Preventing a Chubby Hubby (or Wifey)

For whatever reason, this story has been all over the news for the last few days.

We all know anecdotally that dating leads to weight gain. Your first dates are probably all over lunch or dinner, you hit it off and want each other to meet your friends over dinners and sugary cocktails, you get closer and start having pizza and beer movie nights, you cook together or for each other, you buy each other treats, you become a couple and start throwing barbecues and dinner parties, and soon you're a fat schlub in love. Or, you're so busy trying to find time to see each other that you stop cooking and start grabbing a bucket of KFC before heading to his house. Let's face it: people like to relate over food. "Omg, he took me to the most amazing restaurant" does not score major points for no reason.

I'm not immune. Thank goodness I have decent genes, but the last two years have been tough because it's extremely difficult to stay fit or thin in Los Angeles. The severe drop in the amount of walking probably meant one less meal a day for me. Which makes a sad Pei overall. This girl needs her buttered scones. But now we're back in walkable San Francisco, and we've joined the YMCA Embarcadero! This is the coolest gym I've ever belonged to. Not only do they have a great pool and a lovely view of the Bay from the weight room, they have a bazillion classes! We've been going for a month now and I think I'm going to settle into a weekly schedule that includes three of the following in various combinations:

• Urban Bootcamp: an instructor leads the group in outdoor exercise along the Embarcadero and in Jackson Square Park.
• Yoga/Pilates: the chiropractor says I need to make a concerted effort to stretch out my spine.
• Free Weights: I'm not giving up on my long distance personal trainer's dream of making me swole. My arm muscles are coming back nicely.
• Swimming: this is J's activity, and I usually join him for fifteen minutes after my workout and/or for a full hour once a week. Hey, this kind of together time is better than couch potato time, right?
• Various classes that pop up from time to time: swimming tune ups, salsa, kickboxing, karate, taekwando, step aerobics, kinesis, and feldenkrais are all offered at the Y. I don't want to join all the classes, but sitting in one one from time to time is fun.

As a treat, I get to enjoy the hot tub, steam room, and sauna, which are cleaner than at any other gym I've been to and only found lacking when compared to a day spa. As a mental treat, our membership helps fun the Youth Chance High School, San Francisco's only publicly funded private high school. The school targets at-risk children and the school is in the basement of the gym and shares the gym's exercise facilities and computer lab.