I strongly believe fitness should be an act of self-love. Me working out & pushing my limits to the max, is me believing in me. It's me believing that I am capable & deserving of more, because I love myself & because I want to be as strong as I possibly can. I want to be an example to other women, that you can achieve your fitness goals & be strong as **** & have the body of YOUR dreams! You just need to believe in you & do it out of love for yourself. For me it's about how I feel each & every day. It's about knowing that I walk my talk. With that being said here's some of my biggest takeaways/most important reminders of the year.. Act out of self-love, always. You owe yourself that, you deserve that. You don't always need to show up 100%! Some days, I'm on my game & I'm going all out in every exercise that I do. But then we have other types of days. The type of day where I'm there for an hour and I get through a 1/4 of what I usually do. But sometimes getting there, breaking a sweat, getting my body warm and just going through the actions of my regular routine (not necessarily at the same level as I usually do) is good enough! Be consistent. Be straight up with yourself. Get honest about what you can realistically accomplish & hold yourself accountable. On the days I'm really not feeling it, I know I need to rely on my habits. I like to build one habit at a time, solidify that habit and then build another. Way back when it started with just 10 minutes every other day of the week on the treadmill in grade nine. That slowly translated into what I do now which is anywhere from 3-6 days a week at the gym. It goes back to those foundational habits. It's taken me years to develop the habits I have today... & I still have so much work to do! One little trick I have on the days where I'm just really not down & I don't want to workout- I'll tell myself, ‘Okay, I'm really not feeling it today... I'm just going in for 20 minutes. I'm going to warm up my body and just do a stretch.’ If after that 20 mins I'm still not feeling it and I want to take my ass home, I go home! But nine times out of ten by the end of those 20 minutes, I've broken a sweat & my body is warm and I don't care to go home anymore! If there's a day you're really struggling, you get in your 20 minutes and you're still not feeling it... go home! You clearly need a day to rest! Take a bath, eat some good food, do something that makes your soul happy! But nine times out of ten you will push past that and you'll feel so much better after than you did before! My other top tip- find a gym buddy or someone to hold you accountable! Consistency is key, not motivation The number one thing for fitness, above all else is just to be consistent. Don't rely on motivation. Motivation will be there one day and then gone the next. Being consistent and building good habits is something that translates over to both building a good workout routine and attaining a high level of fitness. I suggest finding something that works for your schedule, your fitness level and your preferences! There's no one size fits all for fitness. It starts with you finding your why. Why do you want to change this aspect of your life? Why is this important to you? I think that if anyone wants it badly enough and that why is profound enough, they’ll find a way to get it done. End of story. I could go on for days about different ways that you can become more consistent through different habits but at the end of the day, it comes down to the individual and how relentless they are to attain their goals. They don't need to have insanely ambitious goals. It can literally be just moving your body for 30 minutes a day, it can be that simple. It’s you versus you. In terms of the relationship you have with yourself we really have two options in life. We are either our own worst enemy & biggest critic OR our own your best friend. If you fail to love yourself & prioritize you, it can feel like an internal war zone, where you're battling through your workouts, you're battling through your eating everyday, you're battling through your diet. That's what it was for me in my first five years of getting into fitness. Figuring out how to eat was a constant act of punishment, which is something that I see is so common- specifically for the women that I'm exposed to. It’s something that is so detrimental to not only your physical state but your mental state as well and will end up tearing you down. Act out of self-love always. You owe yourself that, you deserve that. The reason I direct my training and my posts to women is because as a woman I struggled with body image, confidence & self-love, immensely. After many years of working on myself & doing tons of research- I'm SO happy & proud to say that I've found solutions that have worked for me & many other women! I believe self-love is at the fore front of all of these solutions. When you come from a place of love your actions translate love through everything that you do. Health is wealth. Health is everything. If you don't have your health, I truly believe that you don't have anything. Being healthy is the simplest & most effective way of elevating yourself to be the best person that you can be, in every area of life. I think fitness is something that translates into everything that you do – taking care of yourself and bettering yourself through fitness and healthy eating. If I had to break fitness up into two things, it'd be broken up into the physical component of being healthy but also the mental component of releasing your stress. The mental component is something that has, over the past few years, started to be a little more prioritized within the fitness industry which I'm very grateful for! But I believe this area still requires a lot more work. By levelling up your health & fitness, you're levelling up your entire life. How you feel is your best measuring tool. Your body tells you what it needs. How you feel will be the best indicator of your progress; I can't reiterate that enough. If you're fuelling your body properly and moving your body properly, you have a much higher chance of sleeping properly, feeling good, being joyful, and not being on edge! If you're going into your workouts and you're scared to do them or you feel like **** doing them- your body's probably burnt out & you're most likely overworked and overexerting yourself... maybe this isn't the right plan for you? Really listen to yourself throughout the entire process. How you're feeling each and every day (physically, mentally & emotionally) is the biggest indicator of if what you're doing is right for you. When I wasn't eating properly, I was always on edge. I was always thinking about my next meal. I was having a million different cravings all at once and it was absolutely terrible! That's why it consumed every aspect of my life! I had a bit of an undiagnosed eating disorder and in all honesty I never thought I'd be able to eat or workout normally (not obsessively) ever again. I didn't think this way of living (the way that I now live) was possible for me at that time. That's why I'm so passionate about fitness, health & wellness! I see so many people saying, ‘You're always going to think about food & you're always going to have this problem.’ ...& that's truly not always the case! There is a way out of it! I'm forever grateful that I found it because I wouldn't be here today as I am if I didn't. I feel like I found the secret to what I was dealing with in my life and I feel the need to share that with anyone else who was/ is going through the same thing. This is a marathon, not a sprint This is not a sprint, it's a marathon people! We're always going to have phases where we're not feeling our best. This is not a linear journey; & it's going to needs to be adjusted over time! Many people have a plan. They stick with it for a week, two weeks, a month, six months, however long it is. But then... life happens! As much as it is completely realistic to set the goal of working out 2-3 times a week, sometimes it just doesn't happen. Be hard on yourself when you're on your sh*t & feeling good. But there are pockets of time where you need to be a little easier on yourself, have some more compassion and treat yourself like the friend that you need! It's about long-term progress, long-term growth and long-term habits! Taking a week off in the grand scheme of things will not hinder you at all. Rest days are JUST as important as work days. I will never work out seven days in a row, even six. For me, it's usually 4-5 days/week. You need rest days; they are absolutely necessary! Be patient with yourself. Love yourself. Be consistent. & do it because you deserve to see your dreams come to life! Post content inspired by an interview I did with Vatika that was featured in a article in SheMade Digital.