Six weeks ago I started working out with free weights at the gym. This was a natural evolution that I was really resisting. When I first joined the gym I simply got on the elliptical machine because it was very low commitment and the machine didn't talk about what bad shape I was in.
Then I found the courage to attend a Kick Boxing class. It was a serious mental challenge to be one of two men in a class of 40 woman of all ages, shapes, and sizes.
The instructor was impressed with my weight loss progress and encouraged me to start lifting weights to put the finishing touch on my new body.
I had a script in my head that the free weight section of the gym was a place that I didn't belong. I prevented myself to go there. I wasn't until I was coached, cajoled, and escorted into this new world that I was able to re-write the script in my head that it was acceptable for me to work out there.
After six weeks, I'm not friends with a lot of the regulars in that part of the gym at the time that I go. Instead of the negativity I expected, I was welcomed and two people commented on the positive work I had done losing weight. Now that I know how to use the machines, ask others to use equipment and go with the flow, I'm very comfortable there.
So what is different about me? It wasn't anything physical. The gym didn't change, my body hasn't changed that much, but my attitudes have changed. I went from not belonging to belongings. The journey was in my mind and how I interpreted the outside world. Once I was aware of the limitations I set on myself, I could make a decision to change the limitation into an advantage.
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