Welcome to The Club's new fitness blog, hosted by, yours truly, Meagan Beck!  We will be doing this blog to teach, encourage, and motivate The Club community.  As part of this first blog post I want to share with you all who I am and why I have some knowledge in the fitness world and what it takes to reach your goals.  I am a Certified Personal Trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine and a figure competitor.  I am also a mother of a (almost) two year old and a fiance.  I have not always had a love for exercise and I have definitely not always eaten with discipline in a way that fuels my body.  I have been a wide variety of sizes in my life, sometimes appreciating those different sizes and sometimes loathing them.  I have experience in a wide range of exercise modalities from CrossFit, to bodybuilding, to spin.  One thing I have found on my fitness journey is that balance can be hard, but it is the most rewarding place to be.  I have gone from obsessive exercise and diet restrictions to the other end of the spectrum where my motto was, "life is short, eat the cake!"  Today I am somewhere in the middle of those two extremes, and it is the place where I can enjoy exercise and fuel my body with healthy things, but I can also eat the cake occasionally.  Yes, I know there are worse things for one to be addicted to than diet and exercise, but in my experience, when I am excessive about I cant enjoy it.  So, in this blog I want to encourage those who are on the two ends of this spectrum to find their place in the middle.  To the person sitting at home desperate to feel the energy and release of diet and exercise I want to help you find ways to get up and get out, and to the person who feels like they will go insane if they don't workout today, I want you to know that you wont.  
Lets get into a few tips...

Tips for starting your health and exercise journey:

1.  Make a realistic goal of how often you can exercise and what you can do for exercise.  For example, if you think you can only make it the gym two nights a week, then that is fine!  Two nights it is.  
2.  Have someone to help you stay accountable to your goal.  Ask someone to call you on those two nights and encourage you to go to the gym.
3.  With diet, start small as well.  Making small changes can do big things.  Eating six small meals a day instead of two or three large ones can help speed your metabolism, which will burn more calories.
4.  I am sure you have all heard it before, but DRINK MORE WATER!  This is so vital to weight loss and weight management.  I sit out a gallon of water every morning and pour out of it until it is finished.  This helps me to observe how much water I am or am not taking in daily.

These are just a few tips that have helped me on my journey.  I hope someone who needs motivation can try these today.  It is never too late to start.  As we move on I will explain different exercise modalities and each of their benefits, how to figure out what a caloric deficit is for your body, tips for meal prepping, and how to stay on your plan while keeping a balanced lifestyle.

"Exercise gives you endorphins, endorphins make you happy..." -Elle Woods, Leagally Blonde

See you next time,
Meagan

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10/11/18