How to Start a Fitness Regime?

A lot of the time as a personal trainer I get asked the question, How did You get Started? Or what motivated you to start?

Here's a little background of myself, when I was a freshman in high school I was 170 pounds with a poor diet and fitness regime. I had bad body image issues and I lacked self-confidence. I used to get so nervous working out in front of people that I would throw up. I especially hated swim class because I had to wear revealing clothing. Then what really set me off was a kid that called me Santa Claus in algebra class. That is something that I will never forget.

But here's the thing, maybe I should thank him because that just pushed me a little harder to start. So I began to make small changes, such as changing my eating habits and running at night. A lot of you are probably wondering, why run at night? Well I didn't want people to see me work out. Why? I was afraid of people judging me. But from all the running at night I began to see changes in my body and worked up the confidence to buy a gym membership at the YMCA. Even though, I still felt very uncomfortable I still did it because I knew it was the right thing for me. Before I knew it I was addicted to working out and fell in love.

However, everyone gets motivated in different ways, for me some extrinsic factors pushed me. Then my intrinsic motivation kept me going. For most individuals they need some extrinsic factor to help them start. Now to put this into a picture let's think of the stages of change model. When it comes to making a change we begin to pre-contemplate like me for example, I knew I had to make a change; but I didn't want to at the time. Then I started to contemplate when I was starting to feel uncomfortable in my own skin and was thinking maybe I should make a change. Then what got me to start prepping to make a change was the kid that called me Santa Claus. Next thing I knew I began to take action and began to run and change my eating habits. Though the hard part is not the action stage, the hard part is maintaining without a relapse. That's why when I set up goals with people, I tell them to aim small because then there will be some sense of accomplishment instead of disappointment leading to relapse.

So how did I get started? Well I made small changes first; some people only try to look at the big picture. But what's more important is to look at the pixels. Long story short don't set the bar so high that it will make you fail. Take baby steps, most people think months, I think years it takes to make a change. Heck I am still learning and trying to maintain.