I guess that the title of this last blog post is slightly inaccurate—although my Fledgling Fitness Fanatic blogging time is up, I feel like this is less of a fitness ending and more of a fitness beginning. Throughout the course of this semester, I’ve tried out eight different workout classes, managed to fit in exercise at least once a week, and have learned a lot about myself in the process. In this blog post, I’d like to reflect on what the experience of writing this blog has taught me about myself and my relationship to fitness.
The biggest thing that this experience has hammered into my head is that I need to plan ahead and set aside time for exercise or else I’m never going to do it. This blog pretty much forced me to plan ahead for my week and figure out when I was going to work out, what I was going to do, and how I would balance my time so that I’d be able to fit in exercise (or else I wouldn’t have content to write about and would get a bad grade…). I find that it is incredibly easy for me to get sucked into a whirlpool of stress and work, and then I use the fact that I have a busy schedule to justify not making it to the gym. It’s not that I actually don’t have time to workout, because as this blogging stint proved, I am physically capable of going to the gym at least once a week without my entire life falling apart, it’s more that exercise is something that’s never number one on my priority list. When a grade was attached to it, exercise gained more importance and I made sure I found a way to incorporate it into my schedule, and I’m honestly worried that since this blog is over, I’ll revert back into my old ways of always being “too busy to workout.” Ultimately, it’s become a goal of mine to work out at least once a week, not for a grade or for a class, but for myself and my own wellbeing. I now realize that I can’t just say, “oh I’ll workout this week,” I have to actually pinpoint a class, write it into my planner, and arrange my schedule so that life hopefully doesn’t get in the way of my health.
Another thing I’ve realized is that I enjoy working out a lot more when I focus on how it’s making me healthier instead of focusing on how much weight I’m losing, or whether I have a six pack, or whether I can run a five minute mile. I feel like when I started this blog, I had a lot of different reasons for wanting to get into exercise. I’d watch inspirational Youtube videos about people’s incredible fitness journeys or read magazines about Victoria’s Secret workout routines, and then try and workout to completely transform my life and get an amazing body. I’m not going to lie, it’s been hard to stop comparing myself to other people and I’m still struggling with that, but through this blogging stint and through trying so many different classes I’m starting to see what works for my body, what I like, what I don’t like, and how my fitness is for my health (and ultimately my happiness). I do still love inspiring stories though, like the one below.
That’s why I say I feel like this ending is more of a beginning. I hope to take what I’ve achieved from this blogging experience and start to build my own exercise and fitness lifestyle. I want to explore more cool workouts and find exercises that I can actually incorporate into my life regularly. Hopefully this blog as a whole has been helpful for you to find your own fitness lifestyle/routine as well!
Image Links:
https://img.sgag.sg/posts/2016/09/8842_original_THUMBNAIL_Screen_Shot_2016-09-25_at_10.35.48_AM.png?1474771128
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