The first foray into Living Skinny begins now!
On the first Monday of my final retirement, I contemplated
whether to hit my regular 24Hr Sugar House gym,
walk across the street to the new Brickyard
yoga place, or the new Brickyard Gold’s. Choices.
No Monday morning yoga classes; Gold’s won. This Gold’s location is an “express” meaning
it features weights and machines only. Note to Gold’s: Brickyard is south of Sugar
House. It kept the name. I surrendered my
free visit door hanger coupon and my driver license. I had already taken the
tour and off I went. Cardio is where I
start so the Cardio Cinema it was. The
huge, empty, dark cavern with a BIG screen was devoid of humans. No bikes were seen, and as I turned to exit,
a formerly unseen woman hit the door when I did. One.
What a waste of space and money, one or two classrooms would fit or as
the bike rider next to me suggested, lots more weight room. For reference, I
was there during the noon hour.
Did my 15 minutes on the stationery bike, and attempted to
watch TV. However, the screen was hung above directly above my head and I
mentioned the odd angle to the guy on the next bike. Little did I know he was the guy-in-the-know,
a former Gold’s manager (name already forgotten). We chatted about Gold’s. I asked if the gyms were changing
names/owners as there had been some scuttlebutt about that. He’d not heard. He bid me adieu and I remembered the machines
were upstairs and the weight room on the main floor. I found the unfinished-looking
stairs behind the cinema. As I was
having fun figuring how to use the new machines, the guy-in-the-know caught up
with me again. He said he’d asked his
insider and no, the gyms were still Gold’s, and they are just being
updated. We’ll see, I’m always skeptical
until I see signs and branding.
Lying prone on the ab machine, I could see blue sky out the
window, and the roof and HVAC units when I was upright. Unfortunately, when I reached the opposite
side where the TV screens were mounted, the glare from the windows made them unwatchable.
During my circuit, I spied a woman with a provided mat and
watched her abandon it. As I had no idea
where she procured it, I claimed it as my own.
As I was stretching, I saw my first Gold’s not front desk employee recon
around the floor. He nodded at me and
picked up a roll of paper towels off the floor.
The mat woman re-appeared and gave me the evil eye. I hurriedly finished up with her mat and beat
my retreat downstairs.
My driver license had been handed off to a sales rep. The woman I’d given it to, along with an info
form, walked across the aisle to introduce me to the designated sales rep. She waited while one was on an iPhone and the
others were chatting among themselves.
She finally caught the lucky guy’s attention and he launched into his
sales pitch. I cut him short, told him
I’d taken the tour, knew the deal of the day, retrieved my license, and exited.
The bottom line - the gym has location, location, location (for
me) but it has no pool, no classes, and is still figuring out where to put
everything. Will I abandon my 24Hr
membership? No. But if I’m too lazy to drive, a walk across the street and $10
buys me a workout, any day.
About Living Skinny I can’t tell you how to lose weight, I can
tell you how to maintain it. It’s no surprise but the answer is eat less and
exercise more. I’ve been the same weight
since 1992 – I’m 5’8” and weighed in at 133 today. Through this series, I hope to share how
making a conscious lifestyle choice is not difficult, sticking to it is the
difficulty. I’m ad and sponsorship free.
©Joelyn
Stewart 2014
