From the neck down....

Over the past 40+ years, one of my New Year's Resolutions was to lose weight/get in shape. Not quite atypical of the majority of folks, especially women. Statistically, only a very small percentage of people like how they look. When one delves into the psychological aspect of how people view their bodies, discussions and finger pointing arise.

I have only been "thin", which to me and my body type is between a size 10 and size 14, only five times in my life. Each time this occurred the reasons varied, but unfortunately the end result were relatively short lived. And when I regained the weight, I ended up putting on even more weight. From what I have read, this is also not atypical.

But there comes a time when being overweight, for in this case, obese IS very uncomfortable. When the body cries for the soul to take action...when it had enough. That is where I am. Yet I feel there is more to this than burning calories and gaining muscle mass.

I hated gym in school for many reasons. People dislike what they are not good at. Give me an assignment, especially in my favorite subject, and I can ace it in no time flat. Changing my clothes in front of other girls and having them look at me, oh the horror! Run around the track or walk on the balance beam...are you kidding? And climbing the rope.....no friggin way! My brain was my Arnold Schwarzenegger. My body...well I would have difficulty fighting out of a wet paper bag!

So I did something that I needed to do to help me get my body in shape. I joined a gym. Sounds like no big deal....but the last two times I joined a gym, they were for women only. There was some comfort in being around my own gender and for some reason, the majority of women were around my age. Unfortunately there were no gyms like this in the area and I joined this gym because it had a pool, among a few other reasons.

Well did I enter a new environment. A sweaty, testosterone laden, weight banging, heavy grunting world. Mostly of young men and teenage boys, some in packs, some on their own, but definitely checking out the competition. The majority of the time, they hang out where the weights are...the heavy metal section of the room is what I call it. An area I haven't ventured into.

Beyond that group, well there is the rest of us. All there to work on what is below the neck. For the most part, it is an individual and private matter. Some pleasantries exchanged, especially in the locker room, but overall one is left alone to navigate through the maze of machinery and equipment, some of which I had never seen before.

It took me about two months to become acclimated to the environment. And about the same time I realized that I needed to take this to the next level. So I really went out of my comfort zone....to be continued!