Starting a fitness journey – however big or small – is something that we all need to think about at some point in our lives. You might wake up one day and decide it’s time for you to get fit, you might have been struggling with it for a while and want to make a positive change. Perhaps you’ve seen friends and family do the same and it’s spurred you on to make a start?
Whatever your reasons, everyone has the right and the opportunity to get fit, healthy and feel happy about themselves – inside and out.
“Where or how do I begin?”
It’s one of the top fitness questions we get asked. Beginning any journey is intimidating, let alone one that is health and fitness related, but with the proper information and preparation it doesn’t have to be. It’s an exciting opportunity!
But it’s really important to have the right preparation BEFORE you take your first step on your fitness journey. After all – you wouldn’t start a business without doing your homework, would you? Start a diet regimen or fitness program, but don’t have the proper plan in place and you could harm your metabolism, injure yourself, and potentially enter into a cycle of yo-yo dieting. So that said, what is the proper plan?
I’ve laid out some helpful steps below to ensure you get off onto the right foot and best ensure your success:
- Create a vision board or make a fitness goal.
Having a fitness goal in mind is a necessary step, but unless you can visualize what you really want to achieve, you might find that it’s very convenient to just set those goals aside.
Creating a set of goals and visualising them will help you to commit more readily to these goals. Put this in a place where you see it every single day; on a notice board, an image board at your desk or even post-its around the house – it’s okay to create new vision boards when you feel like those dreams and goals have been realised.
- Have the proper mindset.
The road to fitness is long and it takes a while to start seeing the results you are craving. To start off with, you’re going to need the willpower to train and start your journey. Getting yourself mentally ready is step number one, if ignored, you might end up on the wrong path for your goals.
- Pick a fitness plan you can live with.
The best workout is the one you can stick with consistently. For example, if you want to change your body, to change your life, you will have to get a plan that is aligned with your goal. Know what you will be training, which exercises you will be doing. You don’t have to have the perfect plan, but you should have a pretty good idea of what you should be doing.
- Life is about balance.
Most beginners believe that they have to do it all or nothing and, to make matters worse, they think they need to do it all perfectly – this is a sure-fire way to set yourself up for failure.
People are not perfect. You will have setbacks. You will fall off the wagon.
The important thing is to keep your goal in mind, use that to fuel your motivation and learn from your mistakes – this way you’ll keep learning and keep on improving.
- Get a coach.
We’re not being biased here, it’s just a proven fact that fitness routines that incorporate a coach are more likely to achieve results that those without. Once you have decided what it is you’d like to do you must make sure you are doing it properly. And having a fitness expert guide you (at least in the beginning) is very important. It helps to prevent injury and insure best results.
A coach can be your motivation when yours is slipping, they’re your teacher who guides you through each exercise and also a friend, someone to share your wins with and support you along your journey.
So, what’s next?
I’m guessing you’ve heard us talk about goals a lot, that if you want to make your goals a reality, then you must take positive steps to achieve them – actions speak louder than words and all that. So, take a second to think about what you want and what you are going to do to get them.
Remember, starting anything new is scary. But that fear is actually really powerful – you’ll be amazed at what you can learn by conquering your fears and just going for it!
