My Fitness Journey

Fitness and health are thrown in our faces on a daily basis, but with perfectly good reason, its important! Even those of us that have a terrible diet and never exercise understand that its good for us, but we choose to look away? Or don't know where to start? Don't care enough? Choose the path of least resistance? Whatever the case, in today's day and age

Being healthy is hard!

There are SO many yummy treats out there that taste delicious and are literally designed to get us hooked so we eat more and more. Eating out is easier than creating a 7 course home cooked meal from scratch. A potato chip is so much tastier than a stick of celery. Opening up the cupboard for something that is pre-made and processed is much more convenient that whipping up a healthy snack. And let's not forget about money, the cost of easy food is SO much less than the fresh stuff. I mean seriously what the heck?

The system is designed to have us fail!

From the grocery stores (way to go marketing on the layout of those) to the expensive gyms with scary looking equipment its no wonder we don't want to 'be healthy'. You have all of those fitness gurus with their perfectly sculpted buttocks and hours of spare time to get in shape. They are nice to look at and something to aspire to but in reality, the majority of us will never reach their level of fit. But guess what??

That's okay, being healthy can be simple!!!

Workout 3 times a week for 30 minutes, eat 3 solid meals a day, follow the 80/20 rule (20% unhealthy), get solid sleep, cut out alcohol, get fresh air and cut yourself some slack!! I follow 3x a week and the 80/20 but I suck at the rest, but its okay because I never give up and I continue on my fitness journey.

November '23 - started a fitness class once a week (if that)

January '24 - bought weights and was consistent 2x weekly (maybe)

April '24 - finally hit 3x a week of weights!

August '24 - getting in 4 workouts a week was a breeze because I was following a program

November'24 - finally found a good routine to get in weights 3x a week

February '24 - consistently at 3x weights and 1 cardio a week and I love it!

Honestly, I feel really good about this routine and don't feel the need to go crazy and change it! I will continue on this same path. In the summers it might be 2 days of cardio due to outdoor activities but not something I need to actively strive for.

As for the eating. I drink too much and I regularly forget to eat due to a decently high stress job and my high stress life as of late. So this is where I need the most help. What I eat is mostly healthy. Lots of vegetables and fruits and high protein. But its something that I want to focus on.

So why did I outline my fitness timeline?

To show that these things take time, it doesn't happen over night and it took me a year to just find a routine that worked for me!! So I need to allow my eating habits the same leniency and respect that I did for the workouts.

I plan to outline the specifics of my fitness journey because there were a lot of factors at play that led to me having a consistent lifestyle. But notice, I don't go crazy. My weight sessions are 30-45 minutes and I don't need more than that! It does the job nicely :)

The photos below are ironically 'before' divorce and 'after' divorce. I was in much better shape but then the poor eating, sleeping, and drinking habits kicked in and it shows. But seeing these remind me that I can get back back to that easily because I was still holding a very sustainable lifestyle pre-divorce but I lost that motivation.