Cheers to another successful month!

Last January, I successfully started my selflove journey by doing a workout routine consistently. I started to do a 30 minutes target workout and a 15 minutes yoga every single day as soon as I arrived home.  Upon doing this, I can feel the changes took place in my body mind and soul. The minutes that I spent every single day became my getaway from all of the negative things that bothers me. I can feel how peace reach down to my inner self and after a long while, I feel relax and stress free again. Every day is a challenging time for me due to the external factors that bothers me, it really consumes me at first and thankfully I was able to surpass it and I became more resilient now. Even though I’m doing it all alone, I found motivation from the peace that it gives me after doing it. I became more consistent on it despite of having disturbances around me. Unlike before wherein I usually get affected easily with all the negative things around me, I can feel how my perspective changed now that I have an outlet of all of my frustrations. Now, I really find it very enjoyable and I always look forward on doing it every single day!

“Love yourself enough to set boundaries. Your time and energy are precious. You get to choose how you use it. You teach people how to treat you by deciding what you will and won’t accept.” —Anna Taylor

Consistency is indeed the key. Anything that you wanted to change in your life really needs determination and consistency. With these two, I was able to achieve the ideal life that I’d been dreaming before. I can say that I learned to love myself more upon realizing a lot of things that I failed to do in the past. I know that these simple selflove activity that I am doing today, will greatly impact my life. In the short time that I am doing it, I feel more grateful, love, confident and complete compare to who I am before. I feel like I was reborn again into a better person. As I prioritize myself more, I received positive effects and at the same time, influence the people around me. One of the best things also that I discovered to do, which really help me to face the day in a positive manner is to end and start it by doing self-affirmations.

DAY TIME AFFIRMATION

“You have the whole day to do something for your goal, make most out of it!”

NIGHT TIME AFFIRMATION

“You did a good job today! I love you!”

These two statements really helped me big time on how I will perceive the new day. It became my initial statement as I wake up and before I sleep, that helped me set up my mindset. This may sound crazy to others, but trust me, it really works well. Like what they always say, never seek validation to others. Learn to control your own life and appreciate yourself first!

“You have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.” —Louise L. Hay

Since last January, my target workout focuses on lower body, this February, I decided to work on upper body workouts. The specific workouts that I did is arm and back routines which has been my insecurity since before. I also decided to stick to Madfit exercises since I found it very effective and engaging. Here below are the workout routines I did for the whole month of January that you can and try on your own:

Another thing that I continuously doing up until this day is my low-calorie diet which consist of maximum 1400 KCAL/DAY. Together with my workout routine, I feel more healthier now than ever. I can see that by doing these things consistently, it became a good habit of mine. Regardless of how people around me tries to vindicate their beliefs (through words but not in action) about living a healthy lifestyle, I feel more confident that I’m doing the right thing knowing how I see the results of it.

Now to check my weekly progress for this month of February, I prepared my weekly status and pictures as well which I also started last month. In this way, it will be easy for me to assess the result of my efforts and check the areas I need to work on. I’ll be doing this blog consistently so that I can motivate myself more and be consistent on what I’d started for this year. Just for reference, this is my current health status before I started my workout routine. Now let’s see my weekly assessment:

Week 1 (Feb 1-7)

For the first week of February, I failed to do my workout routine since I took my Booster last February 02. Since my focus on this month is arm workout, I can’t really perform the routine well and just decided to let my body recover first. On the 5^th day of February, I finally able to move my left arm so I decided to start my routine that day. Of course, adjustment period will always be hard to do, but maybe because I’m already doing consistent workout, I just experienced a mild body pain after doing a new routine. The days continued until I finished the first week of February. Due to what happened, I was only able to do my workout routine for three days in this week.

Another good thing that happened this week, is when one of my flat mates decided to join me in my routine. I just find myself happier if I was able to inspire someone especially on things that you know can benefit them. Even though I still feel happy doing it alone, doing it with someone will give me more unforgettable memories.

“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work gains success. Greatness will come.”

To check my initial status upon doing this routine, here are the pictures I took for the first week of February. Like what I did from my last workout progress blog, I decided to continue it so I can easily review my journey to self-love. In this picture, my current measurement is stated in order to track my progress weekly.  I find this helpful because it will serve as feedback for what I worked on in the whole week. Although it also requires effort to do it, at least it will be very beneficial for me and for those who are reading my blog.

Week 2 (Feb 8-14)

I became more excited on starting my workout this week because my colleague decided to join me. This week, I was able to do the workout routine and meditation consistently except on my birthday. Within these weeks that I’d been doing this, I can feel how my sleeping habits improve and how my days became more productive. I can also feel how I am more focused now in terms of taking care of myself. These minutes that I’d spent every single day for myself helped me in so many ways especially on prioritizing myself more.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, but they worked on it every single day.”

As I reached the middle of this month, I can say that I can successfully accomplish my self love goals for the month of February. One thing that I just need to work on is my bad habits that I need to focus on which is to lessen my digital time. Once I accomplished this, I can move on to other of my goals for the rest of the year. Now for this week’s pictures, here below are the one that I took:

As you can see, there’s no much changes took place since results will only show if I do it consistently. Since I’m still on my second week, I should not expect anything yet. I just need to push myself on doing this and eventually, I can see my own growth and progress. One thing that I also think would be ideal is for me to take pictures in the morning and not in the afternoon. This may probably show the clear changes that took place in my body after doing target workouts.

Another thing that improves in this second week is my meditation. At first, I found it very hard to do since I can’t concentrate well, but now, I am slowly learning not to be affected on the external things and just focus on the moment. I still have a lot of chances to make it perfect though, so I don’t need to worry about it. Hopefully, I can see my progress next month.

Week 3 (Feb 15-21)

I had some trouble doing the exercise on the third week because of the added task that I must finish that time. Nevertheless, I was able to practice the right way on doing meditation and slowly went back again on doing workout. I did some couple of research on how to do it and applied it gradually in this week. It was really hard at first to concentrate in the present since I tend to overthink all the time! I know that by means of consistent practice, I can master the proper meditation. I’d been also doing the same arm workout and now that I’m about to reached the last week of February, I am now planning what’s the next target workout I’ll be doing.

Although this week really went fast, I was able to maximize my time doing productive things just like this. I feel that I am now really living a productive life just like what I am aiming since before. So here below are the last pictures that I took for this month of February!

“Push harder than yesterday if you want a different tomorrow.”

Most of the time I really don’t feel confident about myself. I can say that I have inferiority complex and it’s very challenging for me to change it right away. Doing these things became my way to slowly build up myself again and make me believe that I am ok. That I need to appreciate myself first before others appreciate me. Even though no one will read my blogs, I will feel ok about since I always tell myself that everything, I do is for myself and no one else.

I will continue to achieve my workout goals for this month since I still have a week to go, and I will welcome another month with another set of targets for myself.

Week 4 (Feb 22-28)

Finally, I successfully achieved the workout targets I have for this month! I never expected that I will be very into to this, given the challenges that I have in the present. Now, I can conclude that life is really a choice, you can choose to live it with negativity or you can choose to do something positive for yourself and the people around you. I fell in love with myself more upon starting these simple workouts and meditation. Now that I officially completed this week, I can now set another target for the next month.

“The body achieves what the mind believes.”

Now here’s my measurements for this week upon doing the same arm & back workout for the whole month. As you can see, there’s a significant decrease on both of my arms. All I need to do is to consistently do arm workouts and lower body routines in order to achieve my body goal for this year.

In these two months that I’m doing home workouts and meditation, I can feel how I’m slowly building up my confidence back again. I am learning to love and appreciate myself more this time. I FEEL COMPLETE.

Despite of the negativity and challenges that surrounds me, I will choose to focus on it and rather spend my time developing myself more. Everyday will be another chance for me to a better version of myself and I promise to my best effort in order to achieve it.

This blog will serve as my story on how I achieve the best of my potentials. I promise to be consistent on this and hopefully one day, all of the sacrifices will be granted with answered prayers.

“If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”- Jim Rohn