telling you everything. how I got in my best shape ever

I just know if I put this off any longer, you guys are gonna come for me. So let's talk about how I got in my best shape of my life this summer, which most certainly includes my core routine. I'm gonna make this as to the point and short as sweet as possible because I'm sure or you just want to hear the goods and get out of here. I have been working out and lifting weights for five or six years at least. Not like this was a starting from nothing to here I am transformation, there's a strong base that I already had, which of course made it a lot easier to see these results in a quicker timeline. Most of the habits I'm about to list out were things that got me to that point, if that makes sense. So these are things that I've been doing consistently that have gotten me the physique that I have now. Okay, let's get started. Classes in session, number one, from the day I first picked up weights, I was training to be strong and hit PRs and lift as heavy as possible. That includes all of my upper body days. I'd argue if you want a physique like mine, you have to train heavy. You can get as skinny and lean as possible if you don't have the base of muscle, you're just gonna look tiny. For just talking visuals, simply put, muscle is the reason why my arms look like this and not just straight across, if that makes sense. Building up muscle is also the reason why my core looks like this and not just flat. Also brought me a slew of other benefits, mental, physical, the whole shebang. That's what I'm referencing when I talk about having a foundation. Let's just talk about the last three months of habits since that's where I really saw a big transformation this summer for the last 15 weeks or so. I've been in the gym at least three days a week, up to five or six days a week, training heavy in the gym. My split goes as follows: full lower body day, I'll do a back focus day, arms and shoulders, another lower body day with more of a glute focus, and the last day, if I go, will be a full body. My sessions range from 30 minutes to 60 minutes, kind of whatever I'm feeling. I'm not too strict on keeping the exact same routine every single time I go. I do have staple movements. One of the major habits is my core workouts. It's how I've gotten the definition that I've gotten. I simply do core for five to 10 minutes after all my lifts, which also means I do core three to six times a week. I'm not spending 30 minutes on a core workout. It's in and out. I focus on the movements that work and I'm done. I posted a ton of my core workouts both on here and on the other app, but I vary between these focus points: weighted AB workouts, deep core focus workouts, and the six pack muscle workouts. Cardio, I've dabbled in running here and there, but I've never been a big runner. The farthest I've ever ran was six miles. It's not something that's consistent in my routine. I would say the biggest thing that I've done is just simply go on a ton of walks over the past 15 weeks. Daily steps are anywhere from 8,000 to 15,000. Really trying not to be lazy and always doing the 1% better than if I were to do nothing. That's the workout side of things. And I would argue that diet is just as or more important if you have excess fat in your body, you have to be in a calorie deficit. Now, the way that you go about that is gonna be totally individual to you. Some people have a lot of success meticulously tracking and weighing their food, done that many a times and it's worked great. Time around, I did things a little bit differently and made it a goal of mine to eat more intuitively and listen to my body a lot more. Focus on what I was eating rather than how much I was eating. 95% of my meals are made up of single ingredient whole foods. Plates are based around a protein source. I found when I eat this way is that I naturally become more satisfied than if I was eating like Quest Protein Chips and drizolicious and things like that through trial and error. I also found that eating bigger meals less frequently throughout the day worked really well for me. Really want to avoid is becoming obsessive over your food, where you're thinking about it all the time because that's when sustaining a deficit becomes really difficult. Finding meals and strategies and ways of eating and what you're eating that works for you to help you dim down that food noise is essential myself a longer timeline to reach my goal, so I didn't have to be so harsh and restrictive. You can look back on my IG when I first started this transformation. I posted all about it and told you guys, I was giving myself 19 weeks or something, that there was a lot of trial and error. So finding what works for you is essentially, you have to be willing to try different things. To reiterate my main staples that got me from A to B were lifting weights, lifting heavy weights three to six times a week, getting my steps in, going on walks whenever I could, just being active like 8 to 15k steps a day, doing my 5 to 10 minutes of core after my lifts, the three different focuses, maintaining a consistent calorie deficit through whole foods and protein focus. Maybe that was a let down for some of you. I definitely am not reinventing the wheel, but that's exactly what I've done. Just know that these things take time. And like I said, I had the foundation, so I saw it even quicker and it still took me many, many weeks. My biggest advice for you is just to start, see what sticks, see what works, and start developing your Rolodex of habits that work for you specifically. Keep it sustainable, slow and steady wins the race. Give yourself the time, avoid the crash diets, and you will be just fine.