Hey, friends! This is a fun one, which I started to write a very long time ago and never finished until this past weekend. We’re talking about fit girl problems.

And what do I mean by problems? You know — the things you encounter in your life as a fitness-minded lady who likes to work out. Let’s get right to it …

Fit girl problems

You might be a fit girl if …

Clean hair is a rarity. And figuring out when to wash your hair timed with your workouts is an ever-evolving situation.

Dirty hair, don’t care!

I would love to have clean and freshly blow-dried hair that I could wear down every day. I really would. But that’s completely impossible for me, because it would be such a waste of time. My hair takes a long time to blow dry, and so if I’m going to do it, it needs to last. Right now, with about 6 to 7 workouts/classes a week spanning over six days of the week, I don’t have a lot of “clean hair” time. I wash my hair twice a week always, sometimes three, but the rest of the time, it’s dirty. 

There are times when I only sweat a bit, but honestly, I’m a big sweater, so my hair gets wrecked when I teach classes or do big workouts. But it’s just not realistic that I’d wash and dry it every day and waste all that time. A sweaty pulled-back bun it is! (But I do generally put makeup on to make myself feel better, so that’s a little trick too.) Are you with me? Dirty hair isn’t the best, but you’ve got to do it a few days a week.

So when do I wash my hair? I always wash on Saturday morning after my Saturday workout, so I have nice hair for the rest of Saturday and through Sunday. The other wash comes mid-week, and lately I’ve been letting my natural curl dry and then I pull it back with bobby pins to keep it out of my face. Once again, I’d love to have pretty blown-out hair every day, but there’s no way I could do that with my workout schedule. Sometimes my next workout is coming later that day, so really, why wash?

Are you always sweating and not sure when to wash your hair? I’m with you! Don’t feel bad about your dirty bun, ladies. Wear that dirty bun with pride! And if you want to look nice with your dirty hair in a bun/braid, add some hoop earrings and lipstick, and you’re good to go.

Can. Always. Be. Found. In. Workout. Clothes. And can often be found spending money on leggings and sneakers too.

You read that one right. 

I’m not sure if this is really a fit girl problem, or a fit girl benefit. But if you’re like me, you’re almost always in activewear, and you buy a lot of it. (And you can see my favorite go-to workout clothes in this post.)

There is rarely a day when I start the day in regular clothes. Even when I worked a regular corporate job long ago, I often worked out beforehand, so I started out in gym clothes.

But these days, as a group fitness instructor, I’m in activewear most days, all day. I sometimes change into regular joggers or shorts and a tank top after a morning class/workout, but not every day. Sometimes I shower up after a workout and put on new workout clothes, because they are comfy, I have a lot of them, and then I’m ready for more movement, if more movement comes my way.

Back in the day, it wasn’t normal or appropriate to constantly be in workout clothes, but it’s 100 percent acceptable now, so stay comfy, folks.

And yes, my fit friends, I do think it’s a good idea to invest in quality activewear that fits and functions well, so don’t feel bad about buying more leggings than jeans, ever.

You have to plan your days and weekends around your workouts. And when you get an invitation to go somewhere, you have to calculate whether or not there is time to work out beforehand or not.

When can I fit in my workout? Or for me, rather, can I teach or go to a class first? This is a fit girl problem.

When we make plans for the weekend, I always make sure that it’s not until late morning or after, so I can fit in a workout. Now, I’m not obsessive with this — hear me out: On vacation, or when we have visitors, or something like that, I gladly skip my workout. But in general, I like to have a sweat session about six days a week.

My workout schedule is pretty set with my classes I teach, but before this, I would definitely have to calculate when I could fit it in, before agreeing to activities at certain times. Do you feel me on this? 

Have you ever woken up a bit early to get in your workout before a fun day? Have you ever shown up just a bit late to an activity because you wanted to hit a class first? That’s what I’m talking about! The mental calculation of how long the workout and getting-ready process will take is a real thing.

While I don’t support being rigid and obsessed with workouts, I do support keeping a consistent schedule, and sometimes that means fitting it in before fun. And for me, the fun begins during the workout, which is why I mostly choose group fitness.

You need food. What’s your next meal? Will there be snacks there? 

Food is not an afterthought.

I know some people who don’t eat much at all and skip breakfast and just snack for lunch. They just aren’t that hungry, and food isn’t on their mind. Typically, these people are not ones who have big workout routines though, so they can get away with it. Remember, the less you eat, the less food your body starts to expect, and that’s not great at all.

Not me. For those of us who exercise regularly and with medium to high-intensity regularly … well, we’re hungry, and we need our food. I can’t skip meals or skip snacks or be too busy to eat. No way. And if you’re someone who exercises a decent amount, has some lean muscle mass and stays moving … you’re probably in the same boat. You need food. Food is life. And the more muscle you build, the more food you need. I’ve said this before, but muscle is expensive to house. You have to continue to fuel it.

While some people think it’s good to not eat very much. I disagree. I want to be able to eat a lot, because my metabolism is humming along and processing everything that I send its way. I’m a three-full-meals and two-snacks-a-day gal, and I’ve been that way ever since I started exercising regularly after college.

How can you improve your metabolism? Lift weights. Sleep. Eat enough protein every day. Stay moving even when you aren’t at the gym with NEAT movement (non-exercise activity thermogenesis), etc. 

I hate to see women out there who are always trying to eat less, when they don’t need to. Instead, work on increasing your movement and muscle mass and eat up (with mostly nutritious food)! Also, if you invite me some place, will there be food there? How much?

Knicks. Cuts. Calluses. Bruises. Scratches. Broken nails. It happens in fitness.

Raise your hand if you’ve broken a nail on a heavy dumbbell? Yup!

I’m constantly crushing my fingers, breaking nails, getting bruises or scratches from my gym life. It’s not that I’m in a hurry or not careful, it just happens.

And my hands have had calluses on my palms ever since I started lifted weights regularly more than a decade ago. I even wear weight-lifting gloves when working with a metal barbell, but the calluses are still there. No amount of lotion can solve these.

It sure would be nice to have sweet little soft hands, but for a lot of us fit girls, that’s not happening. No big deal!

As far as the rest of the gym casualties to your body, they are bound to happen when you’re moving fast, working hard and handling a lot of equipment. I find my bruises tend to show up most readily when I know I’ll be wearing a dress or a swimsuit soon, of course. Fun fact: I feel like this can happen with motherhood too, because children are rough.

But as long as you aren’t getting real injuries and just little things like this, it’s just part of the process. I’m currently sporting a sore finger-nail, calluses on both palms and two big bruises on the side of my leg. Ladylike? Maybe not. But they are battle-wounds that I wear with pride.

And that concludes my list of fit girl problems. Can you relate to any of these, my fitness-minded friends?

What’s the moral of the story? Get out there and move your body, and enjoy all the fun things that go along with it! 🙂

P.S. If you know another fit girl who might like this, I would so appreciate it if you would share it with her!

Other posts you may like …

• Five common fitness mistakes I see people making
• What are the benefits of a studio vs. a big box gym environment
• What I’ve learned about fitness from taking time off from the gym
• Small and realistic ways to take care of yourself as a busy lady
• My current favorite workout clothes that I always wear to teach classes

Questions of the day for YOU …

What’s a fit girl problem you experience?

What’s a fit girl benefit you experience?