Welcome to the Hive,
@Strivn !
Making big changes like you aim to do is hard! This is going to sound simplistic, but in all honesty, the most important thing you can do is simply to start. The second most important thing is to keep going. Every day. You have come to the right place to help you with both of these things!
The easiest way to get started and build a daily exercise habit is to choose one of DAREBEE's
Programs. The Programs are all structured such that you will improve your fitness level over time by doing something every day. There are no days off in the programs. There are active recovery days which serve to give your body the breaks it needs to avoid overtraining without stopping. The
no days off approach is important because it will help you to form the habit of regular exercise. It has also been shown to be
the most effective method for achieving improvement through your training.
Without knowing more about your current fitness level or the types of activities you like to do, I cannot say which would be the best program for you to start with. You can use the filters on the main
Programs page to filter by program type and difficulty level to help you narrow down your search.
This being said, I would suggest you check out this year's
Fit December program. Fit December is a general fitness program which will give you a lot of variety with strength, cardio, and stretching days. So it's a great place to start. Additionally: since it's the new program for this December, a lot of us will be doing the same program alongside you. Working out with other people is one of the best things you can do to motivate yourself to stick with any workout program. And, even though we are physically spread out all over the world, we are a fitness community here in the Hive, and we encourage one another to keep going.
I also strongly encourage you to create your own
Check-In thread. That's where you can post about your fitness journey, including where you're at now, and your goals for the future, and your fellow Bees here in the Hive will cheer you on. Then, come back to your thread (daily if you can) and post what you did for your workout that day. Then check out some of the other threads in the same forum to see what your fellow Bees are doing and to cheer them on. It is truly one of the best ways to create both accountability and community for your fitness journey.
On the nutrition front, I would encourage you to check out DAREBEE's
Guides on Nutrition. The Guide on
Pre and Post Workout Nutrition is especially pertinent because, in order to build fitness, you do need to eat to fuel your fitness journey, but in order to lose weight, you need to eat in caloric deficit overall. This can be a tricky balance to achieve. DAREBEE's Guides can help you find a balance that works for you.
I would also encourage you to check out DAREBEE's sister site,
DAREBEETS. One of the primary causes of obesity in our modern world is all of the hyper-processed foods we eat. These foods are generally not designed to help you achieve optimal health. They are designed to help the corporations that manufacture them to achieve maximum profits. They do this by adding things to their products (mostly far more sugar and salt than is healthy) that cause you to crave eating more of their products than you need. The more home-made food, created from healthy, basic ingredients, you eat, the greater your chances of being able to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight.
DAREBEETS has lots of great recipes, made from simple, healthy ingredients, that can help you to do this. We also have a
thread in the Kitchen section of the Hive were anyone can post about their experiences trying any of the DAREBEETS recipes. In the
DAREBEETS Adventures thread you'll find Bees posting about their favourite DAREBEETS recipes, the ease or challenge of making the recipe, any substitutions they've tried, etc. Which might help you to decide which recipes you'd like to try first. Then, when you've tried a few of the recipes, you can add your own experiences to the thread!
I hope some of this helps!
Again, welcome to the Hive, and best of luck on your journey!
