A few things I wish somebody told me when I first started working out
1. Taking Sleep Serious:
You hear people say "sleep good" all the time but it's always just mentioned in the stereotypical "eat good, sleep good." I don't often hear it EMPHASIZED. Once I started taking my sleep serious it changed and improved a lot in my fitness journey and my personal life. Obvious one but I had more energy when working out and felt more "explosive." And my recovery dates felt more meaningful rather than just being lazy lmao. To get good sleep wasn't easy though. Especially being a serial doomscroller before bed, that was the hardest habit to stop. Stop scrolling before bed though please. This helped me listen to my body tell me it's time to sleep but I still couldn't fall asleep easily. Tried a few melatonin gummies, supplements, pill stacks, herbal teas, but stuck on Som Sleep. It was the only one that worked w/o leaving me feeling hungover the next day.
2. Don't hyperfocus on one area you want to see improvement:
This is one I still tend to struggle w/ but damn when you just lock in and focus on overall health and improvement. That fulfillment and boost you feel is wild. Maybe I just get too in my head sometimes about improving the things that had me start working out in the first place and I still see that in the mirror but for anybody else that get's that way. Lock in on overall. You want a better chest, hit chest till failure but have that same mentality on legs or core. Hyperfocusing on one place I want to see improvement would kill my motivation and take away from seeing improvement elsewhere or just my overall improvement from day 1.
3. Find cardio you enjoy:
I'm sure you already know but consistency beats having the "perfect plan" that you may have mapped out and the only way you are going to say consistent is doing something you enjoy. Or I guess you can say something you enjoy for what it is lol. But I used to run for cardio and I hated it, so I wouldn't want to do it. I started doing stairmaster and jumprope. I love the shit. I don't know I feel good doing it and feel good after doing it. I actually enjoy it, even when it hurts and sucks I enjoy it enough to keep going. Running for me just sucked. I guess this goes for any workout, find what you enjoy or enjoy enough to keep going. Because consistency is key (you've heard it a 1000000 times) but I'm telling you the key to consistency is enjoying what you are doing through the pain.
4. This you probably don't need to hear again, but progress is not alway's obvious
Sometimes it's hard to see the progress. But remember where you started. You may not be where you want to be yet and have been at it for a while but look back and see how far you came. Not being where you want to be and sitting on that kills motivation. That look back at where you started can be a bit of a motivation boost so give yourself those flowers and lock back in. You'll get there.
Some of these might be obvious but these are a few things that I didn't hear emphasized too much when I first started and have forsure been big pieces of keeping me pushing forward. Do what works for you, you got this.