Starting your fitness journey isn’t just a walk through the park. It takes a lot of time, determination and strength to push yourself. As time goes on, you’ll see just how much it’ll pay off!
It is so important to remember that your fitness journey shouldn’t be about altering your physique to societal beauty standards or solely losing weight. This journey should be to better yourself emotionally, spiritually and become more physically energized.
Before beginning my journey, I found myself in a bit of a mental block. After the pandemic happened and we went into quarantine, I had picked up many bad health habits. I never slept long enough, refused to eat healthier foods and would rarely go outside to get some sunlight. Overtime, I didn’t like where I was in my life, and I could see the consequences of my bad habits starting to catch up to me. That’s when I decided I needed a change.
So where do you start?
1. DO IT FOR THE RIGHT REASONS
When someone hears about fitness, one might think it’s strictly about seeing the number on the scale go down, but it isn’t! Having this mindset can be toxic to your mental health and can possibly lead to other serious mental health and eating disorders. Although some may want to lose weight on their journey, it shouldn’t entirely be the main focus of wanting to change your lifestyle.
2. START OFF EASY
There’s no need to rush into intense workouts; instead try some fun and easy exercises. Exercising and moving your body around should be fun and not stressful! I started by doing HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) dance workouts to my favorite songs. One trainer on YouTube that goes by the name EMKFIT has so many cheesy and creative HIIT dance videos to musicals, popular songs of today, throwback songs and many more. These videos were not only super fun to do but made me sweat a lot and helped me get used to the feeling of exercising. These dances also helped me relieve daily stress and allowed me to have more energy throughout the day.
3. CREATE A SCHEDULE
It is so important to maintain a schedule for yourself to eliminate stress and make sure you are incorporating what you need to do throughout the day. You should schedule when you’ll be eating your meals so you never miss one. Make sure you also include drinking lots of water as well, and as cringe as it is, I recommend the bottles with the times on it to ensure you’re meeting your daily water intake. Allow some room in your schedule for personal time and exercise. Getting yourself into a routine will deter the stress and allow for more consistency in your life.
4. MOVE THAT BODY
As I mentioned above, you have to take it easy! There’s no need to overexert yourself; you just have to take things slow. You could move around your body in plenty of ways that don’t consist of only hard core workouts. Just simply going on a stroll through the park or even a quick yoga session is good enough! Incorporating body movement into your schedule has a long list of health benefits like better sleep at night, more energy during the day and so many more.
5. ALTER SOME EATING HABITS
You do NOT have to cut out the foods you like from your life! I mean who could give up Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream? Not me. I’ve simply just learned to include healthier meals into my life and try new foods even if I don’t like them. Also drinking lots of water is ESSENTIAL to anyone wanting to better their eating habits.
These are just some of the ways you can go about starting your fitness journey! Take it one day at a time and have confidence in yourself.
YOU CAN DO IT!