What does it mean to have a Fit Lifestyle?
Some may be curious what does it truly take to get that fit physique many dream of achieving and tend to forget that its a lifestyle change. More times then not the nutrition is the hard part in the journey. Every hear the saying "Abs are made in the kitchen"? Personally when I am at a gym and a member asks why they aren't getting the results they desire the first thing we ask is how are things looking outside of the gym. You can't expect dramatic changes in your life when the only thing you change is a quick 20min treadmill session. Pllleeeeeaaaasssseee don't be one of those people looking for things like "10min workout for 6pack abs" or "20min at home workout to get shredded" people this isn't easy! If it was easy don't you think more people would be doing it and our obesity rates wouldn't be rising!? Don't look for the short cuts or the magic pill to suddenly change your body over night, put in the work now and I guarantee you will celebrate later. Don't get me wrong I'm not lecturing you telling you everything you do is wrong and you must do this and that, I want to help provide the knowledge to help you make this an easier life style change. I work at two gyms so I like to think I have an idea on what I am talking about so don't feel overwhelmed :)
So lets get down to business shall we..
Step 1: Set a Goal
This is the number one step before anything else because you need to know what you are hoping to achieve. Some gym memberships are not cheap so you want to make sure you get the best out of it and it has what you need. Ask yourself now what you are hoping to achieve getting into fitness, it doesn't have to be related to the gym but perhaps you're someone who is middle aged and they're just looking for a way they can keep up with their kids, or maybe you have always wanted to take part in a triathlon or like most of us you just want to look good. What ever this goal is keep it in mind and write it down. Now whenever you think about quitting or start bringing up excuses look back to why you started.Step 2: Learn
There is so much to learn along the journey but for now start with the basics. Learn what kind of body type you are, what area of the gym do you need to focus on to achieve your goal, how to use proper form, what each piece of equipment does (if you don't have a gym membership maybe look into it or look into ways to get fit outside of the gym), and learn the body parts and how to apply them into your training by using a training split (more to come on training splits!)
Step 3: Nutrition
One healthy meal won't make you fit yet one bad meal won't make you fat. You only get what you put into your body, so you guessed it, that pizza you have in the back of your mind won't exactly help in this journey. Now hold up, who doesn't love pizza right? Fair enough so thats why you should incorporate a cheat day once a week. However don't go throwing everything out thats bad because thats too big of a change too fast. As I mentioned above I want to help make this transition easy so if you just instantly hop on the health wagon you may feel overwhelmed which is not what we want. How do you transition? well start looking at your meals, is your goal to lose weight or get lean? well maybe start to cut back on some things. If you're like me and love soda and can drink around 2 cans a day try and cut down to 1 can a day then eventually swap that out for water instead. See how that can work with the foods you should be avoiding? Give it a go because thats the way I did it and I felt so much better and have not missed pop at all in fact I have not had pop in months and when I do it makes me feel sick. Now that you are cutting back a bit look into how many calories you actually need to slowly burn fat. (More to come on nutrition so stay posted!)
Step 4: Train Smart
We want this to be enjoyable not a one way ticket to the chiropractor or hospital so train smart! What does it mean to train smart:
- Use proper form: Don't be afraid to ask the trainers at the gym how to do proper form on a machine or free weight exercise. Working at a gym Id much rather have someone ask me how to do something then see them walk away all sore and never come back again.
- Don't over do it in the gym: Don't feel the need to do every exercise known to man al in one workout. It's totally unnecessary.
- Train everything equally: Don't skip legs! don't be that gym goer who has chicken legs, looks ridiculous and is silly to skip out on half your body! You cannot selectively take fat off certain area, sorry to break it to you but thats not how it works.
- Make sure you get an adequate amount of sleep: You need your Zzzz's, try and aim for 8hours a night. When you are sleeping your body is recovering so if you don't give it enough time to refuel and build itself back up then you will end up running into the dirt.
- Work on your weaknesses: If there is an area you don't necessarily excel at and think oh well I will just go extra hard for the rest of my workout to make up for it guess what, you will end up becoming unbalanced which will lead to further issues.
Step 5: Record Your Journey
Theres nothing better then seeing results and feeling better. These results are the fire that keeps you going so you use them to your advantage. Try taking progress photos (front shot, side shot, and back shot) at the beginning of this journey and every other week from now on. Try writing things down like recording your workouts so you can see you are gaining strength or lasting longer/ feeling better because couple days from now it will be too hard to remember what weight you started off with. Notice I didn't say check the scale? Well theres a reason for it, sure its a helpful resource to use every now and then but don't obsess over what it says. Some cases you may be burning fat but putting more muscle on so the weight might not fluctuate as you expect so take it easy.
Step 6: Make It a Habit
Consistency is KEY! Stick with it and you will get there. Popular beliefs say that it takes roughly 21 days in order for something to become a habit. Is this true? maybe, maybe not. Depends on the person but just keep in mind that it takes time. Be patient. One thing I always like to think about is it takes 4 weeks for you to notice a difference, 8 weeks for your friends to notice, and 12 for the rest of the world so keep going! Also, become accountable for your actions. No one can do this for you, yes people can support you but it all comes down to you. You need to build that mental toughness to say no to those bad habits and push through those tough times. Remember if you want to achieve something you have never had before you need to do something you've never done before!
Step 7: Keep Going
There will be times where things may not seem to be going in your favour but look back to where you wrote down your goal and remind yourself why you started. Keep going! If you haven't started then what are you waiting for?
Thanks for checking out my first blog post! Please share or tell you friends and stay posted because I have a lot to come :) you can expect to see at least two posts a week going over anything from exercises, nutrition, lifestyle, and some recipes. Feel free to post any comments or any questions and I will do my best to get back to you or make a blog post about it :)
Ronnie Vercruyssen
"Every champion was once a contender that refused to give up"- Rocky Balboa
