Beginner’s Guide to Fitness: Staying Motivated
The first step of integrating fitness into your life is getting started. And honestly, that’s the easy part. When it comes to staying motivated, that’s where 95% percent of people fall off the wagon. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is far from easy. I mean if it was easy, wouldn’t everyone be doing it? If it was easy, would there be all those quick-fix, fad diets? If it was easy, would we be seeing the rates of obesity drastically increasing?
Coincidentally, my best blogging friend and fellow workout junkie Caitlyn posted about workout motivation this week as well. Even though she and I talk all day every day, we did not plan this at all, so I’m calling this an unofficial official collaboration because her post is awesome, and I feel like it really adds to some of the points that I’m mentioning in this article.
P.S. If you don’t know who Caitlyn is or haven’t checked out her amazing blog College with Caitlyn, you need to do so right now.
Think about why you started
We all stared for some reason. Maybe you want to lose a few extra pounds. Maybe you want to gain more confidence in life. Maybe you want to become stronger. Whatever the reason, it’s a valid reason, and you need to keep thinking about that.
Over the past year or so, I’ve published several fitness journey posts, and looking back at all of them, they all revolve around one topic: mental health.
Mental health is my one true motivator for going to the gym. It’s not to get those shredded abs or build that shoulder boulder, it’s to make me happy. That’s it. While I do want killer shoulder and a 6-pack, those are just side effects of me being my true, happy, confident self that comes with me working out.
Find Inspiration
Inspiration comes in many forms. It can be pictures, YouTube videos, Instagram accounts, goals you’ve set for yourself, quotes, hitting a PR in the gym, etc. Whatever inspires you, hold on to that.
My number one source of inspiration is people. Whether you want to believe it or not, there have been people in your situation before. There are people out there in the world just like you. And there are people who have been where you are and are now somewhere where you want to be.
Find those people.
People that inspire me
My top two inspirations are as follows:
Sarah’s Day
Sarah is an Australia-based fitness guru and her vlogs are epic. She has the greatest sense of humor, and her approach to fitness is unbeatable. If anything, she’s shown me that it’s okay to take days off of the gym, it’s okay to not hit the gym when it’s that time of the month, and if you want some chocolate, by all means, eat the damn chocolate.
Jessie Hilgenberg
Why do I like Jessie so much?? I mean just look at her. Her physique is literally to-die-for, and lets just talk about those shoulder boulders she has. #JEALOUS. Jessie is a Bodybuilding.com athlete, not to mention she’s a mother of an adorable toddler and also has one on the way!
Here are some other’s that I want to highlight:
Goals keep me going
Goals are another huge inspiration for me. It’s really interesting to me how my goals have progressed over the past year from just getting to the gym on a regular basis to actually setting PRs (personal records) and growing and developing muscle groups.
In my first installment of Beginner’s Guide to Fitness, I went in-depth about my current goals, but there are a few I definitely didn’t highlight.
– Become sponsored by a gym clothing company (Gymshark HMU)
– Become sponsored by a supplement company
– Bench 20 lb dumbbells
– Shoulder press 17.5 lb dumbbells
Okay so I know those first two goals are a little out of reach at the moment based on my current Instagram following, but a girl can dream 🙂
Here’s some homework for you. I want you to find three accounts (YouTube, Instagram, etc) of women or men who inspire you. I want you to find your Sarah’s Day and Jessie Hilgenberg.
Track Your Progress
Numbers, pictures, and workout logs will reveal to you that yes you are actually making progress even though you may not be feeling it in your day-to-day life.
I take progress pictures about once a month if I remember, and they’re a huge reason I’m still motivated to this day. I know there’s a lot of people out there who don’t like them because it causes you to really scrutinize your body, but once you see the slightest change from how you looked a month ago or how far you’ve come in a year, it’ll change your mentality almost instantly.
If you’re trying to lose weight, weighing yourself can be a good indicator of how you’re doing, but is also might not be the best thing to do. If you’re into weighing yourself on the daily, here’s my one piece of advice for you: do not let the number on the scale dictate your day. If that number isn’t where you want it to be or if it’s up from yesterday, that’s okay!
We’re human. Our weight fluctuates. It’s just a part of life.
Don’t want to go to the gym? Just do something active.
There are some days where I really don’t want to walk 20 minutes to the gym because it’s cardio day and I dread cardio so much that it makes me not want to work out. It’s even worse if cardio falls on a day where it’s raining or it’s that time of the month…
But I know that if I just get up and move, I’ll feel so much better.
Go for a walk around your campus/neighborhood, go to the gym and do something fun and different, play around with bodyweight stuff, do some handstands, spend a solid 30 minutes stretching and relaxing.
If you’re truly not feeling any of that, just take a rest day. One rest day isn’t going to kill you. Two rest days aren’t going to kill you. A rest week is not the end of the world.
Listen to your body, and do what you need to do. You have a whole lifetime to #getfit. One day is nothing in the grand scheme of things.
There are 365 days this year. Each and every day is a chance to change yourself.
~abigail gray
