Hand Calluses & Fake Nails

Kyla Gagnon (a.k.a. my platonic wife) is one of the amazing individuals who is a part of my own personal fitness squad, and she also happens to compete in fitness shows. In preparation for one of her shows, she opted to get some legit gel nails, with a whole lotta rhinestone action happening, to accent her teeny-tiny metallic stage bikini that she looked annoyingly good in. Granted, she trains with dedication and consistency, and eats with discipline and health in mind. But whatever...she looked good (visual below, to help you really grasp it all...her nails...my nails...her looking good). The moral of this story has nothing to do with her hard work and dedication, but instead serves as a segue to her nails inspiring me to get gel nails, too. Because we do everything together. Except fitness shows. I don't do those...

Anyhow, so I've become a nails girl. But I've also become a gym girl. Well, I've become the Anti-Fitness Fitness Chick, to be exact, but whatever. Turns out I like barbells. They're pretty fun to throw around. And they make you feel cooler than you are. At least they make me feel cooler than I am. I felt extra cool when I started putting plates on the barbell. See? You're already asking yourself how the hell I felt remotely cool when I wasn't even using plates. Well, that's the magic of the barbell. Anyway.

So I've been throwing barbells around. (I seriously hope you have a visual of me taking a barbell and going all Olympic-javelin on it. Right in the squat room. Aiming it specifically at those freak shows with the Shake Weights. That'll be another post. Barbells. Right...) So barbells, working in some dumbbells, bells everywhere! And in the midst of these bells, I've developed calluses on my midget hands. If you've ever met me you'll know that "midget hands" is literally the only appropriate way to describe my circus hands. Kyla calls them "midget mitts." Well, the midget mitts are callused! They peel and get kinda gross. And it's interesting, because along with my leper-like palms, I have these random, girly gel nails.

Why am I talking about these two seemingly-unrelated topics? Because I like the dichotomy that they represent to me. I like the notion that I can be over-the-top girly on one hand (or both hands hehehe), and under-the-barbell-jerk womanly, on the other. I like that I am not one or the other, but instead, I am both. My hands are soft and pretty on one side, and rough and dry on the other. I like that my hands have this new side to them, this side that compliments the other, this side that completes the picture. And I suppose because I like both sides of my hands, the fake nails and the calluses, I thought I'd write about them. So that it's understood that you don't have to choose between them. You can have both.

You just might break one of those fake nails every now and then. Or you might trip over the barbell. But don't worry, because if you do, your calluses will make the fall a little less rough...