Getting Comfortable in the gym

I have always had to work on my confidence, when I was fat I thought my weight was the reason for low confidence then the weight went and I still had to work on it...

One of the worst things low confidence did to my weight loss process was it slowed it down a lot...first because I was scared to enter the gym...next because after I entered the gym I was stuck to the treadmill (no other machines for very long)

I used to be so scared, I was even scared of training with a personal trainer, I knew I wanted to improve I knew I needed help but I was scared, I was scared about the trainer judging me..I wanted to try different classes in the gym but I was scared of standing out and being the odd one out. I waited almost 8-9 months before I went for my first class and this was after lot arguments with T, he kept telling  if I want to improve I need to change what I was doing and if I am not willing to change then I need to stop complaining or expecting different results

Today I can confidently say I am a different person.

I am willing to try new things.

I am willing to make mistakes

I am willing to ask for help

This is a list of few things that helped me get to where I am today

1.       Why did I join the gym?

Every time I worry about what people around me will say I ask myself this question ‘Why did I join the gym?’ did I join the gym to impress strangers? Did I join the gym to make friends? Did I join the gym to waste my time?

I joined the gym because I wanted to lose weight. I joined the gym because I wanted to get fit, because I wanted to do push ups....

How does what people think about me help me get to my goal? It pulls me back...so do I want to keep wasting time trying to get fit while my worry about people judging me keeps pulling me back? Or should I make the most of my gym membership and get to my goal faster?

2.       Stop fooling yourself

I was very good at doing this. I went to the gym 5 times a week. I did the treadmill for 40-45 minutes. I stuck to the same speed, I did the same thing every day. Initially I did lose weight because it was new for me but after a few months I was not even getting tired, it was easy. I stopped losing weight. I knew from all the reading I had done that I needed to change my fitness regime. My solution was to increase 45 minutes to 1 hour. I lost a bit of weight but the weight loss stopped again. Then I thought I should reduce my already reduced food intake, I couldn’t keep that up for very long nor could I keep increasing my time...I made excuses for not changing my routine, I would say this was my limit and I could not push myself to do better or try new things. Finally I had to face the truth my 45 minutes of the treadmill was really easy for me, it was more like light exercise and my body was used to it so the results would reflect the same. If I wanted to see good results I would have to stop believing that I could not do more. I had to push myself to either use the treadmill better or change to other fitness options.

3.       Find somebody who tells you the truth

I was always complaining, I felt like I was working out 5 days a week eating right but still not seeing the result I wanted. There used to be many days when I would be upset because going 5 days a week and not seeing the results was really frustrating.  I would complain about giving my best and being unlucky. That’s when Terence very sternly told me I was not giving my best. He said sometimes I am actually wasting my time in the gym repeating the same thing. I was not unlucky but I was being stubborn by not accepting my mistakes and trying to change them

4.       99%  gym goers don ’t care about you

Do you remember what anybody else in the gym was doing yesterday? Most of us have so much more going on in life to actually shift focus to somebody else. If I see somebody trying something new I am impressed. Usually I am doing my own stuff, focusing on my exercise and my improvement. If I do notice somebody it’s usually out of admiration and this does not only depend on how fit the person is. Even somebody who is just starting sometimes impresses me because you can see the effort they are putting which is wonderful.

What do you think? I hope you found this list useful. What do you do?

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Tanvee