Getting over the "I can't do it hurdle"

Over the last few weeks I have gotten messages from people on Facebook asking the same questions so I thought I would address them here. The questions were "How do you motivate yourself to go the gym as often as you go?" and "Aren't you afraid that people are judging and making fun of you at the gym?" and last but not least "I think I am too fat to excercise how do you do it?"

Question #1 How do you motivate yourself to go the gym as often as you go?

Honestly I have been one of those people that every year I am going to start a diet or starting on Monday I am going to start eating healthy. With good intentions I would start these diets and then within a week or two I would give up, they were just too hard and or the more honest truth was I was not hungry enough to really work for it. When I look back at my weight loss attempts over the years, they were 100% always half asses attempts, I won't lie to you I told you day one I will put the unvarnished truth here. I am not proud of my previous weight loss attempts, but what makes this time different is in November a friend of mine had a heart attach and then had to go in for a quadruple bypass. For whatever reason that was the switch that went off in my head that said "Angie that can be you!" Then what would my girls do? My daughters mean the world to me, and they already have a father whom is an alcoholic and we worry that he will die from a car accident or liver failure, and I just knew I could not do this to my daughters without fighting. The other reason is I was physically and emotionally abused for most of my childhood from my Mother, and then shortly after that I married an man whom was physically and emotionally abusive through our whole marriage of twenty-two years. During that time "Angie" died and I became a zombie that lived only to care for her kids, and totally and completely neglected herself. Now I want to get to know the real "Angie" and I feel it is my time and I deserve to be healthy and happy and hopefully to find that someone special who will treat me right and with respect.

Question #2 Aren't you afraid that people are judging and making fun of you at the gym?

The honest to god truth is NO. Lately I just don't care what others think about me, or my journey because I have realized that I cannot change their opinions of me, or their perceptions, all I can do is work on myself. There is always going to be people out there judging you for whatever reasons maybe you don't have designer clothes, or your overweight like me. Whatever the reason is I have learned that worrying what other people think, is just another excuse to keep you out of the gym and to keep you from working on improving yourself. Don't let what others think of you effect you any longer, you need to make the changes for YOU, not for them. Also I need to add this I joined Planet Fitness and there motto at Planet Fitness is "No Gymtimidation" this is the gym that the Biggest Loser uses. The staff is AMAZING there and they are friendly and they honestly never ever judge me there. They cater to people trying to make a change in their lives and it is only $10 a month well worth it

Question #3 I think I am too fat to excercise how do you do it?

Yes there are MANY things in the gym that I cannot do yet, but does that stop me from going or trying the answer is NO. This too can be a another excuse for not changing your life and making the necessary changes out there. No matter how big you are you can excercise from home or from the gym. You can look online and find youtube vidoes of "Chair Aerobics" for those whom are to overweight or not strong enough for regular workouts. No matter how big you are, you just need to start small with a personal trainer or videos or the pool and work your way up. Instead of looking at the gym equipment that you can't do and thinking "Oh my god I can't do half of this equipment" look at it like I do "One day I will tackle that machine". The one thing I am learning in this journey is to take baby steps, you didn't get to this size overnight and you won't loose it overnight. But by pushing through and taking those steps and pushing yourself just a little harder each day you will get there.