As I sit on my bed here at home, I am ashamed at how lazy I have been during this Winter Break. The trek to the gym feels like the worst possible idea, and Netflix is roping me in for yet another episode of 30 Rock. I, along with countless other hopeful optimists, have set the New Years’ Resolution to get more in shape this year. We have promised ourselves to never miss a day at the gym, no matter how much our minds fight us against it. Yet somehow this self-promise does not seem to be going too well thus far over break.
Knowing that I will be back in Boston before I know it does provide one last shimmer of hope for my goal to get active. At a place like Boston University, it becomes a lot less difficult to get out and get going. To start, the Fitness and Recreation Center (referred to around BU as “FitRec”) is a hot spot on campus. With four stories of machines, basketball and racquetball courts, dance and fitness studios, an Olympic size pool, a rock wall, and an indoor track, the building has anything the athletes inside all of us could want. FitRec also offers a selection of free classes for students, who are automatically members. My favorites are the Happy Hour Workouts on Friday afternoons. Every week the class is something totally new, and I’ve found myself doing everything from Zumba to Yoga to Tabata Training. Also, any student can add a fitness class onto their academic schedule for actual college credit. When it comes to FitRec, BU students cannot go wrong.
Can’t make it there? No problem! I almost never pass up a chance to run along the Charles River on the esplanade. The path is always buzzing with cyclists, runners, children playing on its many parks, and anyone just searching for a place to enjoy the outdoors. However, there is one problem with running here: sometimes, I use the stunningly jaw-dropping scenery to stop my work out and take a picture or two. So what if my run is a little less intense! I can’t let me Instagram followers miss this, right? Seeing the sunshine over the river, even in the colder winter months, will make any tiring run worth it.
I may just have to change my “New Years’ Resolution” to a “Spring Semester Resolution” because home does not seem to provide enough motivation to get started. Luckily my second home is the perfect place to reboot my fitness, and I cannot wait to get back there and get going.