My 5 Year Fitness Anniversary!
Hii, it's Remi here!
Today I’m soooooo excited to celebrate the five-year anniversary of my fitness journey! It’s crazy that it’s been FIVE years since I took the first steps toward becoming comfortable in my own skin and sharing this process with all of you. There have been ups and downs along the way, but it’s all been so worth it!!
For those of you who have been following along this whole time, I’ve got a super-fun hard workout to share that Nate and I did to celebrate how far I’ve come over the past five years. If this is your first time reading the blog, first of all — HIII so cool to meet you!! I want to tell you a little bit about how I got started and share how I found my creative outlet and dream career.
This post will give you a little bit of background about how I got started working out, eating healthy, and prioritizing wellness first. I absolutely love my career as a fitness and wellness blogger, it just took me a little while to realize this was the right path for me. So here’s my story, and keep reading till the end for an EPIC workout!
How It All Started
When I was just baby Remi, my mom was a huge influence in determining our diet. My dad and I used to call her the “health police” because she was always encouraging us to eat better and exercise.
By the time I got to college at UC Irvine, I was like a kid in a candy store — literally haha! I’d grown up eating all my mom’s healthy food, and all I wanted was to eat the stuff I wasn’t allowed as a kid — pizza, ice cream, soda, hot Cheetos — all that super tasty JUNK. I for sure gained the freshman 20, but I was what I call “skinny fat”. No matter what I ate, my limbs were all skin and bone (surprisingly, Cheetos don’t give you muscles, lolol), but my stomach kept growing.
Fast forward to post-graduation, and I was still eating whatever I wanted. I started working a typical nine-to-five corporate job and felt blah all the time — lethargic, unmotivated, and uncomfortable in my own skin. I remember just dragging myself to work every day to earn enough to pay the bills. I was so stressed I had bald spots and I was pale and frail. I would live for Fridays and get crazy Sunday Scaries. Sound familiar?
After crying in the bathroom after getting bullied by my boss AGAIN, I just about had it and was done feeling this way. I wanted a sense of purpose, I wanted to feel alive, and I wanted life to be more colorful! I could feel my creative spark burning out by the minute so I decided to make a change.
It started with the idea to wake up a little earlier before work and make myself a nourishing breakfast. My body was basically screaming for nutrients at that point, but I didn’t know how to cook or what to make. I attempted to make chia seed pudding and oatmeal to see if I felt any different during the day. Guess what — after a few weeks of consistently eating a satiating breakfast, it made a crazy big difference! It snowballed from there, and one breakfast bowl turned into 730 bowls. For two years, every morning, I committed to showing up for myself to make something new and delicious — and share it on Instagram!
It really didn’t take long to notice that eating healthier was improving my mood, productivity, focus, and most of all — ENERGY!! I started to feel confident in my skin, and that gave me the motivation to keep going. If I could buy whole foods and fuel my body, what else could I do?! I started waking up even earlier to work out before work. I had allllll kinds of new energy, and my “skinny fat” image of myself was disappearing with every new day. I was confident, radiant, and motivated to keep going and share my new found passion with you !!
Working It Out
I’ve never been shy about sharing some of the challenges that I’m going through on social media, and it was true when I first started my fitness journey as well. I was posting healthy bowl recipes on my Instagram every day to share with my friends and family. It started as a hobby, but it quickly turned into my passion — and then my career!
First friends and then strangers started telling me that they loved seeing my recipes and were inspired by what I was doing to help myself become more confident. I was still working my nine-to-five job, and at the same time going to class from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM to complete my interior design degree. But the thing I loved most? Creating bowls and sharing on Instagram connecting with people all over the world. It kept me motivated. I really can’t emphasize how much this community has meant to me over the years.
Eventually, I realized that it was time to walk away from my full-time job. I’m not gonna lie, it was a hustle to launch my own business on Instagram. I went from living in my own apartment to moving back to my parents’ and living on $12 a day. But over time, I kept posting and working out to stay sane, and without even planning for it, I built a following. Ultimately I found a path that was more aligned with who I am, something that made me jump out of bed, and I could not be more grateful!
A big turning point recently was working with Jess Glazer, a coach who helped me launch a business outside of Instagram. She’s such a boss!!! Jess helped Nate and me turn our hobby into an online workout program and business, HōmeBodies. We couldn’t have done it without her!!
HōmeBodies is a daily workout community built for anyone (if you want to learn more about HōmeBodies, definitely check out this blog post which goes over all the details!). We post seven new follow-along videos released every week that you can do with just a dumbbell! It’s been a huge help keeping us going during quarantine. Sweating and connecting virtually with all of you is why I love fitness so much, and that brings me to … drumroll please … today’s special workout!
Today’s Workout Challenge
So that brings us to today — the five year anniversary of starting my fitness journey on IG! When I first started working out, a coworker recommended the Kayla Itsines Bikini Body Guide, and I decided to just do everything it said, down to the very last detail. I’ve followed this guide religiously to the point where it’s all kinds of ripped and torn because I’ve used it so much, haha!
So, to celebrate, I thought it would be fun to pick the hardest workout from Kayla’s guide and do it with Nate! We did the thousand-rep challenge — you complete this list of 24 exercises with 30 reps per exercise unless stated otherwise. Set a timer and stop it once you have gone through EVERY exercise. Take a break if you need to, but the timer does NOT stop. Here’s a list of all the different exercises that you’ll go through!
Burpees
Jump Lunges
Mountain Climber Push Ups
Toe Taps
100 - Ab Bikes
Tuck Jumps
Sit Ups
X Hops
Commandos
100 - Mountain Climbers
Box Jumps
Weighted Straight Leg Jackknifes
Medicine Ball Squat and Press
Tricep Dips
100 - Skipping
Snap Jumps
Reverse Lunge and Knee Lift
Drop Push Ups
Single Arm Squat and Press
100 - X Mountain Climbers
Split Jumps
Weighted Bent Leg Jackknifes
Jump Squats
Lay Down Push Ups
I know this workout is crazy intimidating, but trust me — you can do it!! This workout usually makes me very sore, so I recommend preparing ahead of time with lots of stretching and good fuel for your body (also drink lots of water!). Check out this video to watch the whole workout go down and find out how I was feeling the next day (spoiler alert: not too bad!). Nate said the workout was “pretty fun” bahhah. It definitely worked all my muscles and made a difference!
And if you want to try a HomeBodies workout (something more sustainable to do everyday ) vs an intense challenge, try this 45 minute sweat sesh here!
So that’s my story! Thank you all SO MUCH for following my journey and helping me help you to live OUR best life! If there’s one thing I hope you take away from this, it’s that making small changes — like eating a healthier breakfast — can lead to BIG things. It’s all about taking your first baby step in the RIGHT direction… and usually the RIGHT direction is the RISKIEST!! I can’t believe it’s already been five years, and I’m feeling happier and healthier than ever.
Thanks so much for reading this post!! If you do one of these workouts, I'd LOVE to hear how it goes! Feel free to comment under this post, or tag me on Instagram, @rrayyme, with how many reps you got through. You can also find more workouts on my Instagram stories, and check out HōmeBodies if you’re looking for a workout community! If you have a go-to hard workout that you love, share it with me! I’m always up for a challenge.
