I apologize for all the mean thoughts I had about women who work out in the "Women's Only" room at the gym

So like a lot of people I am back in the gym at this time of year.  Not because I made a new year's resolution--I didn't make any.  I'm in the gym again because honestly, I am SUPER TERRIFIED of getting fat.  So yeah, I'm working out again more out of fear than anything else.  There are secondary goals as well...but they're not for public consumption.

Anyway, today marks my second day on my new 4-Week Hard Body Workout Plan courtesy of Women's Health Magazine online.  And after being away from the gym on a consistent basis for so long, I have a new appreciation for the "Women Only" room that some gyms boast as an incentive for women to join the gym.  In a previous life when I was a semi-gym rat and yoga buff and started a fitness blog, I scoffed at the idea of a Women Only room at the gym.  Why would women need a separate room, away from all the man candy strutting around the gym floor?  Away from all the new equipment and weights? No mirrors?  The Women's Only room was, in my mind, only for women who don't know how to work out.  For fat women.  For sloppy, fat women.  For lazy, sloppy fat women... who don't know how to work out.

Fast forward to Monday, 1/16/2012, around 12:00pm.  Me, in my new work out pants, with my Hard Body Workout plan downloaded to my iPhone and my earbuds in, bumping Drake, or Jay & Kanye or whatever I was listening to.  Fresh off the treadmill for my cardio warm up,  I strut down to the free weight area--you know the area with the mirrors and workout benches and men in muscle shirts lifting weights they know are too heavy for them?  Right, there.  I set up my incline bench, grab a couple sets of dumbbells, and go to work.  12 reps later I'm wishing, hoping and praying for a Women Only room at my gym. My gym doesn't have one.

So there I stayed, among the brawny (not too sexy, thank God) men, trying to disappear from sight as I struggled through the first day of my workout plan. Headlights turned all the way on.  Ankles betraying me throughout each set of lunges.  Sweat marks appearing in places where "the sun don't shine."  Weak-ass push-ups and all.  I looked terrible.  I'm fairly positive no one was looking at me.  If any man dared to look at me, I'm sure he immediately looked away because the whole scene was awkward and just unpleasant.  But of course I couldn't leave the area--too much pride for that.

I will say I felt good to finish the workout.  After completing the first day, I could tell I'd be committed.  But I also understood why women crave the shelter of the Women Only room.  In all my prior gym-ratness I failed to realize that sometimes we (women) look like s%#! at the gym.  That thought had never occured to me before.  And women never like feeling like they look like that.  We (I) like to preserve the appearance that everything we (I) do is effortless (humor me please).  And sucking wind in front of everyone at the gym is the safety pin to my life preserver....  So to all of my lady readers who frequent the Women Only room at the gym, I apologize for all of the mean things I thought about women who work out in the Women Only room at the gym.  I see why you do....

But alas my pride--and my gym membership--won't allow me to partake in the hiding place that is the Women Only room.  So I need to get in shape quick.

Two workouts down, 10 more to go.