Be Nice (To Yourself) At the Gym

When you walk into the gym, do you say something like this to yourself?

“Look at me. I am taking care of myself by working out and it feels good.”

Or do you think something along these lines?

“If only I hadn’t eaten that dessert last night. I need to get to the gym more often. I can’t lose weight because I can’t stay motivated to eat healthy meals. I hate the way I look in these workout clothes.”

Sadly, I bet I know more people who pick the latter train of thought. It makes me want to hang up a sign on the wall of the gym where I teach and exercise.

It would read: Please Stop Beating Up Yourself.

Think about it. What’s the point of making time to exercise and putting the effort into working out, if you’re going to feel bad about yourself.

I think it undermines and undervalues the time you spend on yourself exercising.

Shouldn’t we be rewarding ourselves for making a healthy choice?

Here’s another reason to be kind to yourself: If someone yelled at me every time I stepped into the gym, I wouldn’t want to go either.

Alice Warchol is a fitness instructor and freelance health writer.

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