Charlies Story 🔥
10 Feb 2023
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I remember the first time I started at a gym, I was 17, walking into Fitness First, with a full face of makeup, the latest trending gym wear which set me back big time for someone who was earning little already and jumped on the treadmill for 30 minutes, to leave again. I didn’t do it for me. To me, at that age, it seemed a little like a phase that people were going through and I was jumping right on a trend, whether that was to make my thigh gap bigger, ass smaller (crazy how that’s the opposite of the trend now), to be “skinny”, to see my collar bones, it was all for extremely toxic reasons. The goal was to be smaller and seem more feminine (or what society at the time deemed femininity to be). I didn’t do any of this for myself, it was for some form of attention and acceptance from society, even though I didn’t need it. I had, and still have, an amazing group of friends and a happy life, but yet, I was still seeking external approval where it wasn’t needed or warranted.
It’s funny how easily I was influenced and I genuinely believe social media has massively affected the way that we are so quick to try something when it’s trending, instead of doing something for ourselves, just because we want to, or we know it’ll be better for us. To compare ourselves to others and never feel completely happy with ourselves. We try the fad diets, the 8-week gym plans to get abs, eating salads for weeks on end, all to get to the end and feel great for about 1 week but bounce back super quickly.
I got to a point where that was the case and I fell out of love with the gym about 5 years ago, so looked into other forms of exercise that I’d enjoy, which led me to start pole dancing lessons. I was terrified, but I wanted to try it so badly. I dragged my friend Lucie to a taster session with Spin City and fell in love instantly. It taught me a big lesson, that I shouldn’t care what others think of me, that everyone has insecurities but we should accept everyone for who they are. It also showed me how much strength training is bloody incredible and super empowering. After having been around incredible women and men at those classes, I started unfollowing influencers that were all about getting a sale for their Belly Blitz DVD or being paid to advertise fat burners and cranberry supplements for weight loss and instead, started following people that talked about health and fitness in a positive, yet honest light, that encouraged their followers to do what they want and people embraced who they are, without any apology.
I started changing my habits with the help of some amazing people around me, no longer restricting myself, eating basically whatever I want, and understanding that no one needs to work out every single day. Rest days are good, hell, rest weeks are good - who knew?! And weight lifting became my favourite thing to do and it is empowering as hell. Running? Well sorry, that’s gone, I hate it ha.
The most important lesson I’ve learned though is that strong doesn’t look the same to everyone. Fit doesn’t look the same to everyone. Happiness doesn’t look the same to everyone. You should do something for yourself and only yourself. Don’t do something to get gratification from someone else. Someone will look at you and love the thing about you that you probably dislike the most. We all have days where those intrusive thoughts creep in, but damn, you have got this and I know there is something to feel proud about every damn day, even if that is getting out of bed in the morning.
Now don’t get me wrong, I still love it when someone says I look great and I can still be super harsh on myself, but I don’t go to the gym for that anymore. I walk into a gym and honestly do not care what other people think. I put on my fire gym wear (XONI is a given of course), put on some heavy rock and smash my session, go home, have my coffee, have whatever food I want, go on walks, enjoy the wine (and I do really enjoy wine), laugh with friends and just enjoy my life.
I guess my journey has just led to me being comfortable in my own skin (90% of the time), feeling strong and pushing myself and yet it all being about balance and putting my happiness first. I don’t do it anymore for the trends, for the approval of others and I most certainly allow myself days of being a slob entirely.
It’s all about balance.
Charlie x
It’s funny how easily I was influenced and I genuinely believe social media has massively affected the way that we are so quick to try something when it’s trending, instead of doing something for ourselves, just because we want to, or we know it’ll be better for us. To compare ourselves to others and never feel completely happy with ourselves. We try the fad diets, the 8-week gym plans to get abs, eating salads for weeks on end, all to get to the end and feel great for about 1 week but bounce back super quickly.
I got to a point where that was the case and I fell out of love with the gym about 5 years ago, so looked into other forms of exercise that I’d enjoy, which led me to start pole dancing lessons. I was terrified, but I wanted to try it so badly. I dragged my friend Lucie to a taster session with Spin City and fell in love instantly. It taught me a big lesson, that I shouldn’t care what others think of me, that everyone has insecurities but we should accept everyone for who they are. It also showed me how much strength training is bloody incredible and super empowering. After having been around incredible women and men at those classes, I started unfollowing influencers that were all about getting a sale for their Belly Blitz DVD or being paid to advertise fat burners and cranberry supplements for weight loss and instead, started following people that talked about health and fitness in a positive, yet honest light, that encouraged their followers to do what they want and people embraced who they are, without any apology.
I started changing my habits with the help of some amazing people around me, no longer restricting myself, eating basically whatever I want, and understanding that no one needs to work out every single day. Rest days are good, hell, rest weeks are good - who knew?! And weight lifting became my favourite thing to do and it is empowering as hell. Running? Well sorry, that’s gone, I hate it ha.
The most important lesson I’ve learned though is that strong doesn’t look the same to everyone. Fit doesn’t look the same to everyone. Happiness doesn’t look the same to everyone. You should do something for yourself and only yourself. Don’t do something to get gratification from someone else. Someone will look at you and love the thing about you that you probably dislike the most. We all have days where those intrusive thoughts creep in, but damn, you have got this and I know there is something to feel proud about every damn day, even if that is getting out of bed in the morning.
Now don’t get me wrong, I still love it when someone says I look great and I can still be super harsh on myself, but I don’t go to the gym for that anymore. I walk into a gym and honestly do not care what other people think. I put on my fire gym wear (XONI is a given of course), put on some heavy rock and smash my session, go home, have my coffee, have whatever food I want, go on walks, enjoy the wine (and I do really enjoy wine), laugh with friends and just enjoy my life.
I guess my journey has just led to me being comfortable in my own skin (90% of the time), feeling strong and pushing myself and yet it all being about balance and putting my happiness first. I don’t do it anymore for the trends, for the approval of others and I most certainly allow myself days of being a slob entirely.
It’s all about balance.
Charlie x
