How to get started with running (as someone who hates it)

For pretty much my whole life, I’ve hated running. I tried playing soccer when I was young and gave up because the running part was awful. For years afterward, I couldn’t even run a full mile. I could hike for hours, but the act of running was just so unpleasant that I couldn’t go more than a few minutes before quitting and switching to walking instead.

My dislike of running really frustrated me. It seemed like a great cardio workout and everyone kept talking about the health benefits, but every time I tried to make myself run I could only stick with it for a week or two before giving up or being forced to stop due to injury/strain. 

But within the last few months, I’ve finally cracked the problem. I can now run straight through a 5K without stopping and I’m continuing to increase my distance over time. It only took a few small adjustments to get there.

If you are facing the same issue–you want to start running, but just can’t seem to get over your dislike of it–I hope that the tricks I’ve learned can help you out as well!

Here is what I changed.

1. I signed up for a race to give myself a goal to work toward.

[Signing up for a race is a great way to give yourself an external motivator to get running! (Though as you’ll see shortly, this is not necessarily the type of race I would recommend)]

Every time I started running in the past, I did it without a goal to work toward. One day I would just decide “I’m going to start running now” and then I would do it. I never set myself a goal of a distance or mile-time I wanted to achieve, and I never had the pressure of a deadline (the date of an event) to get me motivated to keep running. 

Without something to work toward, the “I hate running” side of my brain took over and always convinced me to quit because I wasn’t really losing anything by doing so–I wasn’t failing a goal of any kind and letting myself down–but I was losing a lot by forcing myself to do something I didn’t like. So why keep going?

Once I signed up for an event, this changed. I had a date and a distance goal set–and since I’d already spent money to hold my spot, I felt pressured not to waste the opportunity. If you are a goal oriented person like me, signing yourself up for an event dramatically helps with concrete goal setting and can give you the push that you’re missing if you just jump into running without any specific outcome in mind.

There are a ton of different events out there, and making the right choice can affect your motivation to keep running and improving. I didn’t just choose something randomly, but made calculated choices to help give myself the best chance at actually sticking with running and being prepared when event day came.

I chose an event that would make running more fun.

There are lots of pure running events out there–a standard 5K for example–but if you’re someone who hates running, signing up for a 5K doesn’t exactly seem like a fun idea. Rather than signing up for a normal running race, I decided to pick something that involved running, but where it was not the sole purpose: obstacle course racing. 

[Obstacle course races are a great way to get into running because they distract you from the actual running part! Highly recommend.]

In an obstacle course race, you run a set distance and encounter fun obstacles along the way–a mud pit, monkey bars, a giant slide, or a jump over fire, to name a few (you can read more about what you might see during one of these races in the article I wrote about obstacles here). The obstacles are the main part of the fun, and running is just a way to get you between them. Races like this help you get your mind off the discomfort of running because it no longer is the only thing you are thinking about during the race. Instead, you’re thinking about the awesome slide you’re about to fly down. I did my first race last year (and wrote about what I learned), and the experience made me so excited to keep going–something I’ve never felt with traditional running races.

If normal running doesn’t sound fun to you, pick a more activity-focused race like an obstacle course that breaks up the running with other things. In my experience, it is way more fun.

I signed up for that event with someone who is a better runner than I am.

To help increase my motivation to prepare for my obstacle course race, I signed up do to it with someone who runs regularly. This provided another external source of motivation–I wanted to be able to keep up with (or at least not completely drag down) my teammate. If I didn’t prepare for the race, I would not just be letting myself down, but I’d be letting someone else down too. This made me try much harder than I would if I were just doing a race on my own. 

I picked a race that was within my ability.

If you’re starting from nothing, like I was, the biggest thing you can do for yourself is set a reasonable goal. If you set your sights too high, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. I have seen some people jump from not running at all to saying they’re going to try and run a marathon. Going from 0 to 100 may sound like a fun idea (who doesn’t want to be able to run a marathon?), but for most people, your body is just not going to be able to do that.  

Instead of making a big step, start small and work your way up. Sign up for a 5K before you sign up for a 10K. Then, if you get comfortable with these, you can start considering longer races like half marathons. Starting small helps you start to see your potential. As you complete these smaller steps, you can start to build confidence in your abilities, which will make it easier to complete longer and longer runs. If you start with something big and can’t finish, it is much easier to lose motivation and just give up.

I set myself a reasonable timeline.

When I signed up for my race, I scheduled it for a good 7 months or so away, giving myself ample time to prepare. If you are new to running, it can take you a while to get used to it and push past the discomfort stage, so you don’t want to sign up for a race that is only a few weeks away. 

When picking a race, give yourself a few months to prepare, but not too long. If your race is a year out, you may feel like you have ages to prepare, so won’t feel motivated to get started. 

[Whatever you do, don’t sign up for a marathon next month!! Just don’t do it!!!]

2. I decided to run less often.

This one is perhaps a bit counter intuitive at first. The more you run, the better you’ll get, right? That is perhaps true once you are experienced, but it is the opposite of what you want when you’re starting out. 

Going too hard is the easiest way to burn out and injure yourself. 

This is what happened to me in all my previous attempts to get over my hatred of running. Each time I wanted to try running again I’d try to run every day and I always ended up feeling winded after a few days or developing shin splints or some other pain injury. This then made it impossible to keep running, so I’d quit.  

This time, I decided to run way less often–I only run twice per week, usually about three days apart. This schedule has been much more sustainable. I have plenty of time to recover in between runs and haven’t faced any injuries yet. 

It also frees up my time, allowing me to keep my other days for exercises that bring me more joy, like weightlifting or rock climbing. 

When you are just starting, running can feel like a bit of a punishment. Doing it less often dramatically reduces this issue and can help sustain the habit long enough to reach the point where it can actually start to become enjoyable.

3. I found a way to limit excuses getting in my way.

I am someone who is prone to allowing excuses to get in my way of exercise, so to help myself stick with running, I decided to eliminate one of the excuses that was getting in my way the most: weather.

Unlike many other gym activities, running is very weather-dependent. It is very common to run outdoors, and if the weather is bad, you’re not going to want to do it. If you live in a cold or rainy climate, as I do, this can be a huge problem. Who wants to run when it’s pouring rain, snowing, or freezing? If you let those things get in your way, there will be a lot of days when you maybe should run but you don’t.  

[This person has way more willpower than I do. Can they teach me their ways?]

As someone who lives somewhere very cold and snowy, I knew I had to eliminate this issue for myself. I decided to find a gym that had an indoor track and decided to run there when the weather was bad. I would still run outdoors if it was sunny and warm, but otherwise the indoor track would be my go-to. 

After that, I never found myself quitting for weather except for when snowstorms made it physically impossible to get to the gym. 

If you live somewhere with good weather most of the year, this change might not help you much, but it is worth considering other areas where you find yourself regularly making excuses to get out of a run. Perhaps an excuse you use often is “I’m too tired to run after work,” in which case you could try running before work instead. It could be something else entirely–we all have different things happening in our lives–but whatever your excuses may be, it is worth taking time to consider how you might limit their effect.

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Making these small changes has led to a huge shift in how I view running. It is now just a normal part of my workout schedule, I don’t find it miserable anymore, and I genuinely look forward to some of the races I’ll be completing.

If you’ve found yourself hating running and want to give it a try, hopefully my experience gives you some inspiration to get started and stick with it.

We all struggle with fitness sometimes. You’re not alone.

This week, I wanted to share another lesson I’ve learned on my personal journey. It’s one that I think is critical to understand, but incredibly hard to learn and internalize.

Just because you struggle with fitness sometimes–and are not always perfect–does not mean you are a failure.

If you’ve ever felt yourself asking questions like the following, then this lesson is one you should internalize:

• Why do I feel like I’m never making progress at the gym?
• How do I get over my plateau? It feels like it’s never ending and don’t understand why I can’t just get better!
• How come it’s so hard to build healthy habits/a good gym routine?
• Why is keeping up with exercise so hard?
• How do I get over an injury (or recurring fear of injury) and get back to the gym?

[Questioning your fitness is normal–just like having feelings that you’re a failure! We all go through it at some point].

Becoming fit and healthy is hard. Really hard. It’s not something that happens in a day, a week, or a month. It can take some of us years to get to where we want to be. And in a journey that long, it’s impossible for everything to be smooth sailing.

I know that is true for a lot of people, and it has been true for me, too. I’ve always had trouble getting to a perfect routine consistently. The longest I’ve ever kept one up steadily was about four months, before things got in the way and messed it up again. It turns out any number of things can get in the way of your fitness journey and make it a struggle to perform at the level you want to. Here are just a few of the ones that impacted me at one point or another:

• When I was in college, I’d live on campus for a few months at a time, and then be sent home in between. I had a great gym that I was able to access regularly while I was living on campus, and had no trouble keeping up a schedule when I was there, but every time I’d get sent home, everything would get messed up. I had no access to a proper gym anymore and no schedule to stick to, so inevitably I’d end up falling off the wagon.
• Stress caused some challenges as well. This was more so an issue earlier on in my fitness journey, but I had significant challenges with stress getting in my way. When I would feel stress coming on–often related to a big presentation coming up or a big workload, with a bunch of different things I needed to do in a short amount of time–I’d let fitness fall to the wayside, prioritizing my work. I realized eventually that this was terrible, and have gotten better at fighting off the voice that tells me to ignore exercise, but stress can still get to me sometimes.
• Depression was another big factor. Any time I’d face issues with mental health, I’d feel unmotivated to go to the gym and would stop going for a while. This was, of course, also a terrible idea as it always led to me feeling worse, since exercise does so much for the mind.

To help illustrate the chaos that was this never-ending on and off cycle, I made a fun little drawing that you can hopefully relate to:

During the hard times when I felt pressured by everything around me, I sometimes felt like a bit of a failure. How come so many people could drag themselves to the gym every day, but I couldn’t? What was wrong with me? Why was exercise so hard?

But I wasn’t a failure. I just needed to shift my priorities and find a better system. I’ve never fully escaped this cycle, but I’ve become much better at it, and that’s because I made fitness a priority. Even when I’m feeling overwhelmed with due dates, I make sure to fit the gym in. If I start to feel stress or depression creeping in, I’ll go to the gym to fight it off. And I try to stick to going regularly, too, as a way of fighting those bad feelings off.

Difficulties with getting yourself to the gym are just one of the many challenges and frustrations that come with fitness. Two other big areas that lead to much frustration are progress plateaus and injury, both of which I’ve struggled with at some point or another as well.

Plateaus are incredibly common in fitness: they happen to pretty much everyone at some point, and often more than once. As you keep working out, your body starts to become accustomed to the stress you put on it and it gets harder and harder to make more progress. In the first few months of working out, you may gain visible muscle and feel your body changing regularly, but if you just keep going steadily, you’ll see those changes slow down, and often stop.

It’s a super frustrating feeling because it can feel like you’re doing everything right–especially if you haven’t changed something and it was working before–but you’re still not getting anywhere! But believe me, you’re not alone in this at all. We all face plateaus and they’re frustrating for everyone!

Injuries are another common frustration. When you get injured, it often forces you to stop doing the workout you love for a significant amount of time, and that can lead to lost progress and unpleasant feelings of not being able to do an “adequate” workout. I’ve never had a major injury, but I did have a minor one that had a much bigger impact than I anticipated.

About 6 months into trying to rock climb regularly, I strained my big toe from overuse. It became impossible to put a lot of pressure on it, enough that it affected my normal walking and made it painful to put too much weight on the front of my foot. I had to stop rock climbing for months, which was something I loved to do. I lost all forward progress and momentum and just felt so frustrated with things.

But eventually, as with most injuries, it healed, and I was able to get back to the climbing gym and start again. The frustration and feelings of failure are only temporary, and they will get better.

[Injuries can really turn the despair up to 11…]

If you are facing any of these situations–feeling like nothing is going right in your workout journey for any reason–I just want you to know that you are not alone. The perfection you see on the internet or when you compare yourself with others is fake. No one is perfect and no one exercises completely struggle free. We all have difficulties going to the gym sometimes, feeling unsatisfied with our progress, or feeling trapped by something outside of our control that limits our access to fitness.

So do not feel like your situation is hopeless. We’ve all gone through it, and most of us have come out the other side even better. There’s so much advice out there on how to deal with each of these situations, so rather than wallow in sadness and frustration, take action to try and address it. If you’re plateauing, change up your routine. If you’re finding other things getting in the way of your gym routine, find a way to prioritize workouts. And if you’re facing an injury that prevents you from doing one thing, try another that isn’t limited. There’s almost always a way out, you just need to look for it.

Your Fitness Tracker Is Watching You Exercise, And Others Might Be Watching You Too

Fitness trackers like Fitbit, WHOOP, and Garmin have increased significantly in popularity over the past few years, due to the release of many new options, as well as an increased interest in wearable health trackers due concern over Covid-19.

More than 1 in every 5 Americans now owns a fitness tracker of some kind. Go to any big city, and within the first few minutes, you’ll almost certainly see people walking around with the newest gear. It’s becoming impossible to escape, and with good reason. Fitness trackers provide a lot of valuable information, helping you manage your heart rate, diet, and sleep, all of which are important for all-around fitness.

However, they come with a cost: lack of privacy. In recent months, several of the major fitness tracker brands have come under fire for poor handling of data security, resulting in the exposure of customers’ private health information.

Just this year over 61 million users personal health records from trackers including Fitbit and Apple health were found on a non-password-protected database, freely accessible to anyone who could find it. Many of the records included sensitive information like name, date of birth, height, weight, and geolocation.

Health and fitness are incredibly personal. There’s a reason that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects your medical records. It is the responsibility of anyone dealing with health records to keep that information private, so the fact that wearables companies are leaving their data unencrypted and unprotected is worrying.

The Challenge With Wearables

Part of the issue with wearables is that they fall in a sort of blurry space. They aren’t typically considered medical devices, yet they collect data that could fall into this category. There are no clear HIPAA regulations covering when wearables are used purely for personal use, but when the data is shared, things get a lot more messy and it doesn’t seem like regulation has caught up quite yet.

One of the reasons for this might be that to most people, the data from their wearable doesn’t seem all that appealing to someone looking to steal it. A small bit of information on daily step count or sleep time doesn’t seem all that useful. And that’s true. Data only on step counts probably won’t tell you that much about a person, but if you start to combine it with other information, like heart rate, BMI, calorie burn counters, and more (which are tracked by quite a few different wearables), you can form a pretty full picture of their health, which could then be used maliciously.

The Problem Is Only Going To Get Worse

As fitness trackers continue to grow in popularity, the problem is only going to get worse. The technology will continue to evolve and improve, resulting in more and more data being collected. And as the data lake grows, it will become harder and harder to manage. It’s easy to protect a small amount of data, but really hard to protect a lot of it. The more you expand and the more resources you use, the more potential failure points get introduced.

And health-related data is under the greatest threat of all. The healthcare industry experiences more data breaches than any other industry. And that’s because the data is so valuable, selling for upwards of $250 on the black market, nearly 50x as much as credit card information.

If your fitness data is out there, you better believe someone wants it. And if it’s not protected properly, it’s only a matter of time until it’s found.

[Health data is very valuable, selling for hundreds of dollars on the black market]

What Can You Do About it?

1. Research wearables before buying one, with a focus on understanding the data privacy measures each company uses to protect your data. Look for companies that make a special effort to reinforce their commitment to encryption and minimal third-party data sharing. It might also be worth looking at articles like this one, which summarize privacy policies for you.
2. If you already have a wearable device or fitness tracking app, make sure to edit your settings for maximum data security. Most devices/apps have settings that can restrict how your data is used, and you want to make sure the use of your data is as limited as possible beyond what is necessary to provide you the information you need.

[Most fitness trackers come with an app, where you can adjust privacy settings]

Apple Health

If you have Apple Health, there are a lot of settings you can mess with to decrease data access and even delete data completely.

If you don’t want the app to be able to track you at all, for example, go to your phone settings > Privacy > Motion & Fitness, and then turn off fitness tracking. This will block the app’s access to any built in sensors on your phone that track your activity.

If you want to use the app, but want to limit data use, take a minute to look at which apps connect out from it. To do this, open Apple Health, go to the top right corner, and then go to Privacy > Apps.

Some apps can add data to your health app, while others can take data, based on the settings you give.

Look through all of the apps and for any apps you don’t need, disable their permissions, consider disconnecting the app, and delete all of the data that has been collected so far.

Apple Health also has an option for sharing your data with trusted friends and family. Make sure to check your settings and ensure that you are not sharing with anyone you do not want to, or who does not need to see your data.

You can read Apple health’s official statement about privacy on Apple Health here.

Google Fit

Like Apple Health, Google Fit provides options to delete your data. If you go to your profile and settings, there should be an option to “manage your data”, where you can see what data has been collected and delete some or all of it.

You can also manage which apps can read from and write to Google Fit. From settings, “manage connected apps” will let you disconnect any apps you don’t want.

A word of warning, though: Google is notorious for collecting massive amounts of information (often secretly) and making it very difficult to actually turn the tracking off.

It appears that Google Fit data is also accessible publicly (though it is anonymized) through the Google Fit API, which you can read about here.

Fitbit

You can erase a physical Fitbit device (see here), but deleting your overall data in Fitbit’s databases appears more difficult. You can request that your account be deleted from the Fitbit databases, but it could still take up to 90 days to actually clear out. And some users report that their data has still not been deleted after that time (see this discussion thread for more on the topic).

If Google’s data collection is concerning to you, you might want to stay away from Fitbit as they are now owned by Google.

You can check out Fitbit’s privacy policy here.

Garmin

Garmin has a lot of options for data deletion. You can delete individual activities and weigh-ins, full days of data, or even your entire data history (see here).

You can also delete your Garmin account, which, according to Garmin, means that they will “permanently delete data for all Garmin sites, apps, and services using [your] account.” They also have a policy to automatically delete your account after two years of inactivity.

Garmin also doesn’t sell any of your health data to third parties, and only shares it with your consent. You can read more about this policy on their privacy page.

WHOOP

To delete data in WHOOP, try these instructions. Unlike some of the other trackers where you can delete all data, it appears that WHOOP only lets you delete the last 30 days.

If you cancel your membership, WHOOP will not automatically delete your data, but you can put in a request to have it deleted.

You can view WHOOP’s privacy principles here.

Takeaways

Fitness trackers are increasing in popularity, and if you don’t already have one, you’ll likely be thinking about it sometime in the near future.

They provide a lot of tools for helping you improve your health, but come with a major concern of data privacy. Several different wearable trackers have been implicated in data breaches–caused by poor data security–in the last few years. These breaches are quite harmful, as they involve sensitive personal health data.

Although health data is typically highly protected under HIPAA, the policy for wearables has not caught up yet and fitness tracker data is not strongly protected.

To reduce the likelihood of your data being exposed, take extra care to consider the privacy policies of different companies before purchasing a tracker. And if you already have one, try to research what steps are available to limit your data collection and sharing to only that which is necessary to give you the health benefits you desire.

10 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Working Out

I’ve been actively exercising for about four years now. It’s been a long–and sometimes difficult–journey, full of rough periods of plateau, injury, and frustration. But I’ve made it through, and come out at lot stronger on the other side (both figuratively and literally).

Along the way I’ve picked up quite a few lessons that have really helped me and that I wish I’d known more about before getting too far into my journey.

Today, I’m sharing my wisdom with you in the hopes that it will prevent you from making some of the same unpleasant mistakes that I went through.

So, without further ado, the best exercise tips for beginners:

1. You’re going to fail sometimes. It’s ok. Don’t beat yourself up.

When I first started exercising regularly, I would set myself lofty goals: be able to run a mile in a week or two (starting from nothing), or be able to do a pull-up after only 10 gym sessions–when I could barely lift anything.

When I’d fail to reach these goals, I would get frustrated and think that I should be able to do better, which was often not really the case. Then, as a result, I would lose my motivation and fall off the wagon a bit.

Even when you’re trying your best in fitness, at some point you will probably fail to reach a goal.

It’s just part of working out. You might get hit with a bad injury and be forced to rest, you might have a super busy work week that leaves zero time for exercise, or you might have a bad bout of depression and be stuck in bed. Whatever goal you had set–you’ll fail. But that’s okay.

Failure is bound to happen, and the most important thing you can do is control how you react to it. Don’t be like me when I started, and get frustrated (or like the guy below, give up completely). Instead, just realize that setbacks are a part of the fitness lifestyle. Use the opportunity to come back stronger next time.

[Don’t be like this guy!]

2. The biggest thing you can do for yourself is just start.

Overthinking exercise can stop you from doing it. If you’re trying to get into exercise for the first time, you may find yourself doing some of the following:

• Trying to research the best workout clothes
• Looking up protein shakes and workout supplements that you think you’ll need to succeed
• Trying to find the perfect exercises
• Setting up a full-on calendar for what your training is going to look like

If you see yourself doing these things, stop.

Trying to do everything in advance will just lead you to being overwhelmed, and if you’re like a lot of people–you might actually never get to the exercise part!

I had this problem early on. I tried to research a training plan and totally change my diet at the same time. There were way too many things doing on, and I ended up failing at both.

The best thing you can do for yourself is stop thinking about all the details and just start exercising.

You’ll have time to figure that stuff out later. It’s more important to just build an exercise habit first.

3. You don’t always have to try your hardest. Sometimes just doing something is enough.

One of the biggest roadblocks that many beginners face is turning exercise into a habit. When you’re just starting and it’s something you’ve never done before, it doesn’t come naturally.

And if you are lacking a strong sense of internal motivation, it’s going to be impossible to keep going unless you can turn exercise into a habit.

However, habits can be super difficult to build if you set an unreasonable goal. For example, if you’re coming from no exercise background and say that you’re now going to exercise every single day for an hour, you’re almost certainly going to fail.

A much better way to start is to set yourself a daily goal of just starting. Rather than say that you’re going to exercise for an hour, say that you’re just going to start. That could mean:

• Putting on a pair of running shoes, walking outside, and jogging for a quarter mile,
• Driving to a gym,
• Pulling out a yoga mat and doing a few stretches,
• …or anything else that is a very small goal.

[Just a few sit-ups is enough to get you moving. It doesn’t take much!]

You’ll probably find that once you start, you want to keep going. You’re already at the gym, so why not get in a good workout? You’ve already started jogging–why not go another few miles, even if you walk a lot of it? The great thing about doing this, though, is if you don’t feel like you want to keep going, that’s okay. You still achieved your goal of doing something. And over time, your body will adjust and start to recognize the act of something as a new habit.

Beginning something new this way is much more likely to lead to long term success than setting lofty goals for each day.

To learn more about habit building, I’d recommend reading Atomic Habits.

4. Exercise is one of the best ways of fighting off depression. Don’t let it fall by the wayside.

Exercise plays a huge role in mental health. Just take a look through some of the many studies on exercise and depression [For example: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].

In my own experience, exercise has been the single biggest help in fighting off depressive episodes. When in periods of struggle, right after I’ve finished a workout, I’ve felt the cloud of sadness lifting away. It’s never magically made things disappear, but it has had a significant and noticeable impact.

Even though I knew about the benefits of exercise and depression early on, and had experienced these improvements in my own mental health as a result of fitness, I still went through periods where I let my fitness fall by the wayside–usually when I had a lot of schoolwork to do or stressful exams/presentations coming up.

It was one of the biggest mistakes I made.

Whenever I let exercise slide, depression found a way to creep back in. And that made it harder and harder to fight it off because the more depressed I was, the harder it was to drag myself to the gym. It would have been so much easier if I had prioritized exercise and not let it slip from my schedule.

If you struggle at all with depression, make an extra effort to ensure that exercise is a priority. It will make such a huge difference on your well being.

5. Lift heavy.

While cardio and light weights are okay–and good in moderation–lifting heavy weights is one of the best ways to improve your fitness.

This is counter to what you see a lot of women doing, so it deserves some explanation.

Heavy weights are typically associated with men in the media, but they are great for everyone. This is for a few different reasons.

• If weight loss is your goal, heavy lifting actually helps you lose weight faster. Unlike cardio, building muscle speeds your metabolism. That means that even when you are not working out, you’ll burn more calories (a couple extra per pound of muscle you add)
• It can help you get stronger without developing extreme muscle definition. Lots of women are scared of the bodybuilder look, but the average woman who does strength training will never look like that. Why? Because women have low testosterone, which plays a big factor in men’s muscle growth.
• Strength training with heavy lifting can strengthen bones and slow bone density loss, which is really important for women due to the common nature of osteoporosis.

If you skip the heavy weights, you’ll never see these benefits.

[Aim for a weight where you can complete approximately 7 reps before you’re too tired to keep going. If you can do more than about 12 reps, your weight is too light for maximum strength gain.]

6. Don’t waste time on targeted movements. Instead, focus on compound lifts.

When you’re getting started, it’s easy to get excited about all the different machines at the gym. I know I did!

Ooh, a curl machine! That looks fun! And ooh, a tricep press! Perfect way to build some nice arms…

– My Internal Monologue

But they are not built equal, and some will give you much more benefit for your time than others. You want to focus on machines (or free weights–but those can be scary for beginners) that do compound movements, activating multiple muscle groups at once. That means, if you’re working on a right schedule, no bicep curl or tricep press machines!!

Instead, try some of these:

• Lat pulldown
• Row
• Leg press
• Assisted pull-ups/chin-ups
• Chest press

7. Don’t forget about your diet!

[Eating healthy plays a huge role in fitness! And if you’re focused on strength gain, you’ll need to watch your protein consumption as well.]

At first, I thought health and wellness were all about exercise–that if I just lifted weights and did cardio all the time, I’d magically be super strong, look ripped, and feel better. I was wrong.

Over the years, I’ve learned that the actual exercise bit is only half of the equation. Diet is the rest. You may have heard the saying that “abs are made in the kitchen.” It’s completely true. During periods where I had. abad diet, no matter how much I exercised, I never made much progress. But when I got my diet together, everything came much more easily.

Diet plays a huge role in wellbeing. It controls how much energy you have. It provides the protein your muscles need to grow. It impacts your sleep and your mental health, which both need to be in good shape for your body to get the most out of fitness.

Don’t neglect it. Although I went through many periods of wishing it worked that way, you won’t be able to get anywhere if you just eat cheeseburgers and fries all the time.

For some ideas on healthy eating, you can checkout my blog collection on the topic.

8. Exercise doesn’t have to be done solo.

One of the great things about exercise is how many different ways you can do it! At first, I was drawn to the fact that you can easily do it solo. As an introvert, I like to have lots of alone time and exercise is a great way to build that in, so for the longest time I only ever did it alone.

But exercise can also provide great benefits when done as a group activity! This is particularly true if you’re someone who has a busy schedule. If you do group exercise, you can build social activity and fitness into the same time slot and don’t have to sacrifice one to fit the other in.

Plus, exercise in a group has the added benefit of helping keep you motivated. After trying group fitness, I learned that it can be more effective than solo fitness for really pushing you. In front of a group, you always want to do your best.

I still do lots of solo fitness, but I have integrated some more group stuff into my training. They both have their own benefits and it’s good to try all your options out before settling on something.

[Even though I mostly exercise alone, a group fitness class every once in a while is a great way to keep me accountable for going to the gym.]

9. Exercising more will lead to so many great changes. Stick with it!

The awesome thing about exercise is that it doesn’t just make you stronger. The act of getting fit actually has a tendency to spill over into other areas of your life, pushing you to make improvements in all sorts of things.

After I started exercising for a while, I noticed that I wanted to make new changes in my life that I’ve never thought about before. I focused so much more on my mental health and got into meditation. I became much more interested in food/diet, and started digging into how to eat healthier. And I worked to try to find ways to reduce my screen time, which was causing headaches and adding anxious/depressive feelings to my day.

These changes don’t come immediately, though. You have to stick with it for a while. It probably wasn’t until year two that I really started noticing a difference in how I thought (year one, my exercise was pretty on and off, which could explain why it took so long).

If you’ve just gotten started haven’t found that much benefit from exercise yet, stick with it. In the long run, you’ll start to see big differences.

10. Some results are just unattainable. Set goals that work for you, and don’t base your success on what you see others accomplishing.

I wrote about this idea more in depth in my first ever post on this blog. When you get started in fitness, your main inspiration is often whoever you see doing fitness on the internet. At least that’s who it was for me.

But those people are not average. Fitness is often their day job–whether it be as an influencer or as a top athlete. They spend hours at the gym every day, have personal trainers, and are paid to be as fit as possible (which can sometimes mean that they take unhealthy steroids). Some were just born with incredibly good genetics.

Most of the time, their bodies are not attainable to the average person. With my schedule as it is right now, for instance, I’ll never look as muscular as someone like Simone Biles, whose entire job is to focus on gymnastics. No matter how much I try, it’s just not going to happen.

This can be hard to realize at first, and it can lead to setting unhealthy expectations. You can’t expect to go to the gym a few times per week for a year and suddenly have 10% body fat. It’s a multi-year process that takes a huge amount of effort, and some factors may be outside your control.

So don’t base your goals on what you see on the internet. Base them on what works for you–what makes you feel good, or what’s reasonable based on your rate of improvement.

It will help you feel so much more confident in your fitness!

[Tip: Spend a few minutes at the beginning of each month planning out what your goals will be for that month. This will help make sure you’re keeping on top of things. Base them on your current abilities and interests, keeping in mind that they should be realistic! Don’t base your goals off of anything you see on social media.]

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So there we go! My top 10 tips I wish I knew when I started to work out.

I hope they can help you out! If there’s any other tips I missed that I should consider, please share!

Are Electric Skateboards Worth It? – Reflections From 1 Year In

If you’re reading this post, you’ve probably been asking yourself questions like: Why are electric skateboards so expensive? Is it really worth it? What’s the best electric skateboard if I’m not looking to break the bank? I went through the same thing a year ago and wanted to share my reflections on the journey since, in the hopes that it can provide you some guidance at the start of your e-skate journey.

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About a year ago, midway into the Covid-19 pandemic, I was looking for a change–a new hobby to keep me entertained and help fight off the ever-present challenge of isolation, anxiety, and depression. So one day, I decided on a whim to buy an electric skateboard.

Why? I thought it would provide a fun activity while I was bored, something to focus on and get better at that was purely for personal enjoyment and not school or work, and potentially would be useful for short-range transportation. While I thought I’d probably be satisfied with my purchase, I wasn’t ready for just how much it would change my life for the better.

One of the things that scared me away from buying an electric skateboard at first was the price. The brand I was most familiar with was Boosted–a company made famous in part by YouTube star Casey Neistat, who featured it as his main form of transportation in many of his videos. Their boards cost more than $1000, which to me–a student at the time–was just too high for a purchase I was not 100% certain I’d get the value back out of. On a school job part-time salary, the board would cost pretty much my entire semester’s pay. It seemed crazy to me, so I hunted down a way to make getting a board more affordable.

I went on Google and started researching the best budget electric skateboards on the market, looking for high quality construction and good customer service at an under $500 price tag. After reading into it for a few weeks, I settled on the Backfire G2 Black. It only cost a little over $400–although not inexpensive, pretty much the lowest price I was able to find for a board that was actually of decent quality–and everyone online seemed to be raving about the quality to price ratio, so I figured why not?

About a week later, my brand new board arrived and my life changed for the better. I didn’t really know what to expect at first, but one year after getting the board, I can say with certainty that it’s the best purchase (of a physical item) that I’ve ever made.

There are a few different reasons for this, which I’ll go through one by one:

First up, transportation and cost savings. One of the initial reasons that electric skateboards were so enticing to me is that they come with a pretty long battery range, which makes them great for short range transportation. On the budget end, the Backfire I bought promised about 10-12 miles, but some of the higher end boards can go for more than 30 before their battery dies.

On one charge, that meant that I could commute about 5 miles either direction (or more if you pay for that feature) before my board died, or 10 miles either way if I had somewhere I could charge in-between. As someone without a lot of disposable income who wanted to minimize any unnecessary costs, this provided me with a perfect solution to one of the things that was going to take up a big chunk of my income each month: car bills.

At the time I was thinking about buying my board, I was planning on moving to a small town where everything would be within a few miles of me. I’d originally thought that since I was finally living on my own and commuting to work and school all the time, I’d have to buy a car. That thought was a little overwhelming, considering that it was going to cost a few hundred dollars a month in car payments plus insurance and gas. After looking at the board range, though, I realized that if I strategized well, I could use the board as a replacement. By spending only $400 on one single purchase, I could save myself $400 per month for at least a year.

So that’s what I did. Ever since I bought my board, I’ve been living car-less and just getting around with my board, a bike, or the bus. It’s saved me thousands of dollars already, and will only continue to save me money as long as it does enough to me to serve as a car substitute. Instead of driving, I now go to friends’ houses on my board, to the grocery store, to the gym, and to all sorts of errands.

Electric skateboards are also an excellent transportation option for those who cannot drive–either because they are too young, the traffic is too bad for it to be feasible, or because the cost of owning a car is simply too expensive.

Although this has worked great for me, I do want to provide a warning that this is not a solution for everyone. An electric skateboard will likely only be an effective car replacement for people who meet the following general profile:

• Commute fewer than 10 miles per day (total).
• Have enough time to travel only 15 miles per hour (or less) on their commute.
• Live somewhere with roads that are safe and accessible to skateboards, meaning they have a smooth sidewalk or a wide bike lane and do not have a high level of fast-moving and/or reckless traffic.
• Live somewhere where it is not constantly raining, snowing, or freezing. Electric skateboards cannot be ridden in water and perform poorly in cold conditions, leading to risk of severe battery drain
• Have decent public transportation around them or access to an inexpensive car share service. Sometimes electric skateboards will not be enough. You may need to run an errand where you have to carry more than you can easily fit on your board or want to go on a hike somewhere it’s just not convenient to carry your board. In this case, you’ll need a good backup you can rely on.

Using electric skateboards as an alternative transportation method to cars has had the additional benefit of dramatically reducing my carbon footprint and making me feel much better about my impact on the environment.

The average car emits around 4.6 metric tons (a little over 10,000 pounds!) of CO2 annually. Per mile, electric skateboards emit only about 1/50th what the average car gives off (primarily through the efforts required in charging). Given that total annual mileage should be a lot less for a skateboard due to its short range and lower flexibility for transportation conditions, real world emissions are likely close to 1/100th or lower that of owning a car.

If you are concerned about global warming and want to take action to reduce your own impact on the problem, an electric skateboard is a really easy way to do so. You can have fun riding, while also feeling good about what you’re doing for the world! It’s a win-win.

One of the more unexpected benefits of investing in an electric skateboard was the impact it would have on social life and community.

I used to ride my skateboard around a local park most days and would have people regularly stop me to ask about my skateboard. It was a great conversation starter, helping me feel more connected to my community. It also served me really well for friendship building. At this point I’ve taught more than 10 people to ride, and it’s been an easy way of bringing people together. I’ve offered free lessons and people have always taken me up on it and loved the experience. Every single time, whomever I taught came away excited and ready to learn more, which provided good opportunities for continued friendship (you could probably use this tactic to get people to swipe right dating sites, too, if you were really invested).

If you live in a big city, electric skateboarding can provide an even bigger community. Many cities have Facebook groups where riders get together for skate meetups and group rides. Through participation in those events, you can meet others who share your hobby and make new friends. This is an especially great option if friendship isn’t something that comes naturally to you, since bonding through shared experience is a lot easier and less stressful way to make connections than just walking up to someone and starting a conversation cold.

Although the money and environmental protection are great, what’s most important in the long run is your own mental health and happiness, and that’s the area where I think buying an electric skateboard gave me the most benefit.

Skateboarding gave me a way to escape the stress of life. When I cruise down the street on my skateboard, I get into a rhythm, zooming back and forth in a repetitive pattern. It’s very calming, but it also requires focus to dodge sticks or rocks that might cause me to fall. This combination has proved really successful at getting me out of my own head and into a sort of flow state. When I skateboard, I’m not thinking about a frustrating work problem or homework assignment, I’m just cruising and relaxing.

Making it even better is the fact that skateboarding is an activity done outdoors without the need for a screen of any kind. I’ve always found excessive usage of computer screens to be exhausting and excessive time spent indoors to be a trigger for increased feelings of depression. With skateboarding, you have an opportunity to be outdoors, enjoying the wind, the birds, and the greenery, and a chance to take a break from screens–helping both with mental health and with eye strain and headache.

Participating in active transportation–skateboarding instead of driving–also has the benefit of getting you a small amount of exercise, waking you up in the morning, and giving you a hobby to think about while traveling to and from school or work instead of thinking about those places. While bikes can do this for you as well, electric skateboards have the particular benefit of being incredibly fun. Biking–one of the most popular forms of active transportation–can feel monotonous after a while, but for me, electric skateboarding has never gotten old. It’s always a thrill to hop on the board and always makes my day better.

Takeaways:

So would I say my board was worth $400? Absolutely. Before I bought one, I didn’t know if it would be worth it, but a year later, I think it was an absolute steal. Electric skateboards are absolutely worth it if you make the right choice. The board I got has brought me thousands of dollars of benefit and has improved my life in so many ways, and I’m so grateful that I decided to take the plunge and get one.

While I think that the budget board I chose was a great purchase for me, I don’t think that all electric skateboards are great deals, nor do I think they are right for everybody. Some come with incredibly hefty price tags––topping at multiple thousands of dollars––and that is likely not worth it for the average individual. Even a budget board may not be worth it if you live in a location that’s not conducive to electric skateboarding. However, if you live somewhere where skateboarding is convenient and have enough disposable income to afford it, a budget or mid-tier board could be a fantastic investment in the long run. Just make sure to do your research and pick an option of high quality. My Backfire has been fantastic, but it’s not the only great brand out there, so you should do your research and choose what’s right for you!

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Let me know your thoughts on electric skateboards in the comments! Do any of these points sway you? If you have been looking for a while but haven’t bought one yet, what factors are limiting you?

Is Athletic Greens Worth It? A Buyer’s Guide

What Is Athletic Greens?

Athletic greens is a nutritional supplement that aims to help people make sure they are getting enough vitamins and minerals in their diet every day.

It is designed to be consumed daily–in drink form–and contains 75 different ingredients. According to the official site, the ingredients come from whole foods (and therefore are not artificial) and are accompanied by probiotics and digestive enzymes to help your body process them.

What Are The Potential (Advertised) Benefits?

The combination of ingredients in the drink is designed to have four primary benefits:

• Boosting energy
• Supporting recovery from intense workouts
• Improving immune system function
• Promoting better digestion

Each ingredient in the mix helps to promote at least one of these goals and a few promote multiple.

The full list of ingredients and their proposed benefits can be found here and should be reviewed before you purchase so that you know exactly what you’re getting.

How Much Does It Cost?

There are six different products for sale:

One Time Purchases

Although Athletic Greens is primarily a subscription service, you can buy a single pack of the drink mix. There are two different options:

1. A pouch containing 30 servings of 12 grams each, which are not individually portioned –> $97 ($3.23/serving)
2. A box containing 30 travel packs, which are individually packaged servings –> $107 ($3.57/serving)

If you don’t want just one pouch and would prefer to buy Athletic Greens on a recurring schedule via subscription, there are two options. A single subscription, where you get one set of 30 servings per month, and a double subscription where you get two sets of 30 servings (60 total).

Single Subscriptions

Like the single purchase, there are two options for single subscription:

1. A monthly pouch containing 30 servings of 12 grams each, which are not individually portioned –> $77/month ($2.57/serving)
2. A monthly travel pack box of 30 individually-packaged servings –> $87/month ($2.90/serving)

In addition, both of the subscriptions come with a bonus. Option 1 comes with a welcome kit with your first delivery, including a ceramic jar to hold powder and a shaker bottle to mix your drinks. Option 2 also has a welcome kit, but it only includes the shaker bottle.

Double Subscriptions

The double subscriptions are identical to the single ones except that they come with twice as many servings. Both come with the same bonus welcome kits as before. For the double subscriptions, it would cost:

1. Two monthly bulk pouches with 60 servings of 12 grams total –> $147/month ($2.12/serving)
2. Two monthly travel boxes with 60 servings total between them –> $167/month ($2.78/serving)

The Good

Listing Ingredients

If you are a customer in the United States, there is no regulation or oversight of quality for products sold in the country that are under the classification of health supplement. This means that anyone wanting to make a quick buck in the US market can make a product out of a bunch of random ingredients, claim it has a bunch of health benefits, and sell their product to many unsuspecting customers–without anyone checking if it actually does what’s advertised, or even if the ingredients are safe for human consumption. If buying in the US, you never want to trust a supplement that does not list exactly what it contains, because that is a likely indicator that whoever created it is probably not all that invested in the science.

(Supplements aren’t regulated in the US, so transparency about ingredients is really important!)

Anyone who really cares about science will actively promote that fact and be transparent about it, because that attracts loyal customers. This is especially important in the US, but applies to customers around the world as well. Clearly visible scientific content and transparency on a product website is great to see.

Athletic Greens does appear to be one of those brands invested in the science side of things. They list every single ingredient on their site, give a short description, and categorize them all by which benefits they give.

However, the one area where they fall short from top quality in this respect is that their ingredients page does not link out to scientific articles backing their claims. Although some of the ingredients are widely known to be scientifically-backed, not all of them are, and linking back to direct evidence would make their claims a lot more trustworthy.

Additional Safety / Nutrition Checks

Athletic Greens has also gone through an additional process to ensure that they are working with quality ingredients: getting NSF certified. NSF–The National Sanitation Foundation–is a global organization that conducts independent reviews of products to ensure that their ingredients and products meet certain standards for health, safety, and quality.

The NSF review process is pretty extensive and involves annual checks of manufacturing plants to ensure that they continue to operate at the same high standard over time. They ensure that no illegal substances are included in the final product and check that unsafe contaminants–such as heavy metals–do not get mixed in during production.

If a company goes through NSF review–as Athletic Greens has done–this is a great sign that they care about producing a quality product and that they are not cutting corners in their manufacturing process.

Digestion Improvements

Many reviews online indicate a positive impact on digestion, with Athletic Greens promoting more regular movement and reducing issues such as constipation.

Other Potential Benefits

• Improved hydration
• Energy boosting, particularly if you drink it early in the morning to get fluids going
• Tits well into a lot of restrictive diets including vegan and paleo
• Gluten free
• Sugar free
• Helps fit in vitamins at times when you can’t fully control your diet (such as on vacation/travel or during times where you don’t have enough time to cook for yourself at every meal)
• Does not include any of the most common allergens

The Not So Good

Imbalanced Ingredients

The ingredients the mix are not balanced evenly. For some ingredients, the quantity in one serving of Athletic Greens is 100% or more of the daily recommended value (DV), while for others it’s as low as only a couple percent. That’s almost as useless as just leaving the ingredient out altogether and does feel like a little bit of false advertising.

Some of the vitamins and minerals that tend to be favored in the mix are Vitamin C (700% DV), Vitamin B12 (467% DV), Vitamin E (334% DV), Thiamin (200% DV), Vitamin B6 (150% DV), Riboflavin (118% DV), Biotin (110% DV), Niacin, Folate, and Zinc (All 100% DV).

Others are advertised to be included, but have such low amounts that they’re not really useful. These include Calcium (12% DV), Copper (10% DV), Potassium (9% DV), Magnesium (7% DV), and Phosphorous (6% DV). And some things that are necessary for optimal health (such as iodine, choline, and molybdenum) are left out completely.

(The supplement facts table–like a nutritional facts label, but with no oversight or verification–for Athletic Greens)

Proprietary Formula

There is no official breakdown of how many of each of the ingredients in the 75 item list actually goes into a daily serving (we just get an estimate of different vitamin and mineral percentages). This is because Athletic Greens uses a proprietary blend that is kept secret.

Usually the argument behind proprietary blends is to keep market share and prevent others from copying your recipe–and therefore not buying your brand–but the sheer number of ingredients and lack of availability via easy channels means that pretty much no average consumer could ever copy the recipe. There is not really too much of a valid reason for keeping the blend proprietary–besides potentially preventing other companies from trying to copy the recipe and take customers away from Athletic Greens–and it comes at a big cost of transparency.

Not All Ingredients Are Scientifically Backed

While some ingredients in the Athletic Greens formula have been scientifically shown to be beneficial (see dandelion root, ginger, green tea) others have not. For example, licorice root has not yet been shown to have any real health benefits and in some cases can actually lead to dangerous side effects.

Bad Taste

Many customers of Athletic Greens online have commented on the unpleasant taste of the mix. The best way to build sustainable habits is to set them up in a way that is enjoyable. If a daily activity is unpleasant, it is going to be very difficult to stick with long term. The only way to really keep up with a healthy habit long term–and actually go far enough to receive the benefits from that activity–is to make it enjoyable. If you hate the taste, Athletic Greens is probably not going to work for you in the long term.

Price $$$

Perhaps the most significant downside is the price. Athletic Greens costs nearly $3/day, which can start to add up really quickly. A single monthly subscription of the bulk pouch for an entire year would run nearly $1000 (and even more if you got the travel packs). You could buy a year long membership to a nice gym with that, which––for the average person––would probably be a much more useful way to spend that much money.

Athletic Greens is one of the most expensive greens powders out there, so it’s not hard to find something comparable that costs you less. You could also try the alternative option of just buying a multivitamin and fiber supplement and you’d get the same benefit without all the extra potentially non-useful ingredients.

Who Is It Right For?

If you meet all of the following conditions, then Athletic Greens might be a good option for you:

• You have a lot of disposable income and can afford to drop $80 or more per month on supplements.
• You do not dislike the taste of the mix (I’d recommend doing a trial period to test this out–they have a 60 day money back guarantee).
• You do not already get your daily quantity of vitamins and minerals from your diet. If you do, it would be a waste of money to consume more, because your body won’t be able to absorb much else.
• You travel a lot or have some other barrier that prevents you from being able to prep your own food regularly, limiting your ability to get all your vitamins and minerals from your normal diet. Note that if you don’t have this limitation, it’s probably a better option in the long run to learn how to just cook healthy and nutritionally dense meals for yourself, rather than relying on a powder that is not 100% scientifically backed.
• You prioritize convenience over all else. Another way to get the same benefits as athletic greens would be through a combination of multivitamins and fiber supplements. That would likely be less expensive, but would take more steps.

(Daily supplements can be a great option for those always on the move.)

Who Is It Wrong For?

If you meet any of the following conditions, Athletic Greens probably isn’t right for you:

• You don’t have a lot of disposable income.
  • What should you do, then?: try to purchase inexpensive, healthy fruits, vegetables and grains at the store to help promote a balanced and nutritious diet on a low budget (See the r/eatcheapandhealthy discussion board on Reddit for some great tips).
• You already eat a balanced diet.
  • What should you do, then? Nothing. You probably don’t need a supplement. Just focus on getting good exercise in and you should be fine!
• You don’t like the taste.
  • What should you do, then? Options include: 1. Find another greens powder you like better. 2. Take a multivitamin or pill combo that would not have as much of a taste. 3. Attempt to get your vitamins and minerals through your normal food, which tends to taste a lot more pleasant if you take the time to learn how to make enjoyable recipes.
• You have the time and flexibility to learn how to plan and cook a healthy, balanced diet for yourself (or at least the time to pick out some multivitamins that might work better for you) and don’t need an instant solution to your lack of vitamins/minerals.
  • What should you do, then? Do some research into healthy eating. A good place to get some inspiration is r/healthyfood on Reddit, but there are thousands of resources easily accessible via search engine.

(If cooking is an option for you, that can be a healthier, cheaper, and more sustainable long term strategy.)

Takeaways

Athletic Greens is a decent greens powder–and can help meet daily vitamin and mineral needs–but it’s not likely to be the best option for most customers. The high price point and lack of balanced ingredients mean it is only best for those with a lot of money and not a lot of time. Anyone not in that category could likely do better with an alternative strategy for nutritional balance–whether that be another, less expensive, product or an entirely different health strategy altogether.

Why I Have A Minimalist Fitness Wardrobe – And Why You Should Too

In the world of fitness, it’s easy to get pulled into the consumerism cycle. There are ads for fitness gear everywhere, telling you that their product is something you need to be able to do your best at the gym. It can feel sometimes like if you don’t purchase an item, you’ll feel left out–no longer one of the cool kids.

Then you keep buying and buying because you think you need all this gear to fit in or be good at your sport. You end up with a whole dresser full of fitness clothes. And how much do you actually wear? Probably just a few of your favorites, and the rest just gets abandoned.

We’ve all been stuck in this trap at some point in our lives, and it’s never fun. It feels like you’re just wasting endless money on these things that you don’t need, but it’s so hard to break free, so you just keep doing it.

For me, that was true until I discovered minimalism.

What Is Minimalism And Why Is It Beneficial?

Adopting a minimalist lifestyle just means that you only buy the things that you’ll actually need and use, and that bring you joy and positive benefits in your life.

If we’re talking about fitness, that can mean that rather than owning three or four different pairs of running shoes, you just own one. Rather than an entire rainbow of yoga pants, some of which might not actually be all that high quality but just look cool, you own a few that are really good.

Why adopt this lifestyle? What are the benefits of minimalism?

There are a bunch, but i’ll just list a few so you get the idea:

1. You spend way less money. If you only own a few things and don’t need any more, you only need to spend to replace your items when they wear out! And if you pick up a new fitness hobby and need to buy something for it, you’ll only end up with a handful of essentials, rather than a whole shopping haul worth of items. It can save you thousands of dollars over even just a couple of years, depending on how big of a spender you are.
2. It’s much better for the environment. Rather than buy a bunch of items and throwing them away–which just creates a bunch of unnecessary waste–you only own what you need and don’t create excess trash.
3. It makes it much easier to decide what to wear. Rather than spend half an hour picking a gym outfit to impress the public (who realistically will mostly be focused on themselves), when you have a minimalist wardrobe, it only takes maybe two minutes to decide. This is also really true if you travel. It is so much easier to decide what to bring when you get used to living off very little.
4. You typically end up with much higher quality stuff. If you’re only going for items that really benefit you, you often end up much more thoughtful about what you’re purchasing, because it typically means that the item will last a lot longer. Rather than buying a random pair of yoga pants from Target, for example, you might buy a pair from Lululemon or Athleta. It costs more up front, but provides more long term benefit.

Minimalism in Practice – A Look At My Closet

To give you an idea of what that looks like in my own life, here’s all the fitness items I own.

You can see, it’s super basic. I’ve only got one pair of running shoes, a couple shirts, some sports bras, and a few options for shorts or pants based on the temperature. And that’s it, besides some specialized gear I need for some of my favorite sports. Everything else just comes from my normal closet.

How do I stick to such a minimalist fitness wardrobe?

• I typically exercise in mild conditions to reduce the amount of gear that I need for extreme weather. Since I live in a cold climate, the temperature differences between summer and winter can be extreme, and to exercise in the cold, snow, or rain, I’d need lots of extra gear. I get around that by only exercising outdoors in the spring through the fall, then only exercising indoors during the long winter. I also try not to do too much in the rain, which might warrant the need for heavy rain gear.
• I choose sports that don’t require a lot of specialized equipment or regular equipment upgrades. Rock climbing and kickboxing are both fantastic workouts and great social activities that don’t require a lot of gear. To boulder (which is what I mainly do), all you need is a pair of climbing shoes and a bag for chalk. To do kickboxing, you just need gloves and wraps to protect your wrists. As long as you don’t do either sport all the time or to an elite level, and just mix in other workouts, the gear should last at least a few years before needing to be replaced.
• I mix in items from my normal wardrobe for my workouts. If I’m lifting weights at the gym, I’ll probably just wear a standard t-shirt and some flat-soled shoes (often Converse or Vans) with my gym shorts. I don’t need any specialized gear. Same thing with rock climbing. I typically just wear a normal t-shirt and sometimes even stretchy jeans and it’s never posed a problem for me. This reduces the overall amount of gear I need to buy, since I need to use it less often. I probably only need yoga pants or a tech tee once or twice a week, so I only have two of each. It’s the same with sports bras. I only wear them when doing high impact sports (involving jumping or running). The rest of the time, just a normal bralette (I’ve basically abandoned underwire in my normal wardrobe due to discomfort, and bralettes just feel like more comfortable sports bras). I would skip the sports bra if climbing or lifting weights, for example.

Reflections on the Minimalist Lifestyle

Switching to minimalism has improved my life dramatically, and I’d recommend it to pretty much everyone.

Even though I thought at first that I’d feel frustrated or uninspired by the lack of choice in my wardrobe, it hasn’t been that way at all. In fact, more the opposite. I love the lack of choice. It’s so easy for me to just pop on my only clean pair of shorts, and a random t-shirt and be good to go for the gym. As someone who easily lets things prevent me from working out, it’s been a great way of reducing the barriers keeping me from exercising.

It’s definitely not been perfect. I’ve had a couple of times where I ended up a little short on clothing (usually weeks where I suddenly had to do a lot of intensive cardio and didn’t have enough clean sports bras). However, I’m still very satisfied with the wardrobe and would never consider going to a more normal number of items. Instead, I’m just working on optimizing the handful of things that I do have to make them most useful for me.

The pros absolutely have outweighed the cons for me, though, particularly in the realm of money. I’ve maybe had to buy one or two new items per year for the last few years, and that’s it. Compared with people who buy that many new items per week or per month, I’ve saved so much money, and it’s helped me cut back spending in other aspects of my life too.

Sounds pretty great, right?

If the minimalist wardrobe interests you, start thinking about how you can reduce your wardrobe size and pick out just the items you truly benefit from. It won’t be an easy process, and will probably take a long time, but if you stick with it it will almost certainly pay off.

And if you’re stuck at all on where to start, stay tuned. I’m planning on putting out more minimalism posts in the coming months.

[FAFQ] How Do I Fit Exercise In On A Tight Schedule?

If you’re a full time student, work a job that has a demanding schedule, have a lot of parenting responsibilities, or have any other limitations on your free time, you’ve probably struggled trying to fit exercise in alongside everything else. You know it’s important–but it just feels so hard to find the time to get it done.

Know you’re not alone. I went through four years of an incredibly busy undergrad–working the majority of the day 7 days a week while trying to maintain a 4.0 GPA, conduct research, have a social life, be part of clubs, and work a part time job. Now, I work full time in the tech industry and am adding on some grad school classes to that workload. My life has been incredibly busy for a long time now, and at first, I had no idea how to make it all work. Exercise fell to the wayside as I prioritized my work. Slowly but surely, though, I found a way to fit exercise into my tight schedule.

I never found that much helpful guidance on the Internet while I was going through my own struggle with this, so I wanted to share some advice on what worked for me in the hopes that it will help you out.

1. Prioritize Your Health

The most important factor for me was prioritizing my health. The only way to reliably ensure that I got my workouts in was to tell myself that health matters more than the other tasks on my plate.

To be optimally equipped for whatever is taking up all of your time–and to live a happy and fulfilling life–you need to be healthy. Taking the steps to ensure that your body is in good shape–even if it can feel like a waste of time in the short run–is going to be a much better investment than spending that time on, say, adding the finishing touches to your essay for school.

I found that my performance in school and work did not diminish at all when I prioritized my fitness and made an effort to ensure I was getting adequate exercise. In fact, it actually seemed to increase because I felt like I had more energy, better focus, and fewer depressive thoughts.

So take action to prioritize your health. Rather than staying late at work, take 30 minutes to go on a run. Rather than perfecting your powerpoint, go lift some weights. Put exercise at the top of your priorities list and things will start to get easier.

One way to help make sure this happens is to physically add your exercise time into your calendar! This will help make your brain think it is on the same importance level as the rest of your appointments and calendar items.

2. Pick A Strategic Time To Work Out

I’ve found that the timing of exercise plays a big role in getting me to stick with it. If I try to exercise at the end of the day, I’m usually exhausted. I work extra hard to find myself an excuse not to go. But if I go first thing in the morning, before I head to work or school, then it’s way easier. I can cross it off the list and don’t need to think about it again.

What works for me, though, does not work for everyone! Some find it easiest to work out on a lunch break, in the mid afternoon, or even late at night. You should test out a few different times until you find out which time has you wanting to get out of it the least often.

To make this process even easier, I also recommend strategizing so that your timing fits with the location of your fitness activity in a way that promotes maximum convenience. What does this mean? For example, if you go to college, scheduling your gym workout right before/after class so you can just do the gym and class in one trip rather than make yourself have to take a separate trip for your workout. Or if you work an office job, find a gym between home and work and go on your way there or on your way home. This decreases mental resistance and can also help build in a routine if you stick with the same schedule.

Decrease resistance by scheduling your exercise alongside other trips, such as on the way to/from work or school.

3. Find Some Form Of External Accountability

Fitness classes are a great way to motivate you to stick with your workouts.

Some people have really strong internal motivation and discipline and–all on their own–can make themselves exercise every day even if they don’t want to. But for most people, it’s not that easy. External accountability can be a great way to get that extra push if you can’t motivate yourself.

Two of my favorite ways to promote external accountability are: 1. Find an accountability buddy, and 2. Sign up for a paid class.

The idea with the first is quite simple. Find another person–a friend, a coworker, or a family member–who is also interested in working on their fitness and agree to hold one another accountable. Tell your buddy your exercise goals and ask them to check in with you to make sure you’re achieving them and actually doing your workouts like you say you are. That can mean agreeing to share pictures from your workouts, having your buddy text you a reminder to go exercise, discussing your exercise plan for the day, or anything else you come up with. If negative reinforcement works for you, you can also ask them to tell you to do better when you fail. In exchange, agree to do the same for your buddy.

I’ve found that having someone else check in on me makes sticking with my habits really easy, because when I fail, I’m no longer just letting myself down–I’m also letting someone else down–and that provides a lot of motivation to keep me going.

Another option is to use a fitness class–particularly a paid one–as external motivation. The great thing about fitness classes is that they are on a set schedule. If you miss one, it’s over. You can’t make it up, unlike a normal workout that you might complete alone. That by itself can be a great motivator to exercise. You don’t want to miss out, so you take the extra effort to make sure you make it to the class. If money is involved, this motivational power is much stronger (at least it has been for me). If you pay $150/month for a class that happens twice a week, each class costs you nearly $20! If you don’t go, it feels like you’re just tossing a $20 bill down the drain. You want to get your money’s worth, so you’ll go to class even if you’re not feeling it. If it weren’t a paid event, you’d probably skip.

The one place you need to be careful with this strategy, though, is to make sure you don’t pick a class that’s too time consuming. If you sign up for a two-hour class three times per week, that’s a pretty big time commitment and will form a bigger mental block in your head than something shorter. If you’ve had. a busy day and don’t have much time, it’s going to be way easier to do some kickboxing for 45 minutes than to do a 90 minute weightlifting session. In my experience, the optimal class time is 45-6- minutes, no more than three times per week.

4. Use The 2-Day Rule For Habit Formation

In order to fit exercise into a tight schedule, it’s important to make it a regular habit–to integrate it so that it just becomes a normal part of your schedule.

One of my favorite habit-building tips to help facilitate this is to use the 2-day rule. I learned about this strategy from one of my favorite productivity YouTubers, Matt D’Avella. The basic idea with the 2-day rule is this: don’t allow yourself to take off more than one day in a row from the habit you’re building (in this case, exercise). If you work out on Wednesday, you can take Thursday off, but then you need to start back up again on Friday.

A sample workout calendar using the 2-day rule

This is one of the easiest ways to make exercise a habit. If you stick with the 2-day rule for a few weeks or months, exercise will start to come naturally to you. Once it becomes part of your routine, it almost takes more effort to not do it than to do it.

You can learn more about. the 2-day rule in Matt’s video here.

5. Consider Exercise Multitasking

If setting aside a long chunk of time just for exercising feels like a little too much of an ask, you can also try what I call exercise multitasking: when your exercise activity accomplishes more than just the goal of increased fitness.

What does this look like in practice? Some ideas include:

• Instead of driving to work/school, make your commute–something you already have to do–an opportunity for fitness. Bike, walk, scooter, or skateboard instead.

Skateboarding is my favorite alternative (and active) transportation method!

• Rather than having purely separate social time and exercise time, combine them. Sign up for a group fitness class or get a friend to go to the gym with you.
• Combine exercise and learning. Listen to an audiobook or podcast while doing your workout,
• If you work at an office that has conference calls or you have meetings on your schedule that can be completed audio-only, try a walking meeting, where you bring your phone and headphones with you and take your call while on a walk. This is an easy way to get 30-60 minutes of exercise in without adding any time to your normal schedule.

Fitting exercise in on a tight schedule can be difficult, but it’s not impossible. With some thoughtful strategizing, you can almost always make time for healthy habits.

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I want to hear what worked for you and what didn’t! If you found anything helpful–or even counterproductive–in these recommendations share your thoughts with me.

For more answers Frequently Asked Fitness Questions, see this collection.

How Do I Start Eating Healthy? Prioritize Balance, Not Extremes

One of the things I find so frustrating about a lot of lifestyle and health influencers–and health culture in general–is the focus on extreme diets or non-science-backed cleanses.

Consider the Keto diet–a high fat, low carb diet plan that attempts to put the body into a fat-burning state. It’s everywhere. The ice cream section at your local grocery store probably has a subsection of Keto. There are hundreds of books explaining the diet and providing recipes. And if you google “I tried keto”, you’ll get seemingly endless results of people trying the diet and promoting their results. But it can actually be really unhealthy to the average person if done long term.

Keto tends to be heavy in animal products, like steak, which aren’t great if consumed in large quantities.

• Keto can lead to kidney stones. Eating too many animal products (often necessary for high fat/high protein/low carb) can produce acid and lead to increased calcium output, which increases kidney stone risk.
• It can be really difficult to get enough fiber, since fibrous foods often tend to be higher carb (think whole grains and fruits). Fiber is really important for proper bowel health, and not having enough of it can lead to blockages and other unpleasant problems.
• Keto may lead to decreased bone mineral density, which means weaker and more brittle bones.
• Animal products tend to be unhealthy in large quantities due to their high amount of saturated fat. Higher carb, vegetable-forward diets, rather than animal-focused ones, are much better for long term health.

Keto can be a good option for people with certain health conditions, but it’s not really that good of an option for the average person.

It’s easy to see all these flashy diets and think they’re the answer to all of your weight loss problems, but in many cases, they’re not. In some cases that’s because they’re genuinely unhealthy, but often, it’s because they’re unsustainable.

The best diet for you is one that you can stick with!

The problem with a lot of restrictive diets that are promoted today is that they’re nearly impossible to actually stick with if you’ve come from a totally different background.

If you’re a big animal product consumer and you suddenly decide that being vegan is the way to finally lose those extra pounds, if you cut out all the meat and dairy cold turkey, it’s not going to go well at all.

The human body does not do well with extreme and sudden change. You’d probably experience really unpleasant gut problems, have a serious difficulty finding enough recipes you like to suddenly replace all your old meals, and find yourself unsatisfied with the new tastes. After enough frustration, you’d just abandon ship.

That’s not healthy at all! It’s the same with extremely calorie restrictive diets. If your body needs 1800 Calories per day, but the internet tells you to go for only 1200 so that you can burn a bunch of fat, you’re going to be starving. You’ll be constantly hungry, feel weak and tired, and probably will cave and eat a snack, meaning the diet got you nowhere. Plus, you’re more likely to be stressed trying to meet your calorie goals.

This is not a meal! But it can sometimes feel like all you’ve got if you’re restricting calories.

If you’ve been frustrated by challenges like this, you’re not alone! I’ve experimented with calorie restriction and sudden diet changes, and it’s never worked out well. I was left with all of the problems I just described and felt miserable. But over time, and with a lot of experimentation, I have finally started to find a solution that works: balance.

There is no universal best diet. The best diet for you is whichever one that you can stick with–so long as it promotes some balance and stays away from extreme and unhealthy habits.

How does this balance look in your day to day life? No two individuals will have identical plans, but my diet strategy looks as follows.

I try to incorporate both healthy behaviors and less healthy behaviors, but weigh them in favor of the former. The occasional unhealthy activity helps me feel satisfied and fulfilled, without being so often as to negatively impact my health in any non-miniscule way.

On the healthy side of things, I try to use the following guidelines in my week:

• Cook my own food most of the time, so that I can control what’s going into it, rather than rely on guessing how healthy something is.
• When cooking, I try to make plant-forward meals and limit my consumption of animal products, except the occasional item low in saturated fat (such as turkey breast or low fat greek yogurt) or a small dash of cream in my coffee. I don’t commit to full on veganism or any other restrictive diet, but just try to make informed choices to ensure that I get enough vitamins and minerals, enough protein, and enough fiber, without consuming too many unhealthy fats.
• I try to minimize added sugar in both the food I prepare and the food I purchase. If I make banana chocolate chip muffins, for example, I’ll rely only on the sugar from the chocolate chips and bananas, and skip any additional sugar the recipe calls for. And if I get a sweetened drink from a shop, I’ll go for a less sugary option (such as 25% sugar at a bubble tea place).
• I try to buy in-season products from the local farmers’ market, which tend to be more nutritious than out-of-season supermarket items and also lower in dangerous pesticides.

However, I also allow some flexibility in my week and don’t only eat health foods 24/7. This has a few benefits for me:

1. It helps me ensure I can fit in social activities where food is involved without being stressed about what I’m consuming.
2. It reduces the overall amount of brainpower and emotional energy I spend on food because I get an opportunity to eat unrestricted and don’t need to feel bad about my choices.
3. I get to enjoy a delicious treat every once in a while, which brings me joy!

A little more specifically, I try to allow the following:

• A dessert or fun sweetened drink a couple of times in a week (typically limit this to about two, but it can be flexible). I try to choose healthier options, like frozen yogurt over ice cream, but if I’m feeling like ice cream no one’s stopping me!
• I will go out to a restaurant 1-2 times per week, but typically just at dinner (this could be lunch, too, if you prefer that–I just like using dinner as a social time). When I’m there, I can get whatever I want! Sometimes I’ll eat a burger and fries, sometimes a healthier dish. It depends on how I’m feeling, but whatever I’m feeling is fair game.
• If I’m going on vacation for a few days, I drop any self-imposed restrictions on eating. One of the most amazing parts of travel for me is being able to taste new and delicious foods, and limiting myself to only plant-based foods means I miss out on a lot of options–plus it can be a lot more stressful trying to find really healthy restaurants, especially if traveling with friends and family who don’t share the same health focus in their dining. On vacation, I’ll still eat healthy sometimes, but I also allow myself to try whatever looks good.
• I don’t work off of a calorie restriction. Calorie counting is very popular in the weight loss community, but I’ve personally found it to be way too time consuming and also detrimental to my mental health by forcing me to spend all my free time thinking about food. Rather than restricting myself to a set amount of food per day, I work on eating primarily healthy and nutritious foods (which, it turns out, tend to be lower in calories) and stop when I start to feel full. If I eat a ton one day, that’s okay. Rather than stress about failing a daily goal, I can think about the fact that I enjoyed my food and maybe later in the week I’ll try to make healthier choices to balance that out.

I probably eat something like this bad boy once per week! It tastes great, but in moderation is not all that bad for my health!

Getting yourself to a healthy diet is not easy. A lot of the steps I’ve achieved by now are the result of years of hard work, and it took a lot of frustration and mistakes to get here. If you’re struggling, the most important thing is to not beat yourself up. Physical health is incredibly important, but so is your mental health. It’s not worth throwing one down the drain to get the other.

If you take one thing away from this article, have it be the following: don’t obsess over perfection in your diet. That’s a recipe for stress, depression, and poor results. If you want to be healthy, work on finding a diet you can stick with, one you enjoy, and one that prioritizes balance and flexibility. It will take a while to get there, but you can do it if you take it slow, plan carefully, and forgive yourself when you struggle.

You can do it!

How Do I Start Eating Healthy? – Prioritize Balance, Not Extremes

One of the things I find so frustrating about a lot of lifestyle and health influencers–and health culture in general–is the focus on extreme diets or non-science-backed cleanses.

Consider the Keto diet–a high fat, low carb diet plan that attempts to put the body into a fat-burning state. It’s everywhere. The ice cream section at your local grocery store probably has a subsection of Keto. There are hundreds of books explaining the diet and providing recipes. And if you google “I tried keto”, you’ll get seemingly endless results of people trying the diet and promoting their results. But it can actually be really unhealthy to the average person if done long term.

Keto tends to be heavy in animal products, like steak, which aren’t great if consumed in large quantities.

• Keto can lead to kidney stones. Eating too many animal products (often necessary for high fat/high protein/low carb) can produce acid and lead to increased calcium output, which increases kidney stone risk.
• It can be really difficult to get enough fiber, since fibrous foods often tend to be higher carb (think whole grains and fruits). Fiber is really important for proper bowel health, and not having enough of it can lead to blockages and other unpleasant problems.
• Keto may lead to decreased bone mineral density, which means weaker and more brittle bones.
• Animal products tend to be unhealthy in large quantities due to their high amount of saturated fat. Higher carb, vegetable-forward diets, rather than animal-focused ones, are much better for long term health.

Keto can be a good option for people with certain health conditions, but it’s not really that good of an option for the average person.

It’s easy to see all these flashy diets and think they’re the answer to all of your weight loss problems, but in many cases, they’re not. In some cases that’s because they’re genuinely unhealthy, but often, it’s because they’re unsustainable.

The best diet for you is one that you can stick with!

The problem with a lot of restrictive diets that are promoted today is that they’re nearly impossible to actually stick with if you’ve come from a totally different background.

If you’re a big animal product consumer and you suddenly decide that being vegan is the way to finally lose those extra pounds, if you cut out all the meat and dairy cold turkey, it’s not going to go well at all.

The human body does not do well with extreme and sudden change. You’d probably experience really unpleasant gut problems, have a serious difficulty finding enough recipes you like to suddenly replace all your old meals, and find yourself unsatisfied with the new tastes. After enough frustration, you’d just abandon ship.

That’s not healthy at all! It’s the same with extremely calorie restrictive diets. If your body needs 1800 Calories per day, but the internet tells you to go for only 1200 so that you can burn a bunch of fat, you’re going to be starving. You’ll be constantly hungry, feel weak and tired, and probably will cave and eat a snack, meaning the diet got you nowhere. Plus, you’re more likely to be stressed trying to meet your calorie goals.

This is not a meal! But it can sometimes feel like all you’ve got if you’re restricting calories.

If you’ve been frustrated by challenges like this, you’re not alone! I’ve experimented with calorie restriction and sudden diet changes, and it’s never worked out well. I was left with all of the problems I just described and felt miserable. But over time, and with a lot of experimentation, I have finally started to find a solution that works: balance.

There is no universal best diet. The best diet for you is whichever one that you can stick with–so long as it promotes some balance and stays away from extreme and unhealthy habits.

How does this balance look in your day to day life? No two individuals will have identical plans, but my diet strategy looks as follows.

I try to incorporate both healthy behaviors and less healthy behaviors, but weigh them in favor of the former. The occasional unhealthy activity helps me feel satisfied and fulfilled, without being so often as to negatively impact my health in any non-miniscule way.

On the healthy side of things, I try to use the following guidelines in my week:

• Cook my own food most of the time, so that I can control what’s going into it, rather than rely on guessing how healthy something is.
• When cooking, I try to make plant-forward meals and limit my consumption of animal products, except the occasional item low in saturated fat (such as turkey breast or low fat greek yogurt) or a small dash of cream in my coffee. I don’t commit to full on veganism or any other restrictive diet, but just try to make informed choices to ensure that I get enough vitamins and minerals, enough protein, and enough fiber, without consuming too many unhealthy fats.
• I try to minimize added sugar in both the food I prepare and the food I purchase. If I make banana chocolate chip muffins, for example, I’ll rely only on the sugar from the chocolate chips and bananas, and skip any additional sugar the recipe calls for. And if I get a sweetened drink from a shop, I’ll go for a less sugary option (such as 25% sugar at a bubble tea place).
• I try to buy in-season products from the local farmers’ market, which tend to be more nutritious than out-of-season supermarket items and also lower in dangerous pesticides.

However, I also allow some flexibility in my week and don’t only eat health foods 24/7. This has a few benefits for me:

1. It helps me ensure I can fit in social activities where food is involved without being stressed about what I’m consuming.
2. It reduces the overall amount of brainpower and emotional energy I spend on food because I get an opportunity to eat unrestricted and don’t need to feel bad about my choices.
3. I get to enjoy a delicious treat every once in a while, which brings me joy!

A little more specifically, I try to allow the following:

• A dessert or fun sweetened drink a couple of times in a week (typically limit this to about two, but it can be flexible). I try to choose healthier options, like frozen yogurt over ice cream, but if I’m feeling like ice cream no one’s stopping me!
• I will go out to a restaurant 1-2 times per week, but typically just at dinner (this could be lunch, too, if you prefer that–I just like using dinner as a social time). When I’m there, I can get whatever I want! Sometimes I’ll eat a burger and fries, sometimes a healthier dish. It depends on how I’m feeling, but whatever I’m feeling is fair game.
• If I’m going on vacation for a few days, I drop any self-imposed restrictions on eating. One of the most amazing parts of travel for me is being able to taste new and delicious foods, and limiting myself to only plant-based foods means I miss out on a lot of options–plus it can be a lot more stressful trying to find really healthy restaurants, especially if traveling with friends and family who don’t share the same health focus in their dining. On vacation, I’ll still eat healthy sometimes, but I also allow myself to try whatever looks good.
• I don’t work off of a calorie restriction. Calorie counting is very popular in the weight loss community, but I’ve personally found it to be way too time consuming and also detrimental to my mental health by forcing me to spend all my free time thinking about food. Rather than restricting myself to a set amount of food per day, I work on eating primarily healthy and nutritious foods (which, it turns out, tend to be lower in calories) and stop when I start to feel full. If I eat a ton one day, that’s okay. Rather than stress about failing a daily goal, I can think about the fact that I enjoyed my food and maybe later in the week I’ll try to make healthier choices to balance that out.

I probably eat something like this bad boy once per week! It tastes great, but in moderation is not all that bad for my health!

Getting yourself to a healthy diet is not easy. A lot of the steps I’ve achieved by now are the result of years of hard work, and it took a lot of frustration and mistakes to get here. If you’re struggling, the most important thing is to not beat yourself up. Physical health is incredibly important, but so is your mental health. It’s not worth throwing one down the drain to get the other.

If you take one thing away from this article, have it be the following: don’t obsess over perfection in your diet. That’s a recipe for stress, depression, and poor results. If you want to be healthy, work on finding a diet you can stick with, one you enjoy, and one that prioritizes balance and flexibility. It will take a while to get there, but you can do it if you take it slow, plan carefully, and forgive yourself when you struggle.

You can do it!