My Captured Moment #7: First Trip To The Gym!

Howdy, folks! Just noticed that I've been posting a lot of these My Captured Moment posts lately. I figure it's because a lot has been happening in my life that I'm just dying to tell you guys about for one reason or another, and I've really been enjoying writing about these various life experiences. I hope reading about these moments in my life has been enjoyable for all of you as well, because I would like you all to get to know the person behind The Written Word(s).

This past Thursday, I finally accomplished something that I have thought about doing for years and years, but my anxiety has always been by biggest obstacle. I am proud to announce that I was able to work through it and had a great time, and usually I'm not lucky enough for both of those things to happen in the same day, it's usually one or the other. Thanks to my amazing and supportive boyfriend, I was able to spend over an hour working out at the public gym at our local YMCA, and afterwards I felt good, both in a physical way as well as just having this overall feeling of accomplishment from facing one of my biggest fears.

Starting out with a positive attitude - and a positively awesome work-out top - certainly helped. When I ordered a couple of t-shirts for my boyfriend Kurt for Christmas, I also took the liberty of ordering myself a tank top with the intention of using it for working out. It was in December that Kurt and I first discussed attempting to start working out at the gym together. I wish I'd been able to get a picture of the full shirt, but the shirt proudly displays Jigglypuff and Wigglytuff, two awesome Pokemon, and the shirt reads "Workin' My Puff Into Tuff" and I absolutely love it :D

Kurt was nice enough to take a couple of quick pictures with me before we headed out to the YMCA. We decided to go twice a week, on the days that Kurt has off work, and we're trying out this free trial program that the Y has instead of diving head-first into getting memberships without having a clue what we're doing. I know I would like to get into better shape, as does Kurt, but we don't really have much knowledge about what sorts of workouts we should be doing, so we're planning on looking into getting some instruction or looking into a personal trainer once we officially become members.

I have to say, there is no way I would have been able to start working out at a public gym without Kurt going with me. It's something I always thought about, something I always considered doing - I even had access to gyms when I went to Brock and even at Humber College when I was living on Campus and was walking distance from the gym, but it was something that I just couldn't bring myself to do. Without even bringing my level of self-confidence into it, the idea of just walking into a gym and working out on a treadmill always filled me with a huge dose of anxiety and dread. But the idea of having be something that Kurt and I could do together, something we were both starting where we would be together every step of the way, it made the entire thing seem possible.

That's something I'd stress for anybody that is like me, to anyone that wants to start working out but is terrified at the idea of going to a public gym, the feeling of safety and comfort comes in numbers, even if that number is two. Going even with just one good friend makes a world of difference. For years, me and a friend talked about starting to work out together, but we never managed to make the time to actually make the plan a reality. My advice, if you have ever made a similar pact with a friend, make the effort to make it happen, because you will not believe how good it feels when you actually get to the gym, and you are there and you are actually doing what you set out to do.

For our first workout together, we took it really easy - we started on the treadmills for a while, then we took it even easier on a couple of exercise bikes before trying these machines so we could work out our arms (I honestly don't know the name of it, they were both made by a company called Eagle, that's all I know XD). I can't even tell you how accomplished I felt after just spending an hour at the gym with Kurt.

I know that going every Thursday and Sunday isn't going to be as easy as this past Thursday was, and anxiety will sometimes still get in the way, but Kurt has a way of making me feel safe and comfortable without even trying, so I'm feeling optimistic about this particular New Year's Resolution :)