It’s that time again.

Time to return to the gym.

It doesn’t seem to matter if you’ve been away for 6 weeks, 6 months, or 6 years….the “return” is never easy. 

To actually make it happen, you may have to overcome scheduling logistics, deal with guilt about taking time for yourself, or worse - you might have to defeat your Inner Slug.  Sometimes that’s the greatest challenge of all!

My pending return to the land of pain and sweat is the result of a simple question - posed by my husband, to our 6-year-old daughter:

“How would Mom do on American Gladiators?”

I sat back, awaiting what I thought would be a very enthusiastic response.  My daughter has become quite a Gladiators fan this summer, and I expected her to say something along the lines of “Awesome!”

Sure, I get winded running up a half-flight of stairs and I may experience severe muscle soreness the day after playing Wii bowling, but she doesn’t know that.

Instead, she deflected the question diplomatically, instead asking “What do you think, Dad?”

At six years old she can already sense the equivalent of “Does this dress make my butt look fat?” and sidestep it tactfully.

So it’s back to the gym for me.

I’ve got some serious work to do if I’m going to take on Crush and Hellga.

Tags: American Gladiators, Inner Slug