Wednesday, October 12, 2011

My Invisible Shield Rocks

So, I am in a corner stretching and pretending I am invisible. My "fierce" (read: slow) 25 minute walk on the treadmill has netted me a loss of 87 calories and a chapter of the latest Danielle Steel novel.

My "brisk" walk on the treadmill is the result of starting to work out a month ago. In my head I am 27, but somehow my body has aged quicker than my head. I hurt my good knee walking too rigorously on the treadmill in week 2. That has really annoyed me but, of course, has not stopped my day-to-day activities. Activities that include hauling little kids around, cleaning the house and carrying 40 lb camera bags around wedding ceremonies.

So far at this gym, I have kept to myself. I hop on my favorite treadmill ( 3 from the wall with a view of the parking lot) and read a book. I guess I trained myself to read on a treadmill a long time ago to fight the immense boredom of it. I haven't braved the stretching/mat area because it is right in the middle of the gym. Who wants to see a 44 year old woman doing sit ups? Poor planning on the gym's part. Plus the high schoolers on the swim team are usually in this area. Have you ever gawked at high school swimmers before? Beautiful, in shape, non-flabby bodies. Not people I ever want to work out next to.

So I stretch far away against a wall, next to a scale that basically taunts me and very close to a leg machine. Not room to do situps, but an ok place to stretch and observe for a few minutes.

What I see is older people walking on the treadmill, in shape older men cruising on the step machine, sweaty people, laughing people  tatooed people, men with too much body hair, serious excercisers and the smiley lady that walks around and checks in with people. She's never checked in with me, though, probably because I have my invisible shield around me and she can't penetrate it.

One of the swim team moms, asked me to do a class with her because she noticed that I was working out in the gym (my shield must not have been working that day). This mom runs half marathons for fun. She must have mistaken the 'now me' for the 'best shape of my life college me'.

Hmm, if my invisible shield can alter people's perceptions of me, then maybe I can start doing those sit ups in the middle of the gym?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You get right in there and show those young ones how it is done! We "don't put baby in a corner!" You are doing a great job! Love, Nana

Liz@thisfullhouse said...

Yeah, what Nana said, BIGTIME!

Melisa Wells said...

Just do it. Everyone at the gym is so worried about how they, themselves, look that they're really not looking at you. Unless you do the situps naked. They'd look in that case.