How to stay dedicated to the ‘new you’ through fitness

January has passed, and the new year is finally settling in. School is back in session, and work is back to business. You have decided to commit to all these new healthy lifestyle choices, but how do we turn verbal commitment into lifelong dedication?

Strava reported, in research done in 2019, that the second Friday of January is when most people tend to give up on all their healthy New Year’s resolutions. This has famously become known as “Quitters Day.” So, how do you keep yourself from joining the quitters? We turned to a professional for the answers.

Karina Gonzalez is a sports nutritionist, elite trainer, and bodybuilding athlete. Growing up in Ecuador, she always had a passion for fitness since the early age of 14. Now, 32-year-old Karina will be going to Miami in May to get her certification as an Olympic trainer. However, she is no stranger to the different ways life has a habit of making us place our health on the back burner.

As a college graduate, she knows the struggle of everyday life mixed with a busy academic schedule and all the challenges that can come with trying to balance both with a healthy lifestyle. Her solution to the chaos is a stable routine.

“I believe in routine,” said Gonzalez in an interview. “Routine can be very boring. I know that because I meal-prep, and I don’t hang out or go out a lot, I don’t eat a lot of stuff, it’s just home, work, sleep, home, work, and sleep. It’s boring, but it works.”

Routines are especially helpful when you are a beginner in fitness because they provide a sense of stability in an environment you may otherwise feel not in control of or out of place. Once this routine is established, it is now up to your determination and dedication to keep it up.

“My clients ask me, ‘How do you stay motivated to always work out?’ And I tell them the truth,” said Gonzalez. “Sometimes I’m not motivated to work out, I’m not, but guess what? I have to do it, like I need to eat, I need to brush my teeth, I need to go to work, I need to work out. Once you create the habit, you’ll find it hard not to do it.”

As young adults, our busy schedules and demands to get to work or class have left us little time to cook breakfast. But our pediatricians were not lying when they said breakfast was the most important meal of the day.

“Breakfast is so so so important,” Gonzalez stresses. “Your brain needs some fat. Avocado, egg yolks, almond butter, peanut butter, just something for some fuel is so important.” Normally when people are trying to be healthier, they equate that with eating less. However, Gonzales emphasizes the need for three balanced meals throughout the day, and maybe even two healthy snacks.

“Some people say, ‘I don’t even eat that much, and I still can’t lose weight.’ Yeah, you’re not going to because your body is stuck in a state of survivor mode. Imagine your body is waiting to be fed and then you don’t feed it, so it thinks okay I’m going to hold onto this fat then because your body is just trying to survive your lifestyle and doesn’t know when it’s gonna be fed next.”

Gonzalez warns of two big mistakes she always sees people make when beginning their workout journey.

“The main one is when people think all it takes is some hours in the gym. They will spend all this time in the gym, but then they don’t eat right. They slack there. They waste calories here and cut calories there, but they are not sleeping right, not eating right. Your body is not getting the right amount of energy it needs.”

Eating and sleeping are a big part of working out. “It’s all in the recovery,” said Gonzalez. Her second big tip she had for newcomers to the gym is to go with a plan.

“Another mistake I see people make all the time is going to the gym and having no idea what they’re going to do. I get it, it’s intimidating. They see the machines lined up and say okay I’m going to do this one, this one and this one, but no. Days need to be separated up, push, another day some pull, arms shoulders, back, legs.”

In the next couple of months, she plans to release a fitness app called FitbyK. The app is designed to make workout and meal plans designed by a professional trainer available and affordable for the public without meeting a physical trainer. Whether it be cost or simply shyness, this app is meant to eliminate any excuses you could have for not being organized and committed to your new healthy lifestyle.

“That’s one thing I want to do with this app I am creating. Have different levels like “Beginner,” “Advanced,” “Professionals,” and “Athletes” and have those workouts available for you. Or even if you want to work out at home, I’ll have that as an option on the program as well.”

With Gonzalez, there are no such things as excuses. She believes when you are truly dedicated to improving your health and your body, nothing will stop you. “Even if all you have is 20 minutes, 15 minutes even, every day just do it at home, find some dumbbells and do it before you shower. There are no excuses. You don’t have to go to the gym. Do it in your room, bathroom, living room, wherever you can. Nothing grows in your comfort zone.”

One of the bigger problems many college students face when trying to embark on a healthier lifestyle is the cost. As we all know, groceries are expensive, but there are resources at UHD to help you out if money is what is keeping you from living your healthiest life. The UHD Food Market on the second floor of the One Main Building, in room S292, is a free market and resource available to all enrolled UHD students. Each student is permitted to grab up to 60 pounds of food per week, and the only thing you need to worry about is bringing a reusable bag.

If you don’t want to pay monthly and yearly gym fees, do not worry. The UHD Wellness and Success Center is a huge gym equipped with weights, an entire second floor of cardio equipment, some studios and even courts. All of this is available for free to all UHD students, and the only thing you need is your Gator ID or student ID number.

While this all may seem a bit overwhelming, no one is perfect and everyone has cheat days. Gonzalez herself says the first thing she ate after her first bodybuilding competition was pizza and a Mexican Coke. The most important thing to remember is that this is a healthy lifestyle that you are trying to implement. A change that will last not just a month, but a lifetime. Be patient with yourself, forgive yourself, and most importantly, do not give up because your health is worth it!

Update Feb. 13: Starting Feb. 10, the weight limit for each student is now up to 120 pounds per month at the UHD Food Market.