83. 6 Steps To Starting A Successful Fitness Journey

Basically , you're wanting to know exactly how I would get started so that you could do the same thing , of course , and or I've had it phrased , you know , I need a routine to get started on my fitness journey or I'm really feeling stuck . How the heck do I start my fitness journey ?

Like , what are your tips for someone who's just starting or restarting , or someone who's completely lost , right , and like , really just doesn't know where to start ? So this is going to be good for you if you are in that position .

If you've ever wondered like , okay , what would someone in the space who's already , you know , a seasoned veteran , let's say , what would they do right to get started ?

And I think about that all of the time when I'm coaching my ladies and a question comes up and I'm like , man , I went through that and it was like such a rough period for me and if I could skip that whole period of whatever it is like restrictive eating or a crappy mindset , or never miss a Monday or never miss a workout in your program , whatever the

case may be like . I just wish there are certain things that I just wish I wouldn't have wasted my time with , but I just didn't know any better . So I am going to talk in this episode . Actually , I'm not even going to talk about . I'm just going to tell you exactly what I would do personally if I were getting started on my fitness journey now .

When I started my fitness journey , it was after I had had my second baby , so I did have a little bit of baby weight to lose . I wasn't really loving the look of my body . I didn't necessarily hate my body , but it was just like I'm not really looking like I was pre-pregnancy . But then again , do I want to look like I did pre-pregnancy ?

Do I want to look better ? You know really assessing like what I wanted and honestly I didn't know .

Which is part of the problem when you don't exactly know what your goals are , it's hard to come up with a plan to get to those goals and then you feel like you are wondering if you're doing the right thing and a lot of that comes from the fact that you are trying to lose weight and you are trying to build muscle and you are trying to recomp your body ,

change your body composition , and those are all possible . But when you don't really know what your focus is , you know , some days you're focused on cardio and fat loss and weight loss and then some days you're like I kind of want to build some muscle , so I think I'll go to the gym and lift heavy and you don't really know what you're doing .

And that was part of my problem . I thought , well , let me , I don't even know how to . I don't even know what I thought . To be honest , I wanted to change how my body looked . At that point in time , I just thought I need to start working out .

I was only running and I'm like I need to start working out for me had no really idea what that meant , but I'm like I need to . I don't even know if I wanted to get stronger . I don't know . I guess that's the problem is , I didn't know what I wanted . I just wanted to start working out and look better .

I didn't necessarily want to lose weight , I didn't necessarily want to get stronger , I just wanted to start working out , and maybe that's where some of you are too . Maybe you're listening to this and you're like , yeah , that's what I think . I just need to start working out and eating better , but I don't even know exactly what the hell that means .

So I will preface this by saying that it is key to pick a goal , pick a target and stick with it , at least for a few months . It's really hard when you don't know exactly what your goal is , to be able to do the things , because weight loss is completely different than changing the entire look of your body .

If you only want to lose weight , you will do different things , different workouts , differently than if you want to build muscle and change the complete look of your body .

They are not the same thing , but this is what I would do if I was getting started on my fitness journey , and this is what I encourage you to do if you are just getting started on your journey . But the way that I'm going to say it is , I would X , y and Z . Okay .

So again , because I just want to tell you exactly what I would do if I knew then what I know now . This is what I would have done , because it would have saved me so much time . It makes me sick .

So there are six things that I want to talk about that will hopefully help you to get started , and this is exactly what I would do and what I would focus on getting started in my fitness journey , and I would work on these things one at a time .

So , the first thing that I would do starting out my journey and please take this , as I think you should do this if you were just starting out your journey so I'm not going to say this is what you should do , you should track your food for two weeks I'm going to say this is what I would do .

Please , though , know that I mean , I wish you would do these things starting out in your fitness journey , because this is exactly what you need to know . So , number one , I would track my food for two full weeks , eating exactly what I am eating , no changes .

So if I were to get started right now and I don't know where to start , that's part of the problem as well is that you don't know where to start . You don't know your current habits , so taking an inventory of , honestly , all of your habits would be good , but I think that's overwhelming .

So for me , if I were just starting out , I would start tracking my food for two weeks . I wouldn't make any changes , because there's no sense in going to the grocery store , buying new foods , all these things , if you don't know what you are doing , right ? So , tracking my food for two weeks again , I wouldn't try to hit a protein goal . I wouldn't try .

I would pretend like I knew nothing , because when you're getting started , you really don't know anything . So just track your food for two weeks . Don't aim at anything . This is literally . You just want to know , like , how you've been eating up into this point . Right , this is your now .

If I would have changed this and , just like you know , started hitting a goal or started , you know , shooting for different macros , that's not what got me to where I am right now . So that's why , when I say I would just track my food for two weeks , eating exactly what I'm doing , making no changes , this is just knowledge .

This is what got me to where I am now . This is my awareness , this is my education . This is information for me to look at . Right , I can track this on my fitness pal . I can literally export it , print it out and save it and highlight the foods , the protein amounts , like I can see the calories . I can average it out .

I can do whatever I want and say , okay , for the last two weeks , this is , on average , what I've been eating per day , this is my current situation , this is what I'm eating and this is why I am where I am right .

I can average that out and say like , okay , I'm eating this amount of calories , this amount of protein , this amount of fat , this amount of carbs . I don't really know what that means yet , but this is what it is , so kind of soak that in I would track that .

I would really dissect it and go through it and say , okay , like this is the reality of where you are .

Because in my own journey , when I did start , what I did was just started , you know , with portion control containers and the food list , and I don't know how that differed exactly from what I was doing , because I was eating off of a list , and so I think a big part of what I was missing in my own journey is like this is what I was doing to get me

to where I was and , honestly , it probably wasn't that bad . I probably just needed a little bit of tweaking . Instead I went off the deep end and started restricting foods and all this other shit .

So I would track my food for two weeks , take that knowledge and then what I would do secondly is if my goal was weight loss , I would put myself in a deficit of 200 calories , but only if my goal was weight loss and only if I had 200 calories to give right . So if my goal is weight loss , I'm going to put myself in a deficit of 200 calories .

If my goal is body recomposition body recomp I'm going to stay at those current calories the average that I've taken for the last two weeks but I'm going to increase my protein . So I'm just going to play with those macros . So I'm going to stay at my . That's what I would say my own goal is . For me personally , it would be body recomposition .

So I'm going to stay at my current calories , but I'm going to increase my protein , because if I were to look through my last two weeks of knowledge , I'm probably hitting like 60 grams of protein per day . This is just an example . So I need to up my protein to one gram per pound of my goal body weight .

That's going to be my new protein goal and I'm going to fill in the rest of those calories with fats and carbs . So let's say , for example , I'm giving myself 1,750 calories , I'm going to hit my goal weight of protein , I'm going to fill that in and then I'm going to fill the rest of the left over calories with carbs and fats .

Keep in mind it's a little bit of math here . Carbs and protein are four calories per gram and fats are nine calories per gram . So you will take your goal weight of protein , you will multiply that by four and that's your calories that are going to consume the protein . The leftover calories you're going to divide out between carbs and fats .

And there's my macros . I would start hitting those for about a week or two before I even do anything else . So I'm going to start focusing on that protein , on that calories goal , and hitting the rest with the carbs and fats . And that's it right .

So I'm tracking my food for two weeks and then I'm making adjustments and I'm depending on my weight loss goal or my body recap goal . Whatever the goal is . I'm figuring out my calories , figuring out my new macros and I'm hitting those for two weeks . That's it . I know we're a month in and you're like um , that's not any progress , but it is .

It's laying the foundation , and without a foundation this ain't no work anyways . So lay that foundation . So after that , number three is what I would personally do is I would start lifting weights four days a week , because my goal is and was , body recomposition . So I would start lifting weights four days a week , I would start hitting 10 , I'm sorry .

I would start hitting eight to 10,000 steps per day and that's it . So I'm weightlifting four days a week , I'm aiming for eight to 10,000 steps per day and that's it . That's what I'm doing for workouts . Along with that , I am going to also start supplementing with protein shakes , protein bars , collagen and reds and greens . That's all for that right now .

So I'm tracking my food for two weeks . I'm changing around my macros for two weeks . I'm starting after that . We're a month in . I'm going to start lifting weights four days a week and I'm going to start hitting eight to 10,000 steps daily .

And I'm going to start adding in some supplements with protein shakes , which I probably would have already done to hit my macros , but that's okay . Protein bars , collagen , reds and greens those are like my must haves personally for hitting my protein every single day . Collagen is so important .

Our body is naturally slow down the production of collagen as we age , so collagen is something that I will always , always , always , supplement with . And then reds and greens for digestion are just a non-negotiable . So once I've added in my weightlifting , I'm also going to start supplementing with the protein shakes , bars , collagen , reds and greens .

Those are my non-negotiables . So at this point , we've got our tracking information . We've started hitting our macros solidly for two weeks . We are now lifting four days a week , hitting our step goal . We're getting our movement in . We're feeling good . Right , we've made some habitual changes . We've done it slowly .

We're adding in these supplements , so we're starting to feel better . We've got these staple foods , we've got our routine and that's it for a while . And honestly , as far as the macros and the workouts , that's it period . That's all I'm doing for a very long time . I'm going to stick to that consistency and that's it , like that's what I'm rolling with , right .

So , as far as macros , workouts , a few supplements right in the beginning , that's all you need to do . Can I get an amen ? For that's all that you need to do starting out your fitness journey how freaking simple is that in relation to what I did when I was starting my fitness journey . It was so freaking , overwhelming .

Now let's jump into a couple of the things that are also very , very important , but I'm probably not going to focus on them at first and this may or may not be the backwards way to think about this , because the things that I'm going to talk about are very important , but I'm just being honest and sharing with you how I would get started on my fitness journey

and that's what I would do . So the next thing I'm going to start working on is getting better slash more sleep . So I'm going to work on getting better sleep and I'm going to work on getting more sleep . So that obviously means going to bed a little bit sooner and getting good sleep . For me , right now seems like it's impossible .

So , whatever that looks like for you , if you need to take some magnesium before you go to sleep to help you de-stress , if you need to read a little bit , if you need to turn your electronics off , you know whatever you need to do to get better sleep . That's , I feel , like a very individual thing . But getting better and more sleep .

Managing stress so that your stress levels are down . Your anxiety levels are down , because that plays a huge part on your fitness , your health , your digestion , all of it . So managing your stress is huge .

And then I added in go to therapy , because I don't feel like , honestly , you can have a successful health and fitness journey without your mind being right , and that's a huge thing that I would do if I was just starting over again . I didn't do these things , but I would start to implement going to therapy , managing my stress and focusing on sleep .

I should have added water , but I feel like that's a given . So those are things sleep , stress , therapy that I would add on a few weeks into this journey . And the reason I would do it that way I personally would do it that way is because I'm a pretty motivated person . I like the tactical thing .

So seeing my food tracking , making those changes , feeling good , getting my movement up , focusing on lifting , like doing all that is going to be very motivating . And then I'm going to hit this plateau of where I'm like um , okay , I'm sick of tracking my food , I'm not seeing results fast enough .

You know all the stuff that happens between like six to eight weeks where you're like I don't know if I really want to do this .

So I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing physically because it's attainable , and then I'm going to work on the other , not so drastic things like working on my sleep , my stress , and going to therapy and talking through things right Journaling , mindset work , breath work , things like that .

Those are the things that are really gonna get you to the next level , and I'm gonna talk about that in some upcoming , in an upcoming episode , because I think that's a very important part . But I personally wouldn't do that in the beginning . Should you do that in the beginning ? Probably what I have done in the beginning ?

No , so I'm just being honest and telling you that . The last thing this would technically be this sixth thing , let me go through them one more time . I would track my food for two weeks . Number two I would make changes to my calories and my macros . Number three I would start lifting weights four days a week , hitting eight to 10 K steps .

Number four I would add in supplements . Number five I would focus on my sleep , stress and start going to therapy . And number six I would start saying no to anything . I don't have time for God . This is huge . It's okay to not reply to text messages , phone calls . It's okay to take yourself out of a group chat God , those things below my mind .

It's okay to say no , thank you , I don't wanna partake in that activity or I can't do that this weekend or I don't have time to help you set up for X , y and Z fundraiser . Who cares what people think about it ?

This lifestyle , this , these goals that we're talking about you starting your fitness journey and you making these changes and you tracking and you working out and you really taking this lifestyle to the next step and actually making it a lifestyle . This lifestyle and these goals require your attention . You require your attention . And what's the saying ?

Your energy goes to where your attention goes . That's not right . But you know what I'm trying to say . You've heard the quote and I totally butchered it . But what you give attention to , you also give your energy to right .

So if you are giving your attention to things , people , events , whatever that aren't benefiting you or are just draining you , causing you stress , causing you to not be able to sleep well , then all of these things are affecting your fitness journey .

Then you're not gonna be able to eat as well , then you're not gonna be able to work out as much , as often as efficiently . And this is exactly what I'm dealing with right now in my own life .

I have so much of my attention and energy going to things that aren't my food , that aren't my sleep , that aren't my stress , that's not therapy , that's not my workouts , like it's all just extra stuff that , yeah , some of it I need to do and some of it I need to say no , thank you , I can't carry that load anymore .

I cannot help with that , and I've done really good with this in the past with just saying no to things . But I'm not doing very well with it right now and I'm feeling like I'm just spread too thin . So that's why I put this in there , because it would be something that I would really really focus on .

And those are things like the supplements , the sleep , stress , therapy and the saying no to anything that you don't have time or energy for .

Those are kind of like the extra things right , you don't hear about that in a workout plan usually , but those are the things that we miss especially and like those a few weeks after you get started , that really change the game , because you start to lose the attention that you put on your health and fitness and your macros and your workouts and your attention

goes elsewhere and , honestly , we need to pay so much attention to where our energy is going and if you really want this health and fitness journey to last , you have to focus your attention on the shit that matters .

That's why I really encourage you to go through your Instagram , see who you're following , see what you're looking at , see what you're reading , see what you're hearing , see what you're seeing , because that's where your attention is going .

And if you have time to scroll social media and look at all these shiny objects and then you don't have time to go work out , that's a problem , right , that's an attention problem . So I think that part is so stinking important and that's why I personally would really focus on that when starting out my fitness journey .

So those are the actual tangible tips , that and things that I would do if I was just starting out my fitness journey , because I truly believe this is the path that matters . You can , honestly , just stay within your calorie range , hit a general amount with your macros , lift four .

I would up that to five days a week eventually , but you can just lift four days a week with a standard , really good program and then work on your steps , your supplements , and then work on sleep , stress , your mental health , and then just work on managing your attention and managing your energy and saying no to anything that you don't have time for .

And let me just tell you how empowering it is to say no and to leave a group chat that's sucking the life out of you , or to mute that group chat or whatever . It is , just to say no , I don't have time for that . I really wish that I could help with that , but I cannot .

Maybe there's another way that I could donate or that I could assist , but what you're asking me to do I just don't have the time and energy for , or I'm not going to make the time and energy for , however you want to say it , but that is how I would get started on my fitness journey and that is how I would also encourage you to get started on your

fitness journey . This is the more simple you can make this . This is the actual way that it becomes attainable , because if you just have a couple of things to focus on , it becomes really easy to do those things every single day , and that's why I think starting out very slowly and with those tangible things that you can keep going with .

It really just cuts out all that other stuff of restricting foods and food lists and meal plans and workout plans of six days a week and you know , tracking all of the things like it's just exhausting and it's not necessary and that's why you quit because it's exhausting and because it's unnecessary . So I hope you enjoyed this episode .

This is something like I said , that I get asked quite a bit , so I'm excited to be able to share it with you and hopefully you love the simplicity of that .

And if you ever have any questions or you love this episode or you just want to reach out and say hi , I , like I always say , enjoy getting your messages on Instagram and emails so much I love hearing from you . It really helps me to be able to honestly just know who I'm talking to .

It's like I'm sitting down with my best friends and just chatting with you and giving you this tangible information , and so I really appreciate you reaching out . I really appreciate you listening . I hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you next week .