A Fat Chick Sucks It Up and Returns to the Gym

After taking a day to recuperate from my traumatic first trip to the gym I figured it couldn't get any worse so I might as well go back.

I had prepared myself for the day by texting with Katie (who has actually gone to a gym and worked out before) and more Googling, whereby I discovered that on my first visit I had chosen the rather difficult recumbent bike and used one of the more strenuous settings. Whoops.

This time around there were still a bunch of focused men working out, but there was also a staff member handy. I stopped by and told him I was about to try the treadmill for the first time and asked what the chances were of me flinging myself into a wall. He assured me it was extremely unlikely and told me which buttons to push and what to expect from the machine. I promised him that if I did get flung I would do my best to land near the 911 phone.

So with the shot of courage from the humorous banter, I walked right past all the muscle men and climbed on the treadmill tucked at the end of the row in the corner. I ignored the instructions the kind man had given me and pushed lots of other buttons instead, using my previously mentioned research. Then I waited for the gasping and burning and pain to being.

The first thing I noticed was that walking on a treadmill is weird. It was going pretty darn slow and felt really awkward. I was trying to keep my hands on the sensors at the front of the machine but after a couple of minutes I found myself tensed, leaning forward, taking tiny little steps and holding the sensors in a death grip. I felt like a 90 year old woman using a walker.

I started becoming more mindful of what all my body parts were doing, adjusted the speed and slowly found myself able to relax and walk upright. Trying to wipe the sweat out of my eyes was a little tricky, but I did manage to figure out how to work the television. I reached my target heart rate, stayed on the machine and made it for twenty minutes and nineteen seconds with out having to stop once. Hurray for treadmills!