How Do I Start My Fitness Journey | The Realm

Hi Warriors!

Starting a fitness journey can be a daunting task. But with the assistance of a trained professional and mentor, your motivation and decision-making skills can rapidly improve.

The hardest part is getting started - asking yourself the hard questions; why do I want to do this, how am I going to achieve this and what motivates me to keep going. Your fitness journey is no different (and sometimes is one of the most difficult regimes to keep). Life is full of responsibilities, whether it be work, family, friends, travel, home - the list is sometimes so endless that we forget that it’s just as important to take the time for a bit of personal care. Here at The Realm, we have compiled the best ways to get you started on the next chapter of your life.

When I was planning The Realm, I looked at the people around me for inspiration - family and friends balancing study schedules and work, others working long hours in corporate firms or travelling a lot, people raising children and those wanting to take better care of themselves and just not sure how to go about it. I wanted to give them a way to connect with their own health and fitness aspirations (even in their busy and versatile lives). So here are three ways to help get you started on your fitness and wellbeing journey!

1. GOAL SETTING

To borrow from primary school, this is the who, what, when, where and why of your journey. WHO are you wanting to make this change for, WHAT does that look like and what do you want to achieve, WHEN do you want to accomplish this by, WHERE are you going to do that and WHY are you wanting to make this change? Let’s call these the 5 W’s.

These five areas can be drastically different for every person but once you figure them out, can be incredibly motivating. The 5 W’s can help frame your fitness goals in an incredibly positive way. Are you on this fitness journey to lose weight for a special occasion? Or perhaps you just want to gain health and fitness in order to play and enjoy spending time with your children. Whatever your motivation is, write it down and work out what your 5 W’s are - below are a few examples of how you can do that:

 

WHO	WHAT	WHEN	WHERE	WHY
I am on this journey for myself	To develop and maintain healthier habits	By the end of the year	Exercising three times a week before work and eating clean	To be happy when I look in the mirror
I am getting into shape for my children	To lose 20kg	By the 11th of August (My Birthday)	Taking time every day between meetings in my office	So that I can play with my children without having to sit on the side
I am focusing on fitness for my partner	To gain strength and body definition	By our wedding (24th of October)	Exercising in my home 4 times a week.	So I can look great in photographs and remember the best version of myself on our special day

 

Keep your goals, whatever they may be, at the forefront of your mind. Write them down - save it as your screensaver, stick it on the bathroom mirror or the toilet door, have it beside your bed - and keep reminding yourself the 5 W’s. The more you can make goals as specific and emotionally driven as possible, the more you will get out of it! Have a go at doing this now!

2. PLAN, SCHEDULE AND PLAN AGAIN!

We all know, life is busy. Scheduling some time for your health and fitness is therefore crucial to managing your daily tasks and accomplishing the 5 W’s. The Realm is designed to easily fit into your busy schedule.

The best way to stay on top of your ‘life tasks’ and incorporate your ‘fitness tasks’ is to plan and schedule. You might work well with a paper diary or you may find your life is electronically synched - whatever it may be, find a way that works for you to record and keep track of what you are doing every day (Monday to Friday at least) and plan ahead. Make this something you can have with you at all times, so that no matter where you are, you have some foreseeability over your schedule.

You can (and should) book in for your sessions through your members hub to not only manage the times you are working out, but to ensure that you get notifications when your workout is about to start. Notifications are a great way to remind you, as a busy person, to take the time to priorities yourself and your fitness goals.

If your schedule needs to change, you can just adjust it accordingly and find a time that suits you! 

Planning and scheduling help you to remain accountable for your own workouts and helps you track your fitness! If you’re someone who gets bored or disenfranchised by fitness, never fear! Come up with alternating schedules (it might be daily, fortnightly, every three weeks, monthly etc) to keep yourself engaged with your exercise and keep it interesting!

3. PLAY THE FOOD GAME

Humans have an interesting relationship with food - we like to make it a social event, we use it as a way to show off our skills and we even use it to represent our feelings and emotions. Managing your food and nutritional intake is just as important to accomplishing the 5 W’s as having a regular fitness routine. 

Food habits can be one of the most difficult habits to break. If you’re anything like me, sometimes the temptation of chocolate after dinner or cake with your coffee can be a hard thing to turn down! The accessibility of Fast Food on the way home or UberEats delivered to the comfort of your living room makes it far easier to be complacent with our meal choices. There are however, healthy alternatives which can be just as delicious and even more nutritious. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to make a slightly better food selection. I like to call this process the Food Game - your challenge is every meal you have, to make one item healthier. This can be as simple as swapping a bread roll for a wrap, drinking an extra glass of water a day or cutting down on alcohol by one or two beers a week. 

Another way you can keep eating healthy at the forefront of your mind is a 14-day food challenge. Much like exercise routines, a versatile diet is very important and the body craves variety. Each 14-days, you can set yourself small goals and track them using your handy-dandy planner (whichever method worked for you from step 2)! It might be that one fortnight you aim to eat a bit slower, drink more water, exercise a day you wouldn’t otherwise - make your fortnightly goals achievable and specific so that over the 14 days, these changes become a habit!

The aim is that you can make slightly healthier choices which, bit by bit, can become your new routine! Every 2 weeks, add another small aspect to the changes you are looking for - over a 6-month period it will go such a long way to assist you in forming long lasting habits that are easy to keep!

These three simple strategies will go such a long way to shaping your attitude towards your health and fitness (and keeping yourself accountable). Just remember: Stay strong against food temptation, stay motivated to continue your routine and stay connected to your future self; Remember the reason you signed up to The Realm in the first place!

Keep checking back in to The Realm to stay up to date on all thing’s fitness, health and wellbeing. Our community is here to support you and your goals to ensure you stay on track to become the best version of yourself you can be!