10 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I Started My Fitness Journey

09 Oct 10 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I Started My Fitness Journey

                      Donovan Ward (click to learn more about our author!)

Look, I know.  Fitness is hard.  Especially if you’re not “good” at it.  But nobody started out an expert.  No one crawled out the womb with a 6 pack, big biceps or a  firm backside.  The people you see on instagram or on TV have put years of work, and unfortunately sometimes thousands of dollars, into their bodies.  Fitness is a skill, and while genetics do play a part in ones body composition, with consistency and dedication it can be changed and you can achieve whatever fitness goals you desire.  Just like anything else in life.  Think about something you love to do: drawing, writing, a sport, whatever it is.  Once you found out you were good at it, I bet you worked tirelessly to get as good as possible.  Put that same energy into fitness, and I promise you will achieve the results you desire.  Not tomorrow, not next week or even next month.  But you start to see progress, it becomes addicting and you won’t want to stop.  On that note, here are 10 things I wish I knew when I started my fitness journey.  Most of these also apply to real life.

1. Find what works for you. Fitness is a very broad term.  All it really means is being active and healthy.  If the gym intimidates you, don’t go to the gym.  Go hiking, swim, play sports, do America Ninja Warrior.  Whatever you do that gets you’re heart rate up and a good sweat going is fitness and will get you in better shape.  Especially if you are starting from scratch, why start by doing something that you don’t like?  Besides, Diet is 80% of it.

2. Don’t compare your Level 1 to someone else’s Level 10. Like I said before, don’t compare yourself to the people you see on social media.  When you first started doing your favorite activity, were you as good as your are now?  No.  Same goes for the people you see that have the bodies you wish you had.  Yes, some of them genetically were born with more aesthetic physiques, but they still put years of work into their bodies and trained specifically for aesthetics.  And not to discredit their hard work, many of them had some chemical or surgical enhancements to help them achieve a physique that naturally wouldn’t be possible.  

3. Diets always fail, and you can’t out train a bad diet. The definition of a diet is “the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.”  Every year you hear about a new diet.  Keto, Paleo, Atkins, blah, blah, blah.  They don’t work.  They’re better than eating junk, but you will never be able to stay on them and inevitably they will fail.  You can cut carbs, and yeah you’ll see some results.  But you’re quality of life will be awful.  No eating out, no drinking if you’re of legal age, etc.  Can you keep that up the rest of your life?  No, and the moment you reintroduce what you you were depriving your body (especially carbs), your body will latch onto it and the progress you’ve made will go right out the window.  The only diet that lasts in my opinion is a diet based predominantly around the consumption of  whole foods based on macro nutrient intake dependent on your individual body’s needs.  (Not going to get into that here).  Food is fuel for your body, you wouldn’t put 87 gas in a Lamborghini, so why fuel your body with junk?  You can put all the work in in the gym, but if you don’t fuel it properly, your body won’t run like it’s supposed to and you won’t get anywhere.

4. Set small goals and celebrate the small victories. You should have a vision for what your ultimate goal is.  A dream body perhaps.  But once again, these things take time,  Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will your dream body.  And if the only bench mark you set is the final result, you’ll get frustrated and quit.  Set small goals like losing a small amount of weight in a realistic amount of time.  (Ex. 10 lbs. in 2 months).  And when you hit that goal, celebrate with your favorite cheat meal or by buying some new clothes.  One healthy meal won’t get you abs, and one cheat meal won’t make you fat.

5. Do it for yourself, no one else. You will never achieve your goals unless you want it for yourself.  Like I said, it’s going to take time, and if you’re not doing it for you, you’re going to give up every time it gets tough.  The whole world can’t want it enough for you if you don’t want it for yourself.  

6. Be public about your goals. Now when I say this, I mean be public to whatever extent you are comfortable.  You don’t have to document everything on social media, but be vocal about your goals to the people who will keep you accountable.  The people that if they found out you gave up on your goals, you would be extremely bothered/embarrassed to face them.  Whether that’s your parents, your sibling, or your best friend, if you don’t have someone keeping you accountable, it’s going to be very tough to achieve your goals.

7. Hire a trainer. If you wanted to learn algebra, or how to play the guitar, or any other skill, you probably wouldn’t do it by yourself would you?  You might try to learn it by watching YouTube tutorials, but eventually you would hit a plateau in your skill level and stop seeing progress.  Same goes for fitness.  You can watch videos of IG fit girls or guys, and get a general idea of what you are going to do, but you need someone to check your form, motivate you, set up a proper program and keep you accountable.  

8. Trust the Process. Just like the Philadelphia 76ers, it takes a long time to go from bad to good.  Even if you don’t feel like you are seeing changes in the mirror or on the scale, I guarantee you if you are working out and eating right consistently, you are making progress.  We are all our toughest critics and are often the last to see changes.  We see our body every single day, and since the changes occur so slowly, you won’t see them until drastic progress has been made, and even then it might be hard to see.  But I promise you will get there if you don’t quit.  And I’m not saying that as a motivational “I believe in you” promise.  It is literally a scientific fact, look it up.

9. Document your progress. Like I said earlier, since the changes occur so slowly, it can be tough for your naked eye to see changes in your body.  But by taking progress pictures, you can compare your current shape with past pictures and see how much progress you have made when you feel like your aren’t making progress.  And they make for great IG posts.  #TransformationTuesday

10. Don’t even think about the scale. The scale can be very dangerous to the mind.  Your weight fluctuates from day to day based on a variety of factors such as water retention and calorie intake from the previous day.  If you are trying to lose weight, yes it is a good indicator of progress maybe once a month (I wouldn’t check more often than once a week), but don’t forget that muscle weighs more than fat.  Most people work out to look better and be healthier, and having more muscle mass helps accomplish both of those goals.  So focus on how you feel and how you look in the mirror as the best indicators of your progress.  Have a target body image and fitness level, not a target weight.

BONUS FOR THE GIRLS*** 

Lifting weights will not make you bulky and look like a man.  In fact, it’s kind of insulting to the people that train to build muscle to think that.  Those people train YEARS and eat A TON to get to that level, and the girls you see that “look manly” look that way because of chemical supplementation to get to that look.