"Working out in a private gym has done amazing things for my confidence & self-esteem" - Core Results

“Working out in a private gym has done amazing things for my confidence & self-esteem”

Below is the latest article about training at Core Results written by our client Hattie, who started with us in April of this year. She works for Metro and often writes about her various reasons for joining us.

Read the article in full below, or for the full story with photos, click here: https://metro.co.uk/2018/06/21/working-out-in-a-private-gym-has-done-amazing-things-for-my-confidence-and-self-esteem-7646571/

Working out in a private gym has done amazing things for my confidence and self-esteem.

“I have shared more full-length body shots in the past two months on Instagram than I have in the whole six years I’ve had an account.

What’s more alarming is the fact that right now, I am the heaviest I have ever been – weighing two stone more than when I would avoid posting anything more than an above the shoulder shot. As someone who has overcome an eating disorder, had I been told that there would be a time where I embraced my body, at its biggest, sharing photos online for the world to see, I wouldn’t have believed it. But here I am now, being able to feel confident in front of the camera, and not hating what I see. I know to some, this might not seem a big deal. It’s only a photo. But for me, it’s so much more. For me, it’s progress. For me, it’s a total breakthrough in learning to love my body. This new lease of life didn’t just come out of the blue. You can’t go from feeling incredibly insecure to being filled with self-love in a matter of seconds (although if anyone has done this, please tell me how).

These feelings towards my body have come after I started working out at a West Sussex gym, Core Results, back in April. Having never even stepped foot in a gym before, out of fear of looking silly or not knowing what to do, I decided to go for it, to see how it would benefit my mental health, my body and my self-esteem. When I first started, I was very self-conscious. The thought of going to the gym in vests and leggings made me feel uncomfortable because, having gained a stone-and-a-half in a short space of time, I’d grown used to covering up with jumpers. In fact, the very first time I went to the gym I attended in a jumper. Stupid decision, I was boiling. And so the next time, I went in a tight sports vest. Though I was first self-conscious about how my stomach looked in it, I was concentrating so hard on learning the work out routines and how to use various things that I forgot all about it.

What made me feel more at ease was the fact there were other people in the same boat. Unlike some other gyms, Core Results actually focuses on weight loss – and so for me, as someone who at the time felt easily intimated by people with ripped bodies, this was perfect, because there were other people who looked like me. This allowed me to enjoy the gym without comparing myself to other people or making myself feel guilty that I don’t have a seriously toned stomach. Over time, I got more comfortable with my body and I think that was because I’d got used to not covering up in jumpers, and realising nobody was actually staring at me. It was all in my head. I was covering up for no reason. But I think what has really helped my confidence, is documenting my journey.

Since starting, I have been taking photos to see whether my shape has been changing. I uploaded the first picture to Instagram shaking. I hadn’t posted a photo since I was much lighter and I was worried what people were going to think. But it was incredibly well received. Over the next few weeks, I started taking photos more regularly – and I was taking less and less to get ‘the one’. And what I found, was that the more photos I took, the more comfortable I got in front of the camera. And, the more comfortable I got in front of the camera, the less I was picking out things that I hated about myself. Instead, the more I was looking at myself and thinking, ‘Wow, I look nice from this angle’.

Alongside feeling better about my physical appearance, I have gained a lot of confidence in the gym itself. I had this terrible idea of it all being very overwhelming, eyes on me, being laughed at for doing things wrong. But it has been a totally different story.

Every person on the team has been so helpful and understanding, and so motivating.

I’ve learned how to use things I didn’t have a clue about before, and now each time I go, I feel less and less nervous about working out in a room full of people, because I’m starting to get to grips with what I’m doing and it feels great. No longer do I walk in worrying about whether people are going to stare or laugh at me. No longer am I focusing on how my body must look to other people. Instead, I walk in, with a smile on my face, ready to work out – and it feels amazing.”

By Hattie Gladwell

Keep an eye out for future articles by Hattie!

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