## **Fitness Update** My goal last year was to gain weight,..

## **Fitness Update** My goal last year was to gain weight, preferably in muscle but to gain weight in general. Let's start with a little backstory: I was always pretty tall and skinny growing up. And my parents, being worried, would give me a lot to eat. My breakfast was cereal or pancakes or french toast, I'd eat lunch at school too, and when I would come home, I would have an appetizer of soup and a main dish for both lunch and dinner, with snacks in between each one. I already had a fast metabolism and eating more helped my body to rely on my feeding it rather than it storing anything. After moving away to California, I had to adjust my eating because my bf's family actually eats and cooks less than I was used to. I'd still get hungry though and we would eat out a lot and I would have a shitload of snacks. Then, a few years ago, I decided I wanted to learn how to cook so I got a meal box subscription. Y'know, those boxes that have the ingredients and recipes delivered to you. Yeah, I did that. It was pretty expensive because we would still go out to eat on top of that and sometimes get groceries. And then, my bf got into fasting pre-pandemic, which meant eating even less for me. I would still snack and stuff but him trying to be healthier pushed me in that direction too. And then I realized that with my fast metabolism, fasting would make my body have to store fat. And it helped a lot. I ate less snacks and they'd be fruit or veggie chips, cut down on sugar because it was consistently lowering my energy, I had healthier and better sized meals, and I would hold off on eating right after waking up so that I wouldn't be super hungry in the morning. As for exercising, the bf and I already had a membership to a park we like to go to. We'd visit at least once a week and walk around for an hour or 2. And when more places started to open up again last year, we signed up for a gym membership and would go twice a week. I've also been doing Workout Wednesdays to keep me accountable for working out at home on the weekends too :) It's been a pretty good journey so far and this last year has helped to set me up for this year. I reached my goal weight of at least 125 lbs, up 11 lbs from 114, and I feel healthier and a lot better compared to previous years. It's not only helped me physically but also mentally. If there are any ADHD peeps here, the way you eat can affect your symptoms and I noticed that exercising helps in focusing too and it helpes to clear your head while doing it. My fitness goal for this year is to turn some of the weight I gained into muscle. Last year, I learned about compound and isolated exercises and static and dynamic stretching, I tried different workouts for different muscle groups, and which I like and what works best for me. So this year, I'm applying the stuff that I learned to create a better workout routine for myself. I'll still find some stuff to try out, but I'll most likely stick to a few exercises and stretches that feel good for me. Aside from gaining muscle as my year goal, I would like to continue fixing my posture and better aligning my back with workouts. I'm sure that'll happen eventually with the exercises and stretches I have in mind.~ I hope you enjoyed reading about my fitness journey, my update from last year, and my goal for this year. I know I've encouraged some peeps here to work out with me and I love that and I hope more people get into it with me. And thank you in return for helping me and motivating me to do Workout Wednesdays. I very much appreciate it <3 *P.S. I'm at my mom's house and shoutout to her for having a scale and a nice mirror for me to make this post lmao.*