Beginning the Journey

Beginning the Journey


I think the most important thing that anyone can do in fitness is to start small.  Too many people work too hard in the beginning and they become demotivated.  I see beginners going to the gym all of the time and they push themselves to the breaking point and they don't understand that it is not necessary.  It isn't necessary to wake up at 5 am, run 5 miles, then eat salad all day, in order to become fit.

My best piece of advice is to start your fitness journey by taking a 30-60 minute walk outside everyday at the same time.  For example, you may come off of work and begin your walk at 6 pm and finish it by 7 pm.  After a week or two, this will start to become more routine and you will look forward to these walks.  It's a time to relax and erase your mind of all of the stress you have had during the day.  After you have finally eased into it, you can finally get to the gym.  Walking everyday for 30 minutes is important because it isn't something that you are going to dread and at the same time it is something that you can make a routine.  The problem that most people have is that they fall out of a routine.  You may have motivation to start your routine, but once that motivation fades, it is important to keep going out of habit.  All you have to do is replace your time at the gym with the time you used to spend walking.  Therefore, you will have already built the foundation of your schedule with your walks.

If you try to start your fitness journey too aggressively, you are going to burn out.  Fitness isn't a race, rather, it's a marathon.  It is important to set goals, but I think that people often times get too caught up in the short term goals.  Of course, you need short term goals to stay on track for your final fitness goals, but they have to be realistic goals.  Becoming stronger takes a lot of time and it isn't something that will happen overnight, and it may not even happen after a year.  That is why it is so important to make it a routine.  It is a complete lifestyle change and you are going to have to look forward to going to the gym. This can be accomplished if you ease into it and make every step enjoyable.