Reflection

This year has been such a period of growth for me. One of the hardest and best years of my life thus far. I truly believe that God puts us on our journeys for one soul purpose. I truly believe that every single thing that happens in our lives happens for a reason. It happens to bring us to this exact moment.... right now. It brought me to this exact moment: 1:47 AM, Thursday, almost Christmas, and reflecting on this amazing year.

I allowed myself to let go of things and people that I thought were disrupting my growth. However, I never regretted having these people and things in my life. I am happy that they were there. I am happy that they contributed to my growth over the past year. I do believe that somethings are temporary, and that they are placed in your life to simply teach you a lesson.

You should never allow yourself to feel so consumed into anything, especially a relationship that makes you question who you are and who you are becoming. You should never allow yourself to feel like you are being controlled by another human being, and thinking that it's normal out of love. No matter how much you may love something or someone, you need to focus on your well being above all else.

I allowed fitness to become my place of peace this year. I allowed it to come into my life and take over. This has been one of the best decisions I've made in such a long time. I can walk into the gym and spend an hour and walk out feeling so on top of the world. I can release my stress, anxiety, and anger towards anything into something. Fitness has become my therapy for any hardship that I may go through. Especially this year.

I have become a happier and more positive person this year. By letting go of things and letting other things in I have found what makes me happy. You have to let things go and let new things into your life in order to find what truly makes you happy. You absolutely can't stay in your comfort zone in this life. It is made for so much more than that.

This year has changed my life for the better. I let go of people who once meant the world to me. I have become healthier. I have made friendships that are going to last me a lifetime. I have experienced so many new things this year. All contributing towards a happier, more motivated, and inspired human being who absolutely loves life.

Growth is so important. I want to continue on this journey throughout the next year. I want next year to be even better, and future years to be even better. This life is so amazing. I am so blessed.

-Hayley

my routine w/ shoulder & leg workouts

I always get questions about what kind of workouts I do. Sooooooo, I wanted to upload a few of my favorite workouts that I have created!

I like to start the week with shoulders on Monday because I feel so so so tired on Mondays. I like to have a lot of energy when I do legs - I do legs on Tuesdays and Thursday typically. I like to do back & chest on Wednesday. Biceps and triceps on Fridays! On the weekend I usually do just random and quicker workouts, or make up workouts that I may have missed throughout the week!

I feel like everyone's routine is different, it's all about what works for you! Personally my favorite lifts are on leg day. My legs are the strongest part of my body and I LOVE pushing myself to increase weight on these days. Therefore, I moved these to Tuesdays and Thursdays because I have more energy on these days with a lighter class load and more time to spend at the gym!

I incorporate abs & cardio into my workouts 2-3 days a week. I like to alternate which days I do each just for time constraints of being a college student. If I have extra time, I always try to add both. (Mostly because I'm a freak and I really just like to be at the gym as long as physically possible until I start feeling the guilt of all my assignments haunting me.)

HERE ARE SOME OF MY FAVORITE WORKOUTS :)

SHOULDERS:

4 x 12 face pulls on the cable
4 x 12 shoulder push downs
3 x 12 superset lateral raise and front raises
4 x 20 shrugs - increasing weight each time
4 x 15 superset overhead press and arnold press

I usually add about 20 minutes of cardio in after my lift on shoulder day! I like to walk on about 10 incline on 3.5, or a (very) light jog.

LEGS:

4 x 12 sumo squats on the smith machine
4 x 20 superset each leg donkey kicks & fire hydrants
4 x 12 each leg curtsy lunges with 15 lb weights in each hand
4 x 15 cable deadlifts
4 x 10 glute kickbacks on the cable

After leg days I thoroughly enjoy to get on the stair climber for about 10-15 minutes even though my legs feel like they're going to give out. :)

Since shoulders and legs are my favorite workouts, these are the only ones I ever really spend time creating before I go to the gym.

stay motivated 

-Hayley

Nobody Can Compare to YOU

"Comparison Will Kill You." 

I am guilty of scrolling through Pinterest and Instagram and envying all of the girls with washboard abs and picture perfect legs. I used to let these images control my mind, and lower my self confidence. In no way am I saying that these girls did not work hard to have the bodies that they have. However, they have their own journey that cannot be compared to mine. Each of our bodies is a work of art. We all have spent hours and hours at the gym on our work of art.

Have you ever been to a painting class with your family and friends? Have you ever noticed that every painting differs from each other even though you're all essentially painting the same thing? I like to compare this to our bodies. YES, we all want a perfect body. No stretch marks. Perfect definition. No fat rolls when we sit down. We all want our painting to be perfect, more perfect than the person's sitting next to us. We strive to be better and to compete with others, when we don't have to. We should be solely focused on our painting, and working toward the finished product without the comparison to someone else. Likewise, we should be focused on our progress rather than the girl beside at the gym.

As I go to the gym each day, I observe others around me. We are all on different chapters of our fitness journeys. I may be on chapter 10, while the girl beside me may be on chapter 1. I feel like we need to keep in this in mind when we think about comparing ourselves to others. Transformation takes time, and trust me I can relate when people talk to me about being discouraged. It takes sooooo much time. It took me FOUR years of making very small adjustments at a time to become healthier. It is discouraging, but the best way to continue on is to simply keep going.

Stop competing with others and start competing with yourself.

-Hayley

Finding Motivation

It is seriously so hard to find motivation on days like today. It's cold, I'm getting sick, and just spent the entire day busy. The last thing I wanted to do today was to work out. I forced myself to go and lift after a long day, knowing that I would feel horrible about myself if I didn't. Finding motivation on these kinds of days is extremely hard. However, the satisfaction after working out on these kinds of days is extremely rewarding.

These types of days are only going to multiply as it gets colder and harder to leave your bed in the dead of the winter. I urge you to keep pushing through, and find your way to the gym no matter how hard it seems. The way I motivate myself to go is telling myself that I can't go home and shower and get in my bed until after I workout. Another good motivator is knowing that if you don't go workout now, then you're going to be stuck doing your homework now rather than later. 

Getting to the gym on the days where you lack motivation the most are the best days for progress. These are the days where you thank yourself the most. Whenever I walk out of the gym after dreaded workouts I feel so accomplished. If I didn't workout today when I have time, but lacking motivation I wouldn't have a rest day to spare later in the week when I'm busy. College is all about time management, and I feel like finding motivation to do anything at this point of the semester is painful. 

We will keep pushing through, we will continue getting better as the days go on, and we will love ourselves for the decisions we made today. 

Keep pushing yourself even on your toughest days. 

-Hayley

The Beginning

I can honestly say that fitness is something that has changed my life. In high school, I had no self confidence. I would dread going to school every single day in fear that someone was going to make fun of me due to my size. I was never the girl that guys would talk about or would want to approach. I was made fun of behind my back, and essentially felt so low about myself which pushed me to eat even more. (YIKES!) I had support of many friends who I felt comfortable around, but now looking back I had so many friends that came and went until my senior year of high school where I finally found the friends who meant the most. I became more active in high school because of sports, and leaned out slightly. However, if I didn't have practice after school or open gyms or lifting I WOULD HAVE NEVER WORKED OUT. After graduation, I began to realize that I needed to become more active because I was terrified of the freshmen 15. I was going to be moving away to college and was going to be tempted with many unhealthy food choices. Starting off college, I consciously ate healthy and went to the gym maybe three times a week. I liked being active, but I had never been to a real gym before and felt self-conscious being there. I continued this routine throughout my first semester. Going home for Christmas break my family had all noticed that I had lost some weight, and this had motivated me to push harder in the gym going back after the New Year. My roommate, Emily, had a friend from back home that was going to get her certification to be a personal trainer and was having an 8 week online workout program for $5. Sooooooo, I did it! This is where most of my progress came from. This program gave me so much confidence in the gym and I loved it. I did most of it by myself, and religiously went every single day. I wasn't sure how much progress I was making, until I had to take my after pictures. I was so nervous. I did not want to take these. I had never liked taking full length pictures. I also never took pictures in just spandex and a sports bra. EVER. I was in my most vulnerable state. However, I posted my transformation on Instagram just to see what other people thought. Honestly, I was expecting negative feedback. But, this is where my biggest push came from. 

this is what kept me going. 

this was my motivation. 

This gave me so much confidence. I then realized I was changing. Not only physically, but mentally and emotionally. I was finding pieces of my self that I have never experienced before. I feel like I found myself in the gym. I feel like every single day that I am in the gym, my mind is just taking a chisel to itself and working at something new. I have found a more positive Hayley. A person who is more independent. A person who wants to inspire and motivate others to be better. I want to be better. I want to become better each and everyday. I want to help people find their chisel. I want to challenge people to love themselves. I may not love myself every single minute of every single day. But, at the end of each day I can truly say I am better than I was the day before. I wanted to start this blog to share my passion of fitness with the people who don't know my full story. I am so motivated and so inspired and so full of love. I'm ready to help other people change their lives, like all of the people who helped me and impacted me have changed mine. 

-Hayley