Fitness and wellness is something I’ve always been interested in learning about but never fully took on. One of my main goals for this year was to focus on this for myself. I am slowly starting to learn more about what is and isn’t working for me and I thought it would be fun to share my journey with you guys. I am in no way claiming to know it all or be a professional. Wellness isn’t something that’s right or wrong and it can mean different things for everyone. I’m here to motivate you to better yourself and find what works for you. Some of the things I’ve learned might help you but they might not. I just want to throw that into there to remind you guys to always do your own research and listen to your body!! I figured I would start by sharing a few things that I’ve learned in the last six-ish weeks of my fitness/wellness journey.
For me, consistency is key. If I don’t create a schedule and plan for workouts, I’ll most likely fall into not working out and giving up. Something that has helped me a ton with workouts is using the app, Alive. This app was created by Whitney Simmons who I absolutely adore. I love her inspirational messages and her even better workouts, highly recommend following her on Instagram if you don’t already. Alive is a great app if you’re someone who doesn’t necessarily know what they’re doing(aka, me) but it also is great for advanced workouts as well. The app includes different workout programs that are all planned out, timed, and make working out seamless and fun. I plan to a more in-depth blog post on this so I’ll leave it at that for now. Another thing I’ve been doing to stay consistent with things like journaling, taking my vitamins, etc., is writing everything down in a list. Every night I’ll make a ‘to-do list’ for the next day on my notes app. I write down literally everything I have to do from showering + making my bed to working out and taking my vitamins. These lists have helped me a ton. But with all of that being said leads me to the next thing I learned…
Giving myself grace and not being too hard on myself is so important. I feel like this goes for every aspect of life but I’m really learning to do this more with this little journey I’m on. If I wake up truly not feeling like I can work out, I won’t. But I also won’t be hard on myself for it. It is so important to listen to your body when working out. Being someone who has previous injuries and struggles a bit with working out I feel like this is so important. You don’t want to hurt yourself or burn yourself out. This leads me to another thing I give myself grace with, I’m extremely beginner when it comes to working out. I played soccer for 8 years when I was younger but other than that, I’ve never been athletic or an in-shape person. I started off using 10-pound weights for the workouts I’m currently doing and I quickly realized that was way too much weight for me. My upper body has always been super weak so I decided to try out 3 and 5-pound weights and they feel SO much better for me. At first, I was honestly embarrassed that I needed 3-pound weights but giving yourself grace with these kinds of things is so important.
And again, going off the previous thing I learned, learning to feel comfortable in your skin and being confident in everything you do. I’m definitely still working on this but the more I take care of myself mentally and physically, the more I feel better about myself. There’s no reason to be embarrassed about using 3-pound weights because that’s what works for me and my body. There’s no reason to be embarrassed that my body shakes when I do most exercises because I’m in the process of strengthening my body. This goes along with giving yourself grace but being confident in your own skin and not letting the judgment of others get to you is so so important. And like I said, this isn’t something that happens overnight or even in 6 weeks of taking care of yourself. I’ve definitely been better but there are still days I stare at my Instagram of me in a workout set wondering if the five people who shared my story, shared it because they’re judging me or because they just like the set I’m wearing. Getting over this way of thinking has been something I’ve been working on. But staying consistent with this fitness and wellness journey has helped me to love myself as I am and not listen to outside noise.
For the sake of keeping this blog post short, I’m gonna leave it at this. Listen to your body, create a plan, stay positive, give yourself grace, don’t let others judgment affect you and drink your water(; I’m planning out a few more health and wellness related posts but if there’s anything specific you guys want to see or have questions about feel free to leave a comment or send me a direct message on Instagram! I hope this post gave you some encouragement to go out and better yourself wherever you can!
xx,
Liv