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by Sholeen Lagadien
Don't let the thought of exercising alongside fitter, trimmer gym-goers put you off your workout
How many times have you resolved to get fit and healthy, and joined a gym — only to give up soon after — feeling fat, unhealthy and intimidated? It’s too easy to compare ourselves to others, and end up feeling that everyone else is fitter, faster and in better shape.
And it’s around this time that our exercise goals seem unattainable, our self-esteem takes a dive, insecurity sets in, and our health is put on hold.
“What makes me insecure when I walk into the gym are the beautiful people. If you don’t have the bag and matching gym pants and track top then you’re not in. It’s as if you’re not serious about training if you don’t have the right attire,” admits Pretty Angoma.
MAKE EXERCISE-TIME PLAYTIME
In her book Mind Over Fatter: Learn To Feel Great Without Ever Dieting Again (Oshun), clinical psychologist Cari Corbet-Owen explains how women make fundamental mistakes that prevent them starting or sustaining an exercise programme, such as:
▶ choosing a particular programme because someone else thinks they should
▶ exercising to lose weight at all costs
▶ choosing a form of exercise they don’t enjoy or that doesn’t suit them.
She adds that gyms “are places where what you’re doing is usually dictated by someone not living in your body.”
Her message is to make your own choices, choose your own goals, and above all, do something you enjoy, otherwise you won’t be able to keep it up. In childhood, “body-play was self-directed fun, fun, fun,” she says. “We ran instead of walked — we skipped as fast or as slow as we wanted and we had not the slightest care in the world if there was a right way or a wrong way to moving, or whether we were wearing the appropriate clothes or whether we looked good doing it or not.”
Let the aim of your exercise be to get healthy and fit — not to attain the “perfect” body. That will come the more you enjoy what you do and the more you do it.
SET “PROCESS” GOALS
“Setting yourself specific goals helps overcome exercise anxiety. Usually when we start exercising we want to lose weight — that is an outcome goal. Rather set yourself process goals,” says Pretoria sports psychologist Greyling Viljoen. “Process goals focus on the activity you are doing. Once you focus on yourself and take control of how you are doing the exercise, you’ll have little time to worry about what other people at the gym are thinking.
You have no control over what other people think, but you can control what you focus on”. Viljoen believes that while you should have a routine, it should not be too rigid. “Don’t do the same exercise all the time as this can become boring. Vary your routine and your workout will become fun.”
HOW TO LET GO OF INSECURITY
▶ Eliminate exercise activities that you absolutely don’t enjoy, but promise to remain open-minded and consider them again later. For example, if you know that you have two left feet, don’t take up dancing as a means to get fi t as you’ll just get frustrated and want to give up all exercise before you’ve even begun.
▶ Do what you enjoy and in so doing, you can be “in the moment”. At the same time, you’ll become less concerned with what you’re wearing or how you look performing the exercise.
▶ Experiment with different forms of exercise until you find what suits you.
▶ Do your workouts with someone who is at the same level of fitness as you are and who enjoys the same kinds of activities. This way no-one feels inferior.
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