So I got home from the gym today feeling really good after a great workout and finally found myself with 5 spare minutes to hop online to check my email, hop onto the Momstown message board and see if Jo had posted a blog entry, which she had. It wasn't the usual funny little excerpts of her day, today's was honest (and brutally honest at that). I knew that things have been up and down since the gym opened its doors, I guess I just hadn't realized how tough times had been as of late, and why would I? I'm just a member and the staff there would never let us know that anything was going on.
I just don't understand why people are so hesitant to try a different style of gym. There have been so many times in my short tenure at JDFT that I have talked the gym up, be it on Facebook, with friends or even strangers. I absolutely love it there! I have tried continuously to convince friends to come along even to try a class out and I'm always given excuses. The excuses are usually that they don't want to drive the whole 10-15 minutes into Red Deer, yet it's the same friend that's already been in once or twice today to go shopping and pick up kids; "their" gym is better for whatever reason, although they paid for a membership and have only ever used it a handful of times and then there's the friend that wants to give their new kinect or other fitness video game a try before commiting to a gym, yet they're on Facebook 24/7 updating every minute of their lives with no posts about their fitness.
I feel helpless because despite my best efforts and those of MANY others there just aren't enough people coming through their doors. I feel scared because I'm afraid of losing the family and community that is JDFT. I love everything about it there, especially that they have taken away all of the excuses for not getting there. I love that I can take my kids there at any time, I love that I can workout pretty much whenever it fits into my schedule, I love that I can let it all hang out (and there's a lot to hang out) without being judged and I especially love that I always have a gym buddy even if I'm the only one who shows up, the trainers will always workout with you. I'd like to say that I'm commited enough to myself and my family that I would be able to keep up this new active lifestyle if the gym's doors did close but I honestly think that I'm still at the stage where I need the structure of going to a class and having the help of others to ensure that I'm doing everything correctly. I can't just decide one day to workout at home if I don't have some sort of idea as to what I'm doing.
I have spent the evening trying to come up with ideas to help and I just don't know what to suggest besides taking in my empties (which there are still a lot of from the holidays) lol. I guess I'm hoping that maybe some of you who are creeping my blog, I know you're out there, with more means than we have can help keep this amazing community alive.
Something as awesome as JDFT cannot be lost, it's too important to have such a family focused atmosphere to instill an active in our younger generations, especially since experts are anticipating that by 2030 80% of Americans will be overweight.
PLEASE HELP SAVE JDFT
When things are bad, we take comfort in the thought that they could always be worse, and when they are, we find hope in the thought that things are so bad they have to get better.
Thanks Jordana. We've made it this far...we'll keep fighting.
ReplyDelete