Women: You've been in the locker room changing when the girl with the perfect body comes in and you've just spent the last hour doing cardio. Now, you feel like shit. Why not just go home and stuff your face, you'll never compare to her.
Or when you're on the elliptical working out vigorously and you look in to the weight room at another girl with great muscles and think "WTF am I doing wrong?!"Men: You've been trying to bulk up for a year now with no results and then you see the biggest, sexiest guy (no homo) walk in and all the girls awe at him. You get jealous and angry inside, which either makes your workout that much better or sends you home discouraged.
I know because I've seen it and you can't deny one time or another you've let another person ruin your workout. But, the truth is no one person is better than the other. Take it from me. Why? Because I've trained in many gyms since I was 17 years old and its the same everywhere. Even I can't resist the urge to gawk at other girls' physiques, but I NEVER let it get me down or stop my workout from being great.
I was in the locker room changing and a heavy young woman walked in. I could feel the stare from behind me and then as I looked in the mirror I saw her watching me. She glanced away quickly, but I could feel a strong sense in the air still. Hey, I have to work incredibly hard for my body. Don't judge me.
I love it when I'm doing an intro to training and someone tells me I'm skinny... for two reasons. The first reason is that I am not skinny, I am muscular and curvy. I weigh 150lbs and I work my ass off to keep it below that. The second reason being that I am not naturally this way. I do WORK...HARD work!
If you spent a week with me living my daily life you'd see I'm not perfect. I have days I eat like shit. I sleep like shit sometimes, and I can be lazy. I've talked to too many people to know that EVERYONE has "demons" inside them that they're fighting...from the obese woman who was molested when she was little to the skinny southern girl who feels like a whale and watches every little bite she puts in her mouth. I've talked to men who say they can't lose the weight and they think their fat when they're in here training hard 6 days a week and have nothing to lose or men who are trying to pack on the mass when they're a solid, lean 200 lbs.
One of my client's attended my group fitness class with 4 other women. I could see her looking around at the other women in the class. Two days later, when I trained with her next, she said to me "you're mom is in great shape". Little does she know my mother is stiff all the time, does little to no physical activity, and was incredibly sore the next day. She always says to me "I have such a long way to go". It's important to accept the fact that the human body goes through changes in life and often times we can do something about it.
Every human being has his or her own personal battles and we must recognize that no one person is better than another no matter how big a smile they have and how confident a strut. We're equals and we should all have a little more confidence in ourselves that we are adequate the way we are because it's true. Stop feeling guilty for not looking a certain way. YOU hold the power to feel good about yourself.
If you do have goals that aren't being met all you have to do is ask. Get professional help or research online...take a deep breath and relax. Being miserable about where you are now won't make you successful. You must first accept yourself for who you are now because you're beautiful. The better you treat yourself the better others will treat you.
