Feeling embarrassed when exercising.

Exactly!  I was a little nervous when I did boot camp in November. But then I thought if they are watching me then they have problems. And guess what, no one watched or cared. Like me they were intent on their own workout to care what others are doing. 

Regardless, I can't imagine being embarrassed if I'm the only one in the room/house. 

 

I love my Wii Zumba!!  I use it 2-3 times a week.  Just have fun and it doesnt feel like exercise at all.  I am still on beginner, they go soooo fast even on beginner.  I ban my husband and kids from the living room while I zumba so they aren****ching  lol  I totally understand.  Do it anyway!!

I can soooo relate. I have the DVDs and used them for a few weeks. I will be the first to admit I have NO rhythm to shake anything that was given to me. So I invited my four year old to "help me learn to dance". The first day she was nice enought to tell her daddy "mommy looked really sick and I was afraid she was going to fall!" Needless to say I Zumba on MY own.

I live alone, so don't get embarrassed at home, but I know that I had to get down to a certain weight before I was willing to go to the Rec Center to use their exercise room.  (My knees won't tolerate Zumba or anything like that, won't even tolerate a stationary upright bike, and often won't even tolerate the elliptical machine.)   I was too self-conscious to join a health club.  When I belonged to one in the 80's it was filled with "beautiful people"... No one who was MO/SMO.  I found that at our local Rec Center, though -- which has all the basic machines, but nothing really fancy and a limited number of bikes and ellipticals -- there are a number of people who are overweight and out of shape.  I had lost half of my weight (100 pounds) before I joined, and at somewhere around 230 pounds was not the largest woman there, so that made me feel better.

i also watched some of the Saturday morning Zumba classes through the window between that room and the exercise room.  Some of the people looked like professional dancers, but some people looked like they had two left feet.  They all looked like they were enjoying it, though, and no one was looking at anyone but the instructor.  Maybe after I get my knee replaced...

This is new for you.  It is natural that it would feel awkward for a while.  I think it will, to some extent, work itself out if you just keep doing it and focus on the benefit you are getting from it.

Its good to laugh at yourself!  I was trying to balance myself on one of those big balls at the gym, fell off about 3 times before I got the hang of it.  Couldn't help but laugh just imaging how I must look!  Its all good!  But just try to get in a, "zone" when exercising to put forth your best effort, because people are going to look or talk............nothing we can do about it.  But I must say, I've gotten more compliments at the gym over the intensity of my workouts than criticism or laughing at me.  I put on my headsets, get in my zone, and just work it! 

Work it girl!

I understand how you feel!  Maybe start by doing some daily self-exploration and self-acceptance.  Look at yourself naked in the mirror every day.  Touch your body (I put on lotion every night after my bath) and look in the mirror while you do it.  I don't know if there is a fancy name for this or not, its just something that I started doing late last year when I discovered that I have a warped sense of self image (I don't see the very small person everyone else does, I still see the heavy girl I always was until I was 40 years old) and it does help me.  Acceptance I guess is the word I'm looking for.  With weight rapid weight loss, comes skin--and for some of us a lot!  I used to feel very self-concious of mine (which you can only see out of clothes thank goodness, I carry my excess skin from the hips to mid-thigh, looks like a deflated balloon! lol) but after researching a lower body lift with plastics and discovering that it 1) costs a lot and 2) I am always broke! I knew that unless I won the lottery, I wasn't getting it.  SO!

I now LOVE my skin! (well not really, but I accept it as part of me!) Besides, we're all gonna get old, and wrinkly and giggly anyways so why fight it! LOL  A good attitude and body acceptance goes a long way!

In the meantime:  Get some spandex to help while you exercise, even at home.  As you lose weight, you will become more connected with your body and exercise helps me with this too.  I like to feel the muscles working (even like some soreness afterwards because then I know I am waking up some old stuff that has been sleeping a while!)

Keep doing exactly what you are!  You're doing a great job!

M'Lane