How can you improve your Fitness Journey and learn from mine to feel more empowered?
Today I want to tell you about my top 3 lessons I wish I learned sooner on my Fitness Journey and how they can help you on your journey too.
I was in the gym recently, training away and minding my own business. Just really enjoying my training
Allow me to paint the scene for you. There was plenty of ego walking around the place on a Sunday. You know the type, big pigeon chests walking around like they own the place. Dudes that walk around with their chest puffed out, refusing to move out of the way when you cross paths.
One of the guys in there was a fitness model and influencer that I used to follow on social media many moons ago (about 8 years ago to be exact) when I had just started out on my fitness journey.
A guy who’s been on the cover of fitness magazines and is a fitness model in every sense of the word, it’s literally his job.
I recognised him almost straight away and started to think back about my younger self and the way I saw the world at the time, because seeing him meant very little to me now. I know my younger self would’ve had a very different experience. You can read a little more here on why these type of people make us feel worse about ourselves.
It reminded me of 3 lessons I’ve learned since starting my journey.
1.Stop the fitness comparison
I learned to stop comparing myself to anyone else on social media or in the gym. When I started out on my fitness journey, this guy was my hashtag mcm – he was the type of guy I’d look to aspire to be. I felt like I needed what he had, the abs, the x frame, the boulder shoulders, the tattoos, the white teeth, the money and the perceived happiness.
The way I did this was to stop following anyone who made me feel worse about myself. That isn’t their intention, but when you’re toxically following people and saying things like “I wish I looked like him or her” then it’s probably a good sign to hit the unfollow button and start to appreciate yourself more. Reflect on the question “Is following this person helping my mental health and wellbeing? I speak more in depth about this on my podcast here.
2. Realize genetics can dictate your Fitness Journey
On my fitness journey I realised that I wasn’t blessed with the genetic potential for the sport of bodybuilding, and that’s not an excuse, that’s just being realistic with myself. This is something I’m completely okay with, much like that fact I’m not 7 foot so I know I’ve missed the genetic lottery for being a basketball player, I’ll never be able to take part in dwarf fighting, again something I’m okay with. Not being in the elite in terms of genetics, and realising, resulted in me being a lot less hard on myself. There are many lessons we can take from sitting with our reality (like the last 2 points in this article).
You have to be realistic with the cards you’ve been given and play them to your advantage, you can’t shuffle the deck and go again. I really recommend listening to the Podcast I did with Steve Griffin here where he speaks about losing 63kg and dealing with Cancer and his attitude to these transformational events in his life.
3. Know your self-worth
And the last thing I learned was that no amount of work done on this fitness journey and externally to reshape myself will ever change how I felt internally. So if you’re seeking to feel better in yourself, losing weight and gaining muscle can definitely help, but if you don’t work on yourself from the inside out, you’ll end up feeling the same if not worse.
Maybe you need to stop using the weighing scale to measure your worth and focus on your internal situation. Right now I’m perfectly okay with however I am whether that’s 10% bodyfat or 20% bodyfat. It isn’t a reflection of my self-worth, but I also know that if I am to start gaining weight it’s a sure sign I’ve neglected my own exercise and nutrition so for me it’s an accurate gauge as to how much I’m prioritising myself.
