With the weather gradually warming up here in Ontario, I’ve been spending more time thinking about fitness and fitness culture.
Once the last patches of snow and ice have melted for good, my neighbourhood is going to have even more people going out and about for a jog, walk, bicycle ride, or other forms of exercise that aren’t so easy to do indoors.
Some people workout outdoors in all sorts of weather, of course, but it’s invigorating to see a much larger number of folks getting some exercise on a nice day.
While I’m waiting for that to happen a few weeks from now, let’s talk about the five things I love about fitness culture in general.
The Focus on Sustainable Change
What sustainable change looks like will vary from person to person, but most people seem to respond best to small lifestyle changes that build on each other.
For example, I’ve followed bloggers who switched from a completely sedentary lifestyle to an active one by beginning with a five minute walk one day.
As their stamina and overall health improved, they gradually moved to longer walks and then later to running, swimming, weightlifting, or other forms of exercise.
This is a pattern I’ve seen repeated in my own life, too. Changing everything at once often doesn’t work longterm. Picking one habit at a time to either begin or discard does. The smaller it is, the higher the chances are that I’ll be able to stick with it.
The Respect for Perseverance
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned over the past five years is how crucial it is to keep going even when your goals seem just as far away today as they did yesterday or last week.
Losing weight and building muscles takes time.
So does learning a new language, finding someone to date, getting a job that suits you better, and any number of other goals that someone might want to achieve.
There may be times when you don’t seem to be making any progress at all, but that doesn’t mean that pattern will continue. Good things often come to those who work diligently for them.
The Optimism
Our world is filled with things that either can’t be changed at all or take the efforts of far more than one person to be nudged even a single inch in a direction.
I believe in both acknowledging this fact as well as focusing on the things that I as an individual do have influence over.
On a societal level, this can be something as simple as picking up a piece of trash you find on the street or holding the door for someone behind you. These little acts can make a big difference over time as more and more people participate in them.
On a personal level, I think there’s something to be said for taking note of all of the subtle changes that happen as one grows stronger, faster, or more fit. Fitness culture in general does an excellent job of encouraging people to track their progress and celebrate every success they have along the way.
I’d argue that our world needs more of this optimism. We can both fight for a better future and acknowledge all of the good that already exists around us.
The Discipline
Like perseverance, discipline is a skill that can be transferred to many parts of someone’s life other than their workout habits.
If you know how to have the self-control necessary to jump into an exercise routine on a day when you’d rather stay in bed, it can make other difficult parts of life a little easier to deal with as well.
This wasn’t something I necessarily thought I’d learn when I first began working out regularly, but I’ve seen all sorts of positive results in other areas of my life from learning how to make and stick to a regular fitness routine.
For example, I’m not a huge fan of calling medical offices to make appointments for myself even if they’re for perfectly routine check-ups. I started to become a little less nervous about this once I got into the routine of pushing myself a little farther with each workout. There’s something reassuring about seeing how far you can go if you step just an inch out of your comfort zone at a time!
Fitness culture’s encouragement become more disciplined is definitely one of the things I appreciate the most about it. If I’d known this was going to be an unexpected side effect of getting back into shape, I might have done it much sooner.
What do you like the most about fitness culture? On a more lighthearted note, how many of you also don’t like making medical appointments?
How I Dealt With It: I stopped trying to connect with it.
How I Dealt With It: I drilled down to what it was exactly about working out that made me dread the thought of it and chose alternative forms of exercise.
How I Dealt With It: I agreed to do some sort of physical movement for five minutes before re-evaluating how I’m feeling that day.
How I Dealt With It: I set goals and made observations about things that had nothing to do with the numbers on a scale, measuring tape, or body fat percentage.
I have a slightly embarrassing story to share with all of you today. About two weeks ago, I was walking around barefoot in my house and accidentally smashed my little toe into one of my hand weights that was lying on the floor.
One of the best parts of living in Toronto is how accessible everything is, especially if you live in a dense, urban part of the city. When I’m not injured, I can get all of my errands finished without ever needing to use a car or even public transportation for the vast majority of the year. There are multiple grocery stores, post offices, pharmacies, clinics, other medical offices, and speciality stores within walking distance of my home.
Yes, I’ll admit that this might be an unusual thing to miss. I used to strongly dislike the feeling of perspiration running down my back when I was a kid and had to go straight from gym class to sitting quietly and taking notes for english or history.
What I enjoy the most about the Toned, Lean Arm workout is the diversity of moves in it. My weightlifting sessions didn’t happen as regularly as usual over the past few months for various reasons, so I have lost a bit of my former strength. 
If you’d like to know what workout is currently keeping me on my toes, you’re in the right place. I recently moved up to this routine after growing strong enough to stop using the previous ab video I’d been following. (I’ll write a review for that routine in the near future!)
Lately, I’ve been taking a break from my normal interests like reading science fiction and exercising outdoors in order to try other stuff. One of the consequences of this has been that I haven’t come up with as many blog post ideas related to those topics as I’d normally be playing around with.
There is so much conflicting information floating around out there about fitness, nutrition, and various types of exercise. Today I’m going to be talking about the best fitness advice I’ve ever received. I’m not a doctor or other medical provider, so this post is not written in order to give health or medical advice to anyone. It is only meant to share my personal experiences on this topic.
This autumn has been an odd one so far here in Ontario as climate change continues to disrupt our normal weather patterns.
Some of the trees in my neighbourhood have begun to change colour. Once the weather cools down enough for other species to join them, the landscape changes quickly as other trees follow in their footsteps. At some point, all of the non-evergreen
There’s a huge difference between exercising to a pre-recorded video indoors on a cold winter day and getting to explore the world around you when the weather is more agreeable.
As I’ve mentioned here in the past, I didn’t learn to enjoy exercise until adulthood in large part because of my 
Many of the people I know do not greet mornings with joy. While I’m leaping out of bed and feeling my highest energy levels of the day, they’re drinking coffee and barely keeping their eyes open.
Occasionally, I have exercised with other people. It’s been my experience that a lot of folks enjoy talking throughout their workouts.