Gym Rant...

Just a heads up, this post is kind of ranty and has no photos. #blogfail

This was supposed to be a post about my adventures and gripes with meal planning & prepping. Instead, I want to talk about something I (re)realized:

I think there are three kinds of people at the gym. 
     (1)  People who know how to use the machines*.
     (2)  People who don't know how to use the machines. 
     (3)  People who don't know how to use the machines but are at least with someone who does or are not alone in trying to figure it out.
           *treadmills and ellipticals don't count. 
I am People #2. I desperately want to be People #1 or People #3. 

Monday marked Week 2, Day 1 of my 6-week fitness journey. I was armed and ready with a list of exercises I had to do, complete with a cheat sheet printout of how-to's and photos of certain machines I had never used before. I was actually kind of patting myself on the back because this was my 2nd visit to the gym for the day since I had gotten up early to work out before work. That feel-good feeling went away as soon as I walked into the weight-room side of the gym. 

It's not like I think I'm hot $h!t and that all eyes were on me, but it felt like the first day at a new school... and I was the new kid... who started the semester late...and unknowingly wore mis-matched socks. UGH. 

Here were some of my issues:
--  It was hard for me to adjust the machine to my height/body. It felt like I was pulling knobs and levers at a kids playground because nothing was happening. 
--  Of the two rowing machines, one of them didn't have the triangular handle thing. Are you supposed to bring your own?  really!?! The one that did have a handle was being hogged up by some huuuge guy who was sweating, then texting, then sweating, then texting and texting some more. I think I must have checked for about 30(!) minutes to see if Mr. Texter was tired of rowing. NOPE. 
--  The assisted pull up machine looked ridiculously intimidating.  Step, kneel, grab, pull, WHAT??  I think I would have attempted this except... 

All of these machines were in plain view of all the people in the room who knew and could see that I had no idea what I was doing. Thinking about yesterday, I still feel like an idiot, and I'm kind of dreading to go back. 

After doing what I could on the machines that wouldn't make me feel like a complete loser, I did a few free weights and then I left. I wouldn't say I gave up.. but maybe I did. I was there for a little over an hour and I felt like so little was accomplished. 

I got in the car, called Ric and whined about how I felt so uncomfortable, so out of place, so embarrassed, so DEFEATED. It's so embarrassing to admit this but I teared up a little telling him my non-story. I felt so stupid getting worked up over all of this. And then to top it off.. I couldn't even drown my sorrows in food (lol) because I had already prepared my dinner the night before (fish, avocado, veggies...). boring. 

So what have I learned? I learned that I'm probably going to check out the weight rooms in the morning since there are wayy less people there. I wish I could say that I learned something else (be stronger, who cares what they think, etc), but I think it's too soon for that. 

On another note, if anyone reading this wants to be a People #3 with me, I'm with LA Fitness. Sigh...