the gym is not up there.

It's weird though. I know that going to the gym and getting in shape is WORTH far more than $13 per hour. Indeed, if I could get in shape without any exercise -- just pay a lump sum and boom! I'm in shape -- I would probably pay a couple thousand dollars. That's how much it's worth to me on a perceptual basis. Yet once I have already determined that I can get in shape for the low, low price of $199 plus the cost of meals, I don't like learning that I am being jipped. What's worse is that I am the one doing the jipping.

The good news is that so far in July, I have gone to the gym three count'em three times! I told the lady at the front desk that by the time the month was out, I would rack up 20 count'em 20 times. This will require me to get there 5-6 times a week for the next few weeks. This is my plan.

In other news, I was slightly perplexed yesterday in trying to do decline dumbbell presses. Doing them is straightforward enough, but actually getting on the bench and leaning back so that I'm laying with my head at the bottom and my feet up top... that's kind of tricky, what with the heavy weights in my hand and all. Any advice?