Helping Make Fitness Stick

In my early thirties, I had a strained relationship with exercise. One might go as far as to say we were not on speaking terms. But I was also uncomfortable with how out of shape I was. I longed to lose weight and be “skinny and attractive.”

So I kept trying to work exercise into my life.

But I loathed going to the gym, and every workout was rife with frustration and misery. I'd always end up hurting myself or feeling discouraged. It was never long before I wrote it off again, cursing myself for thinking it would be any different from the last time.

After all, how could something that’s supposedly healthy be so hard and hurt so much?

It wasn't until a few years ago that I had an epiphany: exercise wasn’t the problem; I was. Or rather, my mindset was the problem.

So instead of taking my usual “all or nothing” approach to fitness, I first focused on transforming exercise into a positive experience. This change manifested as daily walks and counting steps. After losing 10 lbs this way, I was encouraged to try something more challenging. I discovered home workouts and slowly started incorporating strength training into my routine.

Three years later and 25 lbs lighter, I’m now head over heels in love with home exercise.

The ironic thing is, the more weight I lost, the less fitness became about my physical appearance. Instead, I became focused on far more exciting benefits, like the energy and empowerment I felt from working out regularly.

That empowerment spilled over into the rest of my life. I began to realize I didn't know the limits to my potential - and it was exhilarating. My new outlook gave me the confidence and energy to start an online business, and it's been a very fulfilling journey so far.

And I realized that believing in one's own potential is a tremendous gift - something that everyone can and should have.

That’s why I started I started a blog dedicated to home fitness and became an ISSA Certified Personal Trainer. I’m passionate about helping others discover the life-changing power of exercise and what it can do, not just for their body but for their mind and spirit.

The Journey Until Now

I’ve been running my blog, thefitcareerist.com, since March 2018. It started as a pet project, but as it grew, I came to love blogging (almost as much as I love exercise) and learned a lot about writing, SEO, and digital marketing.

My content mostly centers around home exercise, featuring fitness app reviews and home gym guides designed to help others find the right home fitness products.

Two years later, in March 2020, my blog exploded; the pandemic single-handedly shut down every gym in the nation, and people stuck at home were looking for ways to get healthy. It was an exciting few months as I started building an email list and connecting with readers.

I discovered that many people had the same struggles as I did when first starting out; they found the exercise programs they tried were too time-consuming and overwhelming. They’d quit the program and start over a few weeks or months later, only to stop again for the same reasons. It was a vicious cycle.

It gave me an idea. That fall, I set out to create the digital product I wished I’d had when I was a beginner learning to embrace exercise.

The result was Serial Starter Fix, a simple and affordable 28-day fitness program designed for beginners. The workouts are short and doable but still effective enough to kickstart weight loss.

The workout guide is printable with large images so that workouts can be printed out and done at home without an internet connection or any equipment.

It also includes an introductory video, an exercise tutorial, a workout schedule, bonus step-count goals, and weekly motivational emails.

Not long after, I created another small product called Figure Out Your Fitness, a mini-course designed to help students get into the right headspace for exercise. It comes with several printables for tracking and logging progress.

Happily, there was some interest in the products, and I did make sales. But I didn't bootstrap enough when it came to the platform where I hosted my products. Because my products were low-ticket items, the monthly fees to keep the digital shop open quickly outpaced my earnings.

I recently reformated the products entirely to PDFs so I could transfer them to PayHip, a product-hosting platform that’s free to use.

But it severely limits what mediums I can use to create my products. For example, I can't create courses, add video content, or create a community.

That takes us to where I am today.

My Vision

My goal is to revamp both my products and create one cohesive, higher-ticket course that goes beyond a typical fitness plan. It will be a program that helps people build both a strong mindset and a healthy body.

It will keep the printables as additional resources, but the meat of the program will be in video format. Each lesson will represent a day in the program and contain 1-2 videos.

The first video will be an educational lesson designed to develop the mindset of someone who loves to exercise. Each class will be chock full of interesting, fun, scientifically-backed facts about exercise.

For example, one lesson would delve into how physical activity positively influences the mind and combats anxiety and depression. And another will be about the benefits of outdoor (or “green”) exercise.

This education is so important because it takes the focus away from physical appearance - which ends up being an unsustainable, negative motivator for most people - and directs it towards developing happiness and better quality of life. The student can then dig deep into their personal "why" for exercising and connect with it in a way that authentically matters to them.

Following each video will be "homework" for applying the lesson to their own life. That homework might be a written assignment to reflect on what they’ve learned. Or, it might be a physical assignment, like going for a walk in nature.

Each week will also integrate workout videos with a similar structure to Serial Starter Fix: The program starts with short sessions a couple of times a week and increases to longer sessions four or five times a week.

My goal is that, by the end of the program, the students will gain both a fresh perspective on exercise and a new exercise habit that will stick - because they worked up to it gradually and are doing it for reasons that resonate with them.

Final Thoughts

I know firsthand just how difficult it can be to build a healthy relationship with exercise. Especially now, when societal pressures and life’s unprecedented challenges (hello, COVID-19) are doing a number on our self-esteem and motivation.

But exercise is crucial to one's health and overall quality of life. Moreover, everyone should have the gift of believing in their own potential, and exercise can become the doorway to that kind of self-empowerment. My hope is that - should I ever have the resources to make it a reality - my revamped program becomes a paved pathway to that door.