Gymtimidation - The Mean Girl Edition

Gymtimidation...  I think most people contend with it in one way or another especially when they start going to the gym for the first time.  It's so easy to compare yourself to everybody else and feel like you're falling way short.  Trust me, I'm an expert at that.  You're talking to the girl who quit going to a gym because a men's body building league took over the weight room which I felt made it decidedly off limits for me.  Who wants to be the dumpy girl fiddling around with the weight machines while a guy who's built like Jason Momoa is screaming his way through his training routine?  Not me.  

Credit here

I won't even talk about the gym I quit under the pretense it was expensive but really because everybody who went there (but me) was a doctor at the nearby medical center.  Those people are hardcore.  Have you ever seen somebody with a CamelBak running on a treadmill?  Yeah, me either, until I went there. 

That's why I like my little gym.  It's not the cheapest, it's not the closest, but it's a great newer facility that's super family friendly.  Free daycare for members?  Sign me right the heck up.

Was perfect, that is, until a group of girls who I don't get along with joined my gym.  Scratch that, it's not that I don't get along with them...  I personally have no issue with them.  It's that they're mean girls.  They find it super hilarious that I've gained weight, think that my Prednisone puffiness a chuckle ("Donuts aren't medication" says one), and they enjoy just being generally negative and, well... Mean.  Suddenly going to gym became like going to a middle school gym class. 

I thought about switching gyms...  But I like my gym.  I really didn't want to leave especially as, to quote my kids, "I was here first."  But I also just don't want to deal with the negativity that comes with wondering if the girls you know chuckling in the corner are actually chuckling about you.  Because, let's face it, they probably are and they probably are doing it because they want you to know they are.  

Credit here and someecards.com library

So I sat down and I spoke with my trusted friend and trainer for some feedback, and I got some pretty marvelous advice:

Be goal oriented - If you're at the gym, chances are good it's not because you're there to laugh at somebody else...  Unless, of course, you are in which case, knock it off...  But if you aren't, you hang on to that defined goal and use it as your reason to just keep going.  In three months, where will you be and compared to where will they be?  Exactly.  By separating the negativity of now from your positive tomorrow, you can not only look forward but not care so much about what your dealing with today.

Go to the gym with purpose -  You've got your goal, now you need a plan.  If you know when you're going to the gym, why you're going, and what you'll

do when you get there, you're setting yourself up for success.  Before you walk in the door, have a mental plan of where you're going and what equipment you'll be using.  Somebody on the dreadmills making you uncomfortable?  That's fine...  With a plan, you know what else you have to do to get your workout done, just start there.  Not only are you removing yourself from negativity, you're giving that negativity one less audience member.

It's not you, it's them - Anybody who has time at the gym to worry about you and what you are doing is making a powerful statement about themselves that has nothing at all to do with you.  Case closed.  And if they are so keen on what you're doing, you're selling yourself short to be less focused on yourself than they are.  Remember, it's not you, it's them, and keep going about your business.  You'll be surprised...  Most other people who hear their negativity realize that too.

Embrace who you are and who you aren't - Listen, we live in a day and age

With credit to this site

where most people are living in the body they have and not the body they want.  Don't let other people think you should be any different.  So you're a little overweight, so your face is a little round, so your tush jiggles like Jello on a washing machine when you run (oh wait, that's me).  So what?  You are who you are.  And you're not happy with that part of yourself, guess what?  You're at the gym, you're doing something for yourself that you should be proud of and taking care of the part of you that you wish to change.  So you may not be perfect, but notice the only people who fault you for that are the people who don't support you anyway.  So celebrate being somewhere and doing something for yourself with healthy results because that's where the victory is.  And when was the last time you saw a victory parade for hecklers?  

Haters gonna hate - People will like you or not like you no matter what you do.  You can either change who you are and what you do to and probably not

change their opinion anyway, or you can be yourself.  And who's opinion means the most?  You, the person you have to see and be with every minute of every day, or theirs?  I think we can all agree, what you think and do for yourself is far more important than the opinion of others who really don't care about you or what you're about.

At the end of the day, a simple fact of life is that some people enjoy being the mean girls.  You can either fall down because of it or you can rise above it.  To quote pretty much every exercise guru out there these days, it's not going to be easy, but it'll be worth it.

I'd like to hear from you:

• What are some crazy reasons you've left a gym?
• Is butter a carb?
• How do you handle gymtimidation?
• You go, Glen Coco.