Fat Gyms: Not Such A Bad Idea?
In an earlier entry I mentioned the concept of an affordable gym for fat people only. As Eleven pointed out, though, sometimes it’s not about money, it’s about motivation.
Which, obviously, is spot on. But I can’t help wondering whether anyone’s done market research on the matter?
I, for one, have had a couple of different gym memberships which seemed a great idea at the time. I was going to get motivated. I was going to go every day! Why, I’d become the Cardio Queen, the Weight Room Wonder Woman, the lady who practically lived there when her kid was in school.
Then reality hit: a week into my membership — four days after the law allows cancellation of the contract — I showed up in yoga pants, a sweat-friendly tank top and my Titleist golf baseball hat crammed on my head. I was ready to exercise. Ready to huff and puff and work off those pounds.
Until I saw the slinky 20-somethings in their sports bras and bike shorts. Where the hell had they been when I’d checked out the place? Oh, that’s right: I signed my contract in the morning, when they were either recovering from the previous night’s frat party or sitting in their college classes… or both.
First time I heard one of those skinny girls whisper, “Talk about someone who needs to be here” as I huffed past them on the indoor track, I realized I could’ve taken out her and her little friend with one of my chubby thighs.
I didn’t go back a single time during the twelve months that I paid for that year-long membership, money I essentially threw down the drain rather than endure the pitying stares, the bitchy whispers, the constant realization that if anyone belonged there, I most certainly did but I felt wholly unwelcome.
I’d love a gym for fat people. And, frankly, if they wanted to keep my business and ensure I’d keep coming, all they’d have to do is set up shop next to a pizza joint. Talk about smart marketing!
aThe most important requirement for weight loss is motivation and determination. And such idiot comments from the ladies were actually a test for your determination. You should have continued going to the gym, worked hard and should have shown them how stupid they were to comment on you. But do not worry, not all people who go to gym are like those girls. I joined gym sometime ago and people their helped me. So buckle up lady.
Comment by Weight Loss on July 23, 2007 at 1:51 pmDo freeweight and machine lifting work at a gym.
Nobody gives anyone any crap like that.
Even the muscles on muscles guys who’ve optioned out of having necks know that people who are there to work are there to work.
Comment by Mad William Flint on July 23, 2007 at 3:39 pmYou have to find the good time to go - when the beautiful people are elsewhere. Two in the afternoon is perfect.
I think I need a trainer. I can do gobs of cardio on my own, but I’m horrible with the rest of it.
Comment by Carin on July 24, 2007 at 9:46 amHow about the YMCA? Ours is new and nice and has all kinds of work out equipment and classes, but since there are chi-chi “private gyms” all over the place here, it is mercifully free of the 40 year old mothers of 3 who are thinner than I was at 17, and also the young, surgically enhanced types (they go to the big meat market gyms, I assume). Instead, we have a nice mix of moms, retirees, and even a number of young Muslim women (in long pants, long sleeve shirts and head coverings) who enjoy the Y because you can work out dressed like that and no one pays any attention to you. There are some “big guys” over in the free weight section, but since they don’t have anyone to leer at, they keep to themselves. And as William says above, they are there to work, so maybe they wouldn’t bother to leer even if one of us was worth looking at.
I know some magazine keeps ranking Houston as one of the fattest cities in the US (based on the number of restaurants per capita, I think) but we are really spoiled for choice if you want to work out - at least indoors. Outside - are you nuts? Who needs lots of hike and bike trails and green belts when it’s 106 in the shade with the heat index? 
I can see the park quite nicely through the windows at the Y, while on an elliptical machine with it’s own little fan.
The nearest one is across state line. YMCA’s site claims it’s only 10 miles away. They’re wrong: it’s a good 30 minute drive one way.
Comment by Chubby Mommy on July 24, 2007 at 2:14 pm
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