PHOTOGRAPHY by Jaydan Largado
GROOMING by Joseph Nazareno
MODEL Keyn Joaquin
Special Thanks to iFLEX Gym
Today, most of the teenagers and young adults tend to live a much more healthier lifestyle; thus going to gym became more of an essential lifestyle than a hard choice.
People seem to have a difficult time keeping it up with their own fitness or exercise routines. Especially at this time of the year, when people will eventually resolve to excercise in the following year with the hashtag “ABetterMeNextYear”. Why wait next year? November probably is the start of the pigging out months as the Holidays is fastly approaching. Not only that it is fastly approaching, groceries are also piling up and filling up their storages because they know this time of the year... YOU will surely eat most. Despite the common knowledge of the benefits of keeping fit and healthy. In addition to weight loss excecise has been linked to reduce symptoms of depression and risks of having a heart disease. Yet the temptation of sitting on the couch and watching TV instead of going out for a jog is just too great. Well, get your ass of that couch now and turn that television off. Make this motivation your mantra to excercise, “I’m seeing my relatives, I don’t want to be the roasted pig with an apple on the table”. Funny it may seem, but start with that. Lack of motivation and dedication to a workout plan significally impacts results. As last new year, you also said the same thing that you are going to have a better you, what happens to all that motivation? So how do you maintain your motivation.
Here are some tips.
1. HAVE A GYM BUDDYThis one is painfully obvious. Having a gym buddy holds you responsible because it forces you to answer to someone when you want to skip working out because it’s raining or because you had a really bad day. Having a partner can help keep you on track. Spice up the relationship by adding a little work out competition: race each other on the treadmill or MAKE A BET as to who can lose 5 pounds first. Competition is great fuel for motivation! MAKE HER WANT TO SWEAT. If you are in relationship, why not try to motivate your partner to go with you, as your gym buddy, to the gym. Not only you have a perfect gym buddy, but as well as, a perfect motivation to really stay focus. Make the gyming session together a regular date. A small caveat: make sure your gym buddy has similar fitness goals and is equally committed to obtaining those goals for maximum effectiveness. A gym buddy who has more excuses than you for not working out is not going to be too helpful.
2. SET SMALL GOALS
Set smaller, obtainable goals as you work towards your overall goal. Setting small, training goals helps create a sense of accomplishment that will encourage you to keep going.
3. FITSPO (Fitspo means fit inspiration)
Keep yourself inspired. Years ago, for fitness inspiration, people cut out pictures of models from magazines and taped them to the refrigerator. Now, Instagram and pinterest are great resources for motivational sayings, before and after photos of other people’s weight loss journeys, meal plans, recipes and creative workout routines. Follow several so that they regularly come up on your newsfeed. Use blogluvin to follow health and wellness blogs (follow us too!) The more you engross yourself in the healthy lifestyle, the more inspired you will be.
4. PLAN YOUR MEAL
The saying “abs are made in the kitchen,” is 100% correct. Many fitness experts argue that what you eat is more important than how far you can run or how many reps you can do. The problem is, it is not easy to eat healthy on the run. There are very few genuinely healthy fast food or vending machine options. So what’s the answer? Meal plan and meal prep. Plan your meals out for the week – including breakfast, lunch, dinner and even your between-meal snacks. By planning out your meals for the week, you are in complete control of portion size and caloric intake. It is also helpful to prep your food for the week so that you never are too tired to cook, procrastinate or run out of time. Set some time on Sundays to prepare food for the week, divide it up into containers, and then grab and go.
PUSH FOR FRUIT You can never go wrong going for fibrous, low-calorie fruits, especially when they are eaten along with a balanced mea of vegetables, whole grain carbs, and lean protein. Snacking on apples, pears, watermelons, melons, grapefruit, oranges and pineapple ward of enscheduled hunger pangs and sugar cravings.
5. BE NARCISSISTIC
It’s time to have a selfie picture to measure your progress. Don’t be afraid to take your clothes off for these photos, you want to be able to see how you are progressing. Worried about someone getting their hands on the photos? There are a number of free apps that will keep your private photos private and require a password to access. My Media is one we like.
6. REWARD YOURSELF
The psychological concept of positive reinforcement states that we are more likely to repeat behaviors that lead to positive outcomes. Use this to your benefit at the gym: do your workout, and then reward yourself – not with cake - but with a manicure on the way home or with an extra good PROTEIN SHAKE at the gym.
7. MAINTIAN OVERALL HEALTH
Work on committing to and maintaining overall health so that the benefits of a healthy lifestyle are that much more apparent. Eat better, sleep better and watch your alcohol intake. Most people start to lose motivation for the gym because they do not see results. A good fitness plan combined with a good overall lifestyle should have you start looking and feeling better pretty quickly - and once you start seeing and feeling differently, intrinsic motivation to maintain it will increase.
NO PUNCHING BAG AT HOME?
TRY... SHADOWBOXING
You don’t actually need any equipment to do this. Shadowboxing is a full-body workout, because you use your hands, your core, and if you add knees into it even the lower body can be toned.
- Start with by throwing simple jab-straight combination, moving to the side each time you throw a combo. Remember to keep your hands up and rotate your hips with each punch.
- Then try a bit challenging by throwing a simple jab-straight combination, alternately raising your left and right knee after each combo.
Do these for 10 minutes each with a one minute rest in between each set.
