TO THE WOMEN WHO THINK THEY STILL HAVE THINGS TO WORK ON

​A Story About The Woman Trying To Sell Me A Gym Membership

Being a woman who is also a mother, wife, and full-time employed professional usually ends up being a competing priority with the woman that also wants to work out and explore all the time. Since health and fitness are important to me, I always strive to make sure I can dedicate time and energy to being able to be active consistently. I’ve been struggling here. I moved into a management position recently. We built a house this year. I have kids and a husband. They want me to feed them. Then there’s the dishes…Ya know, normal Mom stuff. So, I thought that I’d visit a local chain gym because my Husband’s employer offers a good discount there. Their hours are good and they have daycare so it would provide me some flexibility that I don’t currently have.

That leads me to having to talk to one of their car salesman. Excuse me, I mean personal trainers. 
Why does this have to be so annoying? I wonder if this is just a “me” thing or if everyone finds them annoying. Anyway, I played phone tag, we did the dance, and finally booked my meeting to get walked through the gym. I checked in and we did our tour. The trainer promptly forgot absolutely everything we had discussed a few days prior so I had to listen to the whole sales pitch (gag!). I did so politely. Hey, maybe she was tired or having an off day. I can’t sign up without my husband since it has to be processed through his work so I set off on my merry way back to work when she does it.

​She tells me she enjoyed talking with me and then as she stands tells me she’s excited to have a new potential member and tells me that I’m “doing good and don’t have that much that I need to work on.”

​Huh? What? What the f? Ahem….hold on…. WHAT?

I smiled and asked her to please explain what those things are that are left for me work on. You know, it’s my duty to make sure I understand exactly how to prioritize my training to fit a stranger’s picture of what my goals are supposed to be.

​Let’s get real. That didn’t happen. It didn’t happen because I don’t care what that woman thinks. But I do care about the fact that I think there are a whole lot of people who do. I think it’s important to provide a picture of what I look like to be able to fully emphasize my point here.

I’m not trying to toot my own horn here (though I do love me a good horn toot!) but, I am confident. I am strong. I feel good and I think I look good too. That’s a part of the problem. I’ve been there. Good is often never good enough.

I’m here to tell you it is. Screw photo shopped images! Screw people selling you crap that tells you that you need to fix something! Screw the kid in school, or the boyfriend, or the family member, or the stranger that ever had the power to make you feel like there was something wrong with you. And screw that car sales….er, personal trainer! SCREW THEM ALL.

​It’s time. It’s time for us to take control. It’s past time. It’s like when you finally throw away your favorite scrunchy but you kind of feel like you’re so used to the way you know exactly how many times you need to twist it that you’d hate to get a new hair tie and just be unsure so you use that ugly stretched out scrunchy for way too long….It’s that kind of time. I’d also like to point out that my dictionary doesn’t even recognize “scrunchy” as a word so, clearly ladies, we need to get rid of them.

Aaaaaanyway, the sad part is that this woman did not seem like she was ill intended. In her mind, she clearly assumes that the reason that someone goes to the gym must be for aesthetics only. She didn’t bother to ask about my blood pressure, or my heart rate recovery time, or my personal goals; she simply saw something that she deemed imperfect.

How did she get there? How did she get to a point where she rates the amazing human body against a scale of what she deems visually pleasing? She got there because that’s what our society has done for years. She got there because that’s probably what has been done to her. We poke and prod and pick at things to make us feel better because we cannot simply be content. I know that I have and I’m sure that a lot of you have as well.

STOP DOING IT.

JUST STOP.

WHEN YOU START TO DO IT AGAIN – STOP.

That is the only way we are going to be able to break down the painful walls that we have built that are creating so much sadness and insecurity in our world. I have a teen daughter and I can only hope that by the time she is my age, that she lives in a world where we celebrate good health, strength, and kindness. All things that anybody can accomplish.