Pink Boxing Gloves

A few months ago, I joined a boxing gym, which is totally out of character for me.  But, not only did I join a boxing gym, I also bought pink boxing gloves at the same time!  Pink!!  And not just the boxing gloves, either, but the hand wraps as well.  When I show up for my boxing classes now, I am adorned in pink, down to the skin.  Maybe I will buy a pink workout shirt, or pink underwear to go with these purchases.  This whole pink thing wouldn't be that weird, except that  I almost never buy anything pink.  Even as a child, I rejected anything whose primary color palette included pink.  I have always thought it was kindof a blah color, and associated it with Barbie dolls and bubble gum. Pink was a color other girls could wear.  Pretty girls.  Those girls.  Not me.  It is like I somehow thought I didn't qualify for the pink team.

When I bought these gloves, though, I absolutely HAD to have pink.  The excuses I made to rationalize this purchase were that my kids won't steal them, and they support breast cancer research.  It was my civic duty to buy these gloves!  But when I got to my car, I was kindof horrified.  PINK.  Pink boxing gloves.  I wanted to hide them under something, but boxing gloves are actually kindof enormous, so that didn't work.  I had to live with my purchase.  I had to own up to owning pink boxing gloves.

Three days later, I had to brave bringing them in to my boxing gym for my very first personal training session.  It came free with the gym membership, or believe me, I would not have signed up for this.  First of all, personal training has historically been a nightmare of convincing some well-intentioned, but less-than-helpful, gym guy that no, I don't want to talk about how I should lose weight, or how I should take on fat shame, or why I should follow their diet plan (which I know they themselves have never tried).  I hate that, because it is exhausting, and makes me want to run screaming from the gym.  Strange how shame is such a powerful de-motivator... but I digress.  I have honestly avoided personal training for years, but this time I really did need to know something about boxing.  I am completely out of my element with this, .  So not only did I end up meeting a personal trainer, I found myself doing this wearing pink boxing gloves.

And, guess what?  Boxing, even with a personal trainer, is totally fun.  My trainer is this cute little guy who laughs with me (instead of at me - important distinction!) and never says a word about burning calories or firming my butt.  Instead he teaches me how to box, or kickbox, or whatever I feel like learning.  I heard he made some other woman puke, but I think that is gym-myth.  He laughed when I asked him about it - but neither confirmed or denied it.  At any rate, he does really bring a kick-your-butt workout, but we laugh the whole time.  Which is pretty easy, because I am, after all, wearing pink boxing gloves.  How seriously can one take oneself wearing these things?

And now, I am off to boxing class, which has become a regular routine for me, even though it has not gotten any easier.  Super fun!  And, I blame all of this on HAES, because without it I might never have taken the risk of doing something out of my element.  Or wearing pink.  Viva la Revolution!!