Time to Get Back to the Gym

0

Our cozy Pacific Energy Woodstove kept us warm when our furnace died at minus four degrees in South Deerfield, MA.
Our cozy Pacific Energy Woodstove kept us warm when our furnace died at minus four degrees in South Deerfield, MA.

It’s January, and we’re almost a nation at war. What better time to finally, agonizingly slowly, to realize that taking fitness classes is good for me, and I need to keep doing it.  I joined Mary Gilman at her fitness club for weights and stretching class, about 13 women, a male trainer named Steve, and me.

I haven’t put fitness as a priority, and so I’ve gained about a stone since last year. Bad idea.  So I’m joining this gym and I’m going to do group classes like Mary does, I think it’s the only way to get me moving like this.

I just don’t know what to do if I try to work out by myself. I remember my previous gym experiences, I was a member of the Greenfield Y for three years. I never talked to one person the entire time I was there, I mean, it was incredibly lonely.

These classes are much different, and I can see adding a few of these to my normal fitness routine that consists of my four-mile walk.  It’s more fun.

I am looking forward to January, a month that was once the slowest month and one in which we would get laid off at the Valley Advocate.  It’s a grim time for businesses, some never re0pen after December is over.

I’ve got some fun things coming up, speaking at the Boston Travel and Adventure Show next Sunday with Paul Shoul, and later in the month at the NY Times Travel Show, same thing.

It’s always fun to meet up with the writers with whom I’ve been in touch via email and messenger but in some cases, never in REAL LIFE!  So that’s what conferences are for. I’m also keen on the way I’m getting to NYC, taking the Amtrak train from Greenfield on Wednesday morning. Then I’ll attend this Summit and IMM a meeting of many tourism boards and writers, then the big show.

Two hotels booked, and no driving! I will also tour the construction project where Amtrak is building a new station for their own trains near Hudson Yards. I can’t wait to see that.