Varis Art

New pinned post! Hello, I'm a non-binary artist (Runo / ArtVaris) who loves to draw and design characters - my main sources of inspiration include nature, music, stories, and myths, to name a few. For commissions, you can check ✦ My Ko-fi comms ✦ For art prints, you can check my ✦ InPrnt ✦ All my other socials: ✦ Bluesky ✦ Twitter ✦ Instagram ✦ Cara ✦

Some photos from my recent walks

Some ballpoint pen stuff again for relaxation

Ballpoint pen doodling

So my advice is to start with a routine you can do consistently. For me, that was going for a 1-hour walk every day. That's it. No strength training yet (if you can do it right from the start, that's great tho!), just walking almost every day for the first 6-7 months or so. Plus a healthier diet with less sugar. Notice how I also didn't do things "perfectly" right from the start because I just walked and didn't strength train. But this was a sustainable routine for me back then after several very sedentary years. It was sustainable and relatively easy, so I kept doing it day after day, week after week. Because it’s the consistency that builds long-lasting progress and results. Make starting as easy as possible for yourself and build up from there. In my case, I first built a solid habit of walking every day and then started incorporating strength training into the mix. The walking routine had a positive impact on my energy levels and mental health, which in turn made starting strength training easier. And I started with home workouts because that felt like the easiest first step. This is not to say that building those habits happens overnight and establishing new habits takes work and time. You are kinda trying to rewire your brain in a way. But when it comes to building new routines, the main thing is just to start somewhere. You can make those routines "perfect" later. But you need to start and keep at it - do it "imperfectly", but keep showing up. And even if I say it's important to prioritize habits over motivation, that doesn't mean training shouldn't feel fun. It is fun! Moving is fun and energizing. And maintaining those habits often becomes easier the longer your stick to them. Nowadays walking is just something I do as a person; I feel weird if I don't move my body and go for walks. It has become a lifestyle at this point. I love nature so I try to go on long forest walks as often as I can. I need to walk longer to reach the forest area tho, which in turn motivates me to walk more so it's a positive cycle. But of course, this wasn't the case 3 years ago when I was still very sedentary. If you have friends who are also into walking or hiking, going on walks together can make the time just fly by (I once went for a 4-hour forest walk with a friend and barely noticed the time flying by) Of course sometimes there will be days when you just don't feel like training, but you do it anyways out of habit. Because you know it is good for you. Because you know it will get you closer to your goals. Each step and workout counts. Because showing up for yourself is important to you. Because taking care of yourself matters and is important. Because when you feel good, you can also take better care of other people in your life. Yes on some days you might feel super tired and on those days it's important to listen to your body and rest. That also doesn't ruin your routine, you just take one extra rest day or maybe even a week because you needed that to get stronger and then you'll get back to training the next day

Sometimes I try on my old clothes to see the difference in how they fit me now, even though I no longer wear femme sports wear like this. The photos on the left show how I looked at the start of 2025 after losing around 20-25kg in 2024, just before I started training at the gym. The photos on the right show how I look now, after 1 year and 4 months of gym training. I'm wearing the same upper-body sports wear in both photos. In 2025, I no longer aimed to lose a lot of weight since I was already at a weight that was considered "normal" for a person of my height. Achieving this goal was important to me, though, since in Finland the folks at the gender clinic are rather strict about the BMI when it comes to gender-affirming surgeries (which is not great of course but it is what it is). After my main weight loss, my number one goal in 2025 was to focus on building muscle and changing my body composition through strength training. I wanted to pay extra attention to building my upper body and getting stronger there since that area caused me the most dysphoria at the time, none of the shirts fit how I wanted them to fit even though I had started to update my wardrobe. Last summer I bought some T-shirts from the teenage boy section and a few days ago, I tried one them on and it was kinda tight around the shoulders and arms. I'm looking forward to the day when I've officially outgrown some of those shirts (hopefully) and rn now I'm bulking for the first time ever on a 300-500 kcal surplus, aiming to build more muscle and size, which is rather exciting tbh

Hmm I think you could also ask the PT after describing your starting situation and gym goals to them? Because depending on your personal goals and situation, either one could work because the best training program is always the one you can do consistently week after week and month after month. Even a shorter 30-minute workout (in general, I'm not talking about the instructive workout with the PT) can be very effective if you focus on quality (so not just thinking about going through different motions but focus on doing quality sets and reps with each exercise and aim for progressive overload) and work out several times per week. Personally I started with training 2 times per week and both of those workouts were fullbody sessions, so I trained all the major muscle groups (chest, back, legs + some arms) twice a week, which is often recommended if your goal is to build muscle mass. You can get more done in 60min (6 exercises instead of 3 etc) so for example if you train 2x per week in order to recover well and not burn out as a beginner (if you are a beginner) then a 60min workout would likely give you more bang for your buck so to speak. My gym workouts usually last 60-80 minutes per session, tho nowadays I try to stay closer to 60-70min by using a timer for the rest times between my sets and my workouts have 6-7 exercises per session + warm up. Also I have always trained on my own so I haven’t been training together with a PT, tho I hired a PT to make me a basic custom program and to show me the proper techniques back when I first started training which was very helpful!

a quick sketch to keep myself drawing while I write my bachelor's thesis

I recently attented a roleplaying event which was kinda like a simple one-shot, and that kinda led to this since I asked one of the DMs if they plan to arrange similar events in the future, to which they responded that they arrange those events once a year but they play DnD in a group which could have room for one more player and I could join their group so here we are now

Some more strength training progress photos showing my physique in July 2024 and today (1 year and 3 months of gym training). The second comparison photo shows my back area in January 2025 and my pre-gym training build, and how my back looks now after 1 year and 3 months of training. I started strength training to improve my well-being and health, which included trying to alleviate my body dysphoria. I still have dysphoria but it is a lot more manageable these days, especially when it comes to the upper body area which used to be my weakest so this has been such a rewarding journey so far and I've already come further than I thought I could back when I started

Majin for Zozo. Thank you so much for commissioning me once again🖤