Six Week Trim Down

Okay, so you might have been expecting my June Fitness Plan post but in honor of wanting to be swimsuit ready this summer I am doing a 6 week trim down. I am starting this trim down on Monday, May 30 and it will go until Sunday, July 10th. This is a bit more intense and I would not suggest it for people who are just beginning but everyone has to start somewhere. Feel free to follow along with me and tag me on Instagram @becomingbradley of anything that you post! As always you can save the image above and print it out as a resource. I just listed the guidelines of what I will be doing, not exact workouts, so take what you want from it and leave what you don't. As you can see the only thing that really changes is cardio, my weight lifting schedule stays the same. My body is use to working out 6 days a week and my main focus is growing my gluets/hamstrings and back.

I am going to go over a few goals I am giving myself during these 6 weeks but as always please take what I say with a grain of salt. I am not licensed this is just general knowledge I have gained from experience and readings. No ones body is the same and there for are not going to react the same way so for instance if I loose 5 pounds during these 6 weeks you could loose less, more, or none. Please, please, please do your own research and listen to your body. With that being said, at the same time don't make excuses that you need a rest day if you really just don't wanna work out. 

My Goals:

- Drink a gallon of water a day.

- Track all of my food for the whole 6 weeks.

- Take my vitamins/supplements regularly. (Future post on what supplements I use is coming!)

- Stay consistent with my efforts during both lifting and cardio. 

If you guys have questions or ideas that I can use to create future posts please leave them in the comments! I hope you found this post headful and remember, better yourself today. 

How to Get Into Working Out: Introduction

Okay, so you want to start working out? Great! Choosing to live a healthier lifestyle is one of the best decisions I have ever made but it has been quite the journey. Today I am going to tell you a bit about how I got into working out and how that ultimately got me into living a healthier lifestyle. In the weeks future posts I will share my tips and tricks that got me there to hopefully help get you there as well. 

My Journey: 

I first started with just wanting to workout to lose a bit of weight, like most people. I did a lot of cardio which I didn't mind, I enjoy running because it helps me clear my head for a little bit and erases some of my stress. As the weather got colder I found myself running in the gym more instead of outside which I didn't enjoy as much and I started to slack off like most people tend to do, more on that later. After slacking for a few weeks I found Nikki Blackketter on YouTube and binged on all of her videos. It was then that I started making my way to the weight side of the gym which I now call my second home. I got all the same benefits I wanted from running by lifting weighs, however it didn't seem as much as a chore as running was. Lifting weights also forced me to be more social in the gym and I have made loads of friends that I look forward to seeing every morning. I noticed that I was giving it my all when it came to gym time but I still wasn't seeing the results I wanted and that was very discouraging so I decided to educate myself on the nutrition side of things since I knew I wasn't the healthiest of eaters. After heavy loads of reading and documentaries I decided to become vegetarian and I have noticed a world of difference in everything. I'm not trying to tell you that you have to be vegan or vegetarian but at least educate yourself on the foods you eat and GMO's. (A few of my favorite documentaries have been Vegucated, GMO OMG and Cowspiracy.) Since all of this over the past year I have lost almost 20 pounds and can noticeably see muscle gain. 

Where do you start?

First you need to ask yourself why you want to do this because it is a lifestyle change for most people and most of the time it's not an easy one. Finding your inner motivation is key. It can be fairly easy to find external motivation such as quotes or fitness people you can look up to but truly asking yourself why you want to do it is harder. Are you doing for yourself to help build confidence within or are you doing it mainly for your family so you can live longer and watch them grow and live their life, or maybe a bit of both? Whatever it is wright it down in a letter to yourself so that when you fell like skipping a workout or eating something you know you shouldn't you can read it and remember why you started. Like I mentioned before most people do great with their first bit of motivation and go a few weeks making the right choices and decisions but then they start to slack like I did. I often found myself "restarting" my fitness journey. I would lose a few pounds in a few weeks then when I slacked I would gain it all back and once I decided to try again I would just tell myself to restart because that was easier than telling myself that I failed myself since I didn't have that inner motivation. 

Okay, lets recap: 

-Ask yourself why you are doing this.

-Find external motivation such as quotes you can post all over the house or people to look up to.

-Find your inner motivation.

-Wright a letter to yourself using your inner motivation as the key to remind yourself to never give up, cheat, slack off or "restart".

Living a healthy lifestyle isn't easy for most people and they often find excuses such as "I don't have time to go to the gym today," or "healthy food is too expensive," don't let this be you. Set your goals and surround yourself with people who push you towards them, not questions you why you're doing something for yourself. Don't feel awkward for turning down your coworkers for lunch when you know they are going to a burger place and you packed a healthy load of rice and veggies. Do what is best for you because in the end those who matter won't mind and those who mind shouldn't matter.

The Relaunch of Becoming Bradley

If this is your fist time here, welcome, if you have been here before you may notice something different! I took a break from blogging for a little bit and decided that I was going to come back hard with a relaunch! I changed the look, my posting schedule and the organization behind the blog. I will be going over all three of things in a bit more detail in just a moment. If you have questions or suggestions about anything on any post please let me know. If you like a topic I'm talking about let me know so that I know to talk about it more, continue a series, or get rid of it. The things I talk about are typically things I'm going threw or working on myself and I feel other people go threw the same things so I share my tips and tricks. I am not licensed in anything and I always suggest that you take my tips with a grain of salt. Things that work for me may not work for you and so on. With that out of the way lets get into the heart of what I wanted to talk about!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes:

The Look: I changed the look of the blog, wanting it to be a bit more simple and clean but also just to change it up a bit. 

Post Topics and Schedule: I will continue my fitness topics on Thursdays along with my "self help"/"how to" series on Tuesdays and any other things I want to share such as life updates on Sundays. I will not always have a post on Sundays but if I do I will be sure to let you know on Instagram so follow me there at BecomingBradley! 

Oganization Behind the Blog: I am writing posts weeks in advance along with planning months at a time instead of writing posts the day they are suppose to go up and hardly planning a week at a time. This should make sure that my posts go up on time and regularly with out excuses. 

Now that I have probably put you all to sleep with this post look forward to Tuesday's post where I will be starting a new series on how to get into working out!

February Fitness Plan

Hello friends! I am back with another fitness plan for February! You can find my previous fitness plans here: 

January Fitness Plan

December Fitness Plan

As for last month I did lose about 6 pounds and I hope to keep the train rolling on that note. This month I really want to work more on my nutrition and my running endurance. Along with my regular strength training I will be running 4-5 times a week and increase the longevity on the run weekly. I plan on lightly tracking my macros (a.k.a. fats, carbohydrates, and protein intake). If you don't know anything about this feel free to just do a quick search. This is just what I follow, it may not be what works for you or what you do but everybody is different. I am not a licensed physical trainer/nutritionist so please take the things I say with a grain of salt and do your own research if you would like. If you guys would like to see any other type of fitness related things like recipes let me know.

I hope you enjoy these posts and find them helpful. If you have questions or comments please leave them below. I hope you have a great day and don't forget to be you!

Creating a Simple Routine: Introduction

Hello friends! After wrapping up my series of How To Set And Achieve Your Goals I figured I would start as series on how to create a routine, and a simple routine at that. I have a morning routine and an evening routine that have about 5 steps. I don't include things I "have" to do in the morning like shower, get dressed, or get ready because those are things that I have already accomplished in achieving daily. The routines that I will walk you threw to create are going to be focused on habits or steps you should be taking to achieve goals. 

A new step in this series will be posted on Tuesdays, so keep an eye out for that! As for now all I want you to do is think of some tasks or habit you would like to start achieving daily or what you want to get out of this new routine, wether it be less stressful mornings or more productive nights.  Along with that, I want you to think out your current routines that you already do without including your new tasks. Feel free to write it down if you would like but if not, just keep it in your head for next week!

I look forward to sharing this series with you and I hope you will find it helpful! If you have an questions or comments please leave them below. I hope you have a great day and don't forget to be you! 

Tunes on Repeat for January

I tried my hardest, and I mean my HARDEST not to fall into the Justin Bieber loop hole of an album called Purpose. I held strong for a few a while only hearing it when it was on the radio. Long story short I listened to the album and never stopped! 

I literally love every song on this album. Justin and his team did an amazing job with this comeback album. The song Love Yourself is definitely my favorite beat from the album and one of my top three favorite songs to sing along with. In no favorite order a few other songs I love from this album are No Pressure, Mark My Words, All In It, We Are, I'll Show You and the rest of the album.  

If you haven't listened to this album yet I highly suggest it even if you aren't a Belieber. Trust me, it will be worth it. 

I hope you enjoyed this post! If you have and questions or comments please leave them below, I hope you have a great day and don't forget to be you!

Related Posts:

Tunes on Repeat for November

Setting And Achieving Your Goals: Step 4

I am trying to figure out the best posting schedule so please forgive my late posts! I think I am going to start posting Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Once I get caught up on posts I will start with my new posting schedule.

For the last step in setting goals you can achieve is to make it fun. Turn them into something you will see everyday. You can make it as creative or dull as you want, as simple as wighting them on flashcards or as detailed such as this goal binder. Vision boards are also a very popular way of making your goals visual. You can also Pinterest goal visualization and find tons of ideas. 

I wanted to keep the decoration very simple for my goal binder but feel free to go ham on that if you want. I took a glitter scrap book paper and trimmed it down to fit in the cover of my black 1/2 inch binder. On the inside there are a few things that are similar for each goal. I color coordinated them with fitness all having blue, reading is purple, balance is green, and the blog is orange. Most pages are in page protects but things like the traders are just hole punched and placed in the binder. 

The first thing for each goal is the goal itself along with a bit of motivation. I edited them to my liking then trimmed the edges down and glued them to colored card stock. 

On the back of the goal page I added in other forms of motivation. For my fitness goal I have a weight countdown and my reading goal has a list of books that I will mark off once I read them. I have noticed that this particular page really helps me to visually see what all I have done and that I can keep going until I reach my goal. 

The next page has my plan or action steps that are needed to attain my goal. Behind that I have my main form of tracking that gets updated frequently and keeps me accountable. I really wanted this binder to have anything and everything I may need to achieve my goal.

I hope you enjoyed this goal setting series and it helped in any way possible! If you have any questions or comments please leave them below. I hope you have a great day and don't forget to be you! 

Previous Posts:

How To Set And Achieve Your Goals: Step 1

How To Set And Achieve Your Goals: Step 2

How To Set And Achieve Your Goals: Step 3