The hardest part about being physically active isn’t the actual fitness part of it, it is getting your cheeks to the gym. For myself the gym boosts my mental health, it makes me produce so much serotonin that I could generate a factory off it. But, there are also a lot of days where I will openly admit that I spend 65% of my work out anxious or crying in the bathroom. I was never afraid of the gym until I started working out at a gym that’s very well known for being a gym where aesthetics is “important”. I like to go into the gym with the mindset that I’m invisible, sounds crazy but if you are anxious, overweight, and shy like me, focus on only yourself being there. The idea around mental health and fitness is a subject I’m very passionate about, I mean clearly because I’m going to be a trainer. When I’m at the gym I’m not worried or stressed about what people are thinking about, I’m not over analyzing every situation, or focusing hard on what other people’s body language is. I’m usually lost within my thoughts, a friend of mine told me I have my hat on, head down and the straightest don’t mess with me face while working out, and I truly think it’s because the emotions I keep bottled in are released while I’m at the gym. I sometimes think about how often I get overwhelmed and cry in the gym, It’s never a long cry, but it comes out of nowhere. I struggle with the aspects of the gym, I compare my progress often. When I started at the gym I was 205 pounds give or take a few pounds, unmotivated, and only going to the gym to lose weight. I would work through strenuous workouts, work out so hard I puke, and I thought if I didn’t have sore muscles it wasn’t a good enough workout. Well, cats out of the bag none of those helped me. What truly helped me fall in love with working out was how I felt after, I felt like a million dollars like all the stress and chaos around me didn’t matter what did was how I felt invincible. I started to appreciate the idea in my head around the gym, I appreciated the mental health benefits I was receiving, and most of all I started to appreciate that I put effort into making myself happy again. Here I am a little over a year and a half, 172 pounds doing programs I enjoy, running distances I really never thought I’d be able too, and most of all happy with my standpoint towards the gym. Struggling with mental health is something I used to be so embarrassed about, but now I openly will talk about it and I’m happy to be able to share my side of it, and share this positive change I made in order to help myself physically and mentally.
So make sure you find something that helps your mental health, a place that even on the worst days, the days you don’t want to be there you still get there and truly try and make the best out of it, because you never know how much it could change your life.