Health and fitness have been a huge part of my life beginning when I was a teen, but since moving to LA I have become even more serious about it. Clean and healthy food is so easy to find around here, plus the weather makes it pleasant to exercise outdoors pretty much any day of the year! Many people I talk to go through endless cycles of dieting/working out, then falling off the wagon and being lazy, and then eventually starting all over again. The truth is that, in over a decade, I have been fortunate to never experience this. I wish I could tell you that I have some magic formula that makes exercise easy, but I don’t, because it’s not. In actuality, I believe that my only “trick” was creating a habit many years ago.
I starting getting really into working out during the summer between 10th and 11th grade. My dad was an amazing runner and I was inspired by him, so I started joining him on short runs. Running has been a major part of my life for almost 12 years now, and over the years I added weight training at the gym and yoga to my routine as well. I did not always eat healthy, but in recent years, I have found that eating clean gives me more energy and prevents occasional post-meal lethargy/nausea. In the last few months I have begun to eliminate all meat other than fish from my diet. First I stopped eating pork and beef, then chicken (mostly).
These days my work out regimen consists of 2-3 days a week of running 3 miles + weights at the gym, and 3-4 days of yoga. Yoga has started to make me look lean and muscular in a way that running never has; I love it! I also enjoy hiking occasionally since there are so many gorgeous trails in LA. Since I exercise frequently, I try to drink a lot too. It’s so important to stay hydrated, especially when you are sweating a ton. I am not the biggest fan of plain water, so I always try out different fitness drinks and water enhancers. A drink that I discovered recently and really like is H2Rose, which is flavored rose water. It smells and tastes amazing! I find it soothing on the stomach and naturally decreases appetite and the urge to snack.
My point in mentioning all of this is in order to show you how gradually I made these changes and that I truly enjoy my routine. I think that when people are trying to get fit and healthy, the mistake that is most commonly made is setting unattainable goals. Going on a “diet” or trying to start out with 6 days a week in the gym is setting yourself up for failure. The most important thing is to start out small and create a habit. Figure out what exercises, healthy foods/drinks you enjoy so that it isn’t a chore!
xoxox
Emily
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of H2Rose. The opinions are all mine.