Outa My Way, Fatty

I've never noticed before how lazy people are at the gym. I know that sounds hard to believe, but if you belong to a gym, do me a favor and look at the people around you. Observe how fast they pedal on the exercise bikes. Are they really sweating, or are they staring at the TV screen above them, eyes glazed over, not a drop of sweat in sight? Do they mill around the machines, pausing in the middle of the isles, talking to friends, or are they moving with a purpose? Chances are, they're being lazy-- at the gym.

It's unbelievable. If you belong to the Y, count the number of fat people in the locker room over the age of 50. In the ladies' locker room, most of them will be wandering around slowly, fully nude, or congregating in the hot tub. Now, I understand that the gym is where overweight people go to lose weight. But none of these people are exerting any effort to do so!

This morning, our new president talked about responsibility. Every day, I realize more and more that my weight problem is just that-- my problem. No one ate those cookies for me, and no one will go to the gym for me to work those cookies off. That goes for the rest of this country too. We are dealing with obesity rates skyrocketing in our children, and we aren't setting an example in ourselves. We don't take responsibility for our weight problem. We assume that it's the desk job that made us lethargic (yes, I'm guilty of this), it's the holidays that encouraged us to eat more, it's our age, our genes, our... whatever. All of those reasons may contribute in part, but it's just pure fact that our bodies are not designed to hold extreme amounts of excess weight and no one wants to do anything about it.

By going to the gym and peddling slowly while watching The Biggest Loser may make some minor changes, but as I've learned, it's not until you put in the amount of work that those guys on the TV are that you're going to see any changes.

In part, I'm talking to myself. I am the "you" I keep referring to. These posts help to organize my thoughts and keep me motivated, hence the reason I keep writing them. However, I am beginning to be disgusted with the lack of motivation I see in others. Perhaps this is the start of something bigger.

Also, just to fill you in, the Workout of the Day that inspired this post was the following:

Buttercups:
Three rounds for time of:
Run/walk 200 meters
10 Sit-ups
10-35 pound Deadlift, 10 reps

I modified it slightly as I ran from station to station around the gym. My running around gained the stares of most people in the gym as I navigated the milling throngs of people like shoppers at a farmers' market. I didn't time myself, but what I ended up with was the following:

Four rounds (forgot to time):
Run/Walk .20 miles (almost 1.5x 200 meters)
20 crunches
24 pound deadlift, 10 reps

It was worth doing the workout just to see the looks on all the faces around me as they tried to figure out what I was doing. I felt great afterward, although I worry that it wasn't hard enough. WOD for Wednesday is posted, I'm afraid to check out what tomorrow has in store. ;)