Truth in Excercising

I've been lying to the elliptical machine at my gym for as long as I can remember. "Please enter workout type" the machine asks. Interval training I respond. "Time?" 30 minutes "Level?" 8 "Weight?" ummmmm..... what if somebody is walking by and sees the display screen? For a bit of context I'll remind you that I live in the shark tank that is the Upper West Side (for those of you thrown for a loop I'll explain in a later entry). And my gym, at the epicenter of the neighborhood, is the home away from home for single modorth populace that I suppose, for lack of a better word, would be considered my community. Anyways, always image-conscious (read: obsessed) I felt the need to fudge the number by a couple of pounds. Okay, 5....fine, sometimes maybe 7.......ocaaaaaasionally 10. 11. This is objectively ridiculous. But what really took the habit down the rabbit hole was when I began to find myself changing the numbers even when I knew no one else was around. A new trend arose in the last couple of years. I became a bit less psycho about the poundage, but started getting heart palpitations with the machine's next question: "Age?" My new and improved number obsession really got me glancing around to make sure no one was watching and even then I'd type it in and hit enter as quickly as possible. Fast forward to April 28, my birthday. As far as I was concerned I'd just turned a hundred. Double knot my sneakers and start entering my program info into my elliptical machine display. "Time?" 30 minutes, "Level?" 8, "Weight?" I've started giving an almost honest answer. But "Age?"? I couldn't handle it. I lied. Only by a year, but this was officially a new low. Embarrassed, I can no longer look my display panel in the face. Note to self: seek professional help.