so i have been going to the gym everyday with my sister for the past week and I have fallen in love with the treadmill of all things! well the gym i go to has a separate gym for women,which i love, and for the life of me i cant figure out why the **** i fell i guess embarrassed to run in front of people other than my sister. anyone else get like that or is it silly?

i get very self-conscious working out in front of other people...i much prefer the privacy at home or a trail without alot of people on it...i havent ever fallen but i know, esp with jogging, that i always think people are looking out their windows at me jogging/gasping for air/etc lol

lol i feel that way too. I feel like people are gonna look at me running and think"holy crap this girl is gonna have a heart attack right now!" but im pretty sure im gonna just ignore all the stuff in my head and run till my little legs cant go anymore lol

You are def braver than I am. I jiggle everywhere. Once I found this out, I work out ALONE.

oh trust me, i giggle like santa clause but i figure people cant really think that bad of me if im working to better myself right?

I hear ya! It's the main reason I bought a treadmill a while back instead of a years worth of gym membership (About the same $). I'm much better about it now, having actually lost some weight. I actually go to the gym now, but I still go late when there's less people there!

I feel embarrassed to WALK in front of people, because I'm afraid they'll think "oh she must be SO out of shape to be walking and not running" so I push myself harder than i should sometimes. It's weird, the stuff that happens in our brains.

I've thought of all these things-- walking instead of running, jiggling, etc. I'm not really afraid I'll fall, but you never know. Luckily I work out at my husband's company's gym, and it is highly underutilized. There are peak hours, of course, but when I go there is usually only one or two other people if any.

When I lost weight the first time, i didn't start working out until 175, which was about a size 10 or so, and I didn't feel nearly as self-conscious. It's looking like it will work out that way again because they only have childcare for kids who are walking, and my guy isn't quite there yet, but I plan to go back when he does, which shouldn't be long.

I'd like to say I don't think people pay that much attention, but I think they do. I mean, I get bored while running and look around at other people and notice things, so I'd imagine they do the same thing. Ideally, we shouldn't care, but I can't help caring, at least a little, what others think of me.

I'm having that problem right now, except it is at home!

My b/f and I are living with his parents until our place is finished.
However, I can never get a spare second to work out. I feel like someone is always there. And whenever I am walked in on while I'm working out, I get weird stares.

I'm trying to get past it, but the boy is the only one that's proud of me. Everyone else is pretty much going for sabotage (LOTS of sugary sweets, poking fun at exercise videos, etc).

What we all should do is just be proud (including myself)! Even if we're worrying about what jiggles, because if we stick to it, we wont be jiggling anymore!

The sabotage thing would just make me mad. But I'm stubborn like that. Hopefully you can turn that around and use it as motivation to prove them wrong. They might be "jealous", too. Are they overweight? If so, they're probably feeling guilty for not taking steps to get healthier like you are. Still, no one likes to be made fun of. Can you lock a door? Or are they reliably out of hte house at a certain time?

I totally know how you feel. I tried doing P90X at my house but it was awkward even tho it was just me my mom and my twin. But Im really starting to feel more comfortable at the gym. I run for 3 minutes(a minute here and a minute there) and each time there was SOMEONE right around but I just had to keep in my mind that Im doing it for me and not for them.

As food the sabotage...I get that too. Me and my twin sister are losing weight together because my cardiologist said I needed to. She is super supportive and my dad is too but my mom just doesnt understand the whole healthier eating thing. She buys snack cakes,candy bars,fast food,and all that junk and then she gets kinda pissy when we turn down that kinda stuff. I just have to ignore it and move on.

I used to feel self-conscious, but then it hit me one day - no one really cares what I'm doing, they are too worried about what THEY look like! I also decided the best way to get over my fear was to take it to the extreme. I work for a large university, and I joined Rec Sports. They have a staff gym, but I faced the demon head-on and began working out with the students in the larger gym. To my surprise, I found the students supportive and helpful. No one looked at me like I was a freak, and I even had one male student offer to help me with a weight bench. Not only am I old enough to be a mom to most of these students, I'm also considerably heavier.

One cool thing eventually happened. I was on the elliptical, running full out, and began to notice a young lady next to me trying to keep up. I can run for about an hour without any problem. She bailed after 35 minutes. Just looked at me and shook her head. I easily had 20 years and 60 lbs on her, but she couldn't do it. It was awesome!

Okay - I am going to join a gym!! Thank you gsb 126

I love that!!!!!!!!! That made my day

I used to belong to the #1 gym in the country, which happens to be here in DC. It was amazing, but very $$, so I stepped down to a lesser gym. But. When I was at the amazing gym, there were times I'd be doing like 700 lb leg presses, and men would stop in their tracks and stare at me...they couldn't believe a woman, especially a really REALLY out of shape woman, could do that. It was AWESOME.

Now, on rare days when I use machines instead of free weights, I always have to add like 100 lbs to whatever setting the last person left it on, and I love it when guys go to use the machine after me and have to knock half the weight off. Love it!

No disrespect to any of you wonderful men on this board of course.

Me too! I don't have time to do the cardio machines but I am in the weight room 3x a week. Yesterday a guy said to me, "How you doin?" to me and his friend smiled and nodded. At 48, I'm old enough to be their mom. As far as being self conscious at the gym, I've found that people are too concerned with themselves to pay any attention to you.