My new Addiction is the Gym

I suppose it's certainly healthier than my past addictions to smoking and pizza. But I honestly don't feel good unless I get 90 minutes at the gym each night. I do it late, so I always wake up feeling wiped out, and yet never feel like I've quite worked out enough.

Part of the interesting element of my addiction is that it has a side effect (beyond losing weight) of watching a ton of TV. I purchased a DVD player and utilized my Netflix queue to get through multiple TV series while on the elliptical trainer. Right now, I'm wrapping up the BBC miniseries State of Play and have recently torn through Generation Kill, Torchwood, Firefly, Damages, Deadwood, Mad Men and a series of movies. I've also re-watched a couple of the seasons of The Wire that I own. So I imagine I'll use this journal to provide my thoughts on them as I wrap them up.

Another side effect has been the unfulfilling purchase of fitness gadgetry. It never seems to work out: be it dumbbells I rarely use at home (though I thank Amazon Prime for ridiculously letting me ship those for free), that chin-up bar that doesn't work on any of my door frames (but I still use as a push-up bar occasionally), the FitBit that I'm still waiting for word on when it will ship (and will review once I get it) and the Vibram Five Fingers that I actually love, but ordered just before it got cold and wet.

Anyway, I started my addiction after finally hitting fitness rock bottom. Two years ago, I quit smoking for a month and gained about 20 lbs during that month. I figured I'd let myself go with eating so long as I didn't smoke. Bad move. I ended up smoking again and never lost the weight. I continued to gain about 15 more pounds at my new firm thanks to far too many late nights with Seamlessweb. I knew it was time to finally quit about 10 months ago. I readied myself for the task (quitting while not gaining weight) by deciding to get gym regular. 20 minutes on the elliptical twice a week became 40 minutes thrice. I now go almost every day. In fact, last week I went 8 times (one two-a-day) and my standard workout is now between 90 minutes and two hours with some weightlifting, cardio and a 10 minute steam. I've gone from an all-time high of 227 down to about 207-209 as of this morning. More importantly, I'm seeing some change in my body and my waistline (and in my TV and movie IQ).

Ultimately, though, I do find it a little disturbing that I feel the need to hit the gym. I've chosen it over going out more than a few times and wonder if it actually is making me far more anti-social. Then again, I'm debating that with myself on Tumblr -- I guess that answers that question.