This post is a little background before I get into my results from Fitness Genes. Stay tuned for Part 2.
**I was provided with a free kit in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.**
Hey there. Have you ever wondered what fitness genes you might have and what workouts and nutrition is best for you? Perhaps you are not seeing the results you would like with your workouts. This is because every one of us is unique and while 1 program may work for some people, it may not work for you. I am a believer that genes play a huge role in our body physique as well as our performance in fitness. This is why some people do well doing only yoga every day and others prefer HIIT style training a few days a week.
While I was at Blogfest last month, I stopped by the Fitness Genes booth. I hadn’t heard about them before Blogfest, but after talking with a representative and seeing all the data you could get, I was intrigued. Some of you may not know that my bachelor’s degree is in Applied Mathematics. I love charts and numbers!! The data is even better when you can apply it to your own life too.
Growing up, I was not athletic. I mean besides being “queen of the monkey bars” at the playground, I never did sports (at least for very long). I was the “follower” and did things because my friends did them. I dabbled in ice skating for a few years, but that was short lived. I did ballet for a bit, but never felt flexible enough and my friend quit so I quit. Once I was 8 years old, I could start tap dance and since I reached about high school when that friend moved away, I actually made the decision to continue with dance and made new friends. I’m glad by high school I could make up my own mind.
In high school I was also on the swim team one year. This was mainly because swimming was one thing I could do and another friend was on the diving team so it was a way to spend more time with her. Swimming was also a no cut sport so if you could stick it out, you were in. [A little side story, you had to have a doctor appointment before being on a sports team. At my appointment, my doctor tried to say in a kind way how I was really out of shape and should go to the gym a bit before starting on the swim team. That summer I went to the gym a bit with my dad, but I wasn’t really that into it and was only going because the doctor advised me to.] I gave it my all for 1 season, but then I was wiped. I would say the season got me into shape better, but I also look back and know I wasn’t in a healthy state because I didn’t get my period the entire 3 months of the swim season. Sorry for the TMI, but looking back I feel that is important to note. I decided to just continue with dance 1 night a week. Overall, I clearly wasn’t athletic. I dreaded that mile run in gym class and the fitness week. I had little endurance and honestly was pretty weak. Though from my body and look, you would guess I was “in shape” as I never was overweight or anything. Ask me to run and you would see a very different result.
It wasn’t until college, after I met Brian, and he decided he wanted to lose weight and lift weights in the gym. I felt better going with him because we were both beginners to weight lifting and we could help each other out. Honestly he helped me more than I helped him I think. We got stronger together and the gym was finally less intimidating. We even got a couple of our friends to join in our workout sessions too. By this point, we each had our own apartments, so we also worked on our nutrition. I saw amazing results in my body!! It wasn’t that I needed to lose weight, but I felt like I had little muscle and lifting weights worked on burning fat and building muscle in my body. While I have had mini hiatuses, I have continued weight training since 2010.
Since living on my own the last 4 years, I have experimented a lot with nutrition and reflected on how my body feels with what I eat. Brian experimented with keto a couple years ago and that got me to first track my food and protein and fat intake. I did learn that I felt more satisfied and better with higher protein and fats and fewer carbs. Though I never went full keto, just cutting down my amount of carbs, helped me feel better. When it came time to train for my meet this year, reaching the amount of carbs my coach advised was really challenging for me. I actually had an issue in my freshman year of college where I got shaky and dizzy spells and I still don’t have a clear answer on that but I cleaned up my diet after that and it helped. I find the processed carbs and too much sugar can make me feel unwell.
Currently, my workout schedule is 4 days a week lifting, 1-2 days for yoga (usually aerial and vinyasa, sometimes yin) and some days walk/jog training from couch to 5k app. I don’t have a pool to swim at right now, but for the past 4ish years (minus my travel time), I have done 3 days lifting, 2 days yoga and 1 day pool. Sometimes I do lifting and yoga in the same day, but I do try to have 1 full rest day a week.
Now let’s get to my Fitness Genes test results because surprisingly (or not) they explain a bit of what I have discovered on my own as well as other interesting facts. Check out tomorrow’s post for my Fitness Genes review and results.
Were you always athletic?
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