Starting your health and fitness journey can be hard, and sometimes it’s just downright scary. But we’re guessing you’re here because you’re ready to take a leap of faith. We’re proud of you and we promise you won’t regret it. Promise us one thing, okay? Always remember, no matter where you are on your journey, that all the greats were once in your shoes, they just chose to never give up. Okay, let’s get started. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you begin your journey.
Promise yourself.
Promise yourself that on your toughest days you’ll still be successful. And promise yourself to understand that success may look different day to day. We don’t mean that one day it looks like the gym and healthy foods, then another day it looks like Netflix and a carton of ice cream, but we don’t mean sometimes success is an hour of lifting and sometimes it’s motivating yourself to get your body up and go on a walk. Promise yourself that no matter how slow you may need to go, you won’t give up.
No one is looking at you.
If you’re new to the gym or you just haven’t been in a while, it may be super intimidating to be there working out and you feel like all eyes are on you, but we promise they aren’t. Everyone is just at the gym to do their own thing and odds are, they’re so focused on their own goals (and playlist!) that they haven’t even noticed you walked in. So crank up your own tunes and get busy!
Expect setbacks.
Right when you’re in a flow, expect life to get in your way at some point. When this happens it may take a little extra problem-solving regarding what exercise or even healthy eating looks like during this time, but eventually, you’ll be back in the swing of things.
Form > size of weights.
It can be hard to keep this in mind, especially if you’re working toward some major lifting goals, but you absolutely NEED to make sure you have form down before you go adding a ton of weight. (This is where a personal trainer or friend with gym know-how can come in handy!) The last thing you want to do is hurt yourself from trying to lift too much or using incorrect form. Start small, perfect your form, thank us later.
Prepare for the plateau.
Ahh, the infamous plateau. Here is how things go: you start eating right and working out and you drop weight fast at first because this is mostly bloating and water weight, then it happens. You hit the plateau. Days, even weeks may go by and you won’t see the scale move, and guess what? Life will go on and you’ll see movement in other areas such as how much you can lift, how far you can run, your measurements getting smaller, etc. Just understand that this will happen and find other ways to measure your success when it does.
Remember nutrition.
Going to the gym every day is all well and good of course, but don’t bail on your diet just because you’re burning calories in the gym. Being healthy means you’re also eating right, and eating right means your fueling your body and not taking part in fad diets that often eliminate key nutrients.