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Step 4: Developing a Fitness Plan

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Everyone starts their fitness journey at different levels of fitness so there is just no way this can be a black and white answer. I don’t care what anyone says about ANY fitness routine, if you don’t enjoy it, it will not be sustainable and will not work. Period. End of story.

In this post I am not even going to evaluate the different training methods because they are literally endless and that’s not the reason for this post. What I want to really drive home here is the fact that fitness is intended to be integrated into your lifestyle, not something you dread every day for the rest of your life. Do you realize that you are burning calories every single day even if you just sat on the couch breathing. So imagine you decide to get off of the couch, walk outside, realize it’s a beautiful sunny day and walk a lap around your neighborhood to take in the views. Congratulations, you just completed your first workout of the day! You just burned a few more calories than if you had just stayed inside on your couch and I count that as a win for the day. Maybe you decide to take the stairs to the third floor where your office is located instead of the elevator Monday-Friday, well congratulations again, you just won an entire week. Now, I’m not trying to say walking a lap around your neighborhood, or taking the stairs to your desk job 5 days a week will have you looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but it will put you in a better place than you were one week ago.

I would like to reiterate that CHANGE BEGINS WITH ONE SMALL STEP, one conscious decision to improve your situation, and eventually you will continue to build off of this momentum. I prefer this method, because so many people (think new years resolutions) set all of these life changing goals that they truly want to achieve, yet 3 months into the year they are back to the exact same life they were living the entirety of the previous year, except this time they may feel even more or more defeated because they failed. I don’t want you to feel that way anymore. What I talk about in all of my blog posts are tools that I use in my everyday life to better myself. I am by no means saying that I have it all figured out, but I can promise you that every single day I am working towards the person that I want to become.

It is great to have these big life changing goals in your mind, but it can also be overwhelming and you feel like you aren’t gaining any traction. This is exactly why I use the 3 daily task technique in my everyday life to “win the day” and bring me one day closer toward my big goals. So with that in mind earlier last year, one of my 3 tasks was to MOVE every single day. This may sound a little ridiculous but I never felt restricted and I could achieve that task in multiple ways such as: going to the gym (probably 5 days out of the week), going on a run with my dog (I hate long distance running but love my dog), playing basketball/soccer (I love sports), uphill sprints (with my dog chasing me for motivation), or just exploring a new park or nature trail with, you guessed it, my dog. Fitness doesn’t have to be cardio twice daily for an hour (I absolutely hate cardio so I find other ways to burn calories), followed by protein shakes, rice cakes, and more cardio to burn off the peanut butter you added to those. FIND THINGS YOU ENJOY DOING. I really love playing golf, so on days where I didn’t feel like strength training in the gym I would instead play 18 holes. Too easy sounding to you? Try walking 18 holes carrying your clubs and then give me your opinion after.

At the end of the day, find something you truly don’t despise, get creative and go with it. There are so many ways to burn calories and help you achieve the body you want. I love incorporating my animals into my “fitness routine” as much as possible. I have yet to find a dog friendly gym in my area, so if I’m not strength training that day, then I’m outside doing something I love with the animals that love me.