One of the benefits that come with my particular medical aid is free gym membership. The catch is that to keep this membership, I have to go to gym 24 times within 12 months. Exercise has never been my favourite activity but in the interests of staying healthy, dragging myself to gym at least twice a month seems like the right thing to do.
Then I fell pregnant. Six weeks of constant nausea meant that getting up in the mornings was too much effort; where was I supposed to find the energy to manage the circuit machines? So, gym was out of the question.
Once the all-day sickness passed, I thought I’d be hitting the gym a few times a week to make up for all the weeks of non-activity. After all, I’d read that moms who exercised had healthy babies, easy labours and quick recoveries. My spirit was willing, but my flesh was weak. I don’t think I’ve napped so much since I was a toddler: breakfast, nap time, lunch, nap time, supper, nap time …
There was a brief period around 20 weeks when I had energy and felt great. I went shopping for a new super-sized swimsuit and headed for the gym. By 30 weeks I was exhausted again and back to two naps a day. Gym was the farthest thing from my mind.
Now our munchkin is almost three months old, but lugging her car seat (with all 5.6kgs of her still in it) up and down three flights of stairs every day counts as exercise, right? Even though she’s an absolute angel and only wakes once in the night, I’m still too exhausted for gym. Because it’s not just a matter of going to gym anymore; it’s putting her in the car seat, putting the car seat in the car, putting her in the pram when we get out of the car … by the time I get there I’ve already had a workout. Besides, I’m not ready to leave her in the care of complete strangers while I go off and torture myself for no reason at all.
Also, I’ve just had a baby. Carrying around the extra padding for a few more months really isn’t the end of the world. The gym will still be there when I’m ready to go back.
Last month I got an email from my medical aid telling me that if I didn’t go to gym seven times before the end of the month, my gym membership would be terminated and to reinstate it I would have to pay monthly fees. I don’t know if they were trying to scare me into exercising again, because it didn’t work. I went to gym every day for a week, but didn’t actually enter the gym. The ladies behind the counter happily swiped my card while cooing over the princess.
My gym membership is safe, but I don’t know when I’ll be hitting the circuit again. For now I’ve found Baby Boot Camp, a book with a nine-minute exercise routine the princess and I can do together, at home, whenever I find the time and energy to think about it. And I’ll be swiping my card twice a month, too. Just in case.
