Have you ever walked into gym and felt like you were a sad animal in the monkey cage at the zoo? You have your gorillas taking up the weight lifting equipment, your dancing baboons doing aerobics in the glass room, and then there are the spider monkeys with their long limbs and beautiful forms controlling the spaces around the gorillas. Then, there's me...the ugly awkward orangutan who needs to shed the pounds of the past decade but sticks to walking the treadmill and observing all the other monkeys playing.
I tried my best to dance around with the other baboons. I would start at the front of the class so I could see the instructors movements and slowly as the class progressed, I somehow always ended up pushed to the very back corner wiggling to my own beat and step.
I tried to be strong like the gorillas too. They laughed as I struggled to do a push up, and gawked as my arms shook like an earthquake to lift that heavy bar. It was as if on que, the second I would stand up from my machine a magic gorilla appeared and snatched it from me before I could continue any further. Personally, I'm not one to fight for the watering hole if you know what I mean.
I would try to stretch and bend and flex all my awkward limbs like the spider monkeys, and would end up looking like a strangled pretzel that needed help getting out of her own twisted mess. And not one gorilla glanced my way as I did butt exercises like the other spider monkeys!
That's when I decided it was time for change. I began working out from home because in my solitude no one else saw my awkward moments, or laughed at my lack of push ups. I could sing and dance and actually focus on myself rather than fight with all the other monkeys at the gym. I could wake up in the morning, press play, and the person on the screen couldn't see my baggy sweat pants, and lack of coordination. It was an orangutans paradise!
I could choose to go to aerobics and be in the front of my own class the entire time! I could struggle through my push ups and weights without being laughed at! Finally!! I could stretch and bend and not feel so out of place, but could feel proud of my hard work and efforts.
I saved money when I stopped going to the gym zoo. Before, I would pay $20 a month for these "amenities" even though my location didn't have half as many "amenities" as promised...I still had to pay the full $20. Then there was a yearly "maintenance" fee where they would take additional money to fix the machines, even though the same machines continued to be out of order when you tried to use them. The best part was the contract. Not only did I have to pay fees and monthly subscriptions but there was a binding contract saying if we left to early or didn't enjoy the experience then we would be charged another bogus fee.
Now that I workout from home, I pay $100 once a year and am not tied into any contracts, hidden fees, or monthly subscriptions. I saved over $200 a year and I am so much happier and have better results from it too! I can workout at any time of the day, I can hit pause when I need water, and I can be awkward without feeling awkward.
If you are an orangutan by design like me, or have ever felt like I have in the past then feel free to check out the workouts from home that I do at: https://www.beachbodyondemand.com/?referringRepId=1641371 otherwise I hope you enjoyed this post! Be sure to check out other posts and subscribe to get updates when new posts arrive!