Many thanks, Dave!
It helps to have a pudgy “before” to really sell it. Just always having been in shape doesn’t impress the masses
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A lesson i continuously come back to (a good one for beginners): be strict about the distinction between rest days and skipped days
Rest days are planned and accounted for. Even for pro athletes, i believe taking a single day off a week is important. Even if you are planning to take 4 days off a week, that is an ok place to begin, rest days are important.
Skipped days are days you make excuses about why you dont need to follow your pre set plan. That’s not to say there are 0 exceptions: sometimes it is genuinely not possible to safely lift or get to the gym. But if (you are an able bodied person) you find yourself explaining why it’s OK to skip a planned workout more than a couple times per year, not per week or month, it may be time to do some honest self dialogue and introspection.
Be realistic about what you can do, not on your best days when you are first making your diet or workout plan and full of motivation, but on the days you are struggling or apathetic, how much can you really handle? Is committing to 6 days a week right off the bat an appropriate challenge that you can rise to, or just setting yourself up for failure the first week life throws something unexpected at you? Because the worst thing you can do is be comfortable skipping days. When you skip a planned day, it should be bothering you all day and all night, not ruining your day, but just a little.
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This felt like a punch to the gut. Lol. I skipped yesterday! To be fair I’m 90% sure I would have jacked my lower back had I tried to do my session, but still. It ate at me all day and I felt pretty badly about it this morning when I woke up. It’s solid advice though. You really do have to be realistic about what you are willing and able to do when you start.
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I did make sure to say "just a little” for a reason! Nobody should end their day crying over missing the gym. But somewhere along the lines of “dang, I should really be there…” seems to be a healthy motive for me personally
And the reason I wrote about that was I also skipped a day last week.
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