If I started my fitness journey while working full-time, I’d do this…

0:00 Working or studying full-time can make fitness feel impossible. You're busy, tired, overwhelmed, and every piece of advice online seems to be built for people with unlimited time. But honestly, most beginners are making fitness way harder than it needs to be. If I had to restart my fitness journey while working full-time, I would focus on a completely different set of habits, and it would have saved me years of frustration, inconsistency, and wasted efforts. In this video, I'm sharing the five things I do differently, the mistakes I made, and the habits that actually helped me stay consistent while balancing real life. I started my fitness journey 5 years ago as a full-time student. Since then, I've balanced fitness through university, multiple jobs, unemployment, a 9-5, and now content creation alongside full-time work. So, if you feel like you don't have time to get fit, then this video is for you. Hey besties, welcome back to my channel. I hope you're all doing well, and if you're new here, I'm so glad that you're here. My name's Jenny, and I share content on all things fitness, wellness, and lifestyle. Do make sure to subscribe if you're not already to see more of my videos. Now, I really wanted this video to be realistic because life isn't all about fitness. Most of us are balancing work, studies, our relationships, stress, social lives, and we're all just trying to look after ourselves at the same time. So, instead of giving you guys the perfect fitness routine, which to be honest, doesn't actually exist, I want to share the things that actually help me build fitness into my life in a sustainable way. I'm going to talk through what I would do differently if I started my fitness journey again, the things that I'd definitely keep the same, and then also some mistakes that I really think beginners should avoid because they just make the process way more overwhelming than it needs to be. Okay, there's a reason why I put this as the first tip because when I think back on my fitness journey, this is the most glaringly obvious thing. If I could see my 21-year-old self who is first starting out on a fitness journey right now, I would actually grab her and shake her and tell her this, which is to take nutrition seriously from day one.

1:51 Fitness isn't just about exercise. Nutrition is a huge, huge part of it. I would argue that nutrition is probably more than 50% of it. I think your diet and your nutrition and the way you eat and what you put into your body has more of an impact on your fitness and your wellness than exercising does. That's just my take on it. Just the way fitness and wellness is portrayed, the very first thing we think about is exercise, working out, but your diet is a huge, huge, huge part of it. Changing your diet and paying more attention to your diet can have a huge impact on you and your life and your overall health, the way you look, everything. Please, please, please prioritize nutrition. To sort of break this down into simpler terms, my first tip on this is slightly controversial, but it is to track your food. In particular, to track your calories and your macros if you can and if you want to. The concept of calories and tracking your food is a little bit of sticky one, especially in the fitness community, and that is because in some cases it can lead to unhealthy habits, unhealthy relationships with food and eating disorders. But, from my experience, for example, when I started out my fitness journey, I didn't really know anything about food and you don't really get taught this in schools. You don't really get taught it at home. I think if you approach it with the mindset of just wanting to learn as much as you can and to be more aware and you don't come from it from a perspective of trying to control anything or restrict anything, then I think it can benefit you massively. Tracking your calories teaches you about how much you're eating and what's in the food you're eating, food that's calorie dense or food that's not calorifically dense or even just your macronutrients, how much protein is in food, how much fat is in food, how much carbs is in food, your micronutrients. It just teaches you so, so much. I'm not advising you to track your calories forever, for the rest of your life, not at all. Even literally just like 2 weeks of consistently tracking your diet. I would really suggest if you can to track your food for either 2 weeks or a month or a couple months. I promise you it's going to teach you so, so much and really change the way you think and look about food and it is well, well worth it. It's not easy, it is difficult, but I'd highly recommend to track your calories.

4:05 My second tip, if you're just trying to take your diet seriously, is to prioritize whole foods when you can. I made this switch over a year ago. I did a little bit of research into processed, ultra-processed foods, what it actually is, and the impact that it can have on your body and your gut and your overall health. And I just made the sound simple and it is simple once you implement it into your lifestyle, switch to eating more whole foods and less processed and ultra-processed foods. Whole foods literally just means any food that's natural or as close to not being processed as possible. Your meats, vegetables, your dairy products, anything that comes out of the ground or anything that was once alive. And then lastly, I'd suggest to increase your protein intake and your fiber intake where you can. Again, this comes alongside with tracking your food cuz you don't really know how much protein or fiber you're eating until you track it. But once you do, you'll realize that you're probably not eating as much as you should be. Increasing the amount of protein and fiber that you have in your diet can improve your health in many, many ways. Okay, so that is nutrition.

5:04 My second tip is to keep it simple. Fitness is not supposed to be complicated and you may have been convinced that it needs to be and I'm here to tell you that it does not need to be complicated at all. You can just keep it so, so simple. Just follow a solid workout routine, eat well, and try and move every single day. That's literally it. Please, please, please don't overcomplicate it. I know you guys are probably so, so busy. You have so much going on in your lives. You have your work, you have this, that. Don't let fitness be something that is stressing you out and adding to your plate. It is something that's supposed to enhance your life and make you feel better. So, please, please, please keep it simple. Just to break it down a little bit further, when it comes to your workouts, I highly recommend for you to do some sort of strength training, lift some weights, build some muscle, especially if you are a woman.

5:56 Building muscle mass reduces your risk of injury, increases your metabolism, increases your bone density, can help you with weight loss if that's something that you're trying to achieve, improves your overall functional mobility. It is really good to build muscle, especially as women and especially as we get older. So, please try and incorporate some sort of simple, beginner-friendly strength training into your life. Again, just keep your workouts simple. I'd recommend working on compound movements or bodyweight movements, and just try and focus on improving your form and having a perfect form and training hard and progressively overloading, which means improving every single session or every single week. And in order to do that, I'd highly recommend that you track your weights and your reps. When it comes to keeping your diet simple, kind of already went through this, but just keep it healthy and balanced. Don't overcomplicate things. I really wouldn't recommend jumping into a calorie deficit or a bulk or some sort of no-carb diets or cutting out all sugar when you're first starting out. Literally just prioritizing whole foods like I mentioned, trying to increase your protein and fiber intake. Just doing that consistently will have a world of a difference, especially if you're not used to trying to eat healthy and in a balanced way. And then my last point to move daily, just try and build a daily habit of getting some movement in. So, if you already have your strength training, that's great, but you're probably not going to be doing that every single day. When I first started out, I think I was doing it probably four or five times a week, but just every single day try and have some type of movement, whether that's walking, whether that's your favorite form of cardio a couple times a week. I think having a step goal and tracking your steps is often a good way to make sure that you are moving enough throughout the week consistently on a daily basis.

7:34 Okay, so my third tip for you guys is to build fitness into a routine. Consistency is absolutely everything. You will see me talk about it a lot over here. Before your workout sessions, find a time in your day where you can fit in your training session, and I would highly suggest that you keep it the same time every single day because the easiest way to stay consistent with something is to do it at the same time every single day. Now, I know you guys are probably not strength training every single day. You do need to have some rest days in between there. I typically train about four to five times a week, but ever since I first started my fitness journey back when I was in uni, I found that the best time for me to work out was in the morning before my day started. My days were probably usually around 9:00 till 5:00, 6:00 p.m.

8:18 in the evenings, and I am a morning person. I do like to get up early and start my day early. So, I would wake up at 5:00 a.m., get ready, get myself to the gym, and get my session done first thing in the morning. And I also just really like doing it in the morning cuz I just felt like it set me up for the day and put me in a good head space and was just a really good habit. And once you do it long enough, it becomes a habit, and it literally becomes part of your day. If you guys haven't read Atomic Habits, I would highly, highly recommend. That book changed my life, and it helped me build a lot of the healthy habits that make up my fitness journey. If you guys want me to make more content about how I build my healthy habits, then do let me know. You don't have to wake up at 5:00 a.m. like me. Just find the time that suits you and your schedule and your life, and just stick to it at the same time every single day. When it comes to your strength training, I would highly suggest that you follow a plan. Now, this is for a few different reasons.

9:09 First of all, when you're just starting out, you probably don't really know what you're doing. So, I think it's really useful to have some sort of guidance from someone or something. Also, to add on that, if you are struggling with confidence, especially in the gym, then having a plan helps a lot. It prevents you from just turning up to the gym every single day and feeling lost and confused like you don't know what you're doing. If you have a plan, you can just open it up, and it's telling you exactly what you need to do. And that's also going to help you stay motivated and disciplined because it's just one less decision for you to make, and you can just get on with it. But also, if you have specific goals that you want to reach or if you do just want to build strength in general, having a plan is really good cuz it's really important that you are following a workout plan that is going to get you to your goals and it's going to help you build muscle, but also doing the same thing week in, week out is how you are going to progress and how you are going to build strength and build muscle. Find whichever way works best for you, whether that's getting yourself a personal trainer, an online coach, using a coaching app, which is what I did when I first started. I used the It's now called the Evolve You app. Used to be the Tone and Sculpt app by Krissy Cela.

10:10 It has a lot of programs on there by a lot of different trainers. The app probably looks very different now to that to what it used to be, but you can choose a program based on your goals and it will give you a workout program based on how many times a week you can go, how long your sessions are, blah, blah, blah. I think it's great. I highly, highly recommend and it helped me out a lot in the beginning. It's so nice to have somebody guiding you and telling you what to do, especially a trusted professional. Or even just having a workout plan, like a PDF plan, if that works for you, use that. And then, my last bit of advice for you guys, and an important one, is don't rush the process and don't expect perfection. This fitness thing takes time. It is for life. And so, slow and sustainable lifestyle changes is what we're aiming for. I know that this video will help you a lot when you're first getting started and hopefully will mean that you don't make as many of the mistakes that I made. know that's probably why you clicked on this video, but that doesn't mean that your journey is going to be absolutely perfect and that you'll never make mistakes. I want you guys to embrace the ups and downs of this journey because that's what makes it worthwhile and that's how you get better and improve as a person is if you make mistakes and then learn from them. It's a fun journey. It's not an easy journey.

11:26 It's not going to be perfect and that's okay. Starting your fitness journey and prioritizing you is probably one of the best decisions that you're ever going to make in your life. So, well done and you've got this. Lastly, I'm really quickly going to run through three things that I definitely would not do if I was starting my fitness journey again. Firstly, I would not start my fitness journey only for a purely aesthetic goal. I believe so, so strongly that fitness is way more than just the way that you look. Fitness can be about prioritizing yourself, self-love, getting stronger, building muscle, doing things that you never thought you could do, trying new things, looking after your long-term health. It is about so, so much more than just the way that you look. And don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with having an aesthetic goal. I think it's great to have goals, but especially in the beginning, don't let that be your only goal. Cuz it's so easy to just get wrapped up in the way that you look and then, I hate to break it to you, but it can lead to issues.

12:25 And I think you can very easily avoid that by just having other goals as well. And there's so many goals that you can have, whether that's pushing yourself to be able to lift a certain weight or to be able to do a certain skill. A couple years into my fitness journey, being able to move my own body weight, by being able to do a body weight push-up and a body weight pull-up, became such a big goal for me and it was the most rewarding thing to be able to work hard and then be able to achieve that goal.

12:50 It's great to have goals, guys, but please keep it varied and balanced. Next, I would not restrict my lifestyle because of fitness. I'm telling you guys from experience, it is completely 100% possible for fitness to be a part of your lifestyle and not to take over your lifestyle. So, if you get to a point where you feel like you are having to give up certain things that make up who you are or make up your life. Or if you're having to sacrifice things or say no to things, then that's a warning sign that something is not right. Fitness, like I said, should be enhancing your life, should be making your life better.

13:24 It 100% can work with you, not against you. Do not let fitness take over and restrict your life. And this is way easier said than done, and don't get me wrong, it has taken me literally 5 years to figure out, and I'm still figuring it out. Learn from every experience that you have, and adapt, and try and find ways to balance fitness with your life. And then last thing that I would not do is compare myself to other people, to other fitness influencers, that's a big one, or to other people's bodies. We are all so, so different. We are all living completely different lives. It just does not make sense to compare yourself to somebody else. And the reason why I put an emphasis on other fitness influencers is a lot of you guys probably like me are getting a lot of your information and fitness advice from other fitness influencers, and no shade to fitness influencers, but a lot of them don't have a full-time 9:00 to 5:00 job like the rest of us, or whatever your job looks like, or you might have other commitments, you might have people relying on you, people that depend on you, or whatever it is. We all live very different lives. So, don't, you know, just see somebody's morning routine or evening routine or somebody's day in my life on your screen and feel like that's what your life should be like, or that's how you should be eating, or that's the amount of exercise that you should be doing. Just focus on you and your journey, and hopefully these simple tips and changes that I've suggested in this video are quite doable when you start to implement them into your life, and you're able to build into habits and routines, and it works with your life.

14:55 That is it from me for today's video, guys. I hope you found that useful or inspiring in some way. If you guys are also on your fitness journey while working full-time or studying full-time, I'd love to hear your number one tip for being able to balance it all. If you are not already, please do subscribe so that you guys can see more of my videos. Thank you so, so much for watching. Thank you so much for being here. And I'll see you guys in the next video.

15:20 Bye.