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I know far too well what it feels like to start your fitness journey with little to no knowledge about what exactly you’re getting yourself into. I remember four years ago, being determined to change my lifestyle, but at the same time, not knowing where to look for information, what to read, or where to begin. I would have dreamed of having a mentor to guide me through the process, but didn’t have any. As a result, I made many mistakes but I also learned a lot. I’d like to share with you five key points I wish I knew before starting my fitness journey, that would have saved me time and effort.
1. Nutrition
When I began my journey, I knew that eating right was an essential part of getting fit or losing weight but I honestly thought it wasn’t that big of a deal if I exercised intensely and regularly. I believed I’d burn these calories anyways, but I still tried my best at adopting a healthy diet, without knowing much about how to achieve it. So my version of eating right back then was consuming boiled potatoes, eggs, two toasts daily, a whole bag of raw almonds in a day, canned soups, fruits, close to no water, no vegetables, no meat, a small portion of jalapeño-flavored potato chips (yum!) and/or one piece of chocolate. I sincerely believed the last two foods wouldn’t be so harmful if I only had a little bit of it everyday and I was obviously wrong.
After working out for several months without noticing the significant weight loss and muscle definition I was expecting, I grew frustrated. I was certain my diet was irreproachable and I firmly thought I was training like a maniac. What I didn’t know was that if you want your workouts to show visible results quickly, you need to cut sugar and junk food altogether. And by sugar, I mean the obvious sweets like chocolate, cookies, cakes, but also other products that contain High Fructose Corn Syrup such as canned foods, cereals (no matter how healthy the packaging pretends they are), already-made frozen meals, low-fat products; and carbs such as potatoes, bread and pasta.
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Is a low carb diet easy to follow? I’ll speak from my experience and I’ll let you decide how you want to apply it to your own journey. My transformation has been gradual. I didn’t go from unhealthy to super healthy in a month; not because I didn’t want to, but because I was simply not equipped with he knowledge to get there. But looking back, I realize it was perfect that way. I definitely wouldn’t advise to even try to achieve an extreme diet change in such a short amount of time, because you’d probably find it too hard to keep up, you’d be starving, you’d certainly give up after a little while and you’d start eating unhealthy again which would result in gaining back the weight you had lost, and perhaps put on even more pounds. If you want lasting results, it’s going to take time. Start by slowly eliminating your bad habits or better yet, replacing them by good ones.
For instance, if you’re used to eating often between meals, start by having fruits and/or a handful of nuts, preferably raw almonds, once between each meal. Treat yourself to one cheat meal a week. If you consume a lot of pasta and white rice, try replacing those by healthier choices such as quinoa or brown rice. If you eat a lot of bread, try limiting yourself to two slices in the morning. If you have a sweet tooth like me and can’t take the thought of giving up chocolate, do as I did: I went from having a whole row of milk chocolate with hazelnuts (let. me. die), to having a piece of 70% dark chocolate every day, then I moved to 90% dark chocolate (yuk!) then eventually, stopped purchasing chocolate altogether. It’s small steps added together that are going to produce great results in the long run. Just keep in mind that the final goal is to eliminate processed food from your diet and unhealthy fats.
Today, I’d say my diet is 90% clean. Someone who’s used to eating unhealthy would qualify my diet as “strict” but it’s not. Eating healthy has become a lifestyle. I love feeding my body with great nutrients that give me energy (vs fatty or sugary foods that make you want to sleep). Have you ever heard the quote “The body is your temple, keep it pure and clean for the soul to reside in“? Well that’s exactly how I feel. And when you actually realize how harmful junk food is for your health, trust me the choice to eat clean and exercise regularly becomes easy.
If I go to the restaurant, I’ll eat whatever I want, I don’t mind to indulge if I feel like it but the thing is, I don’t really crave unhealthy food anymore. It took me years of slowly changing my eating habits to get to the point where I don’t feel like I’m gonna die if I don’t eat sugar (chocolate, cake, cookies) and if I do crave it, I’ll choose fresh fruits (never canned ones!) which is the healthiest source of sugar you’ll find. If I feel like my body needs chocolate, which happens occasionally, I’ll treat myself.
In the early stages of my journey, I used to beat myself up whenever I’d allow myself to eat sweets because I’d feel like all my efforts had been cancelled out just by having an ice cream once a week. I thought that my diet absolutely needed to be 100% clean. Don’t beat yourself up. Ever. Your mental well-being is just as important as your physical one. Feed your body with the right nutrients, treat yourself occasionally, exercice regularly and be assured that the results will follow. It’s a process that takes time and continuous effort.
The aim is for you to transition to a healthier lifestyle, and if the experience becomes a nightmare, it simply won’t work out. That’s why you have to take it easy.
One day, you’ll get to the point where it will become natural for you to choose healthy food over any other option you may be presented with, the point where you would rather eat healthy 90% of the time, simply because you love it, not because you feel pressured, guilty, or for any other negative reason.
So what does a typical healthy meal looks like: you need to have a protein source at each meal (eggs, lean meat, fish…) and never skip a meal; proteins help build muscle. This is very important: if you don’t consume enough protein, you won’t be able to build muscle mass at all; you also need to incorporate a good portion of vegetables. You can also brown rice or quinoa on the side if you want. To know the quantity of protein your body needs daily: take your body weight in kilograms and multiply it by 0.8. Don’t eat more than that as excess in protein will be stored as fat.
2. Workout
What you need to know is that just because you burn calories during physical exercise, doesn’t mean you’re burning fat. Before your body actually burns fat, it first burns the sugar (carbs). So if you exercise frequently and consume foods that are high in sugar on a regular basis, you won’t get prominent results because your body will not get to the stage where it burns fat, it will just eliminate the sugar. In order to get to the point where your body starts burning fat, it requires the presence of oxygen. So if you combine a low carb diet with a physical activity that’s intense enough for your body to want more oxygen, then you’re on the right path to burn fat.
I’d also like to get your attention on the meaning of “training hard”. Be honest with yourself and be humble. Just because you’ve been at the gym for an hour and a half doesn’t mean you’ve been productive. When I started my fitness journey, I would exercise five to seven days a week and I would complete one hour of cardio on the stationary bike and 30 minutes of abs everyday. The 30 minutes of abs I would complete weren’t too challenging. As soon as it would start burning, I’d have a break, not knowing that when it starts burning is exactly when you shouldn’t stop because that’s when your body operates its transformation!! Additionally, your definition of “training hard” will evolve as you gain muscle and endurance. I used to get a sense of pride after my workouts, I thought I’d get my dream body in the ensuing three or six months. If it was that easy, everybody would do it, right? I didn’t really realize the amount of work, discipline and dedication it took to transform and sculpt your body. Then I realized that if you think you’re working hard, well you’re gonna have to work much harder to get to the top. Just look at videos of fit girls training to have a glimpse of what real intense workout means. These women didn’t get to where they are overnight. It takes years of training to reach such a high level. So before getting to that level of strength and performance, you’re gonna have to start small and work your way up. My mistake was to think that I could reach their incredible level in six months, lifting as little as 12 lb weights at the end of the sixth month. Impossible. But you need to go through that phase of lifting 4lbs, then 8, then 12 in order to be physically able to gradually lift more. There is really no elevator to success. You have to start small. And if you ever have the bright idea to want to accelerate your transformation by executing the movements faster, or by adding heavier weight than you’re capable of lifting, learn from someone who’s been dumb enough to do it… Getting a torn meniscus (knee injury) that had me undergo surgery and stop exercising for a year was not fun. So don’t do it. Low and steady wins the race.
3. Mindset & Attitude
I remember watching an Oprah show maybe 10 years ago; it is around that time that I got into personal development. Tony Robins, whom I was seeing for the first time, was a guest. He kept talking about the stories we are used to telling ourselves. For instance, if you think you’re not good enough, that’s a story you tell yourself; and at the time, I didn’t really understand what he meant by that, why was it so important to know, and how could I apply it to my life, to improve it. It wasn’t until I read “The Power Of Now” by Eckhart Tolle, “The Seat Of The Soul” by Gary Zukav and “As A Man Thinketh” by James Allen that it started to make sense. Your mind is so powerful, that whatever you think, you are or become. It is as simple as that. Your thoughts, whether good or bad, will always end up manifesting themselves in real life. The stories that Tony Robbins was referring to are actually the thoughts you harbor about yourself, people, or situations. The stories are the mental conversations you have within yourself, the constant inner monologue about anything and everything. The constant judgement, good or bad, about yourself, a tree, a house, a friend, a stranger, work, your partner. I’m pretty sure you know what I’m talking about.
You are as great/weak as you think you are. If you think you’re strong, your whole attitude will exude strength; if you think you’re not good enough to execute something, you will be doubtful, unsure and chances are, you will fail. If you know you’re not too great at something but say to yourself: “I’m willing to learn and do all there is to do to improve”, now that’s a whole different mindset, an entirely different thought process or story, that puts you in a position to win. Even the simple fact of thinking “I’m sad today” and silently repeating it over and over and over throughout the day, every time you feel a pinch in your heart. That’s another story you keep telling yourself that increases the negative emotion. But if you notice that you’re sad one day and you tell yourself: “Okay, I don’t feel so great today but I am not going to allow this feeling to take over my entire day: what can I do to brighten up my day?” You write them down and take action. That’s a whole different mindset. The same goes for exercising.
If you start your workout with a mental resistance, with the mindset that you won’t be able to do it or that it’s gonna be so hard, that you haven’t trained in a long time and therefore don’t have endurance, or strength, well guess what, it’s probably gonna turn out to be true and you’ll feel miserable, strengthless, you’re gonna look at your watch every five seconds to check if an hour has gone by in five minutes.
If you attack your workout with the mindset that you are soooo happy to be on your journey to being your best self, that you are focused and willing to give it your 110%, that no matter how difficult it is, you are a hard working woman and you’ll get through it; you’ll feel much better during the effort, your whole experience will change. Now we don’t always feel happy about exercising. I know. Sometimes we’re exhausted and when that occurs, a voice in your head will say: “I’m so tired I really don’t want to workout today” but you’ll quickly add “but my commitment to reaching my goal and reaching my highest potential is far greater than my exhaustion so I will kick my own ass and do what I have to do. I am disciplined and committed!” You must be committed to your goal and get the work done no matter what. You have to be disciplined. And if during the workout you hear that inner voice again saying “ughhhh I really don’t want to this” replace it by firmly affirming: “I WANT TO KILL THIS WORKOUT SESSION BECAUSE THAT’S THE ONLY WAY I’LL SEE RESULTS! AND I WANT TO SEE RESULTS SO BRING. IT ON. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” and repeat that over and over and over again until you start feeling the motivation and determination in every fiber of your being.
4. Train from home or at the gym?
Training from home with the help of Instagram fit girls’ programs has undoubtedly helped me gain confidence, lose weight and get fitter. But for someone who’s never exercised and who doesn’t know how to execute the movements correctly, the risk of injury is huge. Not only was I not performing the jump squat movement correctly (until a trainer who worked at a fitness shop where I was purchasing weights showed me how to do it right), but I added ankle weights, did the exercise too fast and that’s how I got a knee injury. If you don’t do the exercises correctly you will absolutely not maximize the gains, because you simply will not use the targeted muscles properly. That’s why I feel like I’ve lost so much time training from home. So if you can, honestly, take a gym membership or even better, take a trainer. And if you choose to train from home, try to find someone to show you the right way to execute movements.
5. Fall in love with the process and the results will follow
I came across this phrase a lot throughout my journey and every time, I’d feel like choking someone! “What are you talking about?? I don’t care about the process, all I want are the results!!!! A bomb body!!!” I used to firmly think. But here’s the thing: if all you care about are the results, you will lose patience; you will look at yourself in the mirror after every single workout to try to see the signs of progress and if you don’t see any, you’ll get very discouraged. If all you care about are the results, you will most likely hate and botch your workouts, because all you’ll want is to accelerate the process, get it done and over with ASAP and get results quickly. Ah, wanting results quickly. When you naively think sculpting an amazing body takes just a couple months, you have the audacity to want quick results. When you finally realize that it actually takes years of extremely hard work, dedication and discipline, you calm down, get to work humbly and fall in love with the process. Trust me: been there, done that.
