Life & gym: a difficult balance

I never thought I'd like the gym. It aalways felt like such a distant & frankly terrifying place to be in. But since I started to go abt 2 years ago, I found that I actually quite liked it, especially how it immidiately reduces my stress levels & helps my mental health. But one thing I've always found challenging has been the difficulty of balancing the gym  & living my life.

First of all is the time: I end up spending a good 1 & 1/2 hours just on the gym, without counting the time for preparation & actually going there, in the end 2 hours. This isn't such a problem on regular days, but on days with extra work to be done, & especially around exams, I always found myself short on time. Of course one can fix this by being more time efficient, but that takes a lot of mental strenght & good planning, which in a student's life is (most of the times) difficult at best.

Second of all is the obession: especially when you start going, you end up concentrating your days aroundd the gym, leaving everything else as secondary. This has impacted, to some extent, my social life, my grades & even my mental health (only a bit nothing serious). Overall it just requires a lot of work be put into it, both inside & outside of the gym.

Third of all is the cost: if it's got the word "fitness" on it then the price is 3 times what it should be. The cheapest whey protein out there that I've found is Amazon's & that one's already 20,99€/kg, ridiculous. Also the gym tuitions themselves & especially when compared to the quality offered. Is a 60€ registration fee plus 30€/month worth a packed gym with broken cables & old machines? Like there's better & worse but overall (& especially the "franchise gyms") they jsut seem not good price/quality wise.

Like I've even pondered the possibility of building myself a gym at home, 'cause at this pace I'll be out of time, money, & will.

I still love it tho