Letter of the Month

Good morning Mr. Prospect!

Do you want to take your clothes off in front of a whole bunch of people you don’t know?

If you’re like me and most people then the answer is emphatically “No!”

And yet, if you’ve ever thought of getting a little bit fitter then you currently are and you start looking at advertisements for gymnasiums that’s what they all want you to do. Take your clothes of in front of a bunch of people you don’t know.

Let me explain.

I’m happy in my skin, but I’ve always had the feeling that I’d like to be just a little bit fitter than I am. Maybe have less of those bulges and hard to tuck away rolls when I put on a nice pair of jeans. And the other thing I’ve become conscious of as I get a little bit older is that some of my friends are starting to have problems. Just a few months ago one of my best mates collapsed and died in his mid-fifties. So, like most people my age, I really do want to do something that will help me get just a little bit fitter.

And, of course with the kids gone, I’ve got some time and money to do just that. So nothing really stands in my way.

Well, except for one thing.

And that’s when I look at the advertisements for those gyms. They always show young people ….. particularly blond men and women. And they’ve got great bodies. And they’re young. And they’re spunky. And what’s more they look nothing like me. I can’t identify with any of that stuff. I know that if I had started with great assets and I worked away at it, they could become even greater. But the trouble is I’m not starting with a great looking body.

And then they say “Join our gym.” They make some fabulous offer to get me in. They measure me. They recommend a program. Then they leave me. And I’ve got to go out onto that exercise floor, not knowing much about it and do exercises that I don’t think I’m capable of doing in front of a whole lot of good looking people who know what they are doing and make it look easy. And take my clothes off too! Can you image why I never wanted to join a gym?

Then I discovered the people a Widget Gym. I knew from the moment I met them that they understood me.

When I first met them they sat down and talked with me and asked me what I wanted to achieve. I guess I had some wild ass ideas about what a gym could do for me, but they explained that gym work alone was not sufficient. Sure getting up and doing something could make me feel fitter but it wouldn’t make me less fat. Good gym means a program of sensible exercise coupled with sensible habits when you’re not at the gym. Like making sure you modify your diet a little to help the work that the gym is doing.

To cut a long story short, they explained all these things and said they weren’t going to make any fantastic promises but, if I was prepared as much as humanly possible to stick to what they recommended, then I’d have a fair show of looking trimmer, tauter and, at least in my own mind, more terrific then I did when I started.

They explained to me that most people start gym with a real burst of enthusiasm. And as with most intentions that enthusiasm doesn’t last long. They called it the “relapse cycle” and they promised me that they’d help me through that. In fact they said they’d make sure I wouldn’t even suffer the relapse cycle.

And how did they do that?

Well it’s pretty simple. Instead of having an instructor who saw me once and showed me what to do, they ‘buddied’ me up with an instructor who become my guide, my confidant, my counselor, my friend even. For the first month I told my instructor when I would be at the gym next so that they would be there with me to see how I was going. So that they could make sure that I was doing things right. So that they could make sure that I didn’t feel lonely. So that they could make sure that I didn’t die of embarrassment when I got on the floor.

And guess what? It worked. I got over my initial embarrassments, my little fears, my tiny worries about joining a gym because I had a friend, somebody who could show me the ropes.

Sure, I don’t yet have a body that will win any beauty awards. But at least, when I started at gym I felt confident. I knew what I was doing. And I wasn’t worried, terrified or embarrassed

A few months have gone past since then. Now, OK I’m no oil painting, I’m no beauty prize winner, but I can tell you I reckon I look better. And I certainly feel better. And I’m absolutely loving it. There’s something isn’t there about looking good and feeling good. You do good. And that sums up exactly how I feel.

If you’ve ever thought of joining a gym and you’re a bit worried about any aspect. Whether you can do it. Whether you look right. Whether you continue. Any problem. Then take my tip go and talk to the people at Widget Gym. They’ll make it easy.

Sure they may not make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear but they’ll make you feel a helluva lot happier about trying.

Yours sincerely

P.S. Oh, and by the way, if for any reason after you’ve been on the program for a couple of weeks you don’t feel they have lived up to your expectations, just tell them. They’ll refund every cent you have paid. No questions asked, no problems. You see their best recommendation is people like me, people that now know we can enjoy gym.

P.P.S. Something else I’m proud of. The other day my sister-in-law said that I “looked like a spunk!”