I'm officially single again as of this weekend. It caught me off guard, so I'm not looking forward to having to reenter the dating world when I decide it's the right time to date again because I know it's a human hellscape out there.

One thing I never enjoyed and am not looking forward to is meeting women who didn't understand why I go to the gym five days a week in dedicated fashion. I always thought it was ironic how I'd often run into profiles on dating apps who said they wanted a partner who stayed active and fit, but then when they realized what that involved in terms of making the effort to go to the gym for an hour-hour and a half on a daily basis without skips to be that way, it would be a dealbreaker for them. It was frustrating when I'd start dating someone and she'd assume I could just skip if she wanted to go out at the last minute for drinks with her friends or something, and they also didn't get that the gym was like my sanctuary for destressing and helped a lot with my mental health rather than being only about the physical aspects.

I was lucky that my last partner was someone I met at the gym, but typically that's never been the case. Weights before dates, for now...