Working out can be super intimidating when you first get started. Gyms are crowed with people who look as if they know what they are doing, equipment that looks overly complicated, and then to top it off you have no idea where to start. But my friend there is hope because it is not as hard as it seems. The secret is…. are you ready??
TRAIN IN A WAY THAT MAKES YOU HAPPY!
Simple. Working out should not be a burden. It should be something that you look forward to. You may say “who enjoys working out?” but the answer is those who train in a way that make them happy! Exercise comes in so many forms you just have to #FindYourFitness.
When it comes to your lifestyle and fitness journey personalizing, individualizing, and specifying are key to your success. Personalize your workout to fit what you enjoy. I like dancing, yoga, the gym, barre, and running. When I individualize my workouts, I think of things I want to change or improve during my training sessions. But in order to do that I have to specify want it is I want to change or hope to gain. Sometimes the discouraging part to those getting started or those who have been working on a healthy lifestyle but have experienced little to no results, is that they have not narrowed down a focus. Now I am not a doctor or a nutritionist but what has worked for me is setting specific goals for a certain length of time and aiming for those results. There are so many things I want to work on that if I were to attempt to achieve all of them at once I would want to pull my hair out. Another that has worked for me in terms of specifying is writing out my workouts. By doing this I am able to see what I am working on weekly and I am able to set goals based on the exercises I have written out.
Last thing to think about when you are in the process of #FindYourFitness is to think about and find what is motivating you. When I first started my motivation was warped. I was attempting to look like the women on the fitness Instagram’s that I follow and that was unhealthy. I was not doing it for me but for people to find me attractive. I struggled with that for a long time. Recently, my motivations for a healthier lifestyle evolve my future family and my mental health. Motivations can change from time to time, but I think it is super important to know what motivates you and make sure that it is healthy.
I believed for a very long time that I would finally (and only) reach a state of contentment with my body if I remained a size 2. Once I reached this point, I believed that my insecurities would disappear, and I would no longer worry, or care, about my weight or the way I looked. Then it flipped. I felt as if I needed to be thicker. More hips, thighs, and butt. AT that point in my life I went as far as to consider a breast augmentation and set up a consultation. I now know how self-destructive this mindset is. The idea that my reflection in a mirror could bring me happiness was a falsehood I believed in for so long.
We are taught growing up that we can find our happiness, or our worth, in very temporary things. The way we look. The clothes we wear. What other people think of us. Our successes or failures. Who other people say we are. So, we seek to find these small moments of contentment through fleeting feelings of acceptance or confidence built on shaky ideas.
For a very long time in my life, myself perception was entirely dictated the way I viewed my worth. It wasn’t until I started to take care of my body for the sake of my health and not the sake of my dress size did I begin to feel confident in my body. I was feeling healthy and fit, but even more liberating than that, I was feeling strong. I was feeling a strength in knowing what my mind and body were capable of accomplishing. I was grabbing my insecurities by the horns and taking back control.
Your health is NOT a number in your clothing. Health is NOT a number on a scale. Health is NOT the worlds view on beauty. Healthy looks different on everyone and fitness is specialized to each individual person. You define your beauty! And to me you are already beautiful. This is a journey. Enjoy and relish in it my dear. We’ve got this
So much love,
Angie