Welcome to my blog! The name of this blog comes from a Meetup group, Adventures with INFJs and Friends, which I once joined after moving cross-country for 9 months. As an introvert in a new city, trying to make friends was tough and tiring. Eventually, I started to get a feel for how to be social without compromising on my low energy levels. From there came the idea for a blog to keep track of the mistakes and knowledge I've picked up along the way. Expect posts with tips on navigating personal and professional life, reviews, and journal entries about my adventures, all from an introvert's perspective. I'm just starting out on my blogging journey but more posts to come soon!
As a follow-up to a previous post about losing weight, here are some detailed tips on how to start incorporating exercise into your lifestyle.
Come up with a compelling reason for why you’re exercising. Connecting your actions to a higher-level purpose gives meaning to what you’re doing and keeps you going when things get tough. My reason for starting to exercise was to stave off anxiety and moodiness that were making me miserable. I was so tired of being miserable all the time that I did what I could to feel better.
Long-term consistency matters most. You don’t have to go all out in each workout. It’s more about showing up and building up your number of workouts over a long period of time. Consistency builds muscle! There’s no point in being miserable every workout if it causes you to not want to work out. Similarly, if you’re feeling tired or sore, it’s ok to skip a day and pick up the next day, or the next next day, or the next next next day– as long as you eventually come back.
Experiment to learn what works for you
Schedule. Working out 3 times a week is ideal because it gives me freedom to be active and live a life. I once worked out 5 times a week and was sore the entire time. It wasn’t sustainable
Time. Working out right before dinner (4pm - 6pm) worked well. I also liked working out at around 8 or 9pm because I would feel antsy around that time. However, I would drink too much water and it caused me to wake up at night
Workout attributes that work for me:
35 min max. Sounds short enough that it doesn’t intimidate me and stop me from working out.
30-40 second intervals. Not that important but this amount of time is a good amount that pushes me to keep going during the entire time period
Variation in exercises. Helps with boredom since each exercise is different
Involves weights. Learning about progressive overload was a game changer. It’s so satisfying being able to see myself improve
At home. Reduces overhead of having to put on clothes and drive to the gym
Work out challenges/programs that last a definite amount of time. Makes me feel like I’m achieving something and I get to award myself at the end with a break from exercising!
- Bask in the fruits of your labor. The eye-opening experience for me was realizing that seeing myself progress motivated me to keep exercising. Seeing myself go from only being able to do 2 full push-ups to 20 push-ups per minute in a month made me want to see what I could achieve in the next month. It was also equally rewarding when I realized that I could finally balance on one foot pretty much indefinitely, or seeing that I went from pumping 8-pound weights to 15-pound weights.
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