The gym is a terrifying place. Horrifying. I spent years telling myself, “I am going to start next week. I am going to go to the gym. I am going to work out consistently.” I had a few stints that lasted maybe a month, but I never stuck to it. To be honest, I hated going to the gym. Everyone knew exactly what to do at the gym; they all looked amazing! I compared myself to them all immediately. The voices in my head drove me to quit time and time again. Until one day I didn’t.
I would like to make it very clear that I am not an expert on fitness by any means. Everything I have learned, I found out through research and curiosity. My goal for this blog is to provide people just like me with all of the things I learned in one place. Researching fitness is hard! People have drastically different opinions on how to get the best results. However, everyone’s end goal is different. I just found out this year that there is a difference between body building, olympic lifting, and power lifting. Lifting weights is lifting weights, what do you mean there is a difference?! News to me. We learn something new every day.
The one thing to focus on as you read through all these blog posts, yourself. I guarantee our gym goals are not the same. They can be similar in many many ways, but they will never be the same. I want people to take what they need from these posts, but leave what you don’t. You do not have to follow every single thing I say. You may read something and think to yourself, “why on earth would I ever want to do that?” Whether it is workouts, meal planning, rest day/recovery, or lifestyle, you do not have to follow everything I do. Please use this as guide, a resource for help.
Now, the worst part of writing this, the paragraph dedicated to who I am. I am a twenty-five year old, single girl living in the city with her dog. (Yes, I will include pictures of him. I truly believe he is the cutest thing on the planet). I work full-time and have a pretty typical life. I have no great story on how I got started at the gym. At that time, I was living with one of my best friends, and she kept talking about how she wanted to start going to the gym. I pride myself in being extremely supportive of my friends, so I had to support her by going with her. We had a system.
4:45 a.m: Wake up and shed a little tear for sleep deprivation.
4:55 a.m: Leave the house and walk to the gym (we had skywalks that connected our buildings, which I think helped me be able to go to the gym even in the winter).
5:00 a.m: Do gym shit.
6:30 a.m: Go home and get ready for the day. Don’t forget to reward yourself with the most scrumptious breakfast you can make 🙂
This system worked GREAT… for about a few weeks. Then she ditched me! I was butthurt, I’m not going to lie. However, I wanted to keep going. Since we are being extra truthful, I thought one of the guys at the gym was super cute. I kept going to the gym on the off chance that maybe he thinks I am cute too. Spoiler alert, we never once communicated and no, there is no love story that ensued from this.
After a month or two, I started to realize that I was craving going to the gym. I was addicted. I would find myself at work preparing for what my workout was going to be the next morning. I contemplated hitting the gym for a second time that day. I could not resist! I hate to admit this, but that feeling only lasted for about a month. The honeymoon stage was over, and my work life took a drastic change that completely ruined my routine. My schedule went from consistent to all over the place. One day I would work from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. The next day, I worked from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. My gym routine suffered from this, but it completely got thrown off the rails at the end of March when I adopted my little baby.
Raising a three month old puppy is not for the weak. Especially when he is a mini Aussie, that spends all day running. Ares, my absolute pride and joy, kept me on my toes. Long walks almost every day, trips to the dog park, guilt from leaving him at home: all of this destroyed my motivation to go to the gym. I mean, how could I just leave him! After the first month, he started to really settle into his new home, and I could tell he was comfortable. At this point, I knew I wanted to be back in the gym. Fortunately, I was still living with my best friend at the time. She had adopted Ares’ brother at the same time, so we worked out a system where one of us would go do what they needed to do while the other was at home with the dogs. She may have ditched going to the gym with me, but she was willing to help watch my baby while I started back in the gym.
From that moment on, I have been consistent with getting to the gym. I miss a day here and there, but life happens. You cannot make it to the gym every day, every week. The key is to not beat yourself up over the days you miss. Accept that priorities change daily, and sometimes the gym is what you have to give up for that day. It’s completely okay. Once you get over that hurdle, just get back to it!
No matter what I say, you are the deciding factor to your success. I cannot force you to go to the gym, eat healthy meals, or take care of your mental health. All I can do is provide you with the tools. The best advice I can give you is to always prioritize yourself first. Do what you can to achieve your goals, but don’t burn yourself out. If you need a break, take a break. Take care of yourself, and the rest will get easier. I am so proud of you already for taking the first steps to starting your fitness journey, and I am honored to be apart of it. I wish you all success and happiness, and I cannot wait to see and hear from all of you! 🙂
With Love,
Cass
unWINEd 