Gymtimidation: The feeling you get when you step into the gym and feel out of place looking at all the athletic people and the machines that you may or may not know how to use.
--- When I talk to people who are even remotely interested in starting to work out, a primary factor that prevents them from going to the gym is the fear of the gym. I'm not gonna lie, I'm still working through this one myself, even after all of the work I've done over the last couple of years. Seeing all of the majorly ripped, thin, or just plain old athletic people can be incredibly intimidating, especially if you still don't have the body that you want or if you're new to working out. They're all beautiful, strong, and, frankly, kind of intimidating. They've been going at this for years, dedicate their life to training, "know how to do everything," and are hell-bent on being composed of more muscle than fat. You, on the other hand, look like a normal person. You want to get where they are, or you just want to be the healthiest version of yourself, but you aren't there yet. Or maybe you are, and you don't feel as if you're among the "elite". At the rec center I go to, there are two levels to it. The bottom floor is where all the weights and machines are, and it's primarily inhabited by those "perfectly sculpted" people that you fear will come up to you to correct your stance, or you feel out of place next to. The second floor has normally been a place where the non-heavily-ripped people and those who identify as more feminine than masculine can go to feel safe. In fact, there's even an enclosed box on the top floor with some free weights that's been a great safe space. This year, however, both floors seem like they've been taken over by the elite--even the safe box. Now, just for clarification, I'm not saying that ripped people shouldn't use the gym. They're there for a reason and they've obviously been working hard to get there. In fact, I hope that one day I will have some thick-ass thighs and look strong enough to not be messed with by someone who intends on causing me harm. However, for those who feel average, the gymtimidation factor is a real issue, and I want to help you (and me) combat it. Ways to Decrease Gymtimidation 1) Go with a friend Going to the gym with my "gym buddy" (turned partner) helped so much at the beginning of my and his process--and it still does. Instead of focusing on all the other people working out, we can focus on each other and helping each other. Also, people never came up to the two of us to correct us--this seems to only happen once we split off. 2) Go to small group classes If your gym offers small group classes such as cycling or anything else I highly encourage you to go. I've been attending a variety of small group training classes for the past couple of years and I'm always grateful that I spent the extra money for the pass. Everyone in the class is there to learn and develop, there are people of different ages and fitness levels present, the instructors are kind and are licensed to correct your stance so you don't hurt yourself, and you're able to get through the full hour of the workout because, let's be real, who wants to be the one to dip out early? 3) Invest in a couple of personal training sessions Having a couple of sessions with a personal trainer allows you to become comfortable with the various machines and gives you a chance to learn how to properly work your body--so if anyone comes up to you, you immediately know that their corrections are w-r-o-n-g wrong. Every time I see someone with a PT, my immediate thought is, "I'm so proud of that person!" so know that I'm encouraging you from afar. I'll be your pocket cheerleader. 4) Go in with a game plan Before you enter the gym, spend some time planning your routine. Look up new exercises based off of what you want to work on, create a bomb-ass playlist, dress in something you feel comfortable and confident in, and have your routine down before you begin. I have found that when I go to the rec without having mapped out my routine, I'm floundering around more than usual and feel even more out of place. Be prepared, confident, and block out the other people--your journey is for you. 5) Make sure you're comfortable What often happens when we see other people and their progress is we might feel like we have to keep up with them. Remember: everyone is on their own journey and you will make progress the more you keep at it. If you need to lift 3lb weights, then do 3lbs instead of the 10lb or 30lb that some other person is doing. Push yourself a little at a time, but always remember that there is no shame in being at the place you're in--whether you're just starting or you've been doing this for a while and feel like you should be further along. Even if I don't know you directly, remember that I'm always rooting for you! If you have any comments, more ideas on how to combat gymtimidation, or have a question, feel free to comment on this post or email me here. I hope you have a happy, healthy, and confident week!
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When I was playing softball, one of the first things our trainer said to us was "If you eat one bite of pasta it will ruin your whole diet." Along with the fight against pasta and other breads, our other major rules were to eat mostly protein and to not count calories. That's right--don't count calories.
Over the last few years of being an off-and-on dieter/healthy person, I've done a lot of experiments with various tactics to being healthy. Here's what I've done, here's what's worked, and here's what hasn't: 1) Calorie Counting (with an app) Apps like FitBit or MyFitnessPal are awesome if you're interested in keeping track of your calorie intake. What I like about this is that it keeps the amount of food you're consuming in check--instead of reaching for your 3rd slice of pizza, you're going to see that you're going way above your calorie count for the day. Also, these apps hold you accountable by making your intake very visible. What I don't like about calorie counting is that it gives you the opportunity to ingest unhealthy kinds of food--as long as you don't go over your calorie limit. Also, as with most of the logging-through-an-app opportunities, you have to weigh everything or measure everything you consume to get the exact number--and that's ridiculously time consuming. Personally, I keep ebbing and flowing with this one, and find that I'll log my calories once a week then forget to do so again, just because of how tedious it can be. 2) Macro Tracking (with an app) According to a trainer I saw recently, your macros (or macronutrients e.g. protein, carbs, and fat) at the end of a full day of eating should be about 30-40% carbs, 30-40% fats, and 15-20% protein. While this information was specifically geared toward me and I encourage you to go see a health professional for more information, watching my macros was helpful because it gave me an idea of whether I was eating the right kinds of food or not. However, if you've planned your meals for the week and they don't actually fit with your macro percentages at the end of the day, then you're out of luck. Additionally, the same pitfalls that come with calorie counting (such as need to get exact measurements) apply to any situation when you're using an app. 3) Keeping a Food Diary--No Numbers What's nice about keeping a food diary or journal is that you don't have to sit on your backside for an hour after or before every meal trying to pick apart what you just consumed to log exactly what you ate. You log everything you've had for the day and see if it complies with your diet goals, and you are also given the opportunity to stop eating when you're full instead of when you've hit your calorie limit for the day. The downfalls to this are (as I've seen and experienced): you can end up over-eating even with the healthiest of meals, and forgetting to log meals or just plain old falling off track is common. 5) Carb Counting This is a new one for me--in fact, I'm in the middle of trying it right now. My partner was actually the one who told me about this process, and he has been using it for food management off-and-on in this last year. What we're doing for the next couple of weeks is counting only the carbs consumed for everything. Did you know that a medium apple has 25 grams of carbohydrates? I sure as hell didn't until this week. The rundown is that you choose your maximum value of carbs for the day--we chose 50 grams--and consume food within that range. What's great about this is that the calculations are fairly easy--every measurement is online. What's difficult is that if you've hit your limit for the day and are still hungry, you need to get creative, and "creative" for me has been eating a lot of eggs and more cheese than normal. So, while it's been relatively easy so far, you have to make sure that you're getting proper nutrients and not snacking on foods that don't have the nutrients you need even though they're low-carb (like cheese). Also, sometimes you don't get exact measurements and can only guess that your salad was probably about 13g of carbs. Here's an example of the menu we've had this week: Breakfast: protein shake (11g carbs) Lunch: Panera greek salad with chicken (13g carbs) Dinner: Burrito bowl (27g carbs) Total: 51g carbs Breakfast: 3 eggs, cheddar cheese, sugar-free ketchup, 5 blackberries (6g carbs) Lunch: Spaghetti squash w/ turkey and vegetables (15g carbs) Dinner: Hamburger with no bun and veggies (8g carbs) Dessert: Dark chocolate squares: (9.6g carbs) Total: 38.6g carbs I hope that you found some of these methods and pros/cons helpful! If you have any questions or other ideas, please feel free to comment on this post, or you can email me directly here. This week was all about getting from point A: Eating whatever I wanted and not working out, to point B: getting back to the gym and my regular diet.
I don't consider myself to be some crazy fitness person. My goal is to be healthy, strong, and real--someone who you can look at and can say "She did it, so I can." When it comes to my regular diet, I tend to eat primarily natural foods, but definitely have some non-natural additions in there such as greek yogurt, peanut butter, sugar-free ketchup, and almond or cashew milk. The goal is to be full, satisfied, and energized at the end of a meal, and have my macros be as close to 40% carbs, 40% fat, and 20% protein at the end of the day. In addition to macros, I am currently calorie-counting by using the FitBit app. Normally, I usually don't focus heavily on calories, but decided to keep a close eye on them this week as part of my health and fitness reset. Although my goal for my diet this week was to get back on track, my regular schedule got completely transformed. At the end of an average day, I tend to go to bed around 9:30p out of sheer boredom and watch YouTube videos until about 11:00p. In the morning, I'll wake up naturally around 9:00a or set an alarm for 7:30a so that I can get to my 9:30a class without sprinting out the door. However, this week I flipped my daily routine from that to this: 5:45a: Wake up, get dressed (immediately), make coffee, listen to podcast 6:30a: Pilates class (M/W/F) 7:30a: Make Breakfast/Take Shower 9:00a: Bike to class (T/Th) 12:30p: Bike to class (M/W/F) 2:45p: Strength training (M/W) 5:30p: Cardio (T/Th) 8:00p: Get ready for bed 8:30p: In bed, technology off 9:00p: Sleep This schedule is perfect for me because I love waking up early in the morning. It feels as if I'm not "missing out" on any part of the day and have so much potential to make it positive and productive. Additionally, on a personal note, I tend to be a lot more productive and energetic in the morning compared to the afternoon. Not only do I feel like I have a lot of time to spare, but this energy allows me to complete anything from homework to even cleaning the whole apartment. On the other hand, once the sun starts going down, my motivation to complete basic, necessary tasks drastically decreases and the things on my "to-do" list rarely get done in a timely or quality fashion. This week wasn't as difficult to get through as I thought it was going to be. In fact, it was nice gaining a productive routine and re-adapting a healthy and active lifestyle. As I'm reflecting on the week, I realize that I've only had a lot of good experiences, and anything negative truly couldn't be helped or changed with a positive outlook on life (like my bike tire popping). To conclude the week and congratulate ourselves for a successful reset that's full of potential, my partner and I treated ourselves to breakfast after going to the gym on Friday. Of course, we stuck to our food plans and had plenty of protein in our meal along with the right amount of extra carbs (potatoes and/or toast are a must at breakfast, I'm sorry if you disagree), some fruit, and coffee or espresso. Although I'm sure we won't be going out like this again, it was so nice going out with him to celebrate our reset with a good, healthy, and filling meal. So what did I learn from this week? 1) Having a gym buddy makes all the difference in the world if you're trying to get to pilates at 6:30am. 2) Keep challenging and pushing yourself in a healthy manner. You might surprise yourself and be stronger than you think. 3) Caffeine is a drug. (I found that after my morning cup of coffee I was incredibly anxious and irritable and stopped drinking it again.) 4) If you're not full, you're doing something wrong. I can't wait to see what's in store from now until November, and I'm so excited to eventually share my progress pics when we complete the semester. Here's to living a happy, healthy, and strong life! It's 6:05am by the time that I'm sitting down to write this. My alarm went off at 5:45am, and I promptly went to go make some coffee.
The first big decision of my day is choosing which coffee mug I'm going to use. It sounds a little nuts, but it determines my mood for the day. My Allen Bros or Bloomsbury mug starts me off on a productive day, whereas one of my Harry Potter mugs starts me off on something I can describe only as a "believer" day--one where fun is the priority rather than being in "business mode." I never purposely intend on choosing one mug or the other, it's a feeling that I get, and I grab the mug I'm gravitating toward. Today I was feeling a pull toward my Hufflepuff mug, so I grabbed it from the shelf, filled it with some cashew milk, poured the steaming coffee into it, and took it outside with me while I listened to a podcast. I was only outside for about 5 minutes before I was prompted to go back inside and write down what I was thinking, and rather than putting it on Facebook, I thought I'd quickly hash out something for the blog--a new series I'm calling "MiniPosts" (when I suddenly have an idea and don't care about mistakes or there not being a flow to the piece). In High School, I was put into Hufflepuff house, and if you know the Harry Potter franchise, you know that there's a stigma surrounding the yellow-and-black clad house. They're kind of the "others" and despite efforts by authors, celebrities, and hardcore fans, the house is still ridiculed by those who know the universe. I obviously identified as a Hufflepuff for a fair amount of time--as I got the mug in 2016 and Pottermore sorted me in 2012. So what happened in the last couple of years? I decided to break away from the house only recently, even though it doesn't feel that way. My reasoning for doing so was because I didn't feel kind enough, patient enough, or fair enough to belong in the house. Upon retaking the quiz, I was placed into Ravenclaw, and attached myself to it after considering, "Of course I identify with a new house, people grow and change in college so why wouldn't I value intelligence and creativity more than friendliness? People suck. I don't want to be the goofy and trusting Hufflepuff." However, every time I think of the riddles you have to answer to get into the tower, I know for a fact that I'd just have to wait around for someone who can actually figure it out to come by and let me in. This is all theoretical of course and comes from a fantasy world, but the mug provoked a thought that I can't let go of: Why wouldn't I want to be kind, dedicated, value hard work, be patient, and fair? What happened in the last couple of years that made me lose those traits, not want to implement them into my life, or not appreciate them? I have become a lot harder and a lot less trusting as a person, and while I value creativity, wit, and intelligence, I need to re-introduce those Hufflepuff traits into my life in order to be a more happy and positive person. There's always going to be people that laugh at you or discourage you to act weird, be silly, and enjoy life because they're so caught up with their own image and fitting in the box. Hufflepuffs aren't purely weird and goofy, rather, they are kind and hardworking individuals that we can all gain a little inspiration from. Why not be a little more of a Hufflepuff? As you'll come to find, I am absolutely an advocate for self care. In some cases, this might mean going to the gym and swimming for cardio rather than running, or it might be going to a yoga class. It could look like taking a bath or a shower, cleaning your living space, or reading a book. In other cases, it could be cooking a meal, singing out of key to your favorite songs, or eating some pizza with some friends. Regardless of what it is that you do for a self care day, if you feel you need it, do it.
This week I've been sick with a really wonderful nasal/throat/achey cold. Not to mention, I'm still in a weird transitional place between summer and school (which happens almost every year and causes a month-long funk). There are certain foods I eat and things I do when I'm sick that I don't partake in on a regular basis. These have always helped me with recovering from a cold or flu. That being said, here's how this week went when it came to self care: Usually when I'm sick, I'm knocked down for at least a day and just stay in bed and recover. This time, I wanted to try and push through by going to classes and the gym. On Monday, I went to class despite not feeling fantastic, and then went to the gym after for a light workout. I walked for 20 minutes on the treadmill, worked my core, then did an upper body workout using half the weight I normally would. The next day, I went to class again, felt awful because of the heat, and went home to do some laundry and chores, watched a movie, and promptly quit at trying to do anything other than staying at home, watching Parks and Rec, and (joyfully) making dinner for me and my boyfriend. Wednesday, I knew that I needed my "sick day off" to recover and re-charge. My alarm had been going off at 6:30am because that's when I've been wanting to get up and start my day, but my body just wasn't able to do it. So, I turned the alarm off and slept until noon (which I haven't done since early high school probably), then went to dinner with the Lutheran Campus Ministry group and ate mac n cheese and bread without any guilt. When I'm sick, I usually completely listen to my body so that I can take care of it. This includes having a couple of carb-heavy meals, resting for a full day, and accepting that I'm being told to rest. This time, however, I was more frustrated by the fact that I couldn't go to the morning pilates class like I had wanted, didn't feel like eating the fresh vegetables in my refrigerator, and tried pushing through my regular days because I wanted to do better than last week. Instead of listening right away, I ended up prolonging my sickness by not doing what my body was telling me it needed, and ended up in yet another funk. Self care can come in many different forms, and listening to your body and what it truly needs is one of the main ways to engage in self care. Today, I'm planning on eating some carbonara made by my fantastic boyfriend. I will enjoy the food, eat in moderation, and use what I consume to get over this sickness, and prepare myself for a busy Friday and a good workout. Next week, I will not need this kind of food, and I know that if I consume it as I have been, I'll start feeling guilty. Often, when I feel guilty for what I've eaten or am trying to justify it to make myself feel better about the decision, I know that I did not need what I consumed. While I will never recommend having pasta or mac n cheese and the like every single night, I have been listening to my body's needs, and I'm so excited to start new, healthy routines next week as I start logging my food every day, going to morning pilates classes, and participating in a female-only strength training class during the week. This week I've learned: 1) When you're sick, it's your body asking you to take a day off--so take a damn day off. 2) Enjoy everything in moderation. 3) Sometimes we need a reset week and it's ok to fall short of goals, as long as we pick ourselves up and get back on track. I hope you have a happy, healthy, and productive week ahead! On August 20th, I started a 30-day challenge with my partner. For those of you that are unfamiliar with this kind of diet/lifestyle, here are the basics: You can only eat foods that our cavemen ancestors would have consumed during the Paleolithic era. This means no beans, legumes, processed foods, foods with added sugar, corn, dairy, caffeine, grains, etc. It's basically the Whole30, just with less of a strict hold on sugars like honey, and you can eat dark chocolate over 70% and can drink red wine.
I was able to complete the Whole30 at one point, and figured that this would just be another reset of the same kind. Also, I figured that doing this with my partner would mean that he'd have more support and would be able to complete it if I was doing it with him. The thing about these kind of health challenges and resets are that you have to be prepared for them. Go in with the facts, have a game plan, and have someone or something that will keep you accountable. That being said, I've been in this health and fitness game for a little over a solid year now. While that's not much time in the grand scheme of things, I've been able to do my research and experiment a lot with what works and what doesn't for me. So, I figured that since I already ate pretty much 85% paleo already, it shouldn't be too hard to do this challenge. We went full steam ahead after having a much-anticipated gnocchi date the day before, and started off relatively strong. Sure, we missed certain foods, but we were eating paleo and weren't starving. On August 31st, I went on a retreat with a group to San Diego, CA. I wasn't able to be fully in control of the foods I was consuming, but stuck to the nuts and Rx Bars in my backpack for breakfast along with a piece of fruit, and even asked for a salad because I wasn't able to eat the pizza. I should also mention at this moment that I'm lactose intolerant anyway and eat greasy foods so rarely that my body immediately goes, "WHAT IN THE HELL DID YOU JUST PUT INTO ME" whenever I eat pizza. That being said, my biggest cheats were spoonfuls of peanut butter, cheese and deli turkey for "sandwiches", and coffee over the course of the weekend. Back home, my partner had a really rough weekend food-wise that I won't get into, but let's just say that he ended up starting the challenge over. This was definitely a challenge to say the least. Despite already having a healthy diet before taking this on, I found I wasn't ever satisfied with the meals I was eating, and was actually eating worse on this than during my normal routine. I was going to In-N-Out 4x as much as usual because it's something that I could eat, was having a lot of potatoes, and drinking more wine and eating more dark chocolate. I wasn't happy with the food I was consuming, and so I leaned towards the less healthy options in order to diminish the craving for satisfaction. I 100% "failed" this 30 day paleo challenge, and my partner did too. On Friday, we recognized that we were miserable and linked our attitude to the fact that we weren't nourishing our bodies the way they needed to be in order to sustain our rigorous academic and gym-based lifestyle. I hadn't gone to the gym all week because I was so low-energy, was constantly irritable and depressed, and although I was full, felt malnourished despite having eaten primarily protein, fruit, and veggies. After talking about what we thought was best, we stopped the challenge, went to get some well-made fresh pizza from a little market (mine had prosciutto, figs, and arugula on it), and shared a brownie. Needless to say we felt fantastic after, and I finally felt satisfied with the meal I had. That night, we indulged and got a couple of drinks after seeing a play, and agreed that we would develop a new sustainable routine that fits closely to what we needed. This upcoming week, I'm excited to get back to my everyday routine and continue tracking macros rather than keeping to such a strict diet. I will eat a solid breakfast in the morning, a sandwich at lunch, fruit and veggies for snacks, and make dinners that I'm excited about rather than just randomly throwing together (I'm also going to try Blue Apron for the first time this week to see if I like it, and will most likely be posting about that experience next week). What I've learned from this experience is: 1) The food you eat should be used to fuel your day and sustain your lifestyle. 2) I need to work mostly at moderating the quantity of what I eat rather than focusing on eating healthy (which I'm already doing). 3) Food-based challenges shouldn't be something that you pick up and drop, you should want to learn something from it and sustain what you learned well past the conclusion of the challenge. 4) It's ok to backtrack and to "fail" at something if you recognize it truly isn't working for you. 5) Food should be a joy, not a punishment. |
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June 2020
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