This Is Your “How To Guide” Into Your Fitness Journey

The gym can be a scary place at first, but once you get comfortable it becomes your new safe place. When I first started on my own fitness journey, it was very hard, confusing, and uncomfortable. After getting the hang of everything, it's helped me be more confident in myself even though I’m still learning new workouts and how much I can lift everyday. When jumping right into the fitness world it can be challenging with all the didn’t workout routines, meal preparation ideas and supplement usage. There are so many different options to choose from it can be overwhelming at times, but that's why it's key to have a plan so you can target your specific fitness goals.

When starting at the gym it's good to start light. You want to start off at a comfortable level since this is your first time either running or lifting weights. One thing you don’t want to do is try and start off too strong. This can cause severe injury if you're brand new to the fitness world. The saying “we all have to start somewhere,” is very true when it comes to working out. When I started my journey I couldn’t run for more than 12 minutes at a time. It seemed like I was never going to get up to running a mile, it felt so hard and I was intimidated by it, but that's okay. Take it slow, if all you can do is do 12 minutes of running and then you need to walk for 15 minutes before running again then do just that. This is where goal setting comes into play.

Goal setting is a major part when starting on your fitness journey. Setting a goal helps you hold yourself accountable to reach whatever your goal might be. My goal was to be able to run a mile in about six minutes for my varsity soccer tryouts when I was in highschool. Having a goal helps push yourself to make it happen, and not only could I run a mile in six minutes, but after I reached that goal I wanted to see how long it would take me to run two miles and so on. So no matter the goal we all have to start somewhere and it's nothing to be embarrassed of.

Once you have established your goals the next big thing that is going to help you on this journey is the food you are fueling your body with. This is where most people struggle the most. Instead of cutting out sweets and carbs completely it's easier to slowly wean yourself off them. Instead of eating a certain amount like you might be used too, try and cut it to a smaller amount and each week keep cutting until you cut it out of your diet completely. Now I’m not saying to stop eating carbs because carbs are a major food group when it comes to losing weight. Carbs help fuel your body and give you the energy you're going to need to run or workout the next day. For example, my soccer team would have a pasta party the night before a big game, because it was going to give us the energy we needed to play.

All it is, is portion control. Don’t cut something out completely because when you do give in to that craving you're going to end up consuming way more than you originally wanted too. I have been at fault for that many times, when I started my fitness journey. Once I got the portion control down the weight started coming right off.

Let’s talk about some easy workouts for beginners. Before each and every workout it's good to stretch. Stretching is going to help loosen your muscles and prevent them from cramping and getting lactic acid build up, which causes them to be sore. Personally I would start out with a light cardio circuit. With five to ten minutes of light running and then switching to five minutes of walking. If you feel you can do more than crank up that speed to something you're comfortable with and break a sweat. Cardio is a great way to warm up your muscles before the major workout happens. I do 30 minutes of cardio before all of my lifts to get my body up and going.

Once your warm up cardio is complete, comes the fun part. Weights can sometimes be scary, I was even afraid of them. One thing to know about weights is that lifting isn’t going to make you too “beefy” or too muscly. That all depends on how much you want to lift or work with. The smaller amount will help tone your body and give you that muscle definition we all want, but the more weight you use the bigger your muscles are going to get. Lifting can be scary, but like I said before you should start with something you're comfortable with. For beginners I would recommend starting with a 20lb weight to use for squats and start out with two 10lb weights for upper body. You can start out with bicep curls for 60 seconds and do this movement three times through. You are going to want to do each movement three times for either 60 seconds or anywhere between 10-12 times. You should be working out roughly for five days and make sure you're including a rest day for your body to recover.

Getting discouraged happens to everyone, you just have to believe in yourself. You have to want to do this for you and be willing to make the change to your lifestyle. It does take a lot of work and it's hard to get used to at first. Once you start to get in a routine it will become something you just do without really thinking about it. It takes about 30 days of doing something before it just becomes part of your everyday routine. I promise once you start seeing results you're never going to want to stop. Everyone has to start somewhere so let's start that somewhere together.