Hey there! In case you are new here, I wanted to introduce myself and give you some background about my fitness journey. My Name is Stacey. I am from Colorado. I grew up in the Denver metro area and moved to Durango, CO, a few years ago. I live in a neighboring New Mexico town as my boyfriend, and I just bought a house. We are so excited to have our home and to begin our life together. It has been super busy lately with the house hunt and various life things. So it’s been a while since I posted last, and I am finally ready to dedicate my time to writing, posting, and creating content!

Throughout the years, I have fallen in love with fitness. I love pushing my body to its limits. I have had struggles with consistency. I know that to see any results, consistency is critical. That is a non-negotiable fact. I have learned many things over the last decade about myself and how to keep myself engaged in my fitness journey. Motivation will not always be there, but building habits will always be there.

My fitness journey began about a decade ago with my discovery of yoga. After going to my local yoga studio every single day, I discovered circuit training, which inspired me to learn more about strength training. I fell in love with pushing my body and those gym endorphins. After I moved to Durango, I fell in love with hiking and backpacking. After all of that, I wanted to learn more. I got my NASM-CPT in 2020 and then got a job at the rec center teaching fitness classes. I am so excited for the future ahead with my career and my current fitness goals. Stay Tuned for Part two of my fitness journey!

Yoga

When I was in my early 20s, I discovered yoga. I began at a local CorePower Yoga studio. I found it a lot less complicated. I attended their beginner class where the flow is the same for all classes. The only exception is the core portion and the yoga instructor's intention/message/energy. I fell in love, attended the same class for several weeks, and got the basics down while gaining some strength before moving on to the more advanced class.

I learned that every instructor has more creative freedom in these classes and learned more poses. I had one studio that I loved going to. I loved the instructors as well as the energy of the studio. I began to discover my strength and feel the power that my body had the potential to gain. I wanted more but had very little knowledge of where to start.

That same studio offered a Yoga Sculpt class which combines yoga and weight training. This was my first taste of weight training, and I began feeling the changes further. I went to the studio daily between the yoga vinyasa classes and yoga sculpt classes. I still wanted to learn more about what my body could do and discovered that my yoga studio offered a circuit-style weight training class called CorePower.

Circuit training

A circuit-style class combines multiple back-to-back exercises, usually for a set duration for each exercise, with a rest after the circuit before repeating all exercises. CorePower was exactly this, each exercise was a combination of bodyweight or lightweight exercises creating a full body exercise routine including cardio.

I loved this training style as I had no idea what I was doing. I was able to learn about different exercises. The instructor was very energetic, which helped inspire me as well. I still hate cardio, but I know it’s necessary. So sneaking it into my regular exercise routine makes it easier to incorporate.

At this point, I had been doing yoga, yoga sculpting, and circuit classes as part of my weekly routine. I still wanted to do more. I felt I had a better understanding of the exercises I learned from the circuit class. It was such a fun time and a fun segway to the next part of my fitness journey. I felt more confident of getting a gym membership and beginning with strength training. I wanted to continue to increase my muscle strength as well as muscle mass.

Strength training

When I got my gym membership, I was still very intimidated regarding strength training. I used the knowledge that I gained from the circuit training classes. I would find an area to take my mat and a few dumbbells and create my little circuit to add to a treadmill workout.

I was doing very simple exercises with low weight, which is a great start. I was enjoying my workouts, and I still wanted to push myself to see how I could increase my muscle strength. I was not as consistent with my strength training as I was with yoga. I just didn’t know what I was doing. I had less accountability than when I showed up for yoga classes.

So I started finding youtube videos for workouts and workout tips. I wanted to learn more and more about strength training. I wanted to grow muscle mass as well as strength. The problem I came across was that I only found male content creators who have excellent valid content. But it was not for me, I needed to have more of a female perspective regarding strength training.

I came across several female youtube creators that I still follow today. I learned so much about strength training from those creators that I wish I knew when I began. At this point in my fitness journey, it is probably 5 years in, still do not see real results for my goals.

I finally see some progress once I realized I needed to eat more protein to gain muscle in addition to consistency and progressive overload. I get so excited to continue my strength training journey. I switched to a smaller gym membership and started lifting heavier weights. I fell in love all over again. I started seeing more progress and focused on lifting as heavy as I could with very little strategy. So I hit a wall with my fitness progress.

Shortly after, I moved to Durango, where I discovered hiking and backpacking.

Next week I will go into my discovery of backpacking and hiking everything that came after!

If you are here and reading this, that means you have an interest in your health and fitness. That is so good; I am so excited for you! Taking care of your body is literally the best thing you can do for yourself in the present and the long term.

I find that quote so inspiring. Hard work will pay off in the future, but you also have to live in the moment, and I feel like taking care of yourself is doing both. You are doing good for yourself now as well as for your future self.

If you are interested in learning more about all things health and fitness, follow me on Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram @myactivelife_stacey. I am now offering nutrition and personal training online coaching programs. These six-week programs are designed to help you create lifelong healthy habits with nutrition and fitness. Click here to learn more!

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