My Hometown Gyms Receive an F-

** This was supposed to post last Friday morning, but something went haywire. My apologies.

I am a procrastinator from way back. When I was working, I would get all of my work-related stuff done right away. My personal stuff has always been a "wait until the last minute scenario". I have been working to change it, and actually get things done as close to immediately as I can. It was, with these intentions toward anti-procrastination, that I tried to proactively look for a place to workout in my hometown while home for Thanksgiving. I wouldn't have thought it would be such an ordeal to get a workout in!

On Tuesday, I made some calls. One gym appears to be city-owned, and it was closed on Thanksgiving. I had two other options that claim to be 24-hour facilities. I spoke to the larger of the two, and was told I could stop and pick up a visitor card on Wednesday, as long as I was there before 6pm. Imagine my surprise and delight when I arrived at 3:05pm to find the person working already gone for the day. Awesome. It appears I should not have bothered trying to line this up ahead of time.

Onto option three. I walked into the gym, and walked right back to the office. No one was there, but the lights were on and the door was open. I was hopeful. Then the manager hopped off his machine, and came over. I explained that I just needed a place to work out for two days, and asked what I needed to do to make that happen. I was naive enough to believe the answer would be something along the lines of: "No problem. Come right over here, and we'll get you set up." I mean - how hard could this be? Instead I got told "Ummm...I don't usually do passes for that amount of time. I don't want to have to do all of the paperwork. And there is a deposit on the card, and if I'm not here when you're done on Friday I can't give your deposit back." I think he was hoping that I would give up at that point, and leave. That young man was not so lucky.

I went into my rebutal. My parents live in town. I will be back at Christmas. I could just get my deposit then. I understand there will be a fee involved, but I need a place to workout. Are you sure there is no way to do this? I don't have another option.

He changed his tune. Suddenly it was no problem. I went over to the table to fill out all of the paperwork. I want to let you in on something..."all" of the paperwork was one 2-part document. I had to fill in the top with my name, address, phone and emergency contact information and sign it. He had to check 2 boxes, write ten numbers and tear them apart. After I massaged my hand, because of the cramping from filling out so much paperwork, we went into his office where he ran my credit card through for the $7 card deposit (I can see why getting this returned immediately should be one of his negatives used in his attempt to dissuade me), and my 2-day fee. While the card was authorizing, he activated my gym card. Manager also told me to just give him a call if I was going to be back in December, and he could activate my card for whatever days I need it - incase I get in after he has left for the day. See....super-helpful now. He gave me a tour of the 20x20 facility - which was basically walking through the middle of it and him pointing at stuff, made sure my card worked, and I was on my way.

Start to finish this entire exchange: I want to use the gym, well...I don't really want to let you use the gym because I am excessively lazy for a fit person, but dude - I really need to use the gym, OK - I want to be super-helpful now, fill out "all of the" paperwork, charge credit card, activate gym card, there are the towels - help yourself, hey there are the TVs, don't bench press if you are here by yourself incase you get trapped and die, here is how you use the card at the door, OK thanks for coming in, have a nice Thanksgiving - - seriously took about 5 minutes. I can see where that was almost too much for him for the $21 he charged me.

Cut to Thursday morning. I am a person who does the same things until I get sick of them, then I change to something new and do that until I get sick of it. So going into a new gym, which is very limited compared to the gyms I am used to, had me all out of sorts. I forgot to do my warm up. The equipment didn't have actual weights on the plates...it had 2, 4, 6, etc. on them - and no note as to how much each plate weighed. Annoying!! So I got to improvise. As a non-fitness professional, I don't want to have to improvise. That is how I am going to hurt myself! All was not a loss, however. The last exercise on Thursday's workout is the "dip" machine. I love to hate it. It absolutely exhausts me. Limited gym 3 didn't have anything that even remotely resembled it, so I had to skip it. It really broke me up. (that is sarcasm)

I went to 1/2 of a bootcamp class after that - which was awesome. It got my heartrate up, without making me want to kick anyone. Plus it had "Tootsie Roll" on the playlist! How do you go wrong with that!?! I headed to my two family gatherings. I ate what I wanted, just smaller quantities than usual. It was nice to feel satisfied, but not miserable.

I plan to work it Friday morning at "Gym Limited" and then head into the lion's den. I am spending two days making cookies with my sisters and nieces. This will be the third year we are doing it. It is always a very entertaining time - with lots of yelling of Celine and Mariah Christmas albums. I just hope I am able to show some strength, and not eat all of the cookies. Wish me luck!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! What are you going to do to make this coming week great?