Commitment Issues

A colleague of mine came into the gym locker on Tuesday and proudly announced that she had discovered that she was an exercise slut. She used to run a lot, then when she developed a knee problem and realized that it was good for her body to run every single day, she decided to pick up swimming on her off-running days. Pretty soon after that, she stopped running for a while and stayed with just swimming. More recently, she decided to pick up on weightlifting as well. And, she said, it isn't as if she has given up on running all together, she'll get back to it after a while. It is just that for now, she wanted to try out other exercise relationships. Oh, and she still has a thing with swimming. I can imagine that she'll stay at weightlifting for a while because there are just so many toys for her to play with that there will still be that exciting "just getting to know something new" feeling for a while. Though as the weather gets warmer, that makes running more and more attractive. Oh, this could get complicated, she might feel drawn to starting up with running again. I wonder if she can maintain a three-exercise relationship.

I could never maintain polyexercise or poly-any kinds of relationships. I like to focus intensely on one thing at a time, give it all my attention for a while. Right now, swimming and I have developed a really great routine where we see each other three times a week and I get a great workout in half an hour. Oh, it is not as if everything is all mechanized right now. I try really hard to be mindful of the time I spend swimming. I think it is more that I keep trying to fine-tune my relationship with swimming. I did that with rugby for a while, then it was running. Now swimming.

Oh no, I have to come clean. I did just start up this flirtation with soccer and oh, it is so much fun. Is this cheating? Swimming still has the three mornings a week. I only play soccer once a week at night. They never even overlap. Do they really need to know about each other? I don't want to jeopardize my relationship with swimming, especially since it has finally gotten good. But at the same time, I have to admit, I really lust after soccer. But more than lust after it, I think we could develop something really good in a different way than swimming. Am I a slut too?