How To Start Your Fitness Journey Off Right
These simple tips to help you start your fitness journey might get you one step closer to achieving your health and fitness goals.
“I’ll start going to the gym and eating better on Monday.”
These are the fateful words being uttered by those who, following weeks of complete disregard for diet and a sheer lack of motivation to consistently exercise, finally feel the urgency to clean up their diet and lead a healthier lifestyle on a random Sunday morning.
Nevertheless, it goes without saying that these words often don’t come to fruition, and we can’t blame you. Sometimes, simply getting started on a workout program or dietary regime can be even harder than staying on course.
This Is How To Start Your Fitness Journey
Here are some pointers to finally get your fitness journey off the ground:
1. Set Realistic Objectives
Whether you’re trying to put on some muscle or lose some weight, the first step towards embarking on your fitness journey comes in the form of establishing sensible expectations and determining what you want to accomplish.
Assessing your current fitness levels would be a great place to start; you don’t want to jump straight into an Arnold Schwarzenegger-esque routine if you haven’t touched a treadmill in years.
Note where you’re at when it comes to your aerobic and muscular fitness levels, flexibility, and body composition.
An extra step – which could prove beneficial in the long run – could be to research which supplements you want to incorporate into your regime. Whether it be nutritional cleansing products, protein powders, vitamins, or other dietary supplements, these could be that extra push that allows you to meet your nutrient gaps and dietary aspirations.
2. Take Baby Steps
At this stage, it’s worth mentioning that a good fitness or dietary regimen requires a grace period – one where you’re easing yourself into the process and not fully letting yourself go. If you’ve been physically inactive for some time, this is especially the case.
Per the WHO, adults should take about 150–300 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75–150 minutes of high-intensity aerobic exercise to achieve good health levels, with combinations of both being ideal.
Use these figures as a baseline, and once you’re in the swing of things, try and be a bit more ambitious.
Nonetheless, for some people, having time to exercise consistently might prove to be a luxury, and that’s okay. Find ways to incorporate additional exercise into your daily routines to make things easier:
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator;
- Watch your favorite TV shows on a treadmill;
- Stand up and stretch every once in a while.
There are many ways to make activity simple and easy to fit into your lifestyle.
3. Reward And Hold Yourself Accountable
The second-most difficult stage of becoming physically active once you’ve got started is staying motivated enough to remain consistent — no surprise here. Finding ways to keep you going becomes paramount.
Incorporate weight or performance-related benchmarks into your fitness or dietary programs. Once you’ve reached them, reward yourself with an extra cheat meal or a day off at the gym. This is a great way to increase your motivation levels and can be applied to any facet of life.
Conversely, it’s worth acknowledging that missteps along the way are bound to happen. There will be days when you will fall into the temptation of slashing open that bag of chips and end up undoing most of your hard work for the week.
A great way to prevent these slip-ups is to seek a workout buddy, someone that will hold you accountable and share similar goals as you. In tough times, they’ll be excellent sources of inspiration and motivation.
Time For Liftoff!
No matter if you’re trying to slash some pounds, gain muscle, or just become physically active again, solely getting started is arguably the hardest phase of becoming a regular at the gym and your local Whole Foods.
Hopefully, the above tips will help you start your fitness journey today, so you’ll get in your best shape sooner than later.
