Hello!

As per every year, just like everyone else, I decided that this year I want to be a lot fitter and I want to take control of my weight and my health and it didn’t start off very well – I was going to start going for runs when I got back to Southampton after New Years and I just didn’t.

What kickstarted me into actually going to the gym was when I had a three hour dance session and I saw all the other girls in their costumes and I felt like a potato in a leotard and I was like right – gym time!

There’s a gym just up the road from where I live called ‘The Gym’ (truly imaginative!) and it’s actually relatively cheap for students – it costs my £14.99 a month. I’m justifying it by saying if I paid per session it would be £4.99 and to make the membership worth it, I only have to go three times a month which isn’t actually much at all! But it’s worth looking around in other gyms wherever you are to see what you can get, you can get lots of different kinds of membership deals.

The first time I went to the Gym I went with my best friend Nikki because she’d been going to the gym for the few months and she knew how everything worked. Going with a friend worked really well for me (and Nikki, I think!) because we used the same machines and we set the same time limits on each machine but we just did our own thing – we worked as hard as we wanted to and we actually ended up having pretty similar fitness levels so we were ready to work out for the same amount of time on each machine we went on.

The most daunting thing I found was the little pod thing that we had to go through to get into the gym – you have to enter a code, a door opens, you step into this pod, then there’s this horrible 10 seconds where the door behind you is closing and the door in front is opening and it’s to make sure that people don’t just walk in and use the gym but the anxiety is sky high in that moment.

Once we were in the gym, we just used the machines so we had a very cardio based workout – we started doing ten minutes on the treadmill, the cycling machine, the cross trainer, the rowing machine and then the treadmill again. We were going to try and find a weights machine where we could do some more arm based work out but there were lots of muscly, intimidating men so we’re going to hope it’s quieter next time we go and then hopefully do some sit ups and exercises on the mat too but there was a class this time.

We’re going to experiment with the time we go – we’re both interested in going a bit later because we both lead very busy days so after dinner (or maybe before a late dinner, we’re working on it) but we’d prefer when it’s a bit quieter.

It’s so nice to have a gym buddy because you can inspire each other to go, you can motivate each other and Nikki also says she’s going to be my dietician so there’s that too! It helps that I love Nikki with all my heart so we can spend a little bit more time together.

The thing that struck me most while I was at the gym for the first time, was that when I saw all the other women who were in really good shape and probably have their lives together and have a schedule where they go to the gym regularly, I wasn’t jealous of them, I found it nice that there were women that had control of their lives and I felt inspired to be more like them! This surprised me a lot, because I’m quite a jealous person but I’m not motivated enough to do something about things I’m not happy about with myself. It was a pleasant surprise!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx




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