My page essentially is all about transformation. As many of you probably know this page started as a weight-loss journey page and that eventually morphed into a health and positivity page. Through the years since I have started this page the blog itself not only discussed transformation, but it also went through a transformation of its own. Change and transformation is a big part of life. If we are not growing in life then where are we going exactly? To get into the topic of transforming further I wanted to talk about the place where I have personally transformed the most, with being active and working out.
Let's start at the beginning. If you knew me in high school you probably knew I was not active in any way, shape, or form. I was extremely clumsy and unathletic (still am to some extent haha) so I absolutely dreaded gym class. I really only liked the units of gym class that involved independent movements such as walking the track or going to the weight room. As you can imagine the first few years of college for me were pretty much not active at all. I was happy to find out there were no gym class requirements at my school so that meant I really did not do anything too active. That is until I decided to start taking care of my health. As you might know that journey was what inspired me to start this page.
When I started really putting an effort into losing weight and getting healthier I finally started to get a bit more active. Because I was really nervous at the idea of working out in front of people I started smaller. The WiiFit was my best friend at that time. Just in case you do not know, WiiFit is a video game that has a bunch of mini games that involve getting up and being active. I started out doing a bunch of different WiiFit exercises for 30 minutes a day and eventually turned that into an hour when I could. If you are new and uncomfortable with working out I highly recommend you use an at home program like this to get started. Eventually WiiFit was not much of a challenge for me anymore so I knew I needed to change it up. That was when I started going to the gym. As many of you know I started going with a friend at first. That was a great way to try out the experience before I took the plunge and got my own membership. I am honestly so glad that I did that back then.
When I started going to the gym on a more regular basis again I started with two days a week and that was literally just cardio. That was about a year and a half ago (yes there was a gap in between when I got my membership and when I started regularly using it again). Back then I was only doing about 30 minutes of cardio and that was only twice a week. Eventually I upped that to three times a week. That's when the personal trainer stepped in. I went into full details about my initial experience with that in a previous post. If you are curious you can find that here. Initially I was annoyed and felt pressured to do the free trial session, but I am so glad I did. It has helped me immensely. I have continued to work out with a trainer once a week since then. That is what prompted me to up my days at the gym and expand the activities I do there as well. Now I go five days a week. Three days are weight training and the other two are cardio for 50 minutes. I went from only doing 30 minutes of cardio to doing a huge range of activities at the gym. Just yesterday I did back squats with 40 lbs on each side of the bar (125 lbs total) and that was such an amazing accomplishment to me. I have a confidence at the gym now that I never would have imagined possible.
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I figured I would drop in a shameless
post-workout selfie at the gym yesterday. ;-)
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To go from someone who was scared to step into a gym to someone who is going five times a week doing all kinds of things is such a transformation to me. Trust me if I could do that so can you! If you want to start getting active start at home. There are plenty of resources online. Google beginners exercises or look up YouTube videos. You can even go for walks or runs. Just get up and get moving. If you are already a gym member I highly recommend a personal trainer. I will admit it is expensive and I feel very blessed that I have a job that allows me to have access to those tools now, but if you can afford it too it will help you gain knowledge and a whole new level of confidence in the gym. Try and make your own transformations in your life. My biggest one is my workout transformation but life is full of them. Embrace them and look forward to the new person you will become.
