What’s in Erin’s Gym (and Diaper) Bag?

The FBG pooches are clearly protective of gym bags!

As we’ve mentioned, each Friday one of the FBGs will be answering a Question of the Week (QOTW). This week’s question? What’s in Your Gym Bag! Here is Erin’s minimalist approach to the gym bag. See Jenn’s response here!

I dare say I’m a minimalist. You would never know it if you took a step into my closet or my basement (yikes, the boxes of…what is even in those boxes down there?), but if you took a look at my approach to the gym bag, you would think I could go backpacking in the wild with only the clothes on my back.

First of all, at the moment, I don’t even belong to a gym. It’s sad really, as what I love most about a gym is a kick-ass group exercise class. Lucky for me, I get to try random classes on occasion to get my fix. With a little one at home, another on the way, and the juggling my husband and I already do to survive our busy days, heading to the gym just isn’t in the cards, so I do my workouts at home. Prenatal workout DVDs are my mainstay at the moment, with random cheerleading videos thrown in to keep it interesting. I hope to rework my schedule and make the gym a priority in the coming year, but as of right now, my workout routine isn’t broken so I’m not fixing it.

With tons of little compartments, this Nike bag makes storage a breeze.

Even when I was heading to the gym regularly to take swim classes with my daughter over the summer, I stocked the bare minimum in my gym bag, which is a sweet yellow Nike bag (pictured) I got back in 2008. We’re talking two towels, a hair band (if my hair wasn’t already in a ponytail, which it usually is!), two swimsuits, a swim diaper for the pool and a regular diaper for after the class. Add baby wipes and a lock for the locker, and I was set. The bare-minimum route worked for me on pool days because my daughter was still not standing on her own, so a shower was just too difficult. Shoot, I was lucky if I even changed back into dry clothes; most often I’d just throw on my clothes over my suit and shower at home. Ah, the luxuries of summer weather!

Even digging into my diaper bag is fairly boring. In fact, I usually just throw a diaper or two and wipes into my purse, along with a baggie of Cheerios and maybe a book or toy, and call it good. Back in the unpredictable newborn days there were several extra outfits for poop-explosions and blankets to cover up with for discreet feeding, but now that my daughter is fairly predictable, it’s much easier to plan a few hours out without packing the whole kit and kaboodle. It works for us!

Am I alone in my minimalist take on the gym (and diaper) bag or do I have fellow comrades out there? —Erin