Blood, Sweat & Lipstick.....looking good at the gym..

I just read this article and LOVE it!! This is exactly how I feel when I'm at the gym. I don't bother with make-up myself.:ohwell:
How many of you decide to get "dressed up" to workout?
if you haven't guessed, this is mainly directed towards the ladies.

Blood, Sweat, & Lipstick
Hope Nagy | April 2, 2012
There’s a saying that “If you look good after your workout, than you didn’t work out hard enough.” Wait a second, I don’t look good before my workout! When I saw this months topic for PhillyHealthWatch.com I had to laugh. You want me, Ms. roll out of bed at 4am, who dresses in the dark, leaves the house with messy hair, no make-up, and has not once but twice arrived at the gym with two different sneakers on, to talk about looking good while working out? Please, my sides hurt from laughing. I can’t be bothered with hair and make-up for the gym. I have to pack school lunches, sign school papers, leave notes for my kids to let the dog out, check e-mails and of course play on Facebook. I don’t have time for lip gloss and mascara because I’m too busy looking for a ponytail holder that can twist three times and not break.

Several years ago when I was about to enter the dating scene again, my best friend looked at me and said, “you have to meet a guy in the gym or on the bike trail. If he stays with you then it’s true love.” What was she saying? If a guy finds me even remotely attractive when I’m sweaty or muddy then he’s a saint? If he is not grossed out by my body’s amazing cooling system then he’s a keeper? My children, on the other hand, put it much more nicely when I walk into the house after teaching spin, mountain biking or lifting….”Mom, your gross!”

There was a time when I did look cute at the gym. It was in the fabulous 80’s. My college roommate was dating a competitive body builder. It was at his suggestion that I come to the gym because it was a great place to meet “dudes”. So I went with my Farrah Fawcett hair, my Maybeline mask, Richard Simmons style shorts, tank top and of course my high top Reeboks with scrunched down socks. I went from machine to machine,with my Sony Walkman blasting “Footloose” by Kenny Loggins, doing nothing but giggling with my roommate, looking at the guys and playing with my hair. I then found myself joining a gym at the Jersey shore so that even on summer break I could work out. I graduated college and even though I worked overnights at a radio station I still dragged my tired butt to step class. Still looking cute I then graduated to a leotard and lycra shorts underneath combo. Picture Olivia Newton John getting physical minus the headband. I guess it was a gradual thing but as I got in better shape and became more serious about working out, I began to care less and less about what I wore to the gym and increasingly more focused on the muscles that I was working and seeing them contract in the mirror. Example: if I’m working back, then my top is strappy, If I’m working legs, I try to wear shorts. I tell my clients when we train to stop wearing baggy clothes and actually see the muscles working. Don’t get the wrong impression, I have all the cute clothes from LuLu Lemon, I protect my house in Under Armour, and I “Just Do it” in Nike. I have more sneakers than heels, and enough jog bras to smush a million boobs. But when I leave to go exercise I really only care about making sure my iPod is charged and my headphones work. I just don’t get the lipstick thing, or when a woman says she can’t go anywhere without her lipstick on. I see women at the gym in full make-up and beautifully coiffed hair everyday. But that’s just not me and never will be. I’m the spin instructor with a bucket of sweat under my bike who looks like she just got done swimming the English Channel. It’s great, once a week after one of my spin classes I get to walk by the 76er’s dancers who practice at Sweat Gym. A sea of gorgeous young girls. But I am so high on the endorphins from having a great workout that it doesn’t bother me. At that moment I am envious of their youth, not their hair and make-up.

When I did the on-line dating thing I made sure to say the following…. I mountain bike and get muddy, I sweat at the gym, I go into the ocean, get my hair wet and I color outside the lines…….but I clean up really well. People who see me outside of the gym either don’t recognize me or say, you look good I hardly recognized you. I better look good, I bust my *kitten* in the gym to look good outside of the gym!

A few summers ago, standing in Memories of Margate grooving to the “Geator with the Heater, in my tight jeans, sexy top and hooker heels a guy approached me. Assuming I worked out by my arms, he used this as an excuse to start up a conversation. “Yo, you work out?” I like to say “no” when asked this question. I think I’m funny. When he asked for my number I made it clear….”this is a costume I am wearing.” Our first date was trail running. I sweated like a pig, wore no make up, and he called again. I will tell you that make-up less, mismatched and glistening (ok sweating) at the gym I have been hit on more than outside the gym. Many guys have told me who have met girls at the gym say that’s the best place because you get to see what they really look like. So I would like to say that this article I was asked to write is about feeling good on the inside, but I would be a liar if I say I don’t care what I look like on the outside. Sure I do. We are all a little vain, but there’s another great quote I keep in mind and that is “Sometime’s you have to sweat like a pig to look like a fox.” Amen to all the strong, sexy, sweaty girls working it.