When I first made the choice to lose weight, I decided that exercising would be the first key step to this goal! I'm not going to lie to you, I was a SCARED LITTLE PUPPY about starting to exercise. I had no idea where to start and I felt like a complete idiot. I was embarrassed to go to the gym, for fear people would stare at me and ridicule my body. All of the scary, vein popping, muscle exploding weight lifters intimidated the hell out of me. I could hear their thoughts in my head over and over: "What is that girl doing here?" "She looks so fat and stupid."
"I like to lift weights and cuddle with birds?"
I voiced my concerns to a friend at the time, and she gave me some advice that I have never forgotten! She told me that I shouldn't care at all what the people in the gym thought of me. I could either overcome my fears now and prove them wrong, or I could wait till my weight became even more of an issue and I wouldn't even have the option to go to the gym because of my bad health.
I also have a different perspective on the situation now being a gym rat myself. I want to let everyone know that there is NO NEED to be embarrassed going to the gym. All of those fit people that look awesome and sweaty that you think are making fun of you in their head--- they aren't! I promise! If any thing when they see you, they are thinking "Man that is really awesome they are trying to be healthy. Props to them!" Everyone in that gym really cares about their health, and so they respect others that have those same values regardless of where you are in your journey to being healthy. To be honest, most of the time while I'm working out I'm fantasizing about how to chemically alter ice cream so that it makes my boobs BIGGER instead of my ass. (I'll let you know when I figure that one out.)
So once you have worked up the courage to go to the gym, you have to decide on a routine for yourself! My biggest struggle was getting out of my "all or nothing" mindset. I felt like if I couldn't put in 90 minutes everyday at the gym, why should I even bother going? This is such a bad way of thinking! Any exercise is better than nothing! If you can only go to the gym for 30 minutes a day, then you should still go. Those 30 minutes a day really add up! That is 900 minutes a month that you are working out... and that is 900 more than you would be doing if you decided to not go!
For the first month I started exercising, I went 30 minutes a day on the stair stepper elliptical after my last class. It was so hard! I was sweaty, disgusting, and grouchy for the rest of the day. I kept pushing though! It takes you doing something about 20 times before it becomes apart of your normal routine, but once I got that routine I CRAVED the exercise. I got a high from it! I slept better, was more focused in class, and was just an overall happier person. I slowly started adding more and more time to my workouts when I could, and I just got better and better results! It was such an amazing feeling.
I think a really big part of my success was also that I was very adaptive! When school ended and I couldn't go to the University gym, I started swimming with my mom, jogging on our home elliptical, and walking our dogs. Today I am still really adaptive with my exercise! If I know I won't have enough time to make it to the gym that day, I will walk to class and back through out the day instead of taking the bus (which can add up to over an hour of walking up and down hills), and then do a little 20 minute cardio workout at night time. I may not be running at full speed for an hour at the gym, but I am still being active and healthy- and that is the main goal!
To see what an impact exercise can have on preventing heart disease, cancer, diabetes, strokes and almost every illness out there you should do some research! Just from light exercise alone you can become almost 30% less likely to have a serious disease like the ones listed above in the future. The facts behind this are amazing to read! What better motivation is there?
"You maybe going slow, but you're lapping EVERYONE on the couch!"
