(GGGG!) Gave up being lazy, Glow up and Got into Good shape

Getting fit and living an active lifestyle can be seriously daunting especially if you are juggling work/ studies/ family ALL together!  

If you are just starting out or making adjustments to your fitness regime, I hope you can kickstart with some of my tips. Here are six tips that helped me throughout my fitness journey!

#fatdieme

Believe me when I say I love food, especially the ones loaded with sugars and fats! However, I strongly believe that we must take care of our bodies because that is where we live. If you do not take care of your body, who will?

As human beings, there are days we will go off balance, fret not, we can always adjust accordingly the next day. It's perfectly fine, learn not to beat yourself up about it.

Determine your intentions

Whether you wish to look good, be in pink of health or stay active, you need to question your motives. Before you start on your journey, ask yourself this question: What is your end goal in mind? How can I keep track of my results?

Once you are clear on your goals, you will have greater motivation towards reaching them! Always remember that it is near impossible to aim for perfection and along the way, honour your progress, be it weight loss on the scale, a toner body or being able to do more burpees in a given time!

Have a schedule

I cannot emphasize this enough! If you are a beginner, do not underestimate the power of a fixed workout schedulee so you can mentally prepare yourself by blocking out a time to workout. Question to ask yourself: What time do I feel most prepared to work out?

Personally I love starting my day at 8AM with an adrenaline pumping High Intensity Interval Training or a quick 30 minutes cardio session. Choose your preferred time of the day to workout, you can even alternate between morning and night sessions according to your preference. Keep it going!

Mix it up

Do you find yourself reaching a result plateau?

Towards the end of the Circuit Breaker, I lost interest in working out as I was repeating my workouts (simply because I did not bother to find new ones). After 3 to 4 months of doing so, my routine became mundane and I realised that I was so bored of repetition thus I started to experiment with various workouts from various trainers!

Now I am always adding oomp to my routine with videos from my favourite fitness inspirations. Some of influencers whom I subscribed to are:

• Pamela Reif
• Emi Wong
• Joanna Soh
• Madfit

The more the variety, the more fun it will be to stick to it! You can find their videos on Youtube easily! The selection is always growing!

Find a reliable buddy or buddies

One way to ensure that you do not skip your workouts is to fix regular exercise dates with your buddies. Pencil them in to your schedule and stay accountable to them!

I love to schedule spin class, swimming and hiking dates with my friends, simply because it is alot more fun to go together and sweat it out! Trust me, you may feel uncomfortable to make exercise commitments or you fear that you cannot keep up, but this is a good start as you are forced to be accountable to your buddies.

Get sufficient rest

You simply cannot keep up your routine if you are tired. If you are a late sleeper, it will take time to adjust your sleep cycle. However, please do not let this be a reason that you do not get ample rest while actively working out. Rest is crucial to recharge your body and for your muscles to recover.

First, you can take baby steps to set a bedtime and keep to it. I used to unwind by browsing social media and listening to songs on my playlist but I realised it may not be the most conducive for sleep. Thus, I tweaked my bedtime routine which now comprises of relaxing bedtime activities. I enjoy lighting a scented candle, light reading and listening to jazz music. Try it! You will be surprised by how much of a difference this small change makes!

Curate your own workout playlist

Do you find the initial excitement wearing off? Don't worry, this is perfectly normal and affects almost all of us!

A solution that worked well for me: I constantly source for upbeat tracks on Spotify and curated my very own "Exercise playlist". Now, I found myself looking forward to my morning workouts with music to jazz it up!

I also enjoy going for fitness classes 1 to 3 times a week to jazz up my workouts! It is a totally different feeling when you are in an enclosed studio working out with your "comrades". Because you are working on the same exercises together, it empowers you to bring your A Game and give it your all!

I hope all of you find my 6 tips useful! Let's glow up together and make fitness a priority in our lives!

Estelle trys to clock 180-200 minutes of exercise a week, this loosely translate to 5-6 days of activity. It can be swimming, strength training or cardiosvascular exercises. 

She is taking care of her body, embracing the good and bad days and loving food freedom in moderation!  

Feel free to reach out to her to share ideas! She will love to know how you motivate yourselves to stick to your fitness routines! :)