How to Fall in Love With Fitness

Happy Monday!! This week’s edition is all about how I fell in love with fitness as an outlet for myself and how your mindset truly will make or break you when it comes to achieving your fitness goals. A lot of this will sound a little extra for someone who wasn’t an athlete growing up, but training like an athlete will get you to your goals! This will be a lot like tough love so get ready…

I grew up playing all types of sports but swimming was the one that stuck for me and I ended up swimming Division I in college. Swimming truly taught me that you are the only person in the way of your goals. If you don’t work hard enough, you won’t see results because no one is going to do the work for you. You are the only person who is in charge of your life so you are going to be the only person who can make a change. It is almost in human nature to make excuses for ourselves or push everything off for tomorrow but you have to actively fight to push those thoughts away.

I have no idea how to present all of this information but this is basically a dump of how my mind works and how I was completely able to transform my body, regain my strength, and stay consistent with my fitness goals:

How to start:

◦ Make going to the gym a priority in your life. If you can do your job for eight hours a day, you can schedule at least an hour or two to work on yourself (and you deserve to). If you start going to the gym every single day you will eventually fall in love with it whether you think that's possible or not. Obviously, take rest days when rest days are needed but make a schedule for yourself to go to the gym at least 5 times a week and you will fall in love. 5 times a week may sound like a lot right now, but once you fall in love with it, you’ll want to go even more!

◦ Tell yourself every single day that you are grateful to have the ability to move your body freely. Some people would give up their entire lives just to be able to be mobile again, and the fact that we all can move freely is a blessing within itself. Especially on those days that you truly do not want to go to the gym, remind yourself of how grateful you should feel! While you are still able, take advantage of this time of being able to run, jump, lift, swim, etc. because as we age, it does not get easier.

Mindset While Working Out:

◦ When you are at the gym and you feel like the workout is too hard, literally begin thinking of someone you hate or something negative that someone said about you and use that to fuel your energy until the end of the workout. It sounds cringe and strange, but the amount of times I've done this and it made me finish a workout class feeling extremely accomplished and strong is amazing but also slightly embarrassing. I promise if you are struggling to get motivation or get those reps up, think of something that pisses you off and you’ll be cruisin’!

◦ A big reason I push myself to go to the gym and lift heavy was because last year I didn’t touch a single weight for 10 months and all of the muscle just completely fell off my body. For the first time in years, I struggled to pick up moving boxes when moving out of my mom’s. I knew that I needed to get my ass back in the gym and that I wanted to lift heavy again so I never had to feel helpless like that again. I want to be able to lift whatever I need to and not have to ask for help or struggle, no matter what the situation is. Being strong will also help you in your long-term future so you can still be up and mobile in your 80s! No one wants to be put in a wheel chair or nursing home just because they stopped working out. These are just things I often remind myself about when I need an extra push to grab that heavier weight or show up that day.

◦ Fall in love with the pain you feel from working hard. It sounds weird to say but once you can feel how hard your muscles are working for you, it truly is an incredible feeling. I love being the strongest person in the room because it's so incredibly empowering, and it reminds me of how much my body can do without me even realizing it. You truly are more capable than you even can imagine and fitness is the greatest example of that. Those weights that felt heavy last year, are probably your warm-up set by now!

◦ This is tough love. You need to learn that, if you are not sweating, heavy breathing, sometimes shaking, or going to failure when working out then you will not see the results you want anytime soon. It will be a long and hard process to get to your dream fitness level if you half-ass it. I had an old CrossFit coach tell me that I don't see progress because I don't try hard enough and at the time, that truly took me back and I was very offended. Although it felt mean, it was true. I didn’t leave the gym exhausted every time, I didn’t go as heavy as I should have, I wasn’t taking care of my nutrition, and I truly wasn’t putting in the proper effort to reach my potential. It took a few weeks but I did eventually accept that he was right and since then I have never pushed myself harder as I do now.

What To Remind Yourself Outside of The Gym:

◦ As I said earlier, being in the gym helps you live a longer life! Once you fall in love with your life you're going to want to do anything and everything possible to live as long as you can. This is kind of where I am (after many therapy sessions) and it did take me a while to get here, but I know that being in the gym will keep me healthy forever and make me live longer, which is the ultimate goal. If you do not want to live long for yourself, think about your family, children, or loved ones. They want you to live as long as possible and you deserve to be healthy for yourself and them.

◦ You truly become addicted to the progress you achieve while going to the gym! I have this mindset that you can always be 1% better (which some may think is toxic but I think it’s motivating) and I always want to be fitter. Whether that means looking leaner or lifting heavier I want to be the fittest person in the room at all times and it's kind of my obsession… Which in a way again, is good and bad, but I don't think wanting to be as healthy as possible is a bad thing.

◦ Lastly, it is truly a flex to say that you are into fitness and that you are strong. I look up to the strongest people, no matter what weight they're lifting, but their discipline, determination, and consistency are what make them strong & inspire me most. I love seeing those people who start with a 5lb dumbbell and are now reaching for the 25lb dumbbell in just a few months. That is the type of person I look up to!

Nutrition:

◦ I already know I’m going to get asked about nutrition but I have no credentials in nutrition and everyone’s body works differently. All I can say is that for me, I am vegan, I eat in a calorie deficit, I am getting better and better every day at eliminating processed foods, I juice celery, ginger, and turmeric to drink almost daily, and I eat a balanced diet.

◦ That is personally what works for me and my body and I am beyond grateful to have the resources to be able to be vegan and have a juicer. This is not what is going to work for everyone but the key takeaways are calorie deficit, less processed foods, and a balanced meal plan.

I hope at least one thing from this helped you feel motivated to fall in love with fitness. None of this will happen overnight, it's going to take a lot of practice and learning how to shut down negative thoughts. Once you learn that fitness can be the best outlet for you, you'll crave the feeling of working hard almost every day. I hope you all have an amazing week and let me know your thoughts on this week’s edition. 💚