No More Mr. Fat Guy!

Have you heard of Fitness Together? It’s a booming business. It’s a chain of health clubs that now has over 500 locations. I think there’s one in Huntsville. At Fitness Together, trainers work with you one on one. And it’s only a grand a month for three visits a week. If you want to work out 6 days a week, it’s only $1800 a month. The more you buy the more you save!

Bob Milke is upfront about Fitness Together’s clientele. “We are not for everybody,” he observes. “You have to have the money and the desire to take care of your body in a specific way.” Members can sign on by the month — three sessions per week cost $960 per month; six weekly workouts cost $1,800 per month — or purchase a number of different packages, including an $8,574 Couples Plan.

Wow. You’d better be fit before you even walk in the door. Or you’re likely to have a heart attack when you hear the prices.

Back on the horse. I just finished milking the goats after I got back from a 2 hour walk at the gym. And I think I solved the noise problem. As regular readers know, I’d started walking at the gym instead of outside in my rural area on account of two things: the heat, and a couple of unpleasant interactions with dogs. But a few days after signing up for the gym, they began playing the radio so loud that it was difficult to hear my mp3 player. This was after they had assured me before I plunked my money down that they didn’t play the radio very loud at all. I’ve complained a couple of times, but was told that most people like it that loud so there was nothing they could do. I thought about calling the director or manager of the place, but past experience tells me that that might bring a couple days of respite, and then things would go back to normal. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to quit going to the gym because that would mean quitting walking unless I buy a treadmill. But I simply can’t put up with that kind of noise level. I was looking at some noise canceling headphones on Amazon, but from what I’ve read, they don’t work very well when it comes to blocking noise such as music. They’re good at blocking steady, constant noises such as bus or airplane engines, but not noise that’s constantly changing. Then I remembered what a friend of mine used to wear when he mowed his lawn - shooter’s earmuffs. So I stopped by Wal-Mart and got a pair of them for $14. And they worked great. I slip the earbuds from my mp3 player into my ear, and then put the muffs on. I could hardly tell the radio was on, and I was able to turn the volume on my player way down. It’s not the most comfortable solution in the world; the earpieces are very tight to keep noise out, and after a while it’s slightly uncomfortable. And because of the pressure on your ear, if you adjust the ear pieces, the earbuds tend to fall out. It can be tricky to get the buds in just right, and then get the earmuffs on without dislodging them. But these are minor problems, and they’re not that big of a deal. Ideally, the gym wouldn’t play the radio at all, and everyone would just listen to whatever they wanted with their own players. But I don’t see that happening for a long, long time. Until it does, I can live with this arrangement.

I work weekends, so no walking til Monday. Check back then.

Same Fat Time!

Same Fat Channel!

Just got back from the gym. I only walked 2 hours today. I was planning on 2.5, but after the hour and 15 mark, my battery went dead in my mp3 player. So I took a break, drank some water, had a cigarette, and went out to my truck and got a new battery. When I got back, the radio had been turned up so loud that it was impossible to hear my mp3. It was already very loud, but I could turn up my volume and live with it. But now it was impossibly loud. So I went to the treadmill room and did another 45 minutes. I find treadmills boring; I’d much rather walk naturally. So after I got two hours in I left.

I don’t know when it became a federal law that all public accommodations must blare a TV or radio at all times and all over the establishment. If it’s not a federal law, it might as well be. One of these days people are going to wake up to the real, health damaging, harmful effects of all this extremely pervasive noise pollution. I can’t believe how used to it we’ve all gotten. Restaurants sometimes have 5 different TVs going, all on different stations, in addition to a radio or jukebox. It’s ungodly loud in almost every public place you go to. But of all the places you shouldn’t have to put up with this garbage, health clubs are near the top. It never ceases to amaze and infuriate me.

Rant over.

Tune in tomorrow.

Same Fat Time!

Same Fat Channel!

I’m still at my friend’s house, but I should be home sometime Tuesday. I’m on a terrible sleep schedule-going to be around 10am and getting up around 5pm. I’ve really got to figure out how to get back to the standard circadian rhythms and be a normal human being again.

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