When I started my first post, and got up to Day 33, I had a pretty concrete schedule to workout, and pretty much knew what I wanted to say every day. But I got to a point where I didn't have much to say, my workouts seemed repetitive, and I just didn't think it was fun for anybody to be reading the same thing over and over again. Then life got in the way with finals, graduating from college, finding a full time job, finding a new way of making a living, etc. I never had time for exercise at all. It's been a very long time since I last posted, and I want to get back into posting about my healthy lifestyle once again. So instead of giving myself a daily deadline to post, I think it's best if I just try my best to post as much as possible about the important aspects of fitness and living a healthy lifestyle. We'll see how that goes.
While I was absent from blogging for the past few months, I did stop working out for a while. I had a new full time job after graduating from college, and I just didn't have the time to workout at all. But while talking with my coworkers, they were all worried about fitting in a workout schedule along with eating healthy. While we were all complaining about how we never have time, one of our coworkers had everything ready. She brought healthy lunch everyday, she squeezed in at least 30 minutes a day of exercise, and she seemed to be pretty good at keeping her routine. Just observing her daily routine was just enough to motivate me to start working out.
Commuting to work was a big portion of my day. It took me about 1 hour to get to work on time, and 1 hour to get back home. I worked 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. In total, I was putting 10 hours a day for my job. By the time I got home, I was exhausted, and only had time to get ready for bed to wake up early the following day so I can get to work on time. Upon realizing that I wasn't making enough to pay for rent, and I was paying a lot of gas, I decided that this job just wasn't meant for me, and I quit. Although I'd like to get a new job and earn a stable income, I'm actually not in a hurry to find one because my ultimate goal is to get into a DO school. I'd need to take some time to thoroughly study for the MCAT, and hopefully get in for fall 2017. There's no guarantee, but I do believe that I need to at least try my best, and hope for the best. If all else fails, then I can change my life goals to something that's more realistic. I like to think that our dreams and goals are never too late.
Of course, after quitting my job, I had more time to exercise. But I want to make it clear that I'm not suggesting that you quit your job for exercise. Having a stable job is important in anyone's lifestyle. It's how well you manage your time that's important. I was obviously not very good at it, so I ended up not investing as much to exercise. I do think that everything is very psychological. When we love our jobs, I think we wouldn't feel as psychologically exhausted, and we would find it easier to motivate ourselves to exercise at least 30 minutes a day. But when we dread going to work, the mental exhaustion would seem too overbearing to even think about exercise. It took me a few months after quitting to finally realize that I must continue my exercise routine.
With that being said, I did start a new workout routine a few weeks back. I remember when I said I would never do Shaun T's Insanity because I felt it was too hard, it made me feel winded and exhausted, and I just think I wasn't at the right fitness level to start. Well, a good friend of mine contacted me telling me that my fitness posts were motivating him to start his new fitness journey. He suggested that if I started doing Insanity, then he would start with me. I'm always up to workout together with others, and if it'll help them start a healthier lifestyle, I'm more than happy to help. I think what motivates me the most is knowing that I'm able to help others start something new and benefit from it, and also the fact that I'm not going to be the only one struggling through fitness. Just knowing that we're all together in this fitness journey is a pretty good motivation, which is why I think having a fitness buddy is one of the best ways to start a fitness journey.
I just finished Week 2 of Insanity, and I just finished Week 3's Fit Test yesterday. I did start Insanity about a month ago, but I ended up restarting because Christmas and New Years celebrations got in the way. No matter what gets in the way, I think it's best to just get back at it. I know some people get disappointed if they keep restarting their workout plan, but if you look at it differently, you can see that even if you're restarting, you're still improving regardless. Fitness is definitely a challenge, but once you get in the hang of your new schedule, I'm sure everything will be worth it.
Another struggle I noticed I had was getting into a healthier diet plan. I know that the healthier diet plan itself will demotivate me to workout. So I think it's important to just start whatever works best for you. If you feel that changing your diet drastically in a short period of time will scare you more than motivate you, then take things slowly. Change one food item at a time slowly. If focusing on one task at a time is better for you, then maybe not changing your diet just yet will be better for you. I realized that thinking about what to eat is the biggest de-motivator for me. So as of now, I'm not really thinking of what I eat. I'm decreasing the amount slowly, but I'm not really changing anything. Exercise is my main priority, so I'm trying to strengthen my body first before worrying about what I eat. I know there will be a lot of people who disagree, but I think it's best to go slow in order to make a life-long change to a healthier me. A healthy diet is very important, but if it'll prevent you from exercising because everything seems too overwhelming, then start exercising first, and then incorporate a healthy diet into your existing exercise program slowly.
I know this is a long post, and it was mostly me rambling, but I hope this post helps those who are going through the same struggles as I am. :)
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