Happy Tuesday y’all and Happy February! I can’t believe we’re already at my birthday week – it happens to be the first time it’s on a three day weekend AND falls on a Friday…. in a Global Pandemic lol. Since we’re still going through everything this year and I’m not really able to focus on a trip or some sort of something to look forward to, I’ve decided to take that energy and focus on myself. Inserting: the 14 Week Fitness Challenge.

Let me start by saying I am obviously not a professional nor do I have experience in the fitness department, but the overall goal of this challenge is to acclimate your body to being active and incorporating some sort of movement into your everyday activity. Speaking for myself, the last month was hard and I didn’t realize how still I was for nearly 3 weeks, and how quickly it is to gain weight back after quite literally MONTHS of working to get it off. But what can I say, it’s hard to be active during the winter especially in a city like New York where things still aren’t open and it’s been snowing like crazy.

That being said, Orange Theory is open with an open gym concept. It’s essentially guided classes that you run through stations on your own. There was a price increase with switching my membership ($169 in Texas, $260 in New York) for unlimited classes and while YES I could absolutely just get a blanketed gym membership for $60-80, I personally need guidance and more of a community that holds me more accountable than just going to a gym and running on a treadmill and lifting some weights (AKA what I was attempting to do at home with Youtube work outs).

For reference, if you start the 14 week fitness challenge with me this week it will end two weeks ahead of Memorial Day Weekend meaning that if you have a bad week there is some buffer room to make it up to stay on track. That means there’s enough time built in here to really see progress at a healthy and steady pace so by summer you’re ready for whatever life holds (and whatever the US is able to do) by then. I personally have a weight loss goal in mind but I’ll be keeping that to myself until the end because I don’t want anyone to think that this is about the numbers more so than it is about creating an active lifestyle for your mental and physical wellbeing.

My Goals for the 14 Week Fitness Challenge:
-Lose weight I’ve gained back from the holidays/my hell of a January month
-Create a routine that feels normal for everyday (right now I’m opting for evening work outs because it’s too cold to walk 12 minutes in the morning)
-LEAVE MY APARTMENT AT LEAST ONCE A DAY – I’ve gone 13 days without leaving my apartment and while I love my space that is NOT healthy! After I walked around one afternoon after being stand still for weeks, I was sore for a week because my body wasn’t used to it
-Get my money’s worth out of my membership by going frequently and taking advantage of coaches and perks – I’m spending the money so I have to make it worth it but only I can do that for myself!

A few things I learned from my Quarantine Fitness Journey:
-Progress takes TIME and PATIENCE. I find that you have one week every so often where you feel like it isn’t working and then two weeks later it has!
-Don’t base your journey off of a scale number but take progress photos along the way (try wearing the same outfit if you can and taking pictures in the same spot). As you continue to get stronger the muscle built will of course increase your weight number
-Listen to your body! If you take a class like I do with OTF and really aren’t feeling it, try walking or lighter weights. If you don’t feel like doing anything crazy, try a 10 minute ab work out or go for a nice walk around the block a few times while you listen to a podcast.
-Don’t measure your ideal goals by what you see on social media. Let’s face it, everyone I see on social media has a different body type and I start to think what’s wrong with me that I can’t be slimmer or get toned arms faster?! In reality, everyone is just different and your body is perfect the way it is!
-It’s important to know that with all of the activity you’re doing in the gym that you should work to improve your activity in the kitchen! While I try to eat healthy, to see the most results it’s best to limit alcohol intake along with sweets (AKA my two favorite things). I’m going to count macros this go around and see where it takes me!

If you want to join me I’ve created these templates to keep you on track and share on social! I’ll keep you all updated weekly on my progress and check in. I just got a notification that I was taken off the wait list for tonight’s Orange Theory class I had signed up for so here we go full steam ahead! Have a great day and thanks for reading.