August is careening to its termination, but I may be beginning a new phase of my quest for better fitness. Upon evaluating my progress thus far, I admit that there’s been none. I still weigh about what I did on January 1 this year, and I’m not feeling any more fit. There have been some periods of elation leaving the gym and many periods of relative weariness. I’ve decided that only young people leave the gym full of piss and vinegar and ready to conquer the world. It’s a certainty that I won’t be sharing that response.

August has been a “gymness” failure for me. There’s been so many other things to do, places to go, and people to see this month that I’ve been getting to the gym only randomly. Definitely not twice a week, and I missed a couple of weeks entirely. That said, I feel it. I can’t say I miss the time spent on the machinery, building my “cardio” and sweating. No. What I miss is the general feeling of having accomplished a goal. That goal consists of spending the entire pre-determined time I’ve vowed to spend at the gym that day. The time is usually 45 minutes per session. Some days, I feel like being there less time, some times more. I calculate it before I arrive and set my chronograph watch for the determined end time before I start exercising.

To make a short tale even shorter, I’ll leave it like this. I still need to lose some weight, and I still need to build my endurance. I plan to faithfully attend my fitness program for the remainder of 2023. That means that I’ll go to the gym at least two times a week.

I serviced our bicycles yesterday and plan to load them, weather permitting, into the Volvo from now through Fall and go riding as many times as I can. There are plenty of bike trails and parks hereabouts.

Yep, there are built-in loopholes here. That might indicate that I intend to use them, but for my own good, I’ll try to avoid doing so.

I’ll report back here in another month to let you know how well I’m sticking to my plan. Wish me luck.