Resistance & Reaching Out

Today I beat the alarm clock again (yay!) and as I rolled out of bed I found that I was actually looking forward to doing my resistance training.  It's still a hard workout and it's still kicking my butt ~ but I wouldn't want it any other way.

Working out in the morning is the best time for me!  Mentally it's a great way to start the day.  It just seems to set the tone for the rest of the day.  It makes it easier to make better choices for the rest of the day when it's gotten off to a great start. And if you don't, you may feel like this:

....and who wants to start the day like that! :)
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For more practical reasons it gets it "out of the way".  I don't like looking at exercise that way but you know what I mean.  We may have all the best intentions to work out at a certain time of time, maybe it's even written in our calendar - but life happens!  Sometimes things beyond our control come up and put a kink in our plans.  Sometimes we can work around it, sometimes we can't.  So if it's been taken care of first thing, that's one less thing we have to deal with if life gets in the way!

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I want to talk about something that's really hard for me to talk about.  It's something I've felt for most of my life.  It's this idea that I swear some people have that "fat is contagious".  I've had this notion, whether real or imagined, that people don't like to touch fat people.  All my life I've made sure that I don't get too close to people for fear they'll be disgusted if they accidentally touch me.  I can't remember a time when I wasn't like this.  I never initiate touch because I've always been so sure that they're grossed out by me.  If you've never been on "this side" you probably don't know or understand what I mean.
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What brought this out more lately is when I started watching Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition.  When I first saw trainer Chris Powell I was intimidated.  I made a snap judgement about what sort of guy he was based on how he looked.  Because guys that look like him certainly don't really care about "us".  Guys like him laugh at the fat people.  Guys like him steer clear of fat people so as to not ruin their own reputation.
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I couldn't have been more wrong!  Watching him interact with his clients it's very clear to anyone that he truly cares about them.  And what's more - he's always touching them in an encouraging way.  A comforting arm around them if they're struggling, a high five and a hug when they've killed a workout.  Just a touch on the arm in passing.  I love him for this!  It's taught me that not everyone thinks they'll "catch something" if they touch a fat person.  Now this may not sound like much but I've never had someone treat me like that.  If someone ever touched my arm it's my jerk reaction to move away because I'm just sure they didn't mean it.
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And now I have a friend that a hugger.  And after a year of always getting a hug from her whenever I see her, it still catches me off guard!  She just comes up to me, no hesitation, and gives me a big ol' hug!

So I don't know if it's all in my head or if there are people like that out there and I've just had the bad luck of running into them my whole life.  But I do know that in the past year since I've been working on coming out of my shell, trying to be more personable, trying to branch out, that I get more of a positive response from those around me, including the occasional hand on my arm ~ so maybe it's a little of both.
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Maybe I'm learning that I get back what I give out.  That by shying away from people, they tended to shy away from me and that by reaching out to others, they reach out to me.