Starting Your Health Journey
Are you sick and tired of always being tired throughout the day? Do you get sad or even embarrassed that you aren’t able to participate in fun activities with your family or friends due to not having the energy or being out of shape? Or do you struggle with mental health struggles and want to find a way that can help you better cope with your issues? Many people I know, including myself, have had thoughts like these swirling in their heads and made the decision to fix their problems. I, Calvin Hollingsworth, am living proof that you can accomplish just that. Although I am not very physically fit, I am stoked that since I started my journey a few years ago, I have lost nearly 60 pounds and am the strongest I’ve ever been in my mid-30s. All it takes is some research, consistency, and discipline and you will be on your way to begin your health journey.
Starting your health journey can start out as a daunting endeavor. All of the meal planning, exercise regiments, and consistency may appear to us as unattainable or impossible to accomplish. Some of us, including myself, fall into the procrastination trap where we tend to put off things in our lives that should be a higher priority into the back-burner of our brains and hope the problem goes away. The reality is, those things sooner or later come back to bite us and the same goes with your overall health. If remain unchecked, you could have life-threatening problems in the future.
I am here to tell you that your health journey doesn’t have to be this grandiose ordeal. Unless this is what you want, you don’t have to participate in triathlons or become the next Mr. Olympia to improve your health. All it takes is small and simple, daily habits that will carry with you for the rest of your life. One day, you will look at yourself in the mirror and be appalled at how far you’ve come, and that will motivate you to keep on going.
Start out simple. Push yourself to your limits, no matter how big or small they appear to be. Go on a walk with a friend. Go to a gym. Do cardio or HIIT. Go kayaking, do a mild jog or run, or go on a hike. The possibilities are endless and the beautiful thing is you get to pick and choose what you want to do. The key is to stay active in some way throughout the day and avoid sitting down for long periods of time.
Arguably the most important part of your health journey is what you eat. When I had a personal trainer, she told me that weight loss consists of 80% of what you eat and the remaining 20% is exercise. I am not here to tell you what you should and shouldn’t eat or what type of diet you should be on. Personally, I think most “diets” are unsustainable. The reason why I think this is because based on my personal observations of people I know, they will be rigid on their diets for a couple of days or weeks and then revert back to what they were eating before because they think their diet is too restrictive or too hard. At the end of the day, they lacked discipline and used this logic as an excuse to not lose weight.
I wasn’t on any particular diet when I lost weight. I just made sure I ate plenty of fruits and vegetables, drank lots of water, ate complex carbs, and reduced simple carbs. Over time, along with working out 3-5 times a week, I was able to be where I am now which is 60 pounds lighter, a few shirt and pant sizes smaller, and able to do things outdoors with the ones I love without being completely exhausted.
I won’t lie to you, this health journey is one of the most difficult experiences I have ever had in my life. It is not easy. But most things and life are not easy. If they were easy, we wouldn’t be able to improve much. Overcoming adversity and developing a delayed gratification mindset is vital for us to succeed in life in every aspect of our lives. There will be times when you will lack motivation, those are the most critical days to get out of your head and do some exercise. You have to confront and defeat your inner demons. Only then will you be able to develop self-mastery and come out on top!
I listened to this one celebrity personal trainer on Instagram who said that this whole health experience is a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t beat yourself up for taking too long to see drastic results. It takes time and lots of it. Put into your mind’s eye that your health journey is going to be a life-long pursuit, a lifestyle if you will. So Keep pushing yourself. Keep moving forward. And like I said before, you will one day look back and see how far you’ve come and you will have the vision of where you will see yourself in the future. And trust me, this is all of the motivation and drive you will need to sustain you. So get out there, start today, and don’t delay. Both your mind and your body will be forever grateful to you for beginning this journey.
