Clichés the gym made to be true 🙃

Hi friends! I hope you’re doing well. Can we discuss how quickly June came and went? It’s basically Christmas (I don’t make the rules here). If you follow me on social media, you’ve probably either been annoyed or surprised at my constant gym photos. Let’s just be honest for a second. Growing up in a world where social media seems to dictate beauty standards is difficult, and for a while I never felt like I fit the bill. I started taking my physical health seriously in 2017, and I was in great shape. For the first time in a long time, I felt good about how my body looked, and then COVID hit and derailed all my progress in a matter of 6 months. It seemed like every spare pound within a 5-mile radius decided to attach itself to my body, and I was not happy with it. I remember when it was safe to go to the gym again, I would often opt for outdoor workouts so the regulars wouldn’t notice how much weight I gained.

Four years later and I’m finding my mojo again. I still have the weight, but with the help of strength training and (mostly) clean eating, I’ve been able to build a physique I’m mostly satisfied with. Over the last 7 years, the gym has taught me a myriad of lessons that seem to mirror things that need reinforcement in my daily life, most of which happen to be clichés that have been proven to be true (at least for me). My hope is that these help you as well:

·       Be patient: I am impatient. I like for things to happen when I want them to, and usually that’s right now. Except you can’t build muscle overnight. Going from a 135-pound college freshman to a 175-pound built young woman took years. Some years it seemed like I wasn’t making any progress. Even now I am just now seeing definition in places I’ve been working on. Great things take time.

·       Stay in your lane: As a new gym goer, it was so intimidating to see other people with the physique I thought I wanted. To be honest, even now at times I still struggle with this. We’ve all seen a relay race where someone ends up winning because a member of another team decided to look back. That one second made all the difference. Don’t look back.

·       Consistency is key:  I’m sure we’ve all either seen this meme or a variation of it:

Consistency produces results. For a while I was discouraged that I wasn’t seeing any progress, and I was only going to the gym Monday- Wednesday. The other 4 days a week I was doing nothing! So if you aren’t seeing results (in whatever), maybe you aren’t being consistent.

 We all hate clichés, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. It may be time to give some of them a second look; you may be surprised what lessons you can learn.

Keep going. It’s not over yet.

Love always,

CDOG