12.16.2013

GYM CHRISTMAS Day 10: Game of Chores, and Day 11: The First Rule of Athletic Club



For the 10th day of GYM CHRISTMAS John and I teamed up to Make a Game of Household Chores. We wrote down about 6 chores that needed doing and each drew one out of my IU can coolie, shown here.






I drew "pick stuff up," so I walked around putting things away and tidying up the house. We don't have a huge apartment so that took me probably 30 minutes. Meanwhile, John drew "process nuclear waste," which was our phrase for "clean out the fridge." I only meant for him to throw out the old food and organize it a bit. But by the time I was done picking stuff up he had removed all the shelves and all the food and was in the process of scrubbing the whole thing down. Naturally this is a job for more than one person so I joined in. 

It turns out the real game was "clean with your spouse without having a giant fight." So that was awesome. The fridge won the game since it came away cleaner than before and without any battle scars. The coolie still has some chores inside it so we may return to that game another day. I didn't get a good before shot of the fridge, but here's the after: 




Today John and I both completed Investigate and Share, for me Day 11 of GYM CHRISTMAS. We investigated the Athletic Club, part of a chain of gyms around town. I happened to get a couple of free 7-day passes when I had fro-yo with the Triathlon Club a while back. We decided to try it out today, though somehow we didn't realize that the first visit would require a pitch from one of their costumer service staff plus a tour. The woman we spoke to was very nice and answered our questions, though that made the whole visit longer than we planned. I'd say the place was fine, no better, no worse. The locker room wasn't packed at 4pm like Western's would be and it was a lot newer inside. But the rest of the gym was very comparable. They do have a women-only section that was spacious and a separate entrance. I'm sad that those things are necessary but I guess I'm glad they have them. Everything else I felt was more or less the same as at school, but the membership is more expensive. If I weren't a student at Western and I were still living here, I would still get a UWO membership because of the convenience and price. And if not Western then the YMCA (members can go to any YMCA in North America!) because the pool is kind of a deal breaker for me. Athletic Club does have a pool, but it's smaller and had no lane lines and just wasn't my thing. But the place seemed ok. If I lived closer to that gym than to the school gym, I would consider it. 
My bigger problem was the vibe rubbed me the wrong way somehow. They have posters everywhere that I felt were trying to up-sell you on your membership or get you to promote the Athletic Club to your friends. As John will tell you, I'm no fun for sales people. That kind of constant promotion makes me uncomfortable. Somehow the emphasis to me seemed to be about becoming skinny, though there was no particular thing about the place telling me that. It's just different from a university setting. The biggest thing I learned was that I like the gym at Western, so go figure.

Of course, now I like the idea of getting trial memberships at other gyms for comparison. Maybe I'll take a tour of the YMCA next time I'm in the neighborhood.

Here is my GYM CHRISTMAS list now:
Go for a Pre- or Post-Dinner Walk.
Yuletide Cheer
Make a Game of Household Chores
Crank Up the Music and Boogie Down
Hazardous Waste Removal
Regular Water Consumption
Investigate and Share
Sneak a Work Out into Another Activity
Turn TV Commercials into Fitness Breaks
Muscle-Building/Strength Training
Animal Time
Seven-Minute Work-Out.

One more day to go! I anticipate finishing my 12th day (muscle building and strength training) on Wednesday or just after we get to Bloomington.


This weekend I made a couple of cocktails out of things I happened to have at hand. I give you: a modified tequila sunrise that I dubbed the Christmas Morning: 

1 oz tequila (or more if you want it stronger)
ice cubes
orange juice (probably 1/2 cup)
1-2 tbs cranberry mixture*
Combine and serve.

*For the mix, I put 1 cup of semi-thawed (previously frozen) cranberries + 1 tbs sugar +1/4 water in the food processor until it was finely chopped. 

I could never get that mixture as fine as I wanted, but it did the job. And it looked lovely! The combination of flavors was perfect. I only used 1 oz per drink of tequila because that's how much we had left. So long, tequila.




Next, I made a Cranberry-Ginger Vodka Spritzer with the following:
1.5 oz vodka
ice cubes
sparkling water or club soda
lime wedges for garnish
*1-2 tbs cranberry mix

*This was the same cranberry mix as above + 1 tbs fresh ginger, minced. 

We really liked this drink, too! The lime is the right final touch. Both of these drinks would be good non-alcoholic drinks for the holidays if you omit the liquor. I think the Christmas Morning was my favorite.






And finally, here are some gratuitous pictures of BoBo getting into the Christmas spirit.




"What's up in that tree? Is it SANTA?!"





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