Confessions from a Personal Trainer: I have been on a nude beach…more than once

Where every Tuesday: I confess.

Confession: I have been nude on a nude beach.

More than once.

Have you ever been on a nude beach? Wearing clothes? Or completely naked?

This is not exactly something I purposefully insert into my travel plans but…….

When I went to Toronto a few years back we took a lovely ferry to an island across the water. It was beautiful, quaint, barely inhabited, lots of trails, amazing island homes, one random coffee shop and a public nude beach at the far end.

At this point the thought of even going to the nude beach made me so uncomfortable I could hardly stand it. But something in me said I needed to do it.

• It was WAY outside of my comfort zone.
• It was unpredictable.
• What if people looked at my body?
• What would I see?
• Would there be a lot of naked people there?
• What do people do on a nude beach?
• Would it be gross?
• Would it be scary?
• Why would I want to do this?

So we walked down the trail and saw the sign “NUDE BEACH – CLOTHING OPTIONAL.” (or something like that I can’t quite remember the exact words.)

We walked in and OH MY……………….

WoW. People are NAKED. I don’t really know what I expected but people were really, truly naked.

And the best part – nobody cared about anyone else. No one really looked at you (except for the one or two super creepy dudes). They all just carried on with their day of relaxation at the beach. Reading a book, playing volleyball, taking a nap, building a sandcastle, jogging, and whatever they wanted to do.

Once I got over the shock of the fact that everyone truly was naked – and all the way  naked – I had to experience it myself.

And I did. Full on naked running to the ocean. One of the scariest and most liberating experiences of my life. (and I didn’t stay long – simply long enough to say I’d done it and put my clothes back on).

So a year later when I ended up on a nude beach in San Diego – it wasn’t nearly as big of a deal. Take clothes off, run to the ocean, put clothes back on.

I’m not going to be a person who stays at the beach naked and reads a book or plays a game of volleyball or goes for a jog. But I can honestly tell you – it is a crazy feeling. And it relinquished some fears about my body because everybody has one and let’s be really honest here – not very many people look good naked. Right?? Everyone has body parts and pretty much 99.9% of us have cellulite, fat that jiggles, and skin. Makes us all very similar!

• A situation can seem so scary and overwhelming until you just DO IT.
• Going out of your comfort zone can make you so nervous but can be so rewarding.
• Most things are NEVER as bad as they seem in your head.
• Being naked is really not that big of a deal.
• Simply deciding to do something is the biggest and scariest step.

So go out there and be NAKED. And by that I mean, try scary new things because on the other side, it’s not that bad!