My New Workout Room!

 You guys, I did yoga today in my new workout room and IT WAS AWESOME!  

Workout room you ask?  Let's rewind.  

Remember this god awful screened porch?  

And how my dad and I turned it into a 3 season sunroom 3 years ago?

Then I made a half-assed attempt to decorate it around an ugly couch?  

I've sat out here less than 10 times.  In 3 years.  The couch was free.  It was comfortable.  It wasn't my choice.  But again, it was free.  It was also not mine.  

This room turned into Miss Janie's hangout.  Any time you couldn't find her, she was in the room on what she considered, HER couch.  She'd sit on the back pillows and watch the neighborhood for me.  

Or she'd find the sun spot and lay there for hours.  

But me?  I hated that couch.  Every day when I'd walk by this room I'd think of ways to get rid of it.  For the last few months I've been talking to my dad, my aunt, my mom about what I could do with this room, without this couch in it.  The plan was this summer to get rid of it.  Again, it wasn't mine and I didn't want it to begin with.  

So I began thinking of ways I could utilize this room.  I didn't need another sitting room.  I have two living rooms in my house.  I didn't need a third.  But while thinking about what to do with this room, I was also thinking about converting an area in my garage into a workout space.  And at some point the lightbulb went off in my head.  Why workout in a dirty, dingy, dark garage when you could workout in this light and bright sunroom!?!?!?

Fast forward to removing the couch last week.  Which Janie is still pissed at me about.  Now she doesn't have anywhere to sit and stalk the neighbors.  I still need to figure something out for that.  Cuz she loved that spot and loved people watching. 

With the couch gone, you can see how much room is in the space.  I think this room is 10' X 16'?  I can't remember and I'm too lazy to measure it again.  But basically from where I'm standing in these photos, the front to back (wall with 3 windows) is longer than side to side.  So I definitely needed to move the fireplace to the back wall of 3 windows to have more width.  Everything else in the photo above was removed except for the rug.  

Then it was time to figure out what I wanted to go in there.  

I have a bike from my aunt that I put on one of those indoor riding contraptions (which I've had for YEARS).  The bike is too big but I can manage on it once every month or so.  Gotta give my lady bits time to recover after each ride.  Seriously though ladies- have you been on a bike lately?  I don't care how much gel they put in a seat, your va-jay-jay is crushed from the minute you sit down until you eventually can't take it any longer.  

But this has been sitting in my kitchen facing the tv for the last month or so.  Glad to get it out of there and into the new workout room.  

I'll be honest- I hate gyms.  I have no desire to step foot into a gym.  I've paid for gym memberships for years and used them once a month, sometimes going a year without stepping foot inside.  I just don't like them.  They smell.  But I do like to workout.  I like to walk.  I like to do yoga.  I like to run except my bones and joints hate me afterwards.  So I've been looking at ellipticals for awhile now, debating on if I should get one- hence the garage space I was planning. Having this room empty definitely gave me the kick in the butt to purchase one.  I ordered one from Dick's that was originally $999 and was on-sale for $649.  Not cheap but definitely not expensive.  Has the digital readings to keep track of your workout, has connections to plug your gadgets in, has a variety of different levels to increase the difficulty.  So far I love it.   Here's my new elliptical.  

Let me tell you, that was a workout in itself putting it together.  But less than an hour and a half later, this bad boy was up and running.  

Once I had the elliptical in the room, now I wanted EVERYTHING in there.  I bought a tv, a swing mount, and bench from Amazon.  Those three things arrived by Friday and I spent yesterday afternoon putting together and hanging the mount, then hung the tv and got it set up with my apps, and put the bench together.  I grabbed my yoga mat and Pilates bar from upstairs, took my weights out of the coat closet downstairs, hung my resistance tubes and bands, and filled the wire basket with the mats, yoga block, and Pilates bar.  I'm sure this room will evolve in the next few months as I get used to utilizing it for each type of workout.  My guess is the bike isn't going to stay in there.  But for now I'll keep it.  

Here are just a few of the different ways I have used the room so far.  

And some shots of the room as it currently is.  

There is plenty of room with the elliptical on one side and the bike on the other to sit on the bench to lift weights or put the mat down to do yoga.  I don't know if the area rug will stay.  I just like the pop of color it gives.  I have the bench leaning up on the wall only because I don't want Janie Jane jumping up on it and thinking it's her new spot.  But I might get something to go on it that while the room isn't in use or if I'm not using the bench in there- she can sit on it and watch out the window.  We'll see.  But today was nice to log into my Prime, select a yoga workout, and get right into it.  Janie thought it was a game that every times I got close to the floor or on the floor, that was her chance to jump on me and get belly rubs.  Hopefully she'll get used to me being in there.  If not, I'm going to teach her more than downward dog so she can workout with me.