A Message to Girls that Pass Judgment at the Gym

Stop. Just Stop. We are all here for the same reason... unless of course you are here to take selfies and socialize, then we've got different agendas.

Nothing drives me crazier than when I'm on the elliptical or the treadmill or the stationary bike and the girl next to me keeps peering over at my settings.  Yes, I am casually jogging at an incline of 8 and a resistance of 9.  I see that you're at a 10/12, YOU WIN!  It doesn't make any sense.  How long or how hard I work on my body changes literally nothing about yours.  At the end of the day, I still wear my size and you still wear yours.

I really do my best to not judge other girls at the gym for the sole reason that I don't want to be judged.  I can't run that far... a mile and a half to two miles tops and I'm pretty much maxed out, so when I'm feeling tired of running on the indoor track, I simply start to walk.  Let me tell you, I am getting tired of the judgmental looks I get when I start walking laps... Why are you judging me? I'm not sitting on the couch vegging out on Oreos and Easy Mac, I'm WALKING around the track!  Keep your eyes on your own prize.

Now, I will tell you that I have caught myself a time or two judging other girls at the gym.  Not the girls who walk/run their way around the track, not the girls that elliptical on a 4/5 incline-resistance combo, and not the girls that lift 10 pound weights instead of 25's.  The girls I have found myself accidentally giving the stink-eye are the girls who who are trying to look cute while they workout... and I know I shouldn't judge them, for all of the same reasons that I don't want to be judged: their workout doesn't affect mine, their body doesn't change mine, etc.  BUT for some reason I still catch myself doing it, and I think I've figured out why...

I used to be one of those girls.  I used to feel self-conscious walking into the weight room in front of the guys also working out at the gym.  I didn't want them to see me all sweaty and gross and looking like a total dude. So I would lift less to sweat less.  Then I met two girls who taught me the most important body-image lesson I have ever learned:

Why would I be at gym if I'm not going to work hard enough to work up a sweat?

I was being counterproductive! I was too worried about how I looked while I was working out, which wasn't doing my body any favors when I wasn't working out... good freaking point!

We all need to stop thinking about, looking at, and judging how everybody looks at the gym and we need to start focusing on the fact that we're all at the gym! Right? So, maybe instead of staring at the settings of the girl's elliptical next to you, you should tell that girl to keep it up! She's killin' it!