Much Ado about the Gym

So I'm walking home from the gym after pushing myself hard to do some serious working out. I met someone who hopefully will be a good gym buddy to help me achieve my gym goals as soon as I figure out what they are LOL. I started going to the gym seriously when I was in senior year of college but had erstwhile condemned anyone who went.I waited all 4 years to start going. I guess I really didn't understand what the hoo haa was all about. I mean an hour spent running miles and lifting metals could be translated to something more meaningful like chatting online, eating fried chicken, sleeping, eating fried chicken, checking emails, eating fried chicken, browsing the Internet and did I say eating fried chicken? ( I'm walking by a Popeye's and I'm resisting the strong urge to dash in for some)

Thanks to God and my parents, I have wonderful genes that would not accumulate an ounce of extra weight no matter how hard I tried.Ghanaians often glorify weight gain often attributing to success or peace of mind and it used to frustrate me that I couldn't gain any. Even here in this country where slim is better, I have been told many times that I certainly could gain a few more pounds.

I loved dancing at parties and so that helped to burn calories. All I had to do was attend most of the dance parties and dance my butt off. Those who are well acquainted with me would testify I have no need for any foreign substance to start getting busy on the dance floor. And that has been the truth as far back as I can remember when I would go to parties as a kid and smoke other kids on the dance floor with my dance moves lol ( oh memories). With these factors on my side I really had no desire whatsoever to burn calories. I ate what I wanted drank what I want ( water, soda and juices) lol and left the gym to those who could handle the boredom

In retrospect I realize that my dismissive demeanor towards the gym was a desperate ploy to selfishly mask my insecurities. Let me explain, I learned the value of working out and realized way earlier on that it was not just meant for a particular group of people and that any and everyone stood to benefit from working out. Better still my college had an incredibly amazing gym that I would have had to pay nothing to go to whenever I wanted. I had all four limbs and I could definitely find some time to go. So what was stopping me from going? The answer was simple I had never been to a gym to work out so was self conscious and worried that I would be out of place. Somebody is probably laughing at this and today I laugh too but the truth is that we all have made ridiculous excuses for not doing things because we didn't want to risk doing something new and having others look at us sideways or cockeyed like we are dumb.

I was that kid who always brushed my teeth the proper way because the man on TV said that was how to do it,who sat upright with good posture, tucked my shirt in and wore my pants properly on my waist. At 21 I went to a dentist for the first time and the dentist couldn't believe I had such perfect teeth even though I had never been to a dentist.If there was something that was deemed unacceptable I would flee from it in the opposite direction and not look back that was just the way I was, I was the epitome of a goodie tooshoos. So to go into any environment where I knew nothing about what I was doing outside of a classroom was quite uncomfortable . Even now there are remnants of this in my work ethic and I'm almost always last to leave lab because I'm trying to do everything perfectly.

If I was going to do something it had to be rehearsed over again so the idea of going to the gym to do something infront of what seemed like the whole world made my knees buckle because I didn't want to go there and look dumb. I did get over it, I will share how I did this if you return to the blog to find out. For now I want to know if have you have ever made up excuses and convinced yourself not to do something that would have helped you that now when you think about was because you were afraid of looking dumb or silly doing it. Share