Opinions of a Wolf

Hello my lovely readers and a happy April Fool’s Day to you!  There’ll be no tricks on my blog, but if you want to have some fun, be sure to check out ThinkGeek‘s home page today.  🙂

In any case, today I want to talk to ya’ll about body image and the gym, because I think it’s something that keeps a lot of folks out of the gym when it shouldn’t.  When I joined the gym one of the things I was the most nervous about was exercising, changing, showering, sauna-ing (is that a word?  It should be) around other people who might be judging me.  Yes, I have fairly good body image, but I’m still a person and struggle with it periodically.  I mean really, who doesn’t?  Beyond not wanting to have men hogging the weights and hitting on me, I also joined a women only gym purely because I wanted to be in the company of other women who hopefully wouldn’t be judgmental pricks like certain girls in highschool tend to be.  But I was just like “Fuck it.  I won’t let the possibility of some women being bitches to me keep me from being healthy,” so I joined.  And you know what?  It has been the best body image experience of my life, and no, that is not just because I’m getting more confidence in my body’s abilities.

I have not once heard a single woman say a single derogatory thing about another woman in my gym.  Not once.  The women are astoundingly kind.  The women are universally thoughtful of each other and profusely kind at sharing equipment and amenities.  I have never once heard a personal trainer say the f-word (fat).  I have never seen a trainer yelling at a woman.  I have never seen a class instructor without a smile on her face.  I’ve only heard trainers and instructors encouraging women, telling them, “Society tells you you can’t do this because you’re a woman, but I’m telling you that your body is amazing, and you can.”

But it goes beyond that.  I see women of all shapes, sizes, ethnicities, races in the locker room, and you know what?  That has just totally opened my eyes to the fact that the Hollywood ideal, society’s mantra of what a woman *should* look like just simply does not reflect reality.  And I find every woman I encounter in the locker room and sauna beautiful in her own unique way.  And I got to thinking, if I find them beautiful, if they’re here doing their thing with their body, then why should I ever diss my own body or get down on it or not embrace it?  My body is amazing.  It can do seriously amazing things.  I can bench press weights.  I can hold the dancer’s pose.  I can run.  I can do chin-ups.  I can almost touch my forehead to the floor.  Plus, my body can nurture life or not, as I see fit.  My body can do all these things and is simultaneously uniquely mine, and that is what makes it so awesome.