Deal Breaker

Inspired by the new weight lifting knowledge I acquired yesterday, I woke up and went to the gym this morning. It has been a while since I have actually be to the gym because I've been walking and finding other ways to get my workouts in. Today I remembered why the gym just is not working for me. It is the shower.

When I joined the gym last September I was in a different living situation and it worked out pretty well
because it was on my way to work. I'd go, shower there and head right to work. Over time the bathroom/shower situation at the gym kept gnawing at me more and more. It isn't that the bathrooms are dirty, it is the THOUGHT of how dirty it is. Anytime Fitness does a great job maintaining their shower rooms and there really isn't anything they could do to make me feel better about this. The thoughts that freak me out are seeing the guy that goes in there before me all sweaty, then going in after him and smelling the soap or cologne he's put on. It gags me and I just can't explain it. I can't stand the thought of some stranger standing naked in the same place I'm naked. I also keep thinking about the germs and colds going around and how public shower rooms have to be a cesspool of disease waiting to happen.  When I'm done, I feel dirtier than when I went in covered in sweat and I can't wait to go to my real shower and cleanse myself of all the grossness. I simply can't do it anymore. It is a deal breaker.

I've tried really hard to over come most of my neurosis when it comes to stuff like this. After the fart incident I wrote about earlier, I've pretty much overcome my "fear" of exercising in front of other people. The shower thing is just something I can't seem to get over and it gets worse and worse every single time I do it. It freaks me out, plain and simple.

Working out in the morning seems to be the only thing I can stick to. I can't go there then go home and then go back to work because it would add another hour to my routine and I'd have to get up so early I'd never stick to it. I think I'm going to quit the gym I love so much because I am a weirdo that can't get over this shower complex.

There are so many people that do this without going to a gym and I know I can make that work for me. I'll take my membership fee and invest in some weights for at home and going to a Zumba class a couple times a week or something. I am also going to see if I can enlist my super awesome friend Holly Rae to help me find routines I can do at home that may even work better for me than the stuff I'd do at the gym. It may take more work but I think it will be worth it to shower in my own home every day.

I feel like this is a good decision for my routine. I'm not quitting the workouts. I am quitting the germfest and who can fault me for that? Now I have to figure out how you go about breaking up with your gym...

<3 Katie
Day 148
193lbs
Feeling liberated

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