Sweating, Vomiting and Passing Out

I don't know about you but the title of this post makes me think of Korean Bar-B-Que. I have no idea why and I'm sorry I brought it up.

This evening I was presented with two ways in which to spend my night. The first was to hang out with Matt (sounds good so far) and watch TV. More specifically watch WWE Wrestling. Now before you roll your eyes and jump to the conclusion that I automatically chose the second option let me inform you that there were two guest hosts on wrestling tonight. The first:


Jon Heder. Yes, that is Napolean Dynomite.

And the second?


Oh baby, it's Don Johnson and not the Don Johnson that Jessica dated in high school. THE Don Johnson.

Now that you have all the information I bet you can guess what I decided to do. That's right. I'm blogging tonight.

Wow, that was a wicked long intro to tell you I joined the gym. Not my old gym with the daycare but the cheaper, non-daycare, no contractual obligations gym. It's considerable larger then my old gym. I liked the old gym. It was little and full of old people. Old people make great work-out companions because they are not intimidating at the gym at all.


See, there is absolutely nothing intimidating about old people working out. Plus they are super nice and sweet.

So I walk into the new gym and I was immediately overwhelmed by the sheer size of it. It's like going from Average Joe's Gym to Globo gym.




I signed up anyway. It's important that we step outside our comfort zone from time to time. I was extremely honest with the girl at the counter about being overwhelmed. She was awesome about it and walked me through everything step by step. I have an introductory training session set up for next week (their earliest available).

I haven't really worked out regularly since the first miscarriage last year. My doctor restricted my exercise routine for a few weeks after the miscarriage. Once I got the all clear to resume my normal regime I made the conscience decision to listen carefully to what my body was telling me so that I wouldn't push myself too far too fast. I climbed on the treadmill and before I knew it I was jogging and it was awesome. The feeling was like the first warm sunny day of the spring  when you put your windows down and you are singing along to the radio at the top of your lungs. It felt great. I felt great.

After my jog I decided to do some lower body weights and honestly it was the best workout ever. I felt amazing, until I didn't. All of a sudden I felt nauseous. I stood there debating whether or not I should go to the locker room. I told myself I was being melodramatic, but decided I didn't want to be known as the girl that threw up on the gym floor. I headed for the locker room. With every step I took I was less and less "there" and I have no idea how but I ended up sitting on the bench in front of my locker. As woozy as I was at this point, it became very clear to me that I wasn't being melodramatic. I didn't need a magic 8 ball to tell me that there was puke in my near future. The only thing I remember about the walk from the bench to the toilet was that when I rounded the corner to the stalls everything went black. Then light and in that moment of light I managed to throw my sweat covered body into the nearest stall and then black again. I came to. I vomited. Twice.

After that I felt more aware of my surroundings and I realized that I was sitting on the floor of a public restroom and was not OK with that. I pathetically climbed up onto the toilet and sat there and continued to sweat profusely for like five more minutes. Then as quickly as it came on, it was gone. I was fine and I even drove myself home. I talked to my doctor about it and she sent me for some tests and determined, well, she didn't ever determine anything. She's that good.

So the point of this story is that every time I start to feel nervous about going to the new gym that is literally like ten times the size of the old one, I give myself this pep talk:

"Bethany, you are spazing for no reason. What's the worst thing that could happen? You could vomit, pass out and sweat profusely for no reason. Don't worry, this gym is big enough that you could probably do that in between two treadmills and no one would notice. Plus they gave you a T-shirt.You'll be fine."

7 comments:

Jules AF said...

Oh my goodness. I'm glad you're okay!

Sarah and the Gentlemen said...

The YMCA near my house has gigantic wall-sized windows in their workout room.
I would SO not appreciate having total strangers see me struggle with the equipment let alone the stangers in the cars driving by.

Dione said...

Stay off the booze before you work out from now on!

That sounds scary! I'm sorry you were alone! I would have held you up so you didn't have to sit on a public bathroom floor! And I would have flushed the toilet with my foot for you!

foxy said...

What a weird experience. At least you made it to the bathroom! But having grandma clean up after you wouldn't have been too weird, you know...

My gym is pretty big too. But at least I go totally unnoticed in there. Which is just how i like it.

Here's to working out again. Nah, nevermind... working out sucks.

coach said...

It's not fun holding her head up but this man has done it in the past when she was puking in the bowl. Why did I share this, well I just decided I had to!

Sarah and the Gentlemen said...

"It's important that we step outside our comfort zone from time to time." That's very true, Bethany.

Yes, I know I already commented earlier but I didn't see a limit posted. :0)

Punk said...

You know, it's good to give ourselves perspective in these difficult situation. I'm proud of you for realizing that a little vomit, fainting and a lot of sweat shouldn't keep you from trying something new and terrifying. Go, you!

p.s. I love your followers. Would you mind terribly if I were to be best friends with one or two of them? Let me know. Thanks.