A Run in with an Awakening

I’ve been trying to blog about something that happened to me at the gym for almost a week and am finally able to sit down and write it. I had gone to the gym to get a quick run in and while I was on the treadmill, I looked over and saw a girl crying on the bike. I’m not one to get into other people’s business at the gym but something about her compelled me. I decided to jump off the treadmill to make sure she was ok. I had no idea what I was about to get.

Turns out, she is anorexic and struggling to stay strong that day. She was fighting the overwhelming urge to go step on the scale for fear the meals she ate that day had been too much. (um…I was expecting to hear about a soar knee,not this) I was blown away and speechless. Then I remembered having run into her a few moths back when the hydrostatic weighing van had come to the gym. She was ahead of me and had asked the lady running it not to tell her the weight, instead just wanted to be told if she was in a “healthy” weight range.  She was but had slipped off the bandwagon some. 

When I ran into her again at the gym last week I did the only thing I knew to do, I tried to offer her my support and commended her on her inner strength and the drive to fight it. So from now on, anytime I see her (I still don’t know her name),I plan to provide whatever motivation I can.

I left the gym that day realizing that above all else, you HAVE to love yourself. You’re not so bad after all.  Sounds easy enough but for some of us, it’s easier said than done. We have those days when we’re just not feeling it but I challenge you to put it in perspective. Don’t be so hard on yourself. I think you can only improve when you accept where you are.  I’m going to learn how to better support someone with this sort of issue so I’m better prepared.