I did some deep reflection work before I even began to try and get back into shape.
For the five years previous to my decision, I had gone with the flow, so to speak. I had what I thought was a good career, enjoyed going to happy hour with my friends, and was relatively healthy. However, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing.
Oh yeah…I know what it was…at this point in my life, I had never accomplished anything I really wanted to do for myself.
I remember sitting with my friends and family two years ago and talking about our goals for the New Year.
I bravely and honestly mentioned entering a fitness competition.
I remember my friend at the time immediately trying to talk me out of it. “Why don’t you enter an Iron Man competition instead?” Literally starting to list all the other things I could do.
Nope! I want to compete. Maybe eventually I’ll get around to achieving my other goals, but if I could pick one goal to focus on this year, I would choose to compete.
If I’m being honest with myself, I always wanted to compete. Year after year I let fear and the desire to remain in my comfort zone get the best of me. Okay, great! I have this goal, now what?
I spent time researching coaches, and eventually found (after some trial and error) the best coach for me. She had a background in nutrition, and according to her reviews catered to individual needs when creating meal plans. The practices she instilled in me and the lessons I learned a long the way – were life-changing.
Okay, so here it goes…
Here are the 10 Lessons I Learned While Getting Fit!
ThenThe Time is Now – Do Not Wait
Initially, I thought I should start eating healthier, find a coach, and then work toward my goal…NO! it’s a mental trap that could drag on indefinitely.
Building muscle was going to take time, but time will pass anyway, so just start.
At first, I expected immediate results. That did not happen. I was pushing myself every single day in the gym, however, my actual results didn’t start to reflect until about three months later. Think of it like planting a seed. Oftentimes, we don’t see results in ourselves until months later, even though we ARE changing. The important thing is that you just keep going!
It took five years of yo-yo and fad dieting to reach the unhealthy state I was in, so just maybe it was going to take a lot longer than a month for my body to get lean and build muscle.
Spending More Time at the Gym or More Time Doing Cardio is Not Always the Answer
I can recall going to OrangeTheory (boutique gym) or CycleBar, and running for an hour- EVERY SINGLE DAY for months! I don’t even like running! I still did not see the results I wanted. There were many reasons for this.
I was not giving myself the rest I needed for my body to repair and build muscle. Your rest days are JUST as important as your workout days.
I used to place all my focus on cardio instead of muscle-building and maintaining a healthy diet.
What finally shifted my body, was the adoption of the concept – work smarter, not harder.
I did less cardio, spent less time at the gym, and was seeing results. YES! less time fussing with cardio, less time working out, and I was seeing significant gains. It’s the combination of all the elements (cardio, weights, whole foods, and rest) that finally shifted my body.
My new cardio routine looked like this:
20 minutes on the stair-master with high-intensity interval training (HIIT).
1 to 4 minutes set at a level 5 speed, the 5th minute increase the speed to level 12, and repeat this process over and over again until you reach 20 minutes.
That’s it!
I followed my cardio up with some weight training. My weight training days would alternate muscle groups. Each day I completed 9 to 10 exercises alternating between upper and lower body workouts, and I used the Trainerize app to help me track progress.
I spent about 1 hour and 20 minutes in the gym daily 5 times a week.
An example of my days in the gym would look like this:
Monday: upper-body workout focusing on shoulders, chest, and back (20-minute HIIT stair-master routine)
Tuesday: lower-body workout focusing on glutes and quads (20-minute HIIT stair-master routine)
Wednesday is Rest Day: These days I could do some light yoga if I felt like it, or go for a brisk walk around my neighborhood
Thursday: upper-body workout focusing on back and chest (20-minute HIIT stair-master routine)
Friday: lower body workout focusing on glutes and hamstrings (20-minute HIIT stair-master routine)
Saturday: Rest Day
Sunday: Whole-body workout – shoulders, glutes, hamstrings, and back (20-minute stair-master routine)
And repeat each week!
Consistency is Key
Drive home the idea that although I might have had a good day in the gym the previous day, it doesn’t matter. I need to consistently show up at the gym to repeat the process, whether I feel like it or not. Oftentimes – I DID NOT FEEL LIKE IT.
The truth is if you’re waiting on motivation – you are not going to find it. Motivation alone will not help you reach your goals. What truly helped me, was scheduling a time during my day and sticking to it no matter what.
Find an accountability coach if possible. I had no choice but to report back to my coach twice a week, every week with my progress.
Your brain is wired to seek comfort and familiarity and will make any excuse (if you let it) not to go to the gym. Some of the common excuses I used to make sounded like this:
I left my air pods at home – I can’t go to the gym without my music!
I worked out hard yesterday and now I’m sore today
I don’t have time because X, Y, Z
Do not listen to your brain and the millions of excuses it tries to come up with. Just GO!
Keep Track of Progress
This is essential to making progress. I did not feel like weighing or measuring myself every day. I’m going to be honest here. The scale and I weren’t always friends. Oftentimes, the number on the scale did not match what I saw in my physical reality.
Sticking to my fitness journey helped me realize the scale doesn’t have to be some scary thing that I apply so much weight to (no pun intended) or avoid.
My mind shifted from worrying about the number on the scale to gaining muscle and how I fit into my clothing. The more I showed up for and kept promises to myself every day, the less and less I cared what the scale said. Am I trying my best – YES! Am I making progress – also YES! That is what really mattered to me. The scale became essentially unimportant. I would think – Oh this is just where I am now – cool!
Keeping track helped me see over time that I was headed in the right direction. Think progress over perfection.
Build on Positive Momentum
Remember to celebrate your wins. If I could go back, I would make it more of a point to celebrate my wins. I was so focused on reaching the next milestone, that I often failed to celebrate the small victories I had along the way. Taking time to celebrate does build momentum.
I learned to take small steps toward improvement. For example, let’s just say I wanted to increase the weight on the dumbbells’ I was using. If my body wasn’t ready to lift heavier I would increase the number of reps in my set. So instead of 15 reps for my overhead press exercise, I would increase my rep count to 18. This ensured I was always growing.
You Will Need to Make Sacrifices
Staying on track is not only about adding new habits to your daily routine, it’s also about what you are willing to give up to reach your goals. If I’m being honest, the old Jen might have had a great workout and then went straight for some fast food to celebrate. This was no longer an option for me, if I truly wanted to get fit I would have to give up fast food and happy hour.
Saying no to things I used to enjoy was the hardest mental shift I had to make. At first, it felt a bit jarring. Telling my friends and family “no” to dinner or happy hour left me feeling guilty.
What helped was thinking of everything in terms of this – Is this helping me towards my goal? If the answer is no, then I didn’t do it. Eating outside my meal plan or skipping a workout would only delay my progress.
Eventually, my friends and I found other healthy ways to spend quality time together.
Stop Limiting Yourself!
When I first started going to the gym I was nervous. I had the feeling I somehow didn’t belong there and surely I would be found and ushered out any minute. Everything was new to me. The people, equipment, gym etiquette.
At first, I had thoughts that swirled in my head like this:
I don’t belong here
I can’t do this! Who exactly do I think I am?
I don’t look like a fitness person
Eventually, after months my brain gave up telling me all that nonsense! Well, I guess she’s not listening and she’s doing the thing she said she was going to do.
Taking intentional action every day was the only way I found to quiet doubt.
After a few months, any nervousness I had was completely gone. All it took was a little patience and repetitive action.
Your Body is Your Body Forever – Not Just This Month or Year
I used to be one of those people who ate less when I wanted to lose a couple of pounds. I will never do that again. It took months to repair my metabolism from all the years of yo-yo dieting.
My coach focused on balancing my macronutrients and never let my caloric intake drop to an unhealthy amount. She made small changes over time, that ended up making a huge impact. All the progress I made was from a food source only.
How I achieved my goal mattered to me. There were no cutting corners (at least not for me). I was not willing to drop below a certain caloric amount to achieve my goal. So if it took longer, then it took longer. The one ingredient that was an absolute must was creatine. I took a healthy scoop of this daily in my coffee every morning.
Providing my body with extra vitamins, a surplus in healthy whole foods, and increasing my caloric intake to support muscle growth, meant that I was firing on all cylinders, all the time.
The difference in me was astounding – no more brain fog! On the occasion I had an authorized “cheat meal”, the next day I could feel the sluggishness come back. It truly felt like night and day.
Seek Support and Like-minded People
Achieving my fitness goals, was just as mental for me as it was physical.
To do something different, you would need to think differently. Logically this makes sense, but making a shift is a whole other story.
Your brain is an organ – just like any other organ in your body. What you allow in your mind IS IMPORTANT!
So how do you go about making the mental shift needed to support your goals?
Make it a point to surround yourself with like-minded people who support you in your efforts to stay healthy and fit. My coach was my go-to. In addition, I also sought out therapy. The current mindset I had in the past was not going to support my visions for the future, and I needed extra guidance.
The most surprising thing I encountered by far, was the people around me who questioned my goals. As if it wasn’t hard enough to make a change, sometimes the people around you can have a hard time relating to a new goal you have or the person you’re trying to make an effort to become. This is normal.
My friends and family weren’t used to seeing me stick to a specific meal plan when we went out to dinner or say no to things I used to say yes to.
It took me a minute, but I learned not to listen to anything negative about what others had to say. That’s their perceived limit -not mine. I’m proving to myself every day that I CAN reach my fitness goals, one intentional step at a time. The only thing between me and my goal was discipline and work.
I used to listen to music, this helped me to a point, but what really helped me was an app called PEP Talk. The app had an automated feature that sends short talks from motivational speakers at 9 am every morning. These brief sound bits energized me more than my usual loud and amped-up workout playlist. Whenever I experienced a lull in motivation – Les Brown would pop into my head “You gotta stay hungry!”
Enjoy the Journey
I used to fantasize about reaching the end and getting to the stage. The last three weeks were crucial and emotional, to say the least. An analogy would be climbing a hill and getting almost to the top where there’s no air left, but you have to keep going.
The day finally came around for me to get on stage and the experience ended up being anti-climactic. I realized then, it truly was about the journey – the ways I needed to bend and shape to conquer my internal fears and face my limits.
Embarking on this journey taught me what it was like to conquer fear and pursue a dream, no matter what the obstacles. It ultimately laid the foundation for all future goals I have. #can’twait!
