Today I’m going to give you a complete beginner’s guide to fitness.
I will lay out 6 steps you can take to get a strong start on your fitness journey.
How many times have you thought to yourself, “I really want to be healthier but I just don’t know where to start.”
With the vast amount of fitness, diet & health information out there, as a beginner to fitness it can be incredibly difficult to know what information is valid, what the best route for you is & where to begin.
This can make taking the first step overwhelming.
And a common response to that overwhelming feeling is to never start.
In this beginner’s fitness guide, you will learn 6 sure-fire steps you can take to get a strong start on your fitness journey.
Taking these 6 steps will help you build a strong foundation for progression, develop healthy habits & get into a growth mindset.
When you follow this fitness guide for beginners, you will build momentum, motivation & focus that will set the stage for success!
You will reach your goals in a healthy, sustainable & enjoyable way.
You can use the tools you will learn in this beginner’s guide to fitness to confidently take control of your health, achieve your goals and maintain your progress forever.
Are you ready to learn my 6 steps to kick start your fitness journey?
Let’s begin.
The Complete Beginner's Guide to Fitness
Step 1 - Setting Your Goal
The first step in the beginner’s guide to fitness is to set your goal!
Not just any goal, though.
One of the keys to successfully reaching your goal lies in the type of fitness goal you set.
Getting started can be overwhelming as it is.
To avoid making it even more so –
Set a goal that is purposeful, realistic, process-driven, sustainable and trackable.
Let’s go through step by step on how to write one.
Let’s take this common beginner’s fitness goal for example – “I want to lose weight.”
Make It Purposeful
It could be – “I want to lose weight so I can improve my quality of life and live longer.”
See how that makes it more purposeful and powerful?
Make It Realistic
This is a challenging goal that will require you to put in effort every single day but will not require you to take drastic measures that only teach you how not to do things.
Make it Process-Driven
Like I mentioned above, the process you go through to get to your goal holds more importance than just the outcome of achieving your goal.
Keep this in mind when thinking about what you want to work towards.
Yes, getting to your goal is important.
But what gets you there is where the value lies.
Achieving your goal is nothing if you didn’t learn anything from it.
The ups & downs, the highs & lows, the wins & setbacks, the progress & the regress –
All of these parts of the process are essential.
It’s by going through this that you gain the knowledge to reach your goal and change how you live to sustain your progress forever!
So set a goal keeping in mind that the process to get there is what you want to focus on.
It will help you shoot for something that will require you to not only invest your time and effort, but also be open to learning and developing healthy lifestyle changes.
This is another reason for setting a realistic goal like – “I want to lose 10 pounds in 3 months.”
Make it Sustainable
Here’s where you’ll start to notice all these components of goal setting start to lend to each other.
I talked about using sustainable methods above when setting a realistic goal.
And setting a process-driven goal again leads you to work towards something for which you’ll have to use healthy, sustainable methods to achieve.
Otherwise – what’s the point of the process?
Making your goal sustainable means it requires you to use sustainable methods that will allow you to maintain your progress long term.
Sustainable methods are habits you eventually want to incorporate into your lifestyle.
Things like – eating enough fruits & veggies, being active daily, sleeping enough, etc.
These look a lot different than – cutting out all sugar, eating very low calories, working out for 2 hours every single day, etc.
I think you get the point…
You want to set a goal that promotes using methods that you can see yourself doing forever!
Working towards a sustainable goal gives you the opportunity to practice healthy methods and turn them into habits you never quit doing.
Meaning, the goal you achieve is one you’ll be able to sustain forever.
You will keep that 10 pounds you lost in 3 months off forever because you have learned and practiced how to do it and have changed how you live to sustain it.
Make it Trackable
The more information you have through this process, the better.
Information is power!
It gives you control by giving you a clear picture of how you’re progressing.
Make sure your goal is something you can track and collect data on, so you can clearly see your progress and adjust what you’re doing if necessary.
“I want to lose 10 pounds in 3 months” is a goal that allows you to track multiples measures to see your progress.
Things like – your daily weight, weekly average weight, body measurements, progress pictures, how your clothes fit, etc.
Having a trackable goal gives you information about your progress and control over what you’re doing to make that progress!
The Complete Beginner's Guide to Fitness
Step 2 - Set Yourself Up For Success
Now that you’ve decided what your fitness goal is, the next step is to set yourself up for success with these tips.
Research, Read & Learn
The best first step you can take is to understand what it’s going to take to reach your goal.
We are talking about fitness goals here, so there’re going to be multiple components – exercise and movement, nutrition, sleep and stress management, etc.
I will walk you through all these later in this beginner’s guide to fitness.
But depending on what your specific goal is, take some time to research and learn what you’re going to have to do to get there!
You can use this fitness guide as a starting point as well as other articles on my site, like this fat loss diet guide and this guide to making your workouts effective.
But be thorough in understanding what you should expect to do.
Make an Action Plan
Based on what you learned from researching as described above, the next step is to make an action plan.
Plan for how you’re going to incorporate these tasks into your day to day routine.
Some things to keep in mind when doing this:
Start small or go all in –
How you begin is dependent on you as an individual. Maybe you want to go all in and start practicing everything at one time, because that’s just how you work! Or you could be more comfortable with practicing 1 or 2 tasks at time, before adding other ones.
There’s no right answer here. This is totally dependent on who you are, what your life looks like and what your preference is. Remember I talked above about how important the process is. This is an important part of the process – learning more about yourself and shaping your journey based on what will work best for you!
Keep it to the basics –
It is very easy to think you need to do 592 things to reach your goal. But really, the more simple and basic you keep it, the better! Stick to the few basics that are going to be responsible for the majority of your results. For example, if your goal is weight loss – you’re only going to be focused on 4-5 things which you can learn about here. You’re not going to worry about small little details that won’t lead to big differences in your results. So narrow your focus down to the basics that will give you the biggest results!
Schedule time –
This is especially important when first starting out. You’re not used to creating space in your schedule dedicated to working towards your goal. So blocking off the necessary time in your schedule and treating that time as if you have a mandatory meeting with yourself is the best way to commit. The more you practice this, over time you’ll get used to having it as a part of your daily routine. And the next thing you know – you’ve created a new habit!
Plan for obstacles –
Unexpected things come up and unfortunately, they do a wonderful job of throwing you off your plan. Be prepared to deal with this at times and have a backup plan. Plan for alternate days and times for workouts, have prepped meals ready, etc. Just expect obstacles, don’t freak out when they happen and understand that even if you go can’t make what you need to do happen – one missed day isn’t going to make a huge difference in the long run, as long as you get right back on track the day after!
Ask for Help
Now the last part of setting yourself up for success is to ask for help if you need it!
When you need your water leak fixed in your house, you most likely don’t do it yourself, right?
You ask a professional to do it.
The same thing applies to fitness.
If you feel like you need more guidance, consider asking a coach who will know the ins and outs of what you’re trying to achieve.
They can help you by taking out any guesswork and putting you on the path to success.
If you are considering hiring a coach, you can read about some of my clients’ experiences in my coaching program here.
The Complete Beginner's Guide to Fitness
Step 3 - Exercise
No matter what your specific fitness goal is, exercise -in some form – will be apart of your journey.
Exercise is essential for your physical, mental and emotional health.
- It decreases your risk of chronic disease – Type 2 diabetes, certain types of cancer, heart disease, obesity (the list in never-ending)
- Prevents injury by strengthening your bones, muscles and connective tissue
- Strengthens your immune system
- Helps you build strength and endurance
- Helps you move more efficiently and safely
- Lowers your chance of aches and pains
- Reduces your stress and improves your mood and mental health
- Improves your energy levels
- Improves your quality of sleep
All in all, exercise is the number 1 magic pill for improving and lengthening your life!
But just like anything, getting started with exercise can be overwhelming.
Whatever type of movement your fitness goal requires, here are 6 simple ways to get the ball rolling!
Start Small & Go Slow
The number 1 thing to avoid is going from 0 to 100 on day 1. You’ll end up sore, tired and never wanting to do whatever you just did again! You don’t have to do it all right off the bat. Take it slow and progressively increase your time, intensity, etc day by day or week by week. Remember, your main goal here is to build consistency with exercise. That won’t happen if you’re not doing something that’s sustainable for you. So start small and progress over time!
Keep it Simple
The simpler and more basic the better. Complicating things will only lead to you feeling overwhelmed. So don’t start by doing the most intense looking classes or training programs. The basics work very well – no complicated looking exercises or crazy workout programs – just the simple basics like walking or doing basic strength exercises. The simple basics will always be responsible for the majority of your progress!
Track Your Progress
Just like you should make your goal trackable, track your exercise progress as well. Focus on one workout and one day at a time. Then, move onto the next. And just keep going – one workout at a time. Keep track of things like how many minutes you’re getting in each day, how much further you can go without getting winded, how many reps of an exercise you can do, how much weight you’re using, etc. And then try to progress by the smallest amount over time. As long as you’re pushing yourself to do a little bit more than you did previously, you will get stronger, fitter and healthier!
The Complete Beginner's Guide to Fitness
Step 4 - Nutrition
There’s a ton of nutrition advice out there. And unfortunately, a lot of it is conflicting! Which can make it very confusing for a beginner to fitness.
So let’s simplify it! No matter what your goal is, you have to know that improving your diet and eating healthier doesn’t have to be boring or miserable. And most importantly, you do not have to be overly restrictive or deprive yourself of your favorite foods.
Improving your nutrition is key to achieving your fitness goals and getting healthier, having more energy, improving how you feel overall, etc. But part of that is learning how to balance eating a nutritious diet with enjoying your most favorite foods.
So don’t feel like you have to completely change everything about your current way of eating. Instead, meet yourself where you’re at and make small adjustments that will have a powerful impact over time.
Incorporate one, some or all of these tips as a starting point to learning how to create the best way of eating that works for your lifestyle, preferences and goals.
Drink more water
Pretty self explanatory here! Increase how many cups of water you’re drinking currently. An easy way to do this is – replace sugary, high calorie drinks with water, flavored water or even seltzer water!
Eat more fruits & veggies
Again, pretty simple with this one too! The more produce you eat, the better. It’s loaded with vitamins and minerals. And keeps you full and satiated. Shoot for 5 total servings of fruits and vegetables combined per day. An easy way to incorporate this – replace at least 2 snacks you eat currently with fruit and make vegetables half of every meal you eat.
Increase your protein intake
You hear about the importance of protein for weight loss, but eating enough protein is also essential for your general health. It keeps you full, helps you build and maintain muscle, aids in your recovery from workouts, is responsible for making enzymes and hormones, is the building block of your skin, hair, nails, and connective tissue and supports your immune system… just to name a few things! An easy way to incorporate more protein is to build each of your meals around a protein source (lean meats, eggs, fish, soy-based protein, lentils, etc.). A specific number target is dependent on your goals – but for general health, you should be eating at least 0.55 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight daily.
Plan
Planning ahead helps you improve the quality of your nutrition. You’ll avoid those situations where you’re so freaking hungry and don’t know what to eat so you just grab whatever is easy and sounds good. We all know that never amounts to anything good! So plan your meals ahead of time. There’s many ways to do this. It doesn’t just have to writing everything down and preparing it all on the weekend… although that may work very well for you! Have an idea of the structure of your meals – a protein source, a vegetable, a carb and some fats. Then have a list of your go-to options for each component of the meal. And boom! You can now just fill it in easily. For snacks, have options readily available – fruits, cut up veggies, protein shakes, etc. The more you plan, the better set up for success you are!
Eat a balanced diet
Variety is key for health and preventing boredom. Now you may prefer and find it easier to just eat the same types of meals everyday, which is totally fine! But if you tend to get bored of eating the same thing easily, make sure you incorporate different types of foods. Another big reason I bring this up is so you avoid cutting out food groups, like with the common “low carb” or “low fat” diets. Eat a healthy balance of all 3 macronutrients – protein, fats and carbs. Because they each play a specific role in your body. There is no need to cut out carbs or fats and protein is not bad for you! No matter what your goal is, your body requires all 3 macros.
Be informed
It’s really easy to pick up something to eat, eat it and never know anything about the ingredients, the calories, the macros, etc. But all these things are important for whatever your goal is. Learning how to read nutrition labels, looking at ingredient lists and looking up nutritional information before going out to eat keeps you informed. And like I said before, information is power. It gives you control!
Last reminders
The most important part of making changes to your nutrition is to also prioritize developing a healthy relationship with food. Avoid taking an “all-or-nothing” approach with your nutrition. You don’t have to choose between being perfectly healthy and only eating junk. There are no “good” and “bad” foods. Moderation is the key to your success in making long-term changes. Find balance between being disciplined and being flexible. Eat mostly nutritious foods but allow yourself to eat your favorite less nutritious ones in moderation! Results do not come from over-restriction. They come from moderation, balance and sustainability!
The Complete Beginner's Guide to Fitness
Step 5 - Sleep & Stress Management
Both – too much stress and a lack of quality sleep – can put your physical and mental health at risk. Stress isn’t necessarily bad. It’s a natural response to life experiences. There is an optimal amount of stress that is actually beneficial to your health! However when stress levels stay elevated and exceed your limits, it becomes harmful to your health. This is called distress and if chronic, it raises the risk for health conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, eating disorders, diabetes, depression, cancer and sleep disorders.
Sleep is also a vital component of healthy living. It facilitates a wide range of bodily functions such as muscle and tissue repairs, hormone synthesis, toxin removal and memory formation. Unfortunately, sleep is one of the first things to go when you feel like you’re lacking time. And the health consequences are often overlooked. In the short run, you’ll feel tired and grump and use caffeine as a quick-fix. But long-term lack of sleep can weaken your immune system, disrupt mental function, increase stress levels, increase the risk for heart disease, hypertension, obesity, diabetes and psychological disorders.
Doesn’t sound so good, does it? It’s natural for your mind to go straight to exercise and diet when you want to improve your health. But don’t forget about these 2 crucial elements!
Here are some tips to help you decrease your stress level and improve your sleep quality and quantity:
- Exercise regularly
- Eat mostly nutritious foods & well-balanced meals
- Avoid caffeine at least 6 hours before your bedtime
- Set a consistent sleep & wake time
- Follow the same bedtime window routine every night
- Shut off all work-related tasks at least 1 hour before bed
- Put all electronics on night-time (blue light blocking) mode 1 hour before bed
- Make your bedroom a cool, peaceful and comfortable place
The Complete Beginner's Guide to Fitness
Step 6 - Healthy Mindset
The number 1 thing that can make or break your progress is your mindset.
Achieving any fitness goal is hard.
Even if the plan to get there is simple, it’s still going to be hard at some point or another.
And this is true for many reasons –
- You want it now, instead of how long it actually takes
- You’ll be more inclined to focus on the outcome, rather than the process
- At some point, you’ll lose sight of your true purpose for doing this
- You’ll start relying more on motivation, rather than discipline
- And somewhere in the back of your mind, you might not believe you can actually achieve your goal
Without a healthy mindset, the steps we’ve gone over above won’t work!
So here are 5 mindset tips to help you navigate this process with success.
1. Practice patience
Fitness goals take time to achieve. And impatience kills progress. It’s often the 1 thing that holds you back from successfully achieving your goals. All I can tell you is to stop being in such a hurry. No matter how accurately and consistently you stick to your plan, fast fitness progress will not happen. If you mentally prepare yourself for this, you’ll be better off!
Just accept getting to your goal is going to take a long time. And keep your head down and do what you need to day after day, week after week and month after month. Don’t look up at the end of every week and freak out if you don’t see drastic changes! Just stick to your plan and trust it’s working. You will make progress…slowly. But that small, slow progress will multiply over time. And eventually you’ll look up and find yourself at your goal! But you have to stick with it even when you feel like you’re not making progress, because you are! Time will show it.
2. Value the process –
When working towards your goals, although it’s important to keep your sights on that end goal, it’s just as essential to focus on the process itself. The process is where you learn what will make it possible to maintain your progress long term. The process is the time during which you practice those tasks so they eventually become habits.
Because what good is achieving your goal if you can’t maintain it forever? And part of that maintenance is taking all the steps you practice along the way to your goal and turning them into permanent lifestyle changes. The things that you do to get to your goal are the very things that’ll help you maintain it! This is why you practice patience instead of rushing through the process to get to your goal. It gives you time to make these lifestyle changes.
The process is what makes achieving your goal worth it! Don’t be so focused on the end goal that you end up ignoring everything you’re meant to learn. Focus on the day to day process to learn as much as you can. This is where your success will come from.
3. Remember your “why” –
It’s going to be tough to reach your goal. The process is going to be filled with as many “downs” as there are “ups.” And it’s going to make you want to quit at times. The one thing you should remind yourself of when this happens is your “why.” One of the steps to writing your goal is it make it purposeful. And now you see the part it plays.
It’s easy to lose sight of why you’ve decided to work towards this goal in the first place when you get consumed with the daily to-do’s. But when you hit those inevitable obstacles, fall off track, feel like your progress is stalled or going backwards, you’ll question why the heck you’re still going through this difficult process.
When you find yourself in these moments, the best way to get back on track is to think about your “why.” Why did you start this journey? Yes, to reach your goal but why is achieving it important to you? Remind yourself of this to help you push through those natural urges to quit.
4. Be disciplined –
I can guarantee that throughout this process, you will be always feel motivated. There will be many occasions where you just don’t feel like doing what you have to. But just because you aren’t motivated, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Motivation is fleeting and you can’t rely on it to get things done. The difference between successful and unsuccessful people isn’t the constant presence of motivation. It’s that in the inevitable moments in which successful people lack motivation, they continue to take action.
So instead of relying on motivation to get things done, practice discipline. No, discipline and motivation are not the same – motivation is a feeling and discipline is an action. Have the discipline to do what you have to despite not feeling motivated. Make a commitment to yourself and follow through even when it’s difficult. And that is the only way you can create your motivation to keep going.
Go into this process knowing that it’s normal to not always feel like taking action. But also go into it with the knowledge that you can create motivation if you are disciplined enough to take action!
5. Believe you can do it –
Having doubt in your mind is natural. You are going to begin this process with some hesitance. But don’t make the mistake of approaching your journey already thinking you can’t do it. Because you’ll already be at a disadvantage.
When you start working towards your goal, you will feel overwhelmed by the changes you’re making. But if you consistently put forth your best effort and give yourself time to adjust, with practice these changes will feel more natural. Don’t start out at a loss before you even give yourself a chance.
If you want to be successful, you have to believe you can be. Push through the fear and hesitation. Have an “I can do this” mindset and wholeheartedly believe it – you’ll automatically have a leg up. You have to give yourself a chance. Don’t stand in your own way. Believe in your ability to do hard things. Believe you can achieve your goal. Start this process with that belief and mindset and you’ll be setting yourself up for success!
The Complete Beginner's Guide to Fitness
Final Words
Fitness can be overwhelming.
I hope this complete beginner’s guide to fitness helped to clear things up for you.
There are many moving parts in your journey to achieving your goals – what kind of goal to set, exercise, nutrition, rest and mindset.
The goal of writing this complete beginner’s guide to fitness was to simplify each of these components so you can work towards your goals feeling in control!
If you have any questions or concerns, please send me an email at jshahfitness@gmail.com with the subject “COMPLETE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO FITNESS” and I’ll help you to the best of my ability.
If you feel the need for more direction and guidance along your journey, feel free to read more about my online coaching program through which I’ve helped hundreds of beginner’s just like you reach their fitness goals!
And for daily fitness, nutrition & mindset tips, head over to my instagram page.
Thank you for taking the time to read this guide!
– Juhee
