A Morning At The Gym In January Mornings at the gym in January are frustrating.  First of all, the parking lot is full of all of those New Year’s Resolutions people.  I look around and wonder who will still be here in March and April.  I know, after 12 years, that it will be less than half of the folks currently trying to meet their New Year’s resolutions of losing XXXX pounds, or getting healthy or, if you look carefully at the women, trying to hook up with someone new and hard bodied! 

Once I get past all of the above it’s really okay - sometimes.  Example, today in the pool someone was singing out loud as they swam laps.  That was way too annoying.  She might have been in a good mood today, good for her, but what if her voice and choice of songs didn’t resonate with me?  Kind of rude I thought. 

A Morning At The Gym In January Then there was the woman who has been getting swimming lessons 2x weekly since the beginning of January, and who tried to swim on her own after her instructor left.  Her coughing and sputtering at the 1/3 way across the pool let me know that she had ingested a bit of water.  Yet she kept right on going for about another 10 minutes, and she had already been in the pool for an hour with her instructor.  Good for her!!!  Trying to learn and grow - a woman after my own heart.  I watched this from the hot tub which is my reward after swimming for 45+ minutes.  She too joined me in the hot tub and I looked her in the eyes, smiled, and told her she was doing a good job.  You would have thought I told her she won a million dollars.  Her face lit up, her smile bright as the sun, and her eyes sparkling with accomplishment.  Then the negative self talk began for her.  She explained how she was so bad at the breathing, and how hard it was, and she’d never get it right, and on, and on with what she couldn’t yet do.

A Morning At The Gym In January Dang, a coaching client in the hot tub.  I asked her to tell me what she had been able to do since day 1 of getting in the water.  She told me how she hated the snorkel at first but now loved it, and how her brother in-law will not let her use it anymore because she has to learn how to breathe.  How she is no longer afraid of the water, how she enjoys it, and looks forward to her days at the pool.  Then she started telling me about her brother in-law.  He is 64 years old and still competes in Ironman!  Wow, I was impressed, and told her a little of my story, of going from 424 pounds to today, using swimming as my first form of exercise - since I couldn’t support my weight for any real physical activity, the water was great for not hurting my joints.  I told her how I began by swimming 1 lap, and how that hurt and was so hard, and then worked it up to an hour 6 days a week.

A Morning At The Gym In January She was encouraged, she smiled a lot, and asked me if I thought she’d ever be able to master the breathing.  I assured her that if I was able to, she could too.  She was about 30 pounds overweight and had joint issues so the water was a great place for her to get her exercise.  She also shared part of her why - her 8 month old grandchild would need to learn how to swim and she planned to be the one to teach him.

All of my frustrations turned into smiles as she thanked me for encouraging her.  Reminder to self:  It’s a great feeling to share positive messages with strangers.  Good things happen.

Make it a great day folks.  You’ll only have today one time.