The fitness industry is booming at the moment. There are gyms lining the streets and Personal Trainer’s lurking on every corner. Scrolling through Instagram can be great motivation to get fit and healthy but it can also be a tad disheartening when seeing women in crop tops flaunting their washboard abs and pictures of the sunrise with quotes like “Let the sunrise be your new beginning.” Sucks if you’re not a morning person, right?
Here’s the thing. Every trainer or gym owner has a message they are trying to deliver to the world and it usually comes from a good place. We want to help people be the best version of themselves, to have more energy and to feel good in their bodies but sometimes this message can come across as just plain annoying. Even I do the occasional eye roll as I scroll through my newsfeed on a Sunday morning.
So I’ve been thinking a lot about what message I’m trying to get across and I’ve realised my message is simple. It’s not that your life is worse than mine if you don’t exercise six days a week or enjoy eating salmon and salad every night. In fact you might be living a happier life than me by exercising three times a week and never touching a piece of salmon!
Being fit and healthy can mean a million different things and it doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s version of it.
Don’t like exercising at 6am? Sweet. Neither do I. You don’t have to see the sunrise every day to live a healthy life.
Don’t like broccoli? Yeah I don’t go for it much either but there are plenty of other nourishing foods that are just as good for you.
Don’t like yoga? Don’t do it. There’s only about a zillion other ways to exercise.
It’s always that initial push to put your sneakers on that is daunting and you know why? It’s because we have a messed up idea that being fit and healthy means pumping iron every day and never eating a hot cross bun again.
It doesn’t have to be that way!
The best long term success I see in clients that work with me are with those who start small and build up their training and healthy eating habits over time.
I have a client who started off training with me once a fortnight. Now we all know that exercising once every couple of weeks is not going to do much but within a month this client was training with me once a week and now she trains four or five days a week and eats a balanced diet from habits she has created over the past 18 months.
So can you commit to exercising once a week to start? Can you change just one meal a day to make it a bit healthier?
Getting fit doesn’t have to be scary and you don't need to look like the girls on Instagram to be healthy.
A healthy lifestyle is finding time to exercise regularly in ways that make you fitter and stronger but don't make you want to curl up in a ball and hide under the dining table. It can mean eating foods that make you feel good most of the time but enjoying a cinnamon scroll every Saturday morning because they’re your favourite. It can mean sleeping in on Sundays because you deserve an extra hour of shuteye after a long week.
Living your healthiest lifestyle is not always what other people define as their version of healthy. It’s what fills your soul with joy and it’s living in the best way possible for you.
So here’s to your own version of health and happiness,
Alyssa x