Work it, work it.

I never thought I'd say this, but I love my little, privately-owned, hole-in-the-wall gym. The only other gym I had ever belonged to was Gold's Gym in Virginia Beach/Chesapeake, and as far as gyms go, Gold's has got a lot of everything: equipment, classes, resources, SPACE, etc. And its a pretty gym; all the equipment is shiny and new, even the people who work out there are buff and attractive. When we found out we were leaving VA and saw that our area in FL didn't have a Gold's, we were so disappointed.

It took me a year and half to join another gym. Originally I was going to go on base to workout, since we live only 7 miles away. That, and NASWF had just opened a brand new, state of the art gym, fully equipped with Nautilus machines; apparently we have the only gym in the Navy that is equipped entirely with Nautilus equipment. Why they put this gym on NASWF is beyond me. :) Anyhow, working out there didn't quite work out (haha, no pun intended) because 1) they didn't have childcare and 2) by the time Mike got home from work, I was too tired to work out.

One day I was browsing on Craigslist (of all places, right?) and found an ad for my gym: Tammy's Riviera Fitness. The ad stated that it was an all-ladies gym with childcare! And it was minutes (really, like 3 minutes) from Noah's school. Awesome.

So Mike and I checked it out. First impressions: I wasn't entirely blown away by the look of the gym. It was small-ish and the equipment was in good shape, but older. I joined because it offered everything I needed at the time: a place to work out and a place to drop my kids off.

I've been a member of Tammy's Riviera Fitness since September and I have slowly started to love it. It gets good business, but its small and quiet enough that everyone pretty much knows each other's name. The staff is great; there are only several ladies who work in the Kid Kare so they know my kids, and the boys' have no problems being there (this and they make the kids take their shoes off...cleanliness, gotta love it). I love how its mainly the same women that are in the classes I attend, and I love how they cheer newcomers on. :) I feel completely at ease at my gym, and I feel like I belong there. As long as I was a member of Gold's (since 2002!), I never felt like I belonged, I always felt like kind of an outsider.

I never thought I'd say this, but when we leave FL, I'm going to miss my little gym!