So I joined a gym

I joined a gym last week. I had avoided doing so for 44 years, but there you go.

I tend to have an obsessive personality. The dark side of this is that for many obsessiveness can lead to addiction. I've been able to avoid this, despite the fact that alcoholism runs in the family. My parents never took up drinking for this reason, and it's a decision I certainly respect. Like most American males, I did take up drinking in college and had a lot of fun with it. I also didn't give it up after college, and consumed a lot of beer during my 20s and 30s. But I eventually grew out of it around the time of 9/11.

Unfortunately, my waistline also grew. It's safe to say that the kind of full-bodied lagers that I was so fond of give one an excellent base for the classic beer belly sported by so many of us 40-somethings. When you add in a lack of physical effort and the kind of food readily available to us in our society, you can easily end up topping the scales on the north side of three bills like I did.

The best way I can put this in perspective is to chronicle what I did this week. I rode my bike Sunday and Monday. Then it started raining. Instead of sitting around lamenting the weather, I went to the gym Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and worked out an hour each day. Heck, I might even go back this afternoon if I cant' get a ride in.

When a personal trainer was showing me the equipment at the gym we came to the stair stepper. I intimated to her that two years ago I avoided any physical effort whatsoever. I would troll the parking lot for the best parking spot. I would take the elevator if I could avoid even one flight of stairs, because I'd be winded like nobody's business pulling my wide body air frame up to the second level. When not working I sat around all day and did nothing. Now I am was on a machine that was created for the purpose of mimicking the very thing I avoided most. And enjoying it.

People close to me know my story. They know how I was a few pounds overweight through college. How I got back into shape in my 20s for a while when I was flirting with high blood pressure. How I really let myself go after Colleen died. They know about the illness that almost took my life and had me flat on my back for six months.

I could feel sorry for myself, but that's not in my nature. It amazes me that so many people don't realize that it's not the events in one's life that shape it: It's one's attitude about them.

I have not felt this good since college. The cycling has certainly led to that, but the gym workouts have been the icing on the cake. If I have any regrets, it is that I could have accomplished more during my 20s and 30s if I had as much energy as I do now.

When you feel really good like I do right now, the blue sky is a little bluer, your son's or daughter's smile makes you smile a little longer and music even sounds better.