REFLECTIONS ON MY 50-DAY FITNESS JOURNEY

Today marks the final day of my 50 Days No Excuses fitness journey. At the beginning of the summer, I challenged myself to work out for 50 days straight, no excuses. I’m excited to say that I’ll officially complete my 50th workout! You can read my initial post here to learn more about why I did this. Over the course of the past (almost) 2 months, I have learned SO MUCH MORE about myself than I could have imagined. I’m excited about the moment of reflection I’ll get in writing this post. I think that most of these points will resonate with anyone trying to make improvements in their life (fitness-related or otherwise).

Key Learnings from My Fitness Journey

1) Prioritizing exercise takes sacrifice

The decision to workout every day was not easy. As we all do, I only have 24 hours in the day, and prior to this summer, I did not prioritize any of that time toward exercise. Now, my fitness journey meant that I had to find ~1.5 hours in my day to dedicate to exercise (including showering and stretching). In other words, I had to cut something(s) out of my day to make the time to exercise. The sacrifice differed depending on the day. Some days, I slept less. I HATED those days because I love to sleep. Getting a full 7.5 hours means I’m in a good mood during the day, and I don’t need caffeine, so I tried not to sacrifice sleep. On other days, I sacrificed hanging out with friends or writing a blog post. Thankfully, I didn’t have to sacrifice tv, because I use my cardio sessions to catch up on my favorite shows (aka... watch the latest Real Housewives or Million Dollar Listings NYC episode!).

Over time, this prioritization got easier. Instead of thinking about how my workouts would fit into my day, I’ve started to plan my day around working out!

2) You have to be committed

I don’t typically start things unless I’m certain I will complete it. There’s something ingrained in me that makes it almost impossible for me to back out of a commitment. So, when I started this no excuses fitness journey, I started it with a mission of purposefulness. I wanted to make fitness a part of my everyday routine. The “no excuses” component of the 50-Days No Excuses Challenge really struck a chord with me. In the past, I’ve always fallen short of my fitness goals because of excuses. I was either too tired, too busy, or just not in the mood to exercise. With this nonchalant mindset, days of not working out became weeks, which became months. Excuses have kept me from sustaining a regular workout regimen. The 50-Days No Excuses Challenge was my chance to change that!

3) It’s important to set a goal

When I first started my 50-day fitness journey, I didn’t have a clear fitness goal (other than finishing the 50 days). I knew that I wanted to be “leaner” and “more toned” but I didn’t really make a plan around what that would look like or how I would get there.

About 1.5 weeks into the fitness journey (once I lost the initial excitement and my summer internship started to ramp up), I knew that I needed to become more focused. Luckily, two things happened for me right around this time. First, my friend Trisha (and blogging mentor!) recommended that I try Nike Training Club. This was literally the best thing to happen for my fitness journey. By using the app, I honed in on two goals for my fitness journey: I wanted to improve both my strength and my endurance. The second thing that happened around this time was the fortuitous IG post of a blogger who shared that she reached her goal of doing 10 pull-ups. She looked so strong, and that reaffirmed that becoming stronger would be one of my key goals.

4) I love feeling strong

At around day 45 of my fitness journey, I did 1.5 pull-ups! I was sooooo excited because when I started working out, I couldn’t do any! I literally was unable to budge….I’d just dangle at the bar. But now, my upper body strength is starting to balance out my lower body strength. More than that, my core is so much stronger too! I can do ab workouts now that I would never have dreamed of 2 months ago!

This feeling of physical strength makes me feel super confident throughout the day. The strength manifests visibly as a leaner, taller-appearing body, and I’m also not shy of a subtle (or not so subtle) bicep flex every now and again 😊

5) Exercise makes me happy

It’s no secret that exercise causes a release of endorphins, which leads to a boost in one’s mood. I personally have found this to be one of the most enjoyable parts of working out. If you follow me on Instagram and watch my stories, then you’ve seen some of the shenanigans that I get up to in the gym. It’s truly because exercising makes me happy! When I work out in the morning, the effects are even greater. Morning workouts serve as a great way for me to jumpstart my day. Too bad I'm a night owl and haven't yet made the full switch to morning workouts.

6) Results take time and effort

In all my attempts at working out in the past, I always tried for a quick fix. I’d do those squat or ab challenges that often pop up online. I’d get to about day 15 and then quit because I wasn’t seeing results and I didn’t prepare myself for the long game. Through Instagram, I found a ton of accounts of folks who have achieved amazing physical transformations. The common theme, however, is that these transformations took time. Whether it was several months, a year, or multiple years, no one went from couch potato to fit overnight.

I’m now dedicated to the fact that my fitness journey isn’t a short-term thing. These past 50 days were just the beginning of a new way of life!

7) Be kind to yourself

If you follow me on the Gram then you know that this fitness journey was not without its difficult moments (these are not so subtle hints to go follow me! You're missing out if you don't😊). There were days I was at the gym at 1am, exhausted and honestly wishing I were in bed instead. Some days, I was physically spent, and the most that I could do was a short yoga workout. My friend Vicki reminded me of the importance of being kind to myself, mentally, emotionally, and physically.

There was also a period toward the end of the 50 days when I honestly was just doing the most, and my body basically said, “hol’ up mama…take it easy.” I’d done two pretty intense leg workouts back to back and woke up the following day in excruciating pain. This wasn’t soreness…this was something much worse. I felt like my leg was burning for most of the day. I recognized that I was having symptoms of muscle overuse (after googling fibromyalgia for the umpteemth time lol). I was again reminded that I must be kind to my body. I drastically cut back on the intensity of my workouts for a couple of days and this helped me to physically recover AND to mentally adjust expectations for my future workout plans.

8) There are many different ways to workout

Given my background in competitive high school volleyball and track and field, my natural association with exercise is sweat – lots of sweat. So, when I started my fitness journey, I assumed that every single workout had to be intense. I wanted to be dripping in sweat. For the first 3 weeks or so, that was the case. I’d do intense cardio sessions on the elliptical or complete high-intensity Nike Training Club workouts. Due to fatigue and minor injuries, I quickly realized that high intensity wouldn’t be sustainable.

I had to align my mind with the idea that active rest could still be considered a workout. A few of the days in my 50-day journey, I did active rest workouts ranging from yoga, to dancing, to long walks on the treadmill. (Key theme: cardio machines are really just my excuse to watch reality tv. I made a rule that I can only watch tv when doing cardio, and I stick to this ~95% of the time. It has really helped me to waste less time watching tv.) Now, I’m a lot more accepting of the fact that to be healthy, my body needs rest and time to recover as much as it needs me to do intense workouts.

9) Healthy eating is just as important as exercise

Some people say that when they exercise they use it as an excuse to eat more food and unhealthier foods. I’m on the exact opposite end of the spectrum. When I exercise, I feel the urge to eat healthily. If I’m putting in the work to go to the gym, I am more mindful of reducing my sugar and processed carb intake. (It also helped that I could expense lunches through my consulting internship. Why are salads so expensive!?!?!) I love the feeling I have when I eat healthily, and exercising motivates me to do so.

10) You never know who you're helping

One of the most surprising and most rewarding aspects of my fitness journey has been the number of friends and followers who have reached out to me to let me know that my journey has inspired them. If you know me, you know that one of the things I care about most in life is leaving a positive impact on the lives of others. So the fact that I have encouraged others to prioritize fitness in their own lives….I can’t even fully explain how great that makes me feel!

11) Support systems are key

THANK YOU to everyone who sent me a text or DM (or talked to me in person haha) to encourage me on my fitness journey! It was great to know that folks from near and far were supporting me. More than that, it was also wonderful to have people to workout with, whether in person or in spirit. A few shoutouts to the #50DaysNoExcuses crew: Special shout out to my friend Esteban, who’s been supporting me and doing his own 50-Day Fitness Journey all the way from Denmark! Many of my reflections in this post stemmed from conversations we had about our own journeys. Camille and Justin are Philly friends who joined me for some of my workouts!! #TeamworkMakestheDreamWork Vicki, Serena, and Metty, you ladies also encouraged me to keep at it as you killed the gym game yourselves. Thanks!!

Conclusion

I honestly could probably share more reflections than the 11 listed above. But for me, these 11 points are central to my fitness journey over the past 50 days. I've become stronger, physically and mentally, and it's a wonderful feeling.

I’m looking forward to maintaining the healthy lifestyle that this fitness journey has kickstarted for me. More than that, I plan to incorporate similar challenges for other aspects of my life. For example, my faith is important to me, but I often don’t prioritize reading the Bible or praying every day. My next challenge will be one that will allow me the chance to connect more meaningfully with God. Now that I’ve got my physical stamina up, it’s time to make sure my spirituality in order.

Peace and blessings,

Atasha Jordan, MD (to be)