My Fitness Journey – January 2023

Okay, so I want to document my fitness journey and see if the accountability of having to share with you all how I’m doing will kick my butt. A quick disclaimer: I am not a dietitian or fitness trainer. Everything I share will be my own experience and these blogs are to hold me accountable and hopefully encourage you on your journey. Let’s dive in.

A brief history

I have tried this journey of fitness for a few years now. The most success I had was when I lived a year in New Zealand. (Should I write a blog where I share some stories from that?) New Zealand was a country that had so many free opportunities to stay fit. Swimming in the ocean, countless hikes, and then just walking around the block was a workout. All hills, and pushing a stroller with twin toddlers in it. I was honestly in the best shape of my life out there. Then I came back to Canada and gained all the weight back.

Now, I do want to throw it out there; I am not fat. There are days where I look at myself in the mirror and tell myself otherwise, but the truth is, I’m not. Do I have a little extra fat that I would love to get rid of? Yes. That is something I can accomplish if I just get off my butt, live a more active lifestyle, and eat better. This year I have challenged myself to try different meal plans and workouts each month. Each month I draw a new meal plan, partnered with a workout. Which brings us to this blog.

January, 2023

For the month of January, I drew Paleo and Pop Sugar Fitness workouts. For those who don’t know, I’ll quickly explain what those are. The paleo diet is a diet that focuses a lot on what the palaeolithic, or cavemen, would have eaten. So there is lots of meat and fish, fruits and veggies and nuts. Pop Sugar Fitness is a fitness channel on YouTube that has so many different workouts. From yoga and barre to HIIT and tabata, there is something for everyone. They also have different levels from beginner to advanced. It truly is a great channel and you should check it out.

I have been trying to follow this for the month of January, and I’ll be honest. I have sucked at it. There were a few days where I just didn’t care and went through a drive thru for burgers and fries, or ate pizza. As for the workouts, I was aiming to do 3 a week. I didn’t hit that goal once this month, with two workouts a week being the most I reached. I really struggled with just getting out of the mindset of “why workout when I could watch Netflix or a hockey game?” Some days were good, others were bad, but the one thing I do want to highlight, I never just straight up quit. I tried again the next day.

I do want to say, this is nothing against the Paleo diet, or the Pop Sugar Fitness channel. I enjoyed the workouts I did, and the food that I ate on plan was absolutely delicious. So, this is not a knock on any of these things. This is just my own journey and experience. What works for me, may not work for you and vice versa. And that’s okay!

Highlights

So, some highlights. Like I said, the food was delicious. The plan I followed is from the app called BetterMe. (I love this app). Each day included breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack. The snacks were usually quite simple like a banana with some almonds. Lots of the meals included seafood such as salmon and cod, which was fine with me. I love seafood. For those of you who are allergic, there were substitutes included. Another highlight. The food was usually quite filling and would keep me satisfied. The workouts that I chose were quite fun and usually left me sweaty, exhausted, and in need of a cold shower.

The struggles

Now for the cons that I struggled with. Most meals were 30-40 minutes to prep and cook. When you work full time, you don’t always have lots of time to cook, and then there are all the dishes to wash afterwards. The plan didn’t really repeat a lot of meals, other than breakfast and snacks, which were the ones that did not take a lot of time to make. This made meal prep a bit daunting. I would have liked if the lunches were a bit more simple and the dinners could be a tad more repetitive. This brings me to the next con. Grocery shopping. Since you usually needed multiple different ingredients, and lots of it was produce, I was constantly having to go to the grocery store. And we all know that prices are going up. So, my bank account suffered. As for the workouts, because there were so many to choose from it seemed quite daunting to pick one each day. They also organised their playlists by the trainer rather than by workouts. If I could recommend anything to Pop Sugar Fitness, have your playlists by workout type, or even by time length. It would make it easier to find the workouts you’re looking for.

What’s next?

So, that was my journey in January. I know January is not over yet, but I’m going to actually try and do what I should have done before I started this month. I’m going to try and use up the food I have now, before starting the next plan. It provides more space for the groceries I will need to buy for the new meal plan, and take out the stuff I can’t have. Get rid of temptations, right? What is the new meal plan and exercise you ask? Well, I guess you will have to follow me on social media to find out. That will be announced on Monday, January 30th. I’ll post my socials below. So, that’s all for this blog. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you continue to support me on my fitness journey. I also hope to encourage those of you on your own journeys, and maybe inspire those of you who are on the fence, to join in.