Gym Dilemma

Help me out here, my lovelies.

I need to get back to the gym. It's not really a weight thing as much as it is a my-joints-keep-falling-out-of-place-and-my-muscle-tone-sucks-and-exercise-is-good-for-depression thing. I have a (semi-) rare genetic disease called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. It's a mutation, but instead of being able to control the weather or shoot fire out of my hands my collagen, the connective tissue in the body, is built wrong and doesn't do what it's meant to do. So I'm a mutant, but not a cool one.

Last January I moved into Kansas, slid on the ice, and "bruised" the bones in my wrist. Which is what the doctors say you've done when you can't put weight on your hand but the bone isn't broken enough to try and fix. It meant that the weights I bought for working out at home went unused (at least by me) for four months. Between that and the depression I put on all the weight I'd lost since the baby was born (she's 3 Sunday for reference). And then, when I could lift, I found I hated working out alone.

I enjoy weightlifting. I love doing yoga. I could be a gym rat if there were a few small hurdles not in my way. In Kansas the major hurdle was the nearest gym with a daycare was 30 miles away. I could justify the expense for the gas and the gym so I went running most nights with the Zombie Run Game. Until I injured my ankle in October. I dislocated it. By stepping down on pavement. *sigh* Welcome to life with Ehlers-Danlos!

So I was really excited to move to a major city with lots of gyms... most of which don't have daycare. Because parents with small children are automatically healthy and no one ever gives young mothers a hard time about not looking 15 and virginal??? (Spoiler Alert! NOPE!)

I'll save the rant about unrealistic body expectations for another day and present you with my major dilemma.

Gym #1 costs $73 and includes pool access, daycare, and classes... BUT!... the classes are all in the afternoon during homework or after bedtime, they don't offer any weightlifting classes, and it's a 10 mile drive.

Gym #2 costs $91 for the base monthly cost, plus $20 for daycare, but includes pool access, morning classes, and is 3 miles from the house.

I could go to the first gym but without a workout class I'm unlikely to push myself and if I'm going to workout alone, why not just workout at home?

The second gym would really bite into our budget and might mean my kids couldn't all do sports. Usually I have them all enrolled in something like gymnastics or swim lessons. It gets costly when you have four kids, but I feel they need an outside outlet for their energy and gymnastics gives them a confidence boost as well as discipline. That $50 is a big deal...

So, what do I do? Gym 1? Gym 2? Skip it altogether and find a way to love working out at home?

What do you suggest?