Common Fitness Mistakes We Make

I'm going to go over a few fitness mistakes that I wish I would have known about when I started my fitness journey. The things I will be going over are things I did and things I corrected. The 5 common mistakes are:

1. Doing cardio every day for more than 30 minutes. I remember when I started my fitness journey I would go to the gym, get on the treadmill and do cardio for 45 minutes to an hour. That is just crazy! I thought by doing that I would get the body I wanted. Boy was I wrong. I did get lean but I didn't have any muscle. I looked like I was 12 years old. I lost any curves that I had and lost a lot of muscle which was the opposite of what I wanted. Thankfully someone came up to me and steered me towards the right direction. Which takes me to common mistake number 2.

2. Thinking that lifting will make you bulky. So when I started I thought that lifting weights was going to make me look manly. Well, let me tell you I have been lifting weights for a long time and I do not look manly at all. If anything the more muscle you have the faster your metabolism is. Unfortunately, us women are so afraid to lift weights because we think we will gain a crazy amount of muscle and that is just wrong. No matter how much I lift I still struggle to gain more muscle in my upper body such as my arms. Part of that is because of my genetics and the other part to that is that most of us women don't build muscle like men do because we don't have enough testosterone. So lifting weights will not make you bulky.

3. Doing Fad diets. I hate fad diets with a passion! I did this growing up and it totally messed me up. I would make progress for a few days and then gain it all back because fad diets are just a quick fix. Sorry to burst your bubble but they are not meant to give you long lasting results. They do more harm than good. Fad diets are unhealthy and can potentially lead to poor eating habits, and on top of that they will not give you the nutritional value that your body needs. So quit the fad diets and get on a healthy eating plan. Not one that will have you starving yourself.

4. Working out everyday. This is another big one because many (myself included) start their fitness journey and think that resting will slow down the progress that is being made. It took me a while to accept and understand this when I had just started. But just like everything else, I got myself informed and learned from my past mistakes. Now if you read my previous blog I discuss why resting is so important. Taking a rest day is important for many reasons and one of them is to allow your muscles to repair and grow, and to allow your body to recharge. Be sure to listen to your body and rest when your body is asking for it. You don't want to over train and injure yourself. For more information on why take a rest day is good be sure to read my previous blog :)

5. Not eating enough. So I've seen this a lot, especially when I get a new client. That's ok because I did the same thing when I started my fitness journey. This is why it happens, we feel that we should be restricting ourselves, and that we should be eating less than 1200 calories in order to drop weight. We also believe that food is the enemy and if we eat carbs we will get fat. Well, that's not how it works. Our bodies actually need a good amount of calories for us to be healthy. Now that doesn't mean eat a box of donuts in order to reach a high amount of calories. What I mean is eat the correct amount of calories for you body and for your goal. Understand that everyone is different so some people might require more calories than others, so don't assume that what is working for someone else will work for you. The last thing you need is to follow a diet that is too high or too low. The best thing to do is to get help if you are unsure.

If you have any questions and want more details about any of the 5 things I briefly went over be sure to email me so I can go over anything with you :)

#fitnessandhealth #workout #goodhabits