Project Writeup

When I first started this five-week final project, I had a hard time coming up with my project proposal because I wanted to choose a topic that I would have a lot to write about. I settled on the idea of writing a blog about different aspects of healthy lifestyles, like workout tips, eating tips, healthy recipes and posts about body image. I thought that having a variety of subtopics to post about would help my blog stay interesting to readers. When I first started writing these blogs, I wrote them with ease, as the topics that I included in my proposal allowed me more freedom and movement in what I wanted to post about within each of the aspects that I have previously listed. Here is a quote from my first body-image post that told my readers what I wanted to get out of this blog:

With this blog I really want to try and educate myself on how to love everything about myself (but not in a narcissistic way). I think that it’s crucial that people become educated in their nutritional health, physical health and their mental health.

There are a few statements from my project proposal that I would like to focus on. In my the executive description of my proposal I said:

I am using a WordPress blog to educate people on how to live a healthier life by informing them on healthy eating tips and recipes, workout tips and body-image tips. Learning easy ways to have a healthier life is important because will improve one’s life as a whole and I think that a blog will help me set the tone and personalize my posts and easily facilitate the information.

I believe that I have followed the executive description fully, as I have produced blog posts that have educated my readers on ways to better their workouts, eating, and perception of themselves. I have also written blogs about have incorporated all of the tips that I listed in the proposal’s description. Also, I said that I wanted to create a personalized tone in my blogs to facilitate the information and I believe I have successfully created a personal tone within all my posts. Here’s an example of one blog post that I believe shows my personality well. I think that my personal tone helped readers connect with me and want to follow me. This is a part of the post that I think exemplifies my personality best:

Having access to food ranging from pizza to burgers to fries seemed like a dream come true, but I found out that after eating these kinds of meals on the daily that I was breaking out and my body felt sluggish. I barely ate fruit and veggies (sorry, Mom) and ate loads of carbs and sugar.

Throughout this project I have gained 14 new followers, which makes me believe that my blog posts have had a positive reaction from my readers.

Although there were things that I followed through fully in my project proposal, there were a few things that I changed as I wrote blog posts. One of these changes is that I said that I was only going to use SkinnyTaste, Self, and Health as my online sites that I would use to find articles for my blog posts. When I looked back at my blog posts I noticed that I used more than these three sites in order to write my blogs from the very first week, though I only used a larger variety of websites to find articles because I couldn’t find much information just on these sites that went very in-depth on the things I wanted to write about. In addition to the sites listed above, I also used sites like Teen Vogue, WebMD, Student Health 101 and the Huffington Post.

After I submitted the project proposal, my professor brought up a great idea of possibly writing blog posts targeting college students. I incorporated his idea of a specific target audience into the first weeks of my blogging project, although as my blogging progressed I opened up my target audience to individuals who want to live a healthier lifestyle rather than just focusing on college students. Here is one of my blog posts where I targeting college students as my audience and here is one of my blog posts where I opened up the target audience and made it more general. Though as a whole, my blog didn’t target a specific audience.

Over these five weeks, I have learned more about a healthy lifestyle than I thought that I would, mostly because a lot of the information and tips that I wrote about had been new information to me that I didn’t know before I had done research on the different aspects. An example of this can be seen in this blog post. I thought that it was interesting that I found more new information about body image during the last week of blogging rather than during the first week of this project. I also learned a lot more information when I was researching for this blog post. I have never been very knowledgeable about what I should eat before and after working out before I wrote that post and I liked that I was able to summarize the information into a simpler form for my readers.

I believe that since I picked “Healthy Lifestyle” as my blog topic that readers were interested in reading my work because they were on a mission to be healthy, too. I always tried to write encouraging things for the readers like I was actually talking to them and I tried to write blog posts that would help them with their healthy lifestyle. I only had one interaction with a reader and that was to say that they were going to do an eating journal to keep track of their food intake after reading one of my eating tip blog posts.

Overall, when I first started blogging I didn’t dig as deep in my topics and link as much as I should have. Compared to my very first blog post, I think that my last blog post for this project had more information and hypertext than previous blogs. My blogs have gotten stronger throughout these five weeks and the sites that I have linked to have become stronger in terms of giving the readers additional information that wasn’t fully talked about in my writing. This blog post exemplifies this change because I incorporated a Buzzfeed video and research articles, like this one, into my blogs, rather than articles from popular magazines that didn’t have the same certification.

For the most part, writing blogs for this project came easy to me until the last two weeks. I was struggling with finding new information about eating tips and body-image tips. It was really frustrating at the end of each of those weeks to try and write blog posts about body-image  because a lot of the articles that I came across in my research repeated the same things. Examples of the lack of new information can be seen in this blog post in relation with this blog post. Other than running into repeated information, I didn’t struggle with anything else, other than picking healthy recipes that I ended up not liking, like this one.

This project meant a lot to me. Not only did it educate me on the different aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but it also really challenged me as a writer. Instead of not writing blog posts because I didn’t have time or couldn’t find any interesting information, I still put out blogs because I wanted to follow the project proposal contract that I picked for my grade. I followed my contract fully to earn the grade I picked.

My contract will be for 150 pts (B). I will post 3-4 times a week. My weekly reflections will be 500-1000 words and will be posted every Monday. All of my other posts will be 500-750 words and posted throughout the week before the weekly reflection. My posts, other than the weekly reflections, will be focused on healthy eating tips, recipes, workout tips, and body-image tips and will include other links when necessary.

Overall, this project showed me that not all writing and academic studying comes easy, but that my writing probably wouldn’t have been as meaningful and informational without struggling throughout parts of it. I do believe that blogging is becoming a big part of literacy because the posts become instantly available to readers in a second once I press “Publish”. I think that since technology and the Internet is so prominent in a majority of people’s everyday lives that there is more traffic and readers to something posted online, like this blog, rather than a physical copy of a book that people have to wait to be released because people nowadays want things instantaneously. Writing and literacy is evolving and blogging and other web-writing is becoming more prominent.

Boost Your Body-Image

Lets face it. All of us went through a time in our lives where we weren’t happy with our bodies and wanted to change something about it, whether it be gaining or losing weight. We’re human. Everyone deals with comparing themselves to others and not always feeling as though they are good enough, so just know that you are not alone.

Although negative body image is common among a majority of people, I came across this article that talked about how having a negative body image can actually negatively impact one’s body weight. It then went on to say that if people started to love their body and self-image that they would actually have a healthier life for themselves.

Now, when I first read this statement I thought that the article was wrong. I mean, wouldn’t you have a healthier life if you wanted to change something about yourself, like lose weight? Personally, if I was content with how I looked I probably wouldn’t go to the gym as much as I do.

Feeling the need to fact-check them, I searched to see if there was other research that proved this point. Surprisingly, I did. This article talked about a research study that occurred where there were two experiment groups: one that worked out and one that read a magazine (it should be noted that the groups did not consist of anyone who was overweight or had health issues).

A small study published this month in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise found that just 30 minutes of exercise can have a positive affect on a woman’s body image. Women felt both slimmer and stronger immediately after they finished their workout and the feeling lasted for at least 20 minutes post-workout.

I knew that it was scientifically proven for people to feel better after a workout, but I never thought that it would have a positive impact on someone’s body image (even if only for a little bit).

With that being said, the research concluded that just by working out for just 30 minutes can improve a person’s body image even if there wasn’t any physical change and they looked the same.

I think that it’s crazy what exercise can do to a person’s opinions on themselves. I think it’s really great and something that everyone should do. I mean, if working out for only 30 minutes would make you love yourself and appreciate your body a little more, wouldn’t you want to do that?

If you can’t go to the gym, try to listen to others when they tell you positive things about you. I know a lot of people roll their eyes when people give them compliments about things that they are insecure about, but accepting these compliments will help your self-confidence in yourself grow and might even help you love the things that you were once insecure about.

While I was writing this blog post I remembered a Buzzfeed video that I had previously watched and I thought that you might enjoy seeing how people go from being insecure about something about themselves or their body to becoming a little more positive about their self-image.

 

 

I know that loving yourself is hard, but by working out and accepting others compliments I think that you might find yourself closer to a positive body image.

Until next time…

Recipe of the Week: Easy Homemade Bagels

The photo above is mine.

Last week I tried out this air fryer healthy chicken nugget recipe and I loved it so much that I decided to try another air fryer recipe because I love how quick it can cook my meals. This week I took a swing at making bagels in an air fryers. Yes, you read that right. Bagels can be made in an air fryer (and the oven). I found this great bagel recipe on SkinnyTaste.

I really wanted to try this recipe out because I don’t really like how packaged bagels taste and was interested in how bagels would taste if I made them from scratch. It said that it would only take 5 minutes to prep and only 30 minutes of my time to try out this recipe, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try.

This recipe really caught my attention when I saw that there was only five ingredients that I needed to make these. The less ingredients the better, right?

Here are the ingredients that are needed:

• 1 cup (5 oz) unbleached all purpose flour, whole wheat or gluten-free mix*
• 2 teaspoons baking powder (make sure it’s not expired or it won’t rise)
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (use less if using table salt)
• 1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt (not regular yogurt)
• 1 egg white, beaten (whole egg works fine too)
• optional toppings (depending on what type of bagels you want to make).

With simple ingredients like flour, baking powder, kosher salt, non-fat Greek yogurt and eggs I was excited to try this out.

Starting off, I had to grab a bowl and mix together the flour, baking powder and kosher salt with a whisk. After this I had to add the yogurt and mix it with a fork. When it’s all said and done it should look like small crumbles.

Next, find a clean surface to work on. Lightly cover it with some flour and take the dough from the bowl and place it on the surface and then start kneading it. Here’s a video of how to knead the dough if you’re unsure of what to do.

Once it’s kneaded, separate the dough into four equal balls (this will make four bagels). Roll the balls until you have 3/4 inch ropes. Once it looks like a rope, connect the endings together. Do that for all of them. Then top all of the bagels with egg wash and any toppings that you may want (though I just made plain bagels).

Lastly, preheat your air fryer to 325 degrees for 11 to 12 minutes. Once it is preheated bake them for 11 to 12 minutes but make sure to give each bagel enough room because you don’t want them to bake into each other. If you have to do two separate batches, that’s fine.

When they are done SkinnyTaste says to leave them cool for 10 minutes, but when they smell as good as they do it might be hard to resist.

And that’s all there is to it! Easy right? Let me know what you think!

Until next time…

The College Student Guide to Healthy Eating

In the rest of my blog posts on eating tips, I always focused on things that anyone could do in order to eat healthier but this week I wanted to focus on different things that college students can do to eat healthy.

I came across this Buzzfeed article that stated easy and simple things that college kids can do to move their eating habits towards a healthier direction (even if only by a little bit).

Think of what you should add to your meals.

A lot of healthy eating articles that I have came across in the past weeks made it seem like people needed to cut all of their unhealthy food and to just eat healthy food, like fruits and vegetables. This is false. When people are starting to eat healthy they shouldn’t stop eating their normal food all at once. I know that if I did that I would be more likely to miss processed and unhealthy food (the normal) way more than I would if I ate the same (while trying to eat less junk) and adding more nutritional food into my diet. A balanced diet is key.

Instead of thinking about what you shouldn’t eat, think about what you should eat.

You don’t have to eat all healthy food items.

When I first started getting into the whole “health-craze” thing I thought that every single healthy food item was something that I had to get when I went grocery shopping. I’ve recently found out that I don’t have to eat every healthy thing to be healthy. In order to eat healthy (and actually stick with it) I needed to find food items that I actually enjoy and make my body feel good. If you feel good, you’re more likely to eat the same food again than the food that makes you feel bad.

Emergency granola bars will save you.

Have you ever been in a class when you were hungry and you didn’t care what you ate as long as you had some kind of food in your stomach right after class? No? Maybe it’s just me, but when I’m hungry I need to eat something ASAP. Packing a granola bar in your backpack, purse, etc. will seriously save your nutritional intake for the day and will hold you over until you have access to a nice (and hopefully healthy) meal, because you’re not going to have that luxury at the campus food court that’s filled with greasy and fried food (minus the solo salad stand).

And lastly…

Water should become your new BFF.

It seems like everywhere you go on a college camps there is pop, juice and energy drinks at every corner. I know that it’ll be a constant struggle to avoid these drinks but your body will definitely thank you. An easy thing to do in order to stay strong in avoiding these sugary drinks is to carry a water bottle with you everywhere you go, that way you’ll always have something to drink and it will hopefully help you stay hydrated…It’s a plus-plus.

Adapting to a crazy and hectic lifestyle makes it hard to be healthy (and stick to it) and it’s even harder when you’re possibly living by yourself for the first time.

Changing your daily eating habits is tough but with little changes like the ones that I mentioned above and the many more tips that can be found here, I think that you’ll be one step closer to a healthier lifestyle.

Until next time…

Workout With Others

After weeks and weeks of staying motivated and working out I think that it gets harder to go to the gym, especially since I usually workout by myself (minus a few times).

I’ve always been torn when it comes to working out with other people or whether I should just work out solo. I always have a lot of fun when I’m working out with my friends and family, but at the same time I feel as though I’m not as focused on why I came to the gym in the first place.

After working out by myself these past two weeks I’ve realized that although working out with other people can be somewhat distracting, it makes it enjoyable (and that’s saying something).

This article lists a few different benefits of working out with friends, but I’m only going to talk about the few that I think are very important.

You’ll actually show up.

I know what you’re thinking…why does working out with someone else determine if I’ll show up or not? Well, I personally know that if someone else has scheduled me into their day with a workout I feel like I can’t back out. I don’t like to cancel plans (and I hate when people cancel plans with me). Also, if I know that someone else is going to be doing the same workout as me, I don’t dread it as much because at least someone else will be struggling along with me.

You’ll get a free therapy session.

The gym is suppose to be a time where you focus on yourself and your body, but I’ve noticed that whenever I’m working out with someone else I talk a lot more, especially if I’m with my best friend or cousin. With all of the talking you may not get as much out of your workout, but you will help your emotional health by venting!

They’re a free support system.

The best thing about having friends to work out with is that they want to see you succeed in your workouts. According to this article, having a support system is one of the most important thing that a person can do to have a successful long-term success in their health and fitness. This support leads to accountability and motivation and sometimes a little bit of friendly competition, like seeing who can do the most crunches.

“They can play the role of teammate, co-coach and cheerleader — all while working out,” says Michelle P. Maidenberg, PhD, MPH, and clinical director of Westchester Group Works in Harrison, N.Y in this article.

The article also discussed that it is wise to choose a workout partner that has similar fitness or health levels as yourself. It says that if you work out with someone who is at a different fitness level, that it might be a distraction and negatively affect your own workout.

Although working out with other people can have negative affects on your workout, I think that having a physical person that you know be around you when you are working out will help you stay motivated. Two is better than one as the saying goes.

Until next time…

Week Five: Final Project Reflection

Last week I didn’t have a weekly reflection posted because we had to do studio tours of other classmates final projects, which was really fun and interesting. So, onto reflecting on the work done this week. It was fun and I learned a lot!

My first blog post of the week was on workout tips. This blog consisted of workouts that people could do at home. I thought that the articles that I read and linked within the blog post were really interesting because it listed off several things people can do at home to exercise (without equipment) and tips that could potentially keep people motivated to continue working out at home. I learned a lot from writing this post and thought it was beneficial to know because I like to do some home-workouts and think that the information I gathered for this post will help me become more successful.

My second blog post of the week was on eating tips. This blog consisted of different things that people can do to not only save money but to live healthier lives. This blog mostly talked about different things that people can do when they are shopping in order to save a little bit of money and avoid the temptations of unhealthy food. I thought this blog was informative and a lot of fun to read and write about because I get to share the information I found with other people while also learning it myself.

My third blog post of the week was on a healthy recipe. I’ve learned to love this blog segment each week. I was able to cook and experiment a new recipe that was a healthier alternative for chicken nuggets. It didn’t even feel like an assignment and I loved that. A huge plus was that this recipe was easy and actually tasted good, too!

My last post of the week was on body image. When I first started this segment of my blog I thought that there would be so much information to talk about, but since writing about it for a few weeks (for 500+ words at a time) it’s become boring and hard to find information that doesn’t seem repetitive. I struggled this week, but I made it through! I still found interesting information that I think will help my readers and myself on a journey to a better body image, but I’m worried about finding information for this next week’s blog.

Overall, I really have enjoyed working on this final project. It hasn’t really felt like something that I had to do which is refreshing from other class assignments. I like that I’m learning more about having a healthy lifestyle because it is something that I am currently working on for myself and I love that I get to work on a project while also learning about things that will hopefully help me out in life. Though I’ve ran into some bumps in the road with finding information or doing recipes that don’t turn out quite how I think they will, I have enjoyed writing these blog posts.

Focus on Yourself

I know that a lot of us like to spend time focusing on what others are doing at the gym, what they look like and how they act, but we need to stop doing that. At the time we may think that these acts are harmless, but they actually affect us more than we know.

According to this Body and Soul online article, we are hurting ourselves mentally when we focus on others. By focusing on others, we start to compare ourselves to them. Now, I truly believe that we should never compare ourselves to others, because we are all meant to be different and unique and looking at our differences can be self-destructive.

The article stated a few things that people can do to create a better body image for themselves.

Stop Comparing

I know that it’s hard (because I find myself doing this on a daily basis) to not compare yourself to others when the thoughts seem to come so naturally to you, but you need to stop. It’s not healthy to compare yourself to someone else, but if you do find yourself comparing yourself to others make sure to ask yourself a few questions about the thoughts you have when you are comparing.

Is it fair? Is it realistic? How do these comparisons make me feel? What thoughts may be more helpful to me?

I’ve never thought about asking myself these questions before but I will from now on. By reflecting on your emotions and your thoughts I think that you’ll understand yourself more and see what you have to change to become a better person (even if it’s just to create a positive mentality).

I think that we often make assumptions or compare ourselves to people so quickly that we don’t really see how the negative self-talk is affecting our well-being. I think that in order to get closer to a better body image, people need to really reflect on their thoughts and see if what they were thinking was rational or just irrational.

It’s easier to tear yourself down than to build yourself up.

Stop Checking

I know that this is another tough thing to do since it seems like we have been conditioned to compare ourselves to others and want to continuously change how we look due to society’s standards, but just know that if you stop doing these things and stop constantly checking on other people or yourself you’ll find more peace.

Don’t be tough on yourself if you aren’t making progress at the gym as quickly as you planned to. Everybody’s body reacts differently to different workouts. It’s okay.

Don’t worry about your weight. I’m not saying that you have to throw away your scale, but don’t let your weight determine your worth.

Your body is more than just a measurement or a weight, it’s powerful and can do great things. Your body is unique and different and that’s a good thing. Focus on the positives instead of the negatives. Life is too short to allow your body and other people to determine your happiness and worth.

Until next time…

 

Recipe of the Week: Air Fryer Chicken Nuggets

The photo above is mine.

 

Last week I tried making SkinnyTaste’s Baked Chicken Parmesan recipe and I liked it so much that I wanted to try a similar recipe this week.

Whenever I go to a fast-food restaurant I always crave one thing- chicken nuggets. I know that I shouldn’t want the frozen and fried chicken nuggets, but I could never help myself… until now. This week I searched SkinnyTaste’s website in search of a healthier alternative for chicken nuggets. I found a recipe called Air Fryer Chicken Nuggets and being an owner of an air fryer I decided to put the recipe to the test.

So, first off, here are the ingredients that you’ll need to make this recipe:

• 16 oz (2 large) skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into even 1-inch bite sized pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 6 tablespoons whole wheat Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
• 2 tablespoons panko
• 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
• olive oil spray

I really liked that there wasn’t a lot of ingredients to make these chicken nuggets. I’m not an expert cook so the less ingredients the better.

To start, preheat the air fryer to 400 degrees for 8 minutes. While the fryer is heating up, cut up the chicken breasts into cubes.

For the chicken breasts, I didn’t use all of the two breasts, instead I used around one and a half because I didn’t have a lot of people to cook for. And I didn’t measure how big the pieces were that I cut into cubes, but I made them bite-sized.

Once the chicken was all cut up into pieces, I grabbed two bowls and filled one with olive oil and the other one with the breading mixture (the seasoned breadcrumbs, panko and grated Parmesan cheese).

The next step is to put the pieces of chicken into the olive oil, making sure to cover all sides of the chicken. Then, roll the chicken pieces in the breading mixture, making sure to cover them entirely.

By this time, the air fryer should be preheated. Place the breaded chicken nuggets onto the bottom tray of the air fryer, but don’t pack them in because you want to make sure that they get cooked fully (so you may have to cook three separate batches like me, but I swear the food is worth the wait). After you’ve placed the pieces in the fryer, spray olive oil on top of them so that they can get crispy when they cook. Bake them for 8 minutes, flipping them half way through.

That’s it!

When I first read that I was able to cook raw chicken in 8 minutes, I thought that they were wrong, but I tried the recipe anyways and I found out that raw chicken can cook fully in 8 minutes.

Overall, I really enjoyed this recipe and so did my guests. I love that it’s healthier than frozen or fast-food chicken nuggets and that it tastes better than they do. It tastes fresh! And for around 188 calories for six to eight chicken nuggets, there’s no need for me to feel guilty about eating the food that I love anymore.

Let me know what you think!

Until next time…

Cheap and Easy Eating Habits

As a college student, I know that not everyone has money to buy the healthiest food items for their meals, but I think that if we focus on what we are spending our money on and change our buying habits that we could eat healthier.

This Greatest online article lists 22 cheap and easy things  that people can do to eat healthier, but I’m only going to talk about a few of them.

Never go shopping hungry.

I know that this should be obvious, but I struggle with this almost every time that I go grocery shopping. Usually I never plan when I’m going to shopping and it’s usually spontaneous (and on an empty stomach). My mind tells me to only get the things that I absolutely need, but my stomach tells me to go down the snack and ice cream aisle. Now, don’t be like me. Eat a meal or a filling snack before you shop for food. Your wallet will thank you.

Make a shopping list.

I think that this is possibly one of the most important thing a person can do in preparation for when they go and buy groceries. Not only will you not forget items that you need, but you’ll be less likely to go down aisles that you don’t need to. Having a physical list in front of you keeps you focused on the things that you need to do. Now, making a shopping list will only help you save money if you stick to only buying the items on the list! If not, why even have a shopping list?

Buy in bulk.

Buying in bulk has definitely saved me some money! At first I thought that the idea of buying in bulk was dumb (because I thought it was a waste of my money because I didn’t think I would eat that much), but after portioning these items out I learned that I saved more money than I would have if I would have bought smaller versions of the products.

Avoid sweetened drinks.

This was a struggle for me this last year. I would always go out and buy coffee (well, sugared and chocolate-syrup coffee) and pop to keep me up when I was working on homework or big assignments. At the time, I didn’t think much of my well-being and health and instead only focused on my academics and my grades. Now I know better.

Sweetened drinks are so bad for you. There are several articles, like this one, on the Internet that agree with me. It might be hard to cut yourself off from sweetened drinks cold-turkey, but you’ll feel so much better if you do and you’ll save money!

Avoid unhealthy food.

I say this all the time, but you’ll create healthy eating habits if you don’t buy things that are bad for your body. I know that you want the cookies, the ice cream, or the pizzas, but these things aren’t going to help you better yourself on your fitness journey. The only way to not be tempted by this type of food is to not buy it in the first place.

 

These tips aren’t crazy or outrageously hard to do, so do them! I swear your body and wallet will thank you.

Until next time…

 

 

At Home Workouts

I know that some weeks are hectic and you feel like you don’t have any time for the gym, but I’ve got good news… the gym can come to you! There are easy exercises that you can do at home (or in your dorm room, if you’re like me).

Did I mention the exercises are easy and that you don’t have to leave the comfort of your own home?

I figured it might get your attention, because it sure caught mine when I first read it.

This Fitness Blender article has a huge list of workouts that you can do at home, varying on what you want to focus on and how long you want your workout to be (I personally like this exercise that I found on YouTube. It really works on toning and creating lean legs).

There are a lot of different exercises listed on the Internet in general, and I think that the only way that you’re going to know if a certain exercise works for you is to try it out. There’s no harm doing that!  Though, before doing any exercises online, I do advise to read the comments to see how the workout went for other people (it can help you save some time in the long run and I know how important time is)!

Finding workouts online are easy, but will actually doing the workouts be?

 

I believe that you’ll succeed in doing exercises at home if you follow these few easy rules:

Pace yourself.

If you’re anything like me, you have little to no patience when it comes to working out. One common mistake that I keep making time after time again is pushing myself too much right away. When you’re just starting a workout it’s okay to take your time.

Just keep reminding yourself that you don’t have to push yourself right away and that you’re journey to fitness and a healthier life is a long-term thing, so you don’t need to rush. You have time!

Commit to it!

I know that sometimes it’s easier to complete workouts or different exercises when you are at the gym because you feel like you’re held accountable by all of the other people working out around you. Even if this might not be the case, many people (including myself) think that everyone else around them is watching their every move and will judge them if they don’t workout long. This helps some people stay motivated.

When you’re alone at home, you don’t have anyone to hold you accountable. Without anyone to keep you motivated into doing or continuing your workouts, it’s easy not want to do a workout. But don’t do it! Commitment is key to creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Think about all of the progress that you would lose if you gave up now… you’ve done too much!

Try letting your friends and family know about your workouts and what you want to gain from them. This not only allows them to encourage you, but it holds you accountable to do your workouts!

 

At home workouts are easy and convenient, just hold yourself accountable to do your workouts. You’re not going to see any progress if you don’t get up and move!

You’ve got this!