“Gawd, Cristy, you just don’t get it!”
The morning sun streamed through the gym windows as I gazed at my frustrated client. She had been busting her tail for a good 45 minutes. Sweat dripped off the end of her nose and soaked through her collar. She was on her last exercise of the hour and I repeated the instructions to her calmly. I knew she could do what I was asking; I believed in her more than she believed in herself. As tears appeared around the rims of her eyes, she glared at me and barked, “You don’t get it! I can’t do that! You don’t understand that there are things us big gals just CAN’T DO! You don’t know how that feels!”
I have been in the health and fitness industry for a very long time—since 1994. I have been a trainer and a coach for many years. People look at Personal Trainers and think we have never struggled with our bodies. But trainers have their own struggles, too. I can’t speak for ALL trainers but most trainers reading this will nod their head as they read on.
Just because I wasn’t 100 lbs overweight doesn’t mean I haven’t been fat in my life. I’ve been heavy and I know how miserable that is. I know society can warp your mind and cause you to think you are inadequate because you don’t look like the magazine cover. When I was 19, I had gained too much weight to fit into my jeans. So I took ace bandage and wrapped it tightly around my upper thighs to squish my thighs and make them smaller to fit into my jeans. Once I had an addiction to peanut M & M’s and I would eat an entire 14 oz bag every night. I would feel awful so a couple of times I forced myself to throw up the candy before it absorbed into my system. We’ve all heard of that! Pretty messed up right?
No, I wasn’t the “fat kid” at school or sent to rehab for an eating disorder but a lot of my thinking was messed up when it came to my idea of “healthy.” Even though your trainer is toned, buff, lean and mean doesn’t mean they don’t want to head over to the ice cream isle at the grocery store. Look, we trainers are wired the same as most people. We are programed to “GET SUGAR” and that goes through our minds, too, when we are shopping or at a restaurant. The difference is that our careers require us to immerse ourselves in the education of health and fitness. But we make mistakes too! We know what it feels like to have a giant donut sitting like a brick in our gut (eating that sounded like a good idea at the time). We might veer towards the bakery section but quickly remember the bloated tummy, clogged pores and lethargy we feel when we consume bread. We might pull through the drive through of a fast food chain but it’s for a cup of coffee, not a #3. Trainers are not immune to the temptations of the food advertisements, smells and joyful thoughts of Willy Wonka’s factory. The difference is we have trained our minds and bodies to resist and reject those signals. We just don’t give in to them.
Our clients come to us feeling intimidated and shameful and they think everyone is judging them for what they look like. That isn’t happening—at least not at my gym in my business anyway. But I can pretty much guarantee your trainer wasn’t born looking like that and he or she had to go through the fire to become a fitness expert. Don’t assume your trainer has always been fit and lean, always had 6-pack abs or always turned down every donuts. Chances are your trainer has some past skeletons in their closet, too. But the good news is you’re on the right path and at some point we all have to choose to either reach back for the bag of Doritos or reach forward towards the dumbbell. Which will you choose?
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