Beginner’s Guide to Your Fitness Journey
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Welcome! Get ready… be excited… the time to make the biggest change of your life starts now and it’s going to be well worth it!
Full disclosure: There is no magic pill, magic solution, or even secret to changing your lifestyle and beginning your fitness journey. It’s going to take intentionality, commitment, and hard work to get where you want to be, but I will tell you, once you feel and experience the momentum begin, you will ask yourself why you never took that first step to begin with!
Starting your fitness journey is a monumental hurdle for many. Don’t feel discouraged. We have all been at the starting line, intimidated, and not knowing if we can really accomplish our goals. It ebbs and flows and is also not linear.
You may have weeks and months of consistency, and some days or weeks where life throws you off a bit. It’s normal. Enjoy the process.
Your mindset is going to be your biggest tool during your fitness journey to get your through the most challenging times, so let’s begin today to mentally affirm your place here. You need to be here and you deserve to have a strong, healthy, and fulfilled life whether for your own health, your family, or closest friends.
So where do we really start?
First things first… Get crystal clear on your purpose and motivation for wanting to start your fitness journey.
Is it to drop some pounds and in turn, trim up for aesthetic purposes? Maybe you’ve had some health scares and your doctor has recommended that you take your health and wellness more seriously. Maybe you are feeling lethargic and have begun to notice that some of the day to day functions are now beginning to become more challenging. Playing with your kids, bending down to pick something up, or even walking has become a task in itself.
These are all extremely common and valid reasons to set as your driving purpose for being here.
Your purpose is going to be your driving force that pushes you during your most challenging times. When you feel like throwing in the towel and you begin saying to yourself this isn’t for you, think of the why that got you here in the first place and muster up the courage to take that next step forward.
Secondly… Set up your initial expectations. Health and wellness is a journey, not an overnight fix. The things you are going to do will compound and build up over time. The Compound Effect, as Darren Hardy brilliantly explains in his book, sets up your mindset to understand and expect these small tasks as part of the process.
When you knock out your first twenty minute morning walk for three consecutive days, take pride in that milestone! You are essentially taking steps you had not taken prior and this is a specific part of your personal journey.
As a piggyback to setting up your expectations, try not to be fixated on what others are doing or what their journey and progress looks like. Are we as humans all made the same? No. So, why care about how another person is looking? Who knows what personal obstacles they’ve overcome or what health concerns they may be battling. We should never compare or judge a book by its cover.
While looking at other people may provide some level of motivation for different fitness ideas as is widely popular on YouTube, don’t get discouraged that you are not exactly matching their physique or timeline. Again, this is your beautiful journey, not theirs. Be excited where you could be and how the process is changing you every single day whether you notice it or not.
Third… Nutrition is going to be a large part of your fitness journey, but my guess is you already knew that.
There is no way around this unfortunately. We are indeed what we eat so understanding that there will have to be some adjustments to what you are consuming is important.
Now, the caveat and silver lining is that we do not have to go all hard-core by any means. To be honest, minimal changes to your eating habits can produce huge changes to your overall health and physique.
I’ve seen it happen time and time again with clients just starting out, especially sedentary ones. Once we tweak some nutrition habits and portion sizes, not even introducing fitness exercises just yet, they begin to see weight loss and body changes. Incredible huh?
Health and wellness doesn’t have to be intimidating, hard-core, or even mean eating salads everyday for the rest of your lives. Let’s get all of the negative stigma out of the way.
Back to nutrition… Your coach will usually have a conversation with you to get to know all about you, your current lifestyle, job, habits, etc.. and have you write down what a normal day of eating looks like for you. This is a great activity to see what our baseline is.
Ideally what we want to see here is what are those specific food habits that are having the biggest impact on our diet and how we can begin to taper them down. Going “cold-turkey” as some call it, is not the way to go and is the quickest way to fall off track and get discouraged altogether. Take it slow, make incremental changes, and see the compound effect do wonders!
Fourth… We determine how, when, and where we are going to be getting our exercise.
Whether getting a gym membership, working out with a personal trainer, or getting equipment and working out from home, there are many ways we can get our physical activity in - which is the other part to our fitness journey after understanding our nutrition side.
How do you know which is best for you?
That is going to be a personal decision based on your circumstances. Each of these vehicles will either cost some upfront money or ongoing monthly payments, so whichever you feel most comfortable with and can commit to will be a good route.
Maybe you got Arnold’s Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding to know all of the ins and outs of the body movements and workouts therefore needing a wide variety of equipment. Know that purchasing a gym membership will come with a monthly or yearly payment.
The advantages to having a gym membership is usually ease of access as many are open 24 hours a day or have very flexible hours. Commercial gyms also come with a wide variety of cardio and strength equipment, which many of us do not have the room in our houses to carry ourselves.
Gyms are also a great way to meet others on similar journeys. Some of the greatest friendships are started in gyms because of similar interests. With equipment, showers, changing rooms, and even extra amenities, there is no wonder why the commercial gym business is a billion dollar industry with millions of customers worldwide.
Hiring a coach or trainer will come with a few choices that still need to be made: do they work at a commercial gym (which you will also need a gym membership to that establishment) or are they a freelance or online trainer.
Freelance trainers usually have their own equipment and own studio where clients meet, or the trainer will go to the client’s house for the session. Online trainers on the other hand, work with clients all over the world remotely whether that be via Zoom or via an app. This route usually requires the client to have access to workout equipment whether at a commercial gym or equipment at home.
Working out at home is all up to the client themselves - YOU! From rowers, to bikes, to barbells, and dumbbells, the choices are endless with how you want to outfit your own personal workout space at home. Space is the key here to ensure you not only have the equipment you need, but also the space to use it. No brainer huh!
Your purpose, setting expectations, nutrition, and how you will be working out… That’s it in a nutshell. These are the fundamentals to all of our fitness journeys.
As you begin your fitness journey, remember that the first thing you want to do is get in the right mindset, otherwise we may be throwing in the towel before we’ve even begun. This is an exciting time in your life with unbelievable achievements not only to your own health, but your overall quality of life.
We’d love to hear about your journey whether just starting out or well along, so feel free to shoot me an email below! Enjoy!
