The Gift of Time in the Fitness World

I believe the biggest gift you can have in a weight loss journey, bodybuilding, and fitness as whole is time. Coincidentally, time is also why people give up on their journey. It takes a lot of time to lose weight, especially if you have a significant amount to lose and do it the right way. You want the best results? You have to put forth the best effort. And I cannot preach it enough; it takes time.

You want to lose 50 pounds? 60 pounds? You want to lose it in a month? two months? Well think to yourself; did I gain this much weight in that time period? No, you didn't. Whatever time period it took for you to gain the weight, it will normally take twice as long to lose it. You must do your research, continue with training, and always monitor your eating habits. Time is a gift when you want to change your life, lose weight, and feel better about yourself. Every second that you put off making a change in your life is simply more time wasted. What are you going to do a month from now when you are still putting off your dream of losing weight? Just think if you would have started a month ago, instead of waiting, the difference you could be seeing right now. The sooner you get started, the more time you will have.

I am 22 years old and I take advantage of the gift of time everyday in my training and nutrition. Because my time is now. And in this moment I have the power to make my journey happen. I made it no secret that I gained 9 pounds over the Summer. I may be a Health and Fitness Blogger, this may be my undeniable passion in life, but I am still human. I still make mistakes, and sometimes I still fail. But because of time, I can always change. 

On Wednesday, September 21st I had an intervention with myself. I made myself make a change then, in that moment. No more pity parties about the relationship I had been in, the suffering I was going through, no more excuses. I was going to waste no more time. I rededicated myself back to my nutrition, my training, and my love for helping YOU, my reader's. As of this morning, I have lost 12 pounds. I have taken the time and put forth the effort it takes to get my life back on track and making my dreams a reality. The morning cardio sessions, the meal prepping, the training sessions at night... time is what makes this happen. You have to give everything time. You cannot speed up time, you can't slow it down, you can't take it back... the only thing you can do is live in it.

I first started attending my gym, Urban Active Fitness, when it opened in August of 2010. I was there the very first day and have been ever since. I remember seeing the StairMill. I had used it a few times in my life in my life at prior facilities, but not much... because it was so hard. I decided to try it, my first day at Urban Active. I thought a "a new gym, a new regimen". The first day, I did 10 minutes at 80 steps per minute and thought it was so hard. My heart was beating out of my chest, I was covered in sweat, and thought to myself "no wonder there is only two StairMill's in the ENTIRE gym when there are 50 Elliptical's and 30 Tredmills". However, I decided to keep trying it. I did it every day. Because I gave myself time, I became stronger and stronger and stronger. Now a year and two months later, I do 20-45 minutes a day... as my warm-up, maxing out the speed at 160 steps per minute. I can sprint backwards, skip every other step, hold weights, and more. I kept trying and I gave it time and my strength increased over 200%. The same goes for weight lifting. I consistently get more reps and heavier weights.

Over time I have also fell in love with eating better. Give yourself time and the more days you eat healthier and choose healthier options, the more it become nature. Over the past month I have completely changed my eating habit's. I was really getting slack because of stress in my life, and sure I can use that is an excuse forever if I want, but where will that get me? I made myself work hard this past month and now I rarely crave or have the urge to eat junk food. I just had to give it time.

I do morning "fasted" cardio 4-5 days a week first thing in the morning. I hate exercising first thing. But a lot of times that is only chance I have since I work two jobs. On days I am not working my second job, I do morning cardio and training in the evenings just so I can keep my intensity up. Because I have been pushing myself to train in the morning, even when I have not wanted too, I love it. I actually look forward to it. It is a great way to start my day. My body has adjusted to waking up early and I get right up now. I just had to give it time.

I hope that any of my readers or friends that are reading this and want to make a change in their life realize that it needs to happen now. Do not waste this gift, time - give it to yourself.