Today is my "one year anniversary" of going to the gym six days a week. During that time I have learned a lot, gained a lot of strength and lost 50 lbs

During those first few months I spent a lot of time feeling really insecure about being there and mostly avoided looking around at what was going on around me until one day....I couldn't believe who/what had just passed by my treadmill. It was a gentleman in his late 70s with these HUGE headphones on with an antenna sticking straight up about four inches off his head. If these weren't distracting enough, he was wearing Tony the Tiger pants. No, really, they had little pictures of Tony the Tiger from the cereal box all over these blue pants. Now, how many boxes of cereal did he have to eat and in which decade did he eat them in order to get these pants. Okay, maybe I was just a little jealous because if I had a pair of those I would wear them today now too. After seeing this, I realized I no longer needed to feel insecure about myself while working out there... He did me a great favor that day.

What are some of the funniest things you have seen while working out that made you feel a little better about yourself or just brighted your day?

I'm still in that insecure place, so I don't look around much - I don't want to catch anyone being amused by ME. Especially when I am trying to do lunges and am struggling (mostly unsuccessfully) with every ounce of me to stay balanced.

I mostly wanted to say congrats on reaching this milestone and for the awesome weight loss!!

Hi tinabinab,

Thanks for the congrats. I've been "gearing up" for this weightloss for a long time. I still can't believe I've gotton this far.

Please don't feel insecure at the gym. I think that this is the underlying point of my post. During the past year I have seen so many different things some amusing and some downright dangerous,(people falling off treadmills) that I now realize that we all have our less than graceful moments. ( I am now thinking of a very athletic looking young man who scooted all the way back on a bench to do cable triceps only to flip all the way off legs over head yikes!) Seeing these things have enabled me to take myself a little less seriously and take more chances in learning new things.

Good luck with those lunges. Those are VERY difficult. Trust me no one is looking at you thinking anything is amusing about that. A lot of people avoid squats and lunges because they are so difficult. For most people, watching someone put all their "heart" into increasing their strength and coordination in a new exercise is a very motivating. It's why I go, to learn from others.

Right now I am not allowed to do any lower body exercises, stress fracture... so do some lunges and throw in a few squats for me too!

Have a happy leg day!

Hi girls ... Great thread question ... The funniest thing I've encounter these days is an old man 80ish, who's shorts are wayyyyyyyyyy tooooooo shooooooort, I can't believe he wears those... but he's the sweetest man and has been going to the gym for eons and always has interesting stories to tell me.

Tina -- I've been going to a gym now for 21 years, regularly, through two pregnancies, the longest I have been away from the gym in those 21 years is 7 weeks post pregnancy...Even on some days I get some insecurities. Sillly, YES , but then I talk myself out of it by saying to myself that I have every right to being there, I want to look my best and be healthy .... So those insecurities are totally normal ... I also want to say that NO ONE cares about what you look like, I mean it, EVERYONE that I've ever talked to in a gym, big buff guys, hot looking young girls DO NOT look around at newbies and make comments, they are all lin their little world when working out and if they're not they should be concentrating on what they are doing because that's an accident waiting to happen....Actually everyone I know admires anyone starting a gym and admire them for sticking it out, because we all do have hectic schedules and finding time for the gym and working out is no easy task, it takes a LOT of planning.

Once when I was out running, I saw a woman walking a goat. I guess that is more strange than funny.

I pretty much hate the gym and go as little as possible--I'd much rather be on the road or in the pool. But when I am in the gym, I'm usually thinking the following things:

• When is that guy gonna be done with the pull up machine?
• OOOO, wipe your sweat off the bench please!
• My arms are really shaping up/looking awful.
• Please, please, please don't let me fall off this treadmill and make an @$$ of myself.
• Wonder who in here knows how to work this machine. Wonder what it is for.
• Hope Bob doesn't yak too long today, I stink. Gotta hit the shower.

I like seeing new folks out there--it makes me feel like something is going right with the world.

And finally, a few years ago, I slipped coming out of the shower in the locker room and fell. Feet and towel went flying, landed right on my butt. Boom! Just then another woman comes walking around the corner. The look on her face--omigawd here is a fat, naked, wet woman sprawled on the floor! I am quite sure she didn't expect to see me there. I was mortified at the time. Now I find it hilarious.

It's not so bad.

Anne

Oh Anne!! .... But I must admit that you musta looked funny, big or small, that musta been a sight!!

Once, I got off my treadmill and for some stooopid reason I stepped on the treadmill beside me, it was running....Boy, did I go flying, like this little guy !!! Another time I was doing a bench press, the usual weight I use, I got it off the hooks and then I got stuck... I gently dropped it down to my chest, rolled it to my hip bones, was able to sit up and put the bar on the floor in front of me... AND there were like 10 guys all around me, do you freakin' think ONE of them would have helped me? NOOOOO, they were all in their little world... SEE, exactly what I said, we're all in our own world in the gym

Ilene and Lydia are SO right - no one is paying attention to anyone else and if they do notice you, it's only to think the better of you. My biggest weight loss cheerleaders were people who I met in my gym because they saw and appreciated how hard I was working to change myself. I'm so happy whenever I see an overweight woman join my gym because I know from personal experience how hard it was to walk through the doors the first time. Every bit of me was screaming 'run the other way!' But the gym changed my life (understatement of the year ) and it can change theirs too, if they give it a chance.

Funny things I've seen:

* the woman with the plastic container of antibacterial wipes who compulsively wipes down every surface of every machine before she'll touch it. The ratio of time wiping to working out is about 10 to 1.

* the old guy who stands on the crosstrainer backwards or sideways.

* the woman reading a novel while using machines. Honey, if it's so easy that you can read in the middle of a set, you need to increase the weight!

* all the guys who load on enormous weights and do 3 reps with a 2 inch range of motion, accompanied by giving birth noises.

Funniest thing ever! We have those guys too.

Oh, this was worth reading just to get a good laugh!!! Lydia, did you change your eating, too?

Hehe, thanks for the encouragement ladies! I've found that while I don't just love working out, it is starting to become part of my automatic routine. That is a positive for sure!

I go to the gym at my work and I guess the funniest thing I've seen is that one annoying, balding, middle-aged guy who likes to hover around and talk to the trainers (all girls). He just can't take a hint. I'd say his ratio to flirting and working out is about on par with Meg's antibacterial gal!

I'm actually off today to have my first interim fitness assessment. I was 44.2% body fat when I started and my first goal was to reduce that by 2%. I'll post on my progress when I get back. UPDATED: I just finished my assessment and it was down to 41.0%! Yay progress!

Way to go on the bodyfat, Tina! Losing more than 3% is awesome!! (I'm embarrassed to say that I started at 57% myself )

I forgot about those social butterflies too - it cracks me up to see them chatting up one person after another, with no working out. I just keep my headphones on and am not very friendly. Is there anything more annoying that someone like that interrupting you in the middle of a set??? Grrr ...

Thanks ladies for sharing all of your funny experiences. I'm so glad that I am not the only one who "sees" these things. And Anne, I am going to be especially careful on that locker room floor. Yikes!!! And goat walking?! Yeah I don't think that's listed as an activity in Fitday. But hey, maybe the their dog was on vacation.

Tina you must be really proud of the results of your assessment! That is fantastic! Now, are you doing some squats and lunges for me too...?

Carol, I did change my eating pattern during the past year. The first two to three months of my workouts I just focused upon the cardio and weight training. Then I got to a point where I was just wasn't making any more progress in increasing my strength. So I began to do some research and found the Body for Life eating program.

Basically I eat to fuel my workouts. This was a difficult decision for me because I had previously, (five years ago) followed Weight Watchers with some success. I think I lost about twenty pounds in one year. The difficulty I initially had in accepting the BFL program was that I couldn't exactly count points... This drove me crazy. I finally decided just to have an open mind about the BFL program and give it a real try. The majority of my weightloss has taken place from January through July.

I also use Fitday to track my intake and try to keep a 40% carb and 40% protein balance in my diet. This provided me with a "fix" for my Weight Watcher point counting addiction.

Overall I really do think that BFL is a great plan for me because it provided great structure and real balance to my meals. I just look in my fridge to find a protein and a carb and I am set. Am I ever hungry? OH YEAH!! But that usually is only for an hour before my next meal and then I'm set for a couple of hours again. I'm rambling now so I'll stop...

Are these the same guys who hold themselves up with their arms on the elliptical and then move their legs as fast as they can? They sort of look like a cartoon runner but I guess they are getting a good arm workout, holding up their body weight for that long...

- Barbara

LOL I love it about the men making all the grunting noises... we have those guys too LOL. But what irks me are when they walk away from the standing weight machine and LEAVE those weights on the bars so the rest of us can't do the machines unless we can find some nice guy to take them OFF for us.

I have to say though my funniest gym story would have to be told on myself. Several years ago I was at a new gym and tried the machine where you climb with your knees on the little platform and grab onto the bars with your arms. I had NO idea you had to lower yourself by lowering the weight with your ARMS, and I have very weak arms. So the machine pulled me up in the air and there I was... stuck. I could NOT get back down. A nice guy saw my predicament and came over and rescues me. Turned out he went to my church (it was a very large church so we didn't know each other) and we ended up becoming friends.

I too don't worry too much about what people think or get embarrassed much (or at least let it show). Guess I have learned to laugh at myself and when I feel FAT I just think "Well at least I am doing this." Actually I think the majority of people are glad to see people trying to get in shape, even if we obviously aren't, instead of out there somewhere digging into chips and Coke.

Well I just recently joined the Y in my area. Its the largest in the country. (US) I was a bit intimidated the first time I walked through those doors, but as I started to see, there is people of every shape, age and form there!!! And like everybody here has said, most could care less about what your doing because they are so into whatever they are doing! lol.

My funniest moment was myself as well. I wanted to use the stair step machine, the old type you know where you actually go up and down? Well I got on and I could not for the life of me figure out how the heck to make it go. lollllllll.