“New year, new me” sound familiar to you? If you’re anything like us here at Entry Level Adulting, at some point in your life you’ve probably had a New Year’s resolution related to fitness or weight loss. This is great, but also dangerous if you aren’t able to stick to your goals and become discouraged to the point where you give up. What we’ve learned about fitness and exercising is that it’s a tough, but necessary journey to sustaining a healthier lifestyle.
If you’re just starting out on your fitness journey and are experiencing feelings of intimidation or internal resistance to working out, that’s completely normal. Working out means feeling hot and sweaty, and requires pushing past your own personal limits. It’s the epitome of being uncomfortable. From a biological standpoint, exercising is an expenditure of energy, which your body doesn’t want to do.
However, leveling up in fitness begins with a mindset shift. Look at it as an opportunity, as opposed to a task or a chore. You get to better your health and experience the benefits of exercising.
So, why should you exercise?
In addition to wanting that hot girl/hot boy summer bod, maintaining an active lifestyle has many important health benefits, especially as an adult.
Stress relief and mood booster. When you exercise, the levels of stress hormones in your body actually decrease. In addition, your body gets pumped with feel-good endorphins, which are natural painkillers and mood elevators. TLDR; exercising makes you less stressed and happy.
Improved quality of life. As we get older, our health deteriorates. Regular physical activity (in a healthy capacity) helps combat injuries and gives you the strength to enjoy physical activities like tennis, surfing, spike ball, etc. Additionally, it has a whole slew of other benefits like increasing overall energy, decreasing risk of depression, slowing the aging process, and prolonging life expectancy.
A healthy heart. Engaging in physical activity increases your heart rate and raises your blood pressure. This increased blood flow clears out things that may settle and block your blood vessels, which supply important nutrients throughout your body.
People who aren’t physically active may suffer from elevated blood pressure AKA hypertension. The long term effects of hypertension are an increased likelihood of strokes, heart attacks, and pulmonary embolism. We want to avoid this because these are fatal health conditions that may require a dependency on medication for life.
That being said, we don’t want to scare you into exercising, but rather educate you on why it’s important to make fitness a priority.
How do I start?
For us personally, embarking on a fitness journey is intimidating. Where do you even begin? There are so many factors that you need to think about - type of workout to do, when to workout, how to workout properly, how often to workout, etc.
These are our tips for starting that fitness journey:
Consistency is key.
Not only is consistency important in actually seeing results, it’s also important for building a routine you can stick to.
First, find a schedule you can adhere to. If you can only do 30 minutes for 3 days a week, then do that. A tip that works for Elizabeth in our podcast Episode 2: Fitness is finding what days of the week she most likely won’t have the time or energy to workout, see what days are left, and block out those days in her schedule for exercise.
Also, determine what time of day you would most likely workout. If you’re not a morning person, then create an afternoon or evening workout regimen. If you’re the type that would most likely put off working out after a long day at work, then start your day with some exercise.
The goal is to eliminate any barriers and create a fitness routine as second nature as brushing your teeth everyday.
Start small.
It’s common for people starting out on their fitness journey (or re-starting their fitness journey) to go from zero to 100 in their workouts. However, this almost guarantees a path towards burn out and not being able to sustain any consistency. I’m definitely guilty of doing this.
So start with something small - whatever that means to you. It can be going for a 30 minute walk or doing a 15 minute YouTube workout video. If you can do that one thing and keep it up consistently, then you have a foundation to build a routine on.
Find what works for you.
There are so many forms of physical activity that you can engage in. Usually the first thing that comes to mind when you think working out is going to the gym or going for a run. However, this isn’t for everyone. You can sign up for aerial yoga, cycling, or hip hop dance classes if that’s more your speed. YouTube has a multitude of workouts that you can do from the comfort of your own home. Whatever it is that you choose to do, make sure it’s something you enjoy doing, makes you feel good, and, again, something you can do consistently.
Set goals. Behind anything you do, it’s important to find your motivation. Why do you want to start this fitness journey? Maybe that goal is challenging yourself to lift a certain weight at the gym. Or maybe it’s being able to beat your mile time. Whatever it is, set a goal that you can actively work towards and measure your progress.
Listen to your body.
One of the biggest risks of exercising is overextending your body, resulting in injury. If you’ve been sitting at a computer all day for work or school, your body probably isn’t conditioned to just get up and start exercising.
Make sure you are taking preventative measures to take care of your body.
Stretch and warm-up before exercising
Stay hydrated
Replenish any nutrients and electrolytes you lose during exercise
If you feel any unusual pain, stop your workout and see a certified healthcare provider
If your body is feeling weak one day, do a lighter workout. You know your body best, so listen to those signals. The last thing you want is to contract an injury that prevents you from exercising for a few days or even weeks.
Take care of yourself.
At the end of the day, creating a sustainable fitness lifestyle is about taking care of yourself. If you retain one thing from this post, it’s that fitness is all about self-care. Every small thing you do helps you take care of your body. If you didn’t hit an arbitrary goal, it doesn’t mean that your body hasn’t received some benefit. Whatever you are doing, give yourself credit and grace for showing up and trying.
You’re not alone.
Just a reminder that we are also on that journey with you. So when you’re having a hard time working out, just think of us struggling to lift those weights at the gym or out of breath trying to beat our mile time.
Take care of yourself, friends. 💛