Today at work we had a local gym come and set up shop for a "fitness fair" (to sell memberships, basically). My ghetto gym is getting old, literally and figuratively, and I've been thinking about switching it up lately, so I stopped by to check it out.
To attract people to the booth, they had a personal trailer doing peoples' body composition and fitness testing. Now, I'm kind of past the point of caring about that kinda stuff (I'm now officially what I like to call a Zen exerciser - I do it 'cuz it feels good and is fun), but I decided, what the hell, I'm about to sign my paychecks away to these people, so I may as well get something for free. I let the trainer take my weight and my body fat, and I am pleased to say I was very satisfied with the results. I'm certainly not going to share my "stats" on this blog, but I will say that my body fat was in the "fitness" (one step above "normal") range and that my BMI even with shoes and clothes on was healthy and normal.
So here I am, feeling all great about myself, and the trainer -- who I realize is just trying to sell memberships -- says, "OK, here are the things we can work on."
She goes on to tell me that
a) I need to tighten up my stomach
b) my hips could use some toning work
c) with just a few weeks of "nutrition counseling" I could easily drop 5 pounds.
OK, let me just pause here and say thank GOD I have pretty high self-esteem and was able to laugh this off. Because if this were 6 or 7 years ago I would have probably cried myself into a coma and then, upon waking, gone out and run 14 miles and then possibly eaten an entire chocolate cake. I wasn't offended, just pissed! Who looks at a potentially vulnerable young woman who's healthy and fit and tells her she needs to tone up and lose weight? Well, besides someone who's trying to sell personal training sessions, I guess. :sigh:
Anyway, her kind suggestions had the opposite effect on me. While I still may check out this gym with my 7-day free pass and potentially consider joining, I'm never going to buy a personal training session from a woman who tells me I need to shape the eff up. No wonder every woman in this country has body issues.
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2 comments:
You are my inspiration. Being healthy is our goal here. I think that includes a healthy perspective much like yours :)
Ha! That's pretty funny. Geesh! I'd hate to think what she'd say to me...I haven't been to a gym since 1994. Dang personal trainers with their impossible body standards.
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