Fitness Goals Progress Report!
Today marks Progress DAY!
As of last week, I have officially reached 4 years of my fitness journey. Here's how it went.
2017-2019:
The first two years of my journey were marked by trying fads, large amounts of cardio, and experimenting with a personal trainer. While I put work in, I was not consistent. My diet was a cycle of binge eating and unhealthy portion controls. My "cleansing" included monthly diuretics. And my workout regimen, aside from training sessions, was strictly based on wearing a waist trainer on the elliptical.
While I don't recommend this way of starting as many of these tactics were dangerous and didn't breed lasting results, I did learn a few skills that have helped in my current journey:
Proper form for using free weights and machines. I got 3 low-cost sessions with a personal trainer in 2018 to teach me proper squat form and how to use the weight machines. This took some of the fear off of the gym machines and gave me an understanding of what good soreness feels like.
Importance of water. During this time, I battled with chronic constipation and dehydration. In late 2018, I implemented drinking 1 gallon of water daily. This trend helped with both problems while improving my skin and hair growth.
How to listen to my body. During this time I battled anxiety and depression at their highest. In this, whenever my mood would change I would shock my system with periods of starvation with high exercise or binging with no exercise. From this, I quickly learned how to recognize the damaging effects of these practices on my body.
2019:
In early 2019, I became very ill. As a result, I spent 2019 relearning how to make myself well. This is when I feel as though my fitness journey really began. I had decided to do this the long way, not the easy way. I wanted to change my life, not just my body. In 2019, as a strong foundation, I learned:
What I could eat. I don't eat intuitively, but due to allergies, I had to start over and reintroduce foods to my system. From this, I learned what made me feel better or worse when I ate.
How to train. I began researching cardio and strength training methods. I tried every workout variation under the sun. I tried running and realized I liked it. I tried fasted cardio and saw the greatest results on my body. I tried weighted machines and hated it. I tried free-weight exercises and saw exponential progress. I tried intermittent fasting and found the 16/8 split the most useful for my lifestyle. I just tried everything and whatever worked I kept.
The value of post-workout care. I was working out 7 days a week and doing two-a-days twice a week during summer 2019. This schedule proved to be too tedious on my body and costly to my time. I had to learn how to care for my body at that high of a workout schedule and how to minimize my workout times to fit with my busy schedule.
2020:
I saw the most drastic growth. I went from about 150lbs to 135 lbs in about three months. The valuable lessons I learned from this journey is:
Consistency is key! I made it a point to exercise for at least 30 minutes a day. This changed my life.
Be intentional about what and how you train. The mind to muscle connection goes hard. Basic cardio (running) and HIIT workouts are great, but real muscle growth comes from controlled mind to muscle movements. This equates to strength.
The usefulness of calorie/macro counting. I started quarantine eating 1200 calories and doing tons of HIIT. This got me lean but kept me weak. This was a great way to start seeing changes in my body but was far too extreme for the body goals I'd like. Similarly, doing this allowed me to learn how to eat until full, even if that doesn't fit within my 1200 calorie limit.
2021:
So far I am off to a great start and don't plan on stopping. This year I am focusing on strength, flexibility, and agility. Every month I have been challenging myself to try diverse ways of exercising to continue to reach my goals. For March, I am walking at least 3 times a week. I want to give my body the break it needs, but still, get my heart active so I maintain my progress. In the coming months, I'll try other things. But for now, these are the results I have so far for the year. After doing a glute challenge in January, progress pics coming soon to IG, my legs look phenomenal. After defaulting on the banded challenge for February, my strength has significantly decreased.
