Now when I say “starting” my fitness journey, let me be clear – this is something that I’ve been working towards for YEARS. I try to eat clean and stay active as a general rule of thumb, but recently I’ve been feeling like that simply isn’t enough.

I want to see some serious fitness results and in order for me to do that, I need a fitness PLAN.

This was something I used to shy away from, or feel like it was something that I didn’t have time for. “I’m too busy, I don’t have time to go to the gym,”

I’ve finally decided to change my mindset.

I’ve decided to make time and to stop making excuses.

My history

As I’ve said, fitness has been a theme in my life. I try to follow the main pillars of eating healthy and staying active, but as I get older, I find that actually losing weight is something that my body isn’t very fond of.

I have an endomorphic metabolic type, and if you don’t know what that is, check out my blog post here. What this means is that caloric deficits don’t always work for me -my body holds on to fat like my life depends on it (because that’s how bodies work – they want to SURVIVE).

Most diets and fitness plans leave me feeling tired, drained, and hungry.

Who wants to feel like that?

My relationship with the gym

I’m going to be very honest here, I’ve had some degree of body dysmorphia for years. It started when I was a teenager and was the ‘chunkiest,’ girl within our friend group.

The gym was a place of self-punishment for me.
I HAD to workout because I:
– ate too much
-looked “fat”
-was trying to look good for an event (prom, graduation, etc..)
-didn’t fit into a small pant size

The gym was where I went when I felt bad about myself, not a place to feel good.

I want to change this moving forward.

My starting point:

Eeeep! Insert acute vulnerability here:

At the time I’m writing this, I’m currently sick and in bed but I’ll be inserting my before photos:

It’s not horrible, but it feels very far from the physique and the healthy point that I want to be at.

Weight: 179 lbs
Height: 5′ 3.5”
Measurements: 32 – 28 – 41

Transparency is super important to me, so don’t let that title photo fool you – angles are EVERYTHING. I feel like it’s really important to be honest about where I’m starting off, and what my journey looks like at the moment.

My fitness plan:

This is what I’m going to be following for the next 12 weeks.

I want to incorporate 40 minutes of exercise 3-4 times per week and hit 10,000 steps every day.

I know myself and this is a sharp increase from what I was previously doing. I also know that if I make this a strict workout plan (i.e. go to the gym religiously every day of the week), I’m going to find reasons to abandon ship.

I want to work with myself, not against myself.

The activities that I consider “working out”,

• Strength training (lifting weights, or a ‘standard’ gym workout).
• Yoga
• Pilates
• Swimming (I used to be on the swim team, so this is one of my favorite ways to exercise).
• Biking
• Running/walking

According to my research, the main aspects to focus on when it comes to fitness are cardio, strength, and flexibility. These activities will touch on all three of those aspects, while also letting me practice activities that I genuinely enjoy

This way, I can give myself some structure, while also allowing some flexibility.

My meal plan:

So this is the part that I personally find really interesting.

We all know the adage: “Abs are made in the kitchen,” and the more I’ve researched nutrition, the more that this rings true. We really are what we eat! The more I learn about nutrition, the more interested in it I become.

This aspect has traditionally been the hardest part of my fitness journey – I live to eat and I hate restrictions.

But I think this is the aspect that I’m looking forward to the most. I have found a new love for cooking and nutrition and I’m excited to learn and implement what works for me! I’m also really excited to share.

Currently:

• Carb cycling – If you are new to this idea, you can check out this blog post here. This basically consists of high-carb days and low-carb days. The days
• Eating mindfully but not indulgently (I’m still working on creating balance without overly obsessing over tracking my calories. I’ll be writing more about this later as I continue my journey).
• High protein
• Caloric deficit: I use the Samsung Health ap that pairs up with my Galaxy Watch, so this makes the tracking process super easy.

Want to follow my journey?

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