Have you ever made the decision to accomplish a goal only to bail after a few weeks when your motivation wanes? Or perhaps you gave up before you even started because you weren’t sure where to begin. Maybe your New Year’s resolution involved losing weight and getting ripped but instead resulted in months of wasted membership fees and gym clothes that long to see the light of day. Maybe you had a couple of solid weeks only to revert back to old habits once the novelty wore off. Let’s change that pattern!
As a career music educator, setting goals, making a plan to accomplish those goals, and routinely analyzing progress are all a regular part of my day to day life. Applying this same philosophy to your fitness routine will help you stay focused and achieve your goals!
Aspire - Set a realistic goal
As I made my way through pandemic/quarantine life over the past 12 months, I found myself on a newly energized fitness journey that started with a small and attainable goal; Keep up with and complete the 10 day workout series that was being posted in my online fitness group.
Set a goal that is realistic for YOU. While it would be nice to have 6 pack abs like Nick Jonas, if you haven’t worked out in a decade and eat more junk food than not, this is not a reasonable place to start! Being overly ambitious in this step can actually set you up for failure. Instead, try setting targets that can be more easily attained for example, exercising 30 minutes at least 3 days per week .
Success breeds success and reaching these smaller milestones will help build the confidence you need to accomplish more down the road!
Act - Make a Plan & Follow Through
In order to make it through the Fast & Furiously Fit workout series with @bodyrockseanlight, I had to make a plan. I set aside a specific time each day that I would workout, got my family on board, and made sure I had all of the equipment I needed. The trick then became figuring out how to keep the momentum going after the novelty wore off.
Holding yourself accountable in a way that works for YOU is the key to being able to follow through when the going gets tough. Maybe the feedback from friends, trainers, and even strangers motivates you to continue and posting about your goals on social media is enough. Perhaps you prefer accountability to just one or two people and may find something like a personal trainer or a workout partner more beneficial. Or maybe you are intrinsically motivated and things like journaling or the promise of a reward upon completion is enough to keep you going. Don’t know which one best fits you? Start experimenting and see what works!
Achieve - Analyze & Find Success
My fitness journey success was visible rather quickly. Within a couple of months I had more energy, my clothes were fitting looser - or not at all - and I was happier with the face looking back at me in the mirror. After a while though, I felt like my progress was stalling. It was time to take an honest look at where I was: What things were going well? What changes did I need to make to continue to take steps forward?
While this step can be an uncomfortable one, it is arguably the most important. One of my college professors used to tell us that we had to think like doctors and “Analyze, Diagnose, and Prescribe”.
We are only able to make true progress towards our goals if we are able to look honestly at our current state, analyze our shortcomings, and make a plan to remedy them. If your fitness journey is not progressing as hoped, is your diet right? Are you lifting heavy enough? Are you pushing hard enough through each rep?
Mistakes and setbacks are the way that we humans learn and get better - it is only a failure if you give up! - so give yourself grace and patience and use your mistakes to grow instead of derailing all of the progress you have already made!
Pablo Picasso said, “Our goals can only be reached through the vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” You really can accomplish anything that you set your mind to, but you need to have a plan to get there, a support system to keep you motivated, and the resilience to push through challenges. Need help determining a path forward or breaking out of a rut? Reach out - I am more than happy to help! You’ve got this!
]]>Hi guys I'm Kylie and I'd like to share my fitness story with you guys today.
My fitness journey has been with it's ups & downs with my health mentally(depression) & physically( injuries). Fitness has kept me balanced, disciplined, focused, & has helped me have the strength to get back up. Even when everything had fallen I still got back up there were times where I thought to myself how will I get back to the strength & transform my body back to where it once was?I kept pushing through every workout drenched in sweat because I refused to not give up I was willing to go the distance no matter what was going on in my life. I have learnt no matter how tough a situation seems you can succeed & achieve because the only way you can fail is if you give up when you fall as long as get back up you will achieve.
My fitness journey started in primary school; I started practicing yoga when I was 13 I am now 30 & I still practice it I also started sprinting, boxing, sit ups & more as I used to be a lazy, chubby kid in primary school & the start of highschool. One day I made the decision to get active. My fitness journey commenced from there on & this is me now kicking butt at fitness & now I am studying to teach fitness. That is how much fitness has inspired me and changed my life for the better!
I hope my fitness journey inspires you guys to achieve your fitness goals and helps you become a stronger, healthier version of yourself :)
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1. Finding Inspiration
I will admit that it was hard to start my self-love journey. In fact, I felt ridiculous
for even starting it. I’ve hated myself for so long, I couldn’t even fathom liking
myself, let alone loving myself. Then, BTS came out with their Love Yourself
concept. Their album is about finding yourself through self-love. It’s been repeat
for months. But it wasn’t until I saw them in concert that I truly began my
journey. I was touched by their performance and realized that we, the fans, the
ARMY, helped paved the way for the members to love themselves. I want them to
be the ones to pave the way for me as well.
2. Following Inspiration
a. When I first started my Instagram, I followed accounts that posted pictures of
tiny, thin girls. I used to scroll through my feed and think to myself about how
much I wanted to look like them. I found myself in the vicious cycle of self-
hatred. Recently, I did a massive unfollowing of these types of accounts. My feed
is now filled with girls on their own self-love journeys. To me, it’s inspiring to
know I’m not alone on my journey.
3. Focusing on How Your Workouts Make You Feel, Not How They Make You Look
Most days, I feel as though I’m no longer tied down by my workouts. I find solace
in working out. I love the way working out makes me feel, both physically and
mentally. Once I stopped focusing on the vanity side of working out, I truly began
to enjoy exercising.
4. Reminding Yourself That You Are Worthy of Self-Love
For me, the hardest part of my self-love journey is thinking about myself in a
positive way. My brain has been hardwired to point out my imperfections.
Thinking positively has been a challenge. I have to remind myself that self-love is
possible. I do this by wearing self-love jewelry every day. I have a necklace and
bracelet that are engraved with self-love messages. Every morning, I read them to myself. I also have a vision board. I placed my vision board on my dresser mirror and look at it in the morning and before I go to sleep.
Learning to love yourself is a long and tiring journey. Some days, I feel like it’s easier to put myself down than it is to find one positive thing about myself. Even though it’s hard, it’s a journey that has changed me life. As I continue on this journey, I hope that I can truly find myself.
Tenesha
@rie_eden
At the heart of Patanjali's teachings are the eight limbs of Yoga. These are Patanjali's suggestions for living a better life through yoga.
ASANA – The third limb of Yoga (Postures or Poses)
Through the practice of asana, we learn the habit of discipline and the ability to concentrate – which assist us along the path of yoga to achieve Samadhi - enlightenment.
The practice of moving the body into postures has many physical benefits; of these the most underlying are improved health, strength, balance and flexibility. On a deeper level the practice of asana, which means "staying" or "abiding" in Sanskrit, is used as a tool to calm the mind and move into the inner essence of being.
The challenge of poses offers the practitioner the opportunity to explore and control all aspects of their emotions, concentration, intent, faith, and unity between the physical and the ethereal body. Asana then becomes a way of exploring our mental attitudes and strengthening our will as we learn to release and move into the state of grace that comes from creating balance between our material world and spiritual experience.
Most people come to yoga for the exercise, and end up staying for the release. As you learn to love your body, and thus yourself, through the practice you become more in tune with who you are and what you are all about. Personally, that has happened for me. I took to the yoga mat after a hiatus to calm my mind and still thoughts of things I could not control. Three years later, almost to this day I’m here learning how to pass on the self love and self acceptance a simple morning practice has evolved to.
Asana - yoga poses are, in essence, Yoga exercises creating strength and endurance, improving circulation and energy flow, cleansing organs and other systems, and expanding muscles and joints. With all these benefits of the Yoga poses, we should not lose sight of the original intent of Yoga.
Yoga exercises evolved thousands of years ago from the need to create a healthy body in order to move more readily to the state of oneness and realization. When the body is cluttered with stress, tension, and disease, this clouds the mind and the ability to connect with the inner self. The physical freedom attained from the Yoga exercises increases one's ability to sit with silence and joyful observation.
Stirra Sukham Asanam – May my connection to the earth be steady and joyful (Patanjali 2.46)
I'd love to connect with you. Come say hi on my Instagram @coffebikinisyoga
]]>Trust me, I feel you.
I am 38 years old, married for 11+ years, have two young kids (5 and 8 years old), a full -time corporate job as a business development manager, covering 7 states (I am on the road EVERY single week of the year!). My workouts are never missed and I am working on a fitness website to help others. As you can see it becomes very important to make time to stay healthy while balancing the work on hand. If we aren’t healthy and happy other things around us are more likely to fall out of place.
I am going to share a few tips that have helped me maintain a healthy balance in my life. Hope they can be of some use to you :)
Start somewhere – I know the list above can be a lot to focus on. Pick 2 to focus on and add on each week –this is a balance blog! Once you find your rhythm it becomes a habit. I always say it takes 21 days to start a habit.
And remember, why start tomorrow when we can start today!
Come say hi to me on my Instagram @totallyfitwithkris
]]>I am a mom of 3 and have always been an active person. I feel like I have tried it all, running, swimming, weight lifting, cross fit, I even did martial arts for years becoming a 2nd degree Black Belt in Taekwondo. But you know how life goes. Things happen, priorities change, you have children, you feel more tired, or maybe you just lose the fitness spark altogether. I totally get it, as I found myself in that place numerous times. After I had my children I started looking for ways to get my “spark” back. To give me more energy, to keep me motivated, to just feel better in general. I joined Instagram in May of 2018 (I know, late to the game) and met a ton of amazing people that did yoga. I knew yoga was a “thing” but had never really given it a chance or took the time to really see what it was all about. Luckily one day I was invited to participate in a yoga challenge. Now, being a competitive person, this was right up my alley. The problem was, I knew nothing about yoga. I made up a million excuses why I shouldn’t join. One being that I couldn’t even touch my toes, so there was no way that I could do the poses that they were proposing. Plus, posting pictures of yourself for all the public to see is pretty nerve racking. I went back and forth several times and finally decided I was going to DO IT!