I know all I do is post youtube videos here, but I felt this would bring another enlightened perspective to the discussion.
And yeah, I kinda get that. I'm never gonna have a six pack, it's just not my body type.* But it sure as hell doesn't mean I shouldn't be trying to work out and at least get better. It helps your health, it helps your self-esteem, it gives you more energy, etc, etc. The most embarrassing thing that I have experienced in... say, the past five years, was about two weeks ago when I climbed Mt. Sinai with a couple of friends. They, incidentally, all go to West Point or the Naval Academy. The one guy and his girlfriend charge off to the top (she has knee problems, so the faster it's over with, the better for her). The other girl is lagging behind, but still consistently about fifty feet ahead of me, spouting motivational platitudes ("Keep going! You're doing really well! It's not that far now") the whole way. And I'm huffing and puffing, my calves are shot, one foot keeps falling asleep every five minutes or so, I keep stopping to massage my foot back to life... Yeah. It was fucking embarrassing. But I'm not going to sit here and be like "Well it is actually harder than people think! And I was wearing sandals, and blah blah blah..." Basically all that says is "Lower the standards for me, I can't be expected to do well. Tell me I am OK even if I suck." And that's really prevalent nowadays, and that's not cool. *For reference, I'm short but not skinny. Think wrestler build, but one of those shitty wrestlers that doesn't make weight cause he drinks too much. I think the word all those T-Nation people etc. use is "mesomorph".