A haze clouds your vision, your chest tightens, burning as you push through the pain, and a river of sweat runs down your back.
No, you’re not having a heart attack. You’re working out!
I commend you for taking care of your body, and I’m also proud of you for having the motivation and perseverance to stick with your routine, but whenever I workout it usually goes something like this:
1. Someone (usually one of my roommates) asks me to work out with them.
2. And I try to change the subject because I don’t want to put my body through that hell.
3. But they give me puppy dog eyes and remind me that I told them to force me to go, even if I said no.
4. So I get into my cutest exercise clothes, and I feel like I can conquer this purely because I look so cute.
5. But when I get to the REX, I’m already out of breath.
6. My friend starts stretching and warming up, so I copy their moves.
7. But after five minutes, they start doing planks, and I start crying because it feels like my stomach is on fire. [rebelmouse-proxy-image https://media.rbl.ms/image?u=%2Ffiles%2F2016%2F05%2F28%2F635999979850985970-1624435735_emperors-new-groove-crying.gif&ho=https%3A%2F%2Faz616578.vo.msecnd.net&s=484&h=5fb971b27bc74d913c59efc7cd013f87d4056c48aac5b948927fbb499e488f8b&size=980x&c=977815196 crop_info="%7B%22image%22%3A%20%22https%3A//media.rbl.ms/image%3Fu%3D%252Ffiles%252F2016%252F05%252F28%252F635999979850985970-1624435735_emperors-new-groove-crying.gif%26ho%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Faz616578.vo.msecnd.net%26s%3D484%26h%3D5fb971b27bc74d913c59efc7cd013f87d4056c48aac5b948927fbb499e488f8b%26size%3D980x%26c%3D977815196%22%7D" expand=1]
8. Then the friend, who is practically glowing, looks at me and says, “Keep going. You got this!”, and I want to punch them in their sweat-free face.
9. At some point, we transition to weight lifting.
10. But my arms give out after a couple of sets.
11. And at this point I’m just lucky to be alive.
12. While my friend is working on her arms and legs, I decide to try the treadmill.
13. But I get too competitive with the person next to me and end up going too fast, too quickly.
14. And when I look at the clock, thinking that 30 minutes have passed, I realize that we’ve only been working out for 10, and a string of expletives fly out of my mouth.
14. Finally, I begin to get into some sort of rhythm, and I find the machine that works for me
15. And by the time I’m done, I forgot how much I hated working out in the first place because I feel awesome.
16. And I realize that maybe, somewhere deep, deep down, I actually kind of like working out.