Blogilates Challenge: Part 1

Hi guys.

So I know I said this month was all about goals for me, and it still is. But now that I’m officially a week into tackling one of my goals for this month, I thought I’d share a little bit of it with you.

One thing that I have always wanted to be able to commit to in life is really taking care of myself. I know for a lot of people this can mean different things. For me it has always been about working out regularly and eating as clean and healthy as I possibly can.

This has always been a struggle for me. I have a hard time sticking to a workout routine, which is mainly due to the fact that I become bored with it. Eating has always been a major challenge for me because I’m such a picky eater and as a result of that I don’t really eat a lot of different foods. I kind of have my main meats, fruits, vegetables, carbs and whatnot, but very rarely will I ever try anything new.

And I mean very rarely.

But I know that in order to really commit to this goal, I need to become comfortable with experimenting with the foods that I eat in a different fashion than the one I do now because it’s not entirely healthy and it’s not really clean eating. I also know that I need to let go a lot of the junk food that I tend to consume whenever I’m in a rush to find something to put into my body because of a super busy schedule, or when my stress becomes an overload.

And believe it or not this happens pretty often for me. And I know that once I make these positive changes a habit for me, they will be easier to control. But it’s all about getting there first.

So as mentioned earlier my number goal for this month was to get into a consistent rhythm of working out and to clean out my system to prepare for a better and more healthy diet. I plan to accomplish this all with the help of Blogilates!

For those of you who do not know who or what Blogilates is, it’s a health and fitness blog. What I really like about this blog is that it focuses on health and fitness from an honest, fun, and safe perspective. And the founder of Blogilates, Cassey Ho, is just absolutely amazing! She mixes her excellent ability to inspire and motivate people, with the core and really overall body strengthening power of Pilates.

Pilates is something that I have always wanted to do but never really gave it a try because it just looked so challenging. And after trying some moves for a couple of days I can confirm that it is challenging! But I can also confirm that it’s the consistency that will make the moves more doable for anybody.

I discovered Blogilates back in August of 2015. It all started with a water bottle. Anybody who knows me knows that I am obsessed with water bottles! Back then I really wanted to commit to drinking more water and the Blogilates water bottles was the answer to my prayers.

I brought a ton of them (I own almost all of the older ones, I’m working on the new ones) and honestly I loved the design of the bottles so much so that I did drink more water! Little did I know that this was the beginning of a new journey for me.

I basically checked the website frequently to see if there was anything new, and to see what else Blogilates had to offer.

It wasn’t until August of 2016 when I decided that I wanted to get back into working out. I did my usual, googled some workouts and performed them at home. I kept up with working out 6 days a week, for at least 15 minutes a day for an entire month. I saw very little progress which of course made me feel defeated and as a result of that, working out 6 days a week turned into 4. Then I started finding excuses as to why I couldn’t work out. I became depressed because I wasn’t working out anymore and eventually I just stopped altogether.

Flash forward to January of 2017 I decided that this was going to be the year of changes for me. I spent all of January beating myself up because I couldn’t find the motivation to get back into the habit of working out. Then February came around and I started to watch Cassey’s YouTube videos. She had a 28-day reset challenge for that month and in January (which I missed) and I really wanted to take part in it. But I had other things in my life that I wanted to get under control first so naturally I put it off.

She also released a new fitness clothing line which was by far the most gorgeous clothing line I have ever laid eyes on! And the main color scheme was my favorite color…purple! I mean way to be tempting Cassey :).

I knew that I wanted to buy these clothes, I knew that I wanted to be able to comfortably wear them, but I also knew that, that meant I needed to commit to the process of transforming my body.

What I love the most about her brand is that she doesn’t limit anything to a one size fits all mindset. She considers and thinks about all body types. While I appreciated that I knew what my goals were, and in order to reach those goals I needed to make the commitment to myself to not give up when it got hard.

March approached us and I decided that I was in a good enough space mentally and emotionally to take another shot at committing to a healthier lifestyle.

On March 1^st I began this journey. My strategy to reach my goal for the month was to pick one of Cassey’s YouTube videos to work out to for a week before switching up. Every week would be a different video which targeted a different part of my body. Now Cassey also sends out workout calendars in her newsletter for the month, but I decided I needed to take it slow. Build my body up for what’s to come. I figured this was the best way for me to start this journey.

I decided that I would also be sticking to at least 15-30minutes a day because I personally feel like that’s enough time to get in a good workout.

And I was off to a good start.

But then I ran into a road block that I didn’t really factor into the equation. I work Fridays and Saturdays overnights from 10pm-6am, and usually do not get home until about 7am. At this point I’m extremely exhausted. If you’re wondering why I have such a crazy work schedule it because it was the best schedule that currently compliments my other obligations.

I was able to work out this past Saturday despite the very little sleep that I was able to get due to having a very busy day. But I didn’t work out this past Sunday. And here’s why.

I promised my nephew that I would take him to the movies, and since I was running on about three hours of sleep over the past two days, I decided to go home and sleep for two hours. At the movies I did not eat anything that was reset (28-day reset challenge) friendly, nor did I after the movies, we decided to eat out for lunch. I had already been beating myself up for not working out that morning and now I was really beating myself up not eating clean and healthy.

I went home and the horrible food choices just continued. I figured I had already messed up for the day so it didn’t matter. Man was I wrong and I wish that I was able to pep talk myself then like I had to this morning. Sunday came and went and then it was Monday. Bad start again. I had to go to a meeting at my nephew’s school early in the morning, which meant that I had no time to work out or prepare a smoothie for myself prior to leaving.

Well I guess technically I did if I made the decision to get up and prepare for my day at 5:00am, but as a college student I know what it’s like to be up and starting your day that early in the morning. And I absolutely hate it.

After the meeting I had to go straight to my acting class. So still no time to work out but I did grab some fruit to snack on. After my acting class I had to run some errands. Which meant that I missed out on lunch. And I had absolutely nothing in my stomach except like 8 slices of watermelon that I was able to steal before heading to my class. As a result I was hungry, dehydrated (it’s hard for me to remember to drink water when I’m under a lot of stress), and had no motivation to stick to the 28-day reset. So I didn’t.

But Tuesday morning I felt so bad because I was basically giving up due to not anticipating that road bump. That one little bump in the road completely threw me off, which of course was another ridiculous reason to beat myself up over. And I told myself that this was my cycle. I started something and something always happened that caused me to lose motivation, find excuses, and just give up.

I did not want this time to be like all those other times.

So today I decided that I am taking back my will power. Yes, I messed up. Yes, I had an unexpected roadblock. Yes, I gave in time and time again. But I’m only human and it’s about time that I acknowledge that. I don’t have to or need to be perfect, or as my acting coach likes to put it, get it right all the time.

And this is where my biggest flaw is. I feel like I always have to get it right every time, the first time around. And little did I know that by having that mindset I was slowly but surely setting myself up for failure.

Tuesday I had a smoothie for breakfast, snacked on fruit throughout the day, and ate some chicken and broccoli for dinner. Reset friendly. Today I’m picking back up on working out.

The important thing I learned over this past week is that it’s not always about consistency. It’s mostly about how you handle those moments you are not able to be consistent. I automatically gave up, beat myself up, and decided that it didn’t matter anymore. Which led me to making bad decisions after one another and feeling more and more defeated as time passed by. But that was wrong, and I’m not going to let myself sink back into that comfort hole of self-defeat filled with reasonable excuses again.

So today I get back up on the saddle. And this time I’m going to stay on, even if I run into more unanticipated roadblocks, or encounter little bumps in the road, I will not fall off the saddle. Because this means more to me than spending the rest of my life trying something that could potentially be life changing, just to give up, just to try again, and eventually give up again.

So today is a new day. A clean slate. A new mindset and a greater desire to reach my goals.

I’ll keep you all posted about how this week goes.

-Xo

Kimora