This post is a bit difficult for me to write. I don't know for how many times now, I've honestly lost count, but I've decided to once again embark on getting myself on a fitness journey. This whole journey gained momentum around the end of October last year. I was doing my makeup, contouring the hell out of my double chin when I realized that no matter how hard I tried, it was still quite prominent. Now, here's the thing, I can contour the heck out of my face to make myself look 10 lbs. lighter, however, on that day, I seemed to finally realized that no amount of contouring was going to completely make it go away. I went to work that day, feeling a little upset and annoyed. I also made a joke to my co-workers about knowing that you really gained weight because you can't contour the heck out of your double-chin anymore. Obviously, my co-workers just took it as a joke from me and didn't say much. The reality is I have gained weight - lots of it - right after I graduated high school, and especially so in the last 3 years. There was no way of ignoring that fact anymore and I had to do something different. That night, I decided to weigh myself as well. The number on the scale did not look good; I was on my highest weight I've ever been. Ughh.

That week I decided to start small and take at least one advance yoga class a week. At this point, I was already getting back into attending yoga 2-3 times a week, although I've been taking the easier classes. I knew doing something crazy may work in the short-term but won't stick in the long-term, so I opted to do little changes every few weeks. A month into this workout routine adjustment, I decided that my body can handle a bit more challenge and at the end of November, I decided that I wanted to do a 50 workouts challenge in 10 weeks as a personal goal. This meant that I needed to do 50 workouts from the second half of November until the end of January.

The timing may have seemed inopportune because I pretty much started my challenge right when the Winter holiday season started, but I was determined to get started right away and make use of the motivation I had then. I didn't want to wait until the New Year and put it on hold. I wanted to welcome the New Year with new fitness goals and a body that's already prepped and can handle these new goals. For November and December my goal became working out 4-5 times a week, with at least 2 of those classes be a yoga sculpt classes. For the month of January, I decided to work on food journaling and taking even more yoga sculpt classes. I am not counting calories yet, I'm just simply writing down what I ate on my planner. Even though, I've only done this for a few weeks, I've definitely noticed that I've been more conscious with the types and amount of food I'm eating. I am definitely going to use a calorie tracking app to help me count calories starting in February. The best part about all of this, is I am actually not dreading calorie counting, if anything, I'm looking forward to it!

So far, looking into what I've decided to do, I've actually started my weightloss journey with a few minor but consistent changes. I think it's definitely working well for me, because I've definitely been implementing them better in my daily life and I do not feel overwhelmed. Knowing that I am taking small steps toward a healthier lifestyle, I've realized that changes in my body will also come in small doses but I should be celebrating each and every one of them, no matter how small they may seem to me. Taking my journey this way made me less discontented with my progress and also helped me develop a healthier mindset about living a healthy lifestyle.

Now, let's talk about the scale. So far, I've only really lost a little less than 10 lbs. and I've been in this journey for 8 weeks. I'm not going to lie and tell you that I am not frustrated with the slow progress, however, I have told myself while I was setting my health goals for the new year, that no matter what the scale said, I will keep going and living this healthier lifestyle for the entirety of 2017 wether or not I lose another pound. I owe it to myself to give this new weight-loss journey a longer progression time. It took time to gain all of this weight, it will take time to lose them all. I've also found different ways to keep track of my small progress by taking measurements of my body, and also by taking pictures of myself after every workout in the same pose at the same spot. I've sent this picture to various friends in snapchat and also added it to my snapchat stories. This is how I've kept myself accountable to working out and reaching my 50 workout goals.

As of writing this post, I am a few days and a few workouts away from completing my 50 workouts goal, but I can almost see the end of it and I cannot wait! I've already set another workout goal for the entire year and I'm very excited to get started on that as well. I'm also looking forward to the coming months, because now that I've got my workout plan down, I will start focusing more on my eating habits. I don't plan to do anything drastic in terms of food intake and/or elimination, however, I do intend to buckle-down on my eating.

Although the progress to my weightloss has progressed slower than I want it to, I'm very glad that I'm taking pictures after every workout. This has definitely helped me gain some perspective to my journey. I still have a long way to go, but I'm also far from where I started. I just need to trust the system, keep pushing and be patient. Below is a progress photo I decided to add, because it will serve as a reminder to myself that what I'm doing does make a difference and does amount to something.

If any of you have any tips or advice for weightloss, feel free to leave them below! I am always keen on learning more about living a healthier lifestyle.

Fitness: Small Steps Towards My Weightloss Journey