You are not alone.
The first time I walked into a gym I felt lost. It felt like a whole new world and I just wanted to hide in the corner somewhere hoping for no-one to see me. I did not know what weights to use, I did not know how the different machines worked or how to perform certain exercises.
I felt like a loser. I felt small, I felt weak, and I felt like I was somewhere I did not belong. On top of that I panicked because it felt like everyone in the gym was starring at me wondering what the heck I was doing!? In that moment I had two choices, number one – run back home and hide or stand up a little straighter, summon up all my courage and step into my fear!
“Fake it until I make it”.. As they say.
I pulled myself together and summoned up a big smile that felt it probably looked like I was in pain. But I did it anyway.
I knew that for me to grow as a person, I had to step right up to my discomfort and fear, and present my strongest self. Even if inside I was feeling like an anxious, nervous, sweaty and weak wreck.
I had no desire to be the strongest person in the gym that day, I just knew I had to start. I wanted to feel good about being in the gym so I started with very basic things that I knew how to perform. Jump into a machine, read the attached instructions, and do a few sets until I was at the brink of my discomfort, then move on to the next. I knew I needed a personal win my first time in the gym, so I focused on exploring what appeared to me to be an iron jungle. From there I could learn from other people in the gym, from coaches and from doing my own research.
Fear is a very real thing. Fear of being judged. Fear of looking silly. Fear of not being accepted are some of our deepest human fears. Every person that has ever stepped their foot into a gym was afraid the first time. I am no exception, and either are you. Any time we step into something new, it’s supposed to be uncomfortable. The key is creating a tiny personal win!
A positive experience, however dreadful it may seem at first.
Here are my simple secrets to get started, overcome fear, empower yourself with a skillset to learn to enjoy the process, and build your lean, vibrant, and energized body without having to live in fear of judgement, or fear of failure.
Celebrate a Tiny Win.
As humans we tend to live inside our comfort zone and anything outside of that brings with it an uncomfortable feeling of fear, anxiety, and judgement. The key to personal growth, whether physical or mental, is creating tiny bite sized wins just outside of our comfort zone. This builds the brain, and confidence in our ability. This should be a big focus. Make tiny wins and high impact habits a new part of your everyday life.
Keep it simple.
It can be overwhelming and intimidating when you see people in the gym doing exercises you have never done before and lifting heavy weights. Remember, they have probably worked out for years, you will get there as well, eventually, but the first thing I encourage you to do is to – KEEP IT SIMPLE.
Start with the basics, you don’t need fancy exercises to build your muscles, tone your body and build a booty that looks like it’s standing at attention. If you master the 7 basic movements – walk, lunge, squat, hinge, push, pull and rotation, and do them well and often, you will be well on your way to a body that screams with confidence and vitality.
Stick with these 7 movements at first and perform them well before you move on to new ones. Learn how to pay attention to your body, explore new things and new feelings. Aim to keep tension in the muscle and mindfully move the weight instead of letting the weight move you. You want to be in charge of the weight you move and own the movement pattern before increasing the weight and advancing to new movements.
Attitude and Effort:
There is only 2 things you can fully control:
- The attitude you bring to every situation.
- Your effort.
Show up with an attitude that you choose, and that serves you. Are you Confident, grateful, strong, persistent, loving, present?
Give your best effort today, and smile. Come back tomorrow and do 1% better and go 1% harder. You win life!
Recovery – Stress, Sleep, Hydration & Nutrition.
For years I thought more was better, I trained hard every day and sometimes multiple times per day. I never got the results I was looking for and I constantly felt tired and burnt out. When I finally realized that more wasn’t always better, the quality of the training in combination with proper recovery, sleep, hydration, nutrition and stress reduction was far more important than the quantity of training.
I cut down on my workouts and made sure that I ate whole, and nutrient dense food. I made sure to recover well with 7-8 hours of sleep every night and drink plenty of water in order to stay hydrated. Our body is mainly made up of water, which means that if we are dehydrated we will not function as well, both physically and mentally. I started with cutting out all the “bad” food, the second step in getting closer to a lean physique is to understand the amount of calories you eat versus the calories you need based on your daily activity level, height and weight. So I started to experiment with that to find what worked best for me and my body.
While nutrition is extremely important in combination with daily activity, hydration and sleep, so is reduction of stress. In today’s society we are constantly stressed, stress raises our cortisol levels and your body is constantly “running”. If you never let your body rest and recover you will have a hard time to reach your fitness goal, lose weight, gain weight or build muscle mass.
For years I thought; “I can deal with stress, I’m not stressed at all”, “this is just good stress and I need it in order to get the results I’m looking for”. I was so wrong, I wanted to be a superhuman who could deal with all the stress, but I couldn’t. When I finally started to meditate every morning and slowly incorporated micro meditations during the day. My performance and recovery got so much better and I felt less stressed. Now I can finally be the superhuman I want to be.
In order to help others, you have to help yourself first!
Girl, You can do this!
I’m here to help and guide you towards the best, healthiest and happiest version of you. I want you to become the very best version of yourself, I want you to become a real life superwoman.
As a woman I want to help my fellow women to feel as good as I do today. I want you to feel your best and look your best because you deserve it!
This is what I have discovered from studying research and trying it on myself and my clients throughout the years. This is what I used to get Mackenzie Davis and Gabriel Luna in shape for the Terminator Dark Fate and Tiffany Boone ready for The Midnight Sky
Be confident
Love your body
Believe in yourself
LOVE,
Josefine
