wellness.with.aleenalir

I could go into a long detailed explanation about how working from home has become popular and begin to describe to you all what remote work is and what it truly entails. Blogs like this drive me crazy, simply because I am way too busy to be spoken to like I’m stupid. Remote work has been around since before COVID, and COVID quarantine seems to have further popularized remote work. So, in the interest of saving your time and mine, we’ll keep this as simple as possible! 

I’ll share a short list of the things I absolutely cannot function without while working from home, but first - a few basic disclaimers (or better said) a better understanding of what it is I do for my “9-5” job, so you can understand how these tools have been useful and effective for myself and the role I play at work.

So… what does Aleena do for work?

If you can believe it, I’m a fitness manager for a gym located in Downtown Los Angeles… but I work remotely. I’m probably the only fitness manager on the planet that works remotely, most people can’t imagine this job being something that can be done remotely. Moving away from Los Angeles and transitioning to remote work allowed me more time in my schedule to also take on the marketing responsibilities of the gym, so in addition to being the fitness manager I am also the marketing coordinator. So… in short, I manage the fitness and marketing teams of a small luxury boutique gym. I love what I do, although it can admittedly be monotonous at times, I find so much joy in the fitness industry and I get to be creative with my work too!

Working remotely requires an extreme amount of organization, especially when I have 25 direct reports. So here are the tools I use (external to my organization) that keep me on track. These tools also make it easy for me to catch up when I fall behind.

1) NOTION

Hands down the best free software I have ever used. I introduced Notion to our gym about a year ago. Since then it’s been the crux of our gym, but has also been beyond useful for me in my own matters relating to work. In Notion you are able to build out your own private pages in which you can take your own notes, create your own databases, and organize your own information. I use the private pages on Notion to keep track of road maps and growth plans for my team. I also use it to schedule the deadlines I set for myself that are internal to projects.

2) APPLE CALENDAR

I’m a huge fan of time blocking my schedule, and it’s proven even more useful since I’ve transitioned into remote work. One thing about being a manager and working remotely - I get to create my own schedule. I show up to my desk at home when I want to, and I leave when I want to. This means, I need to stay active in building my schedule effectively to make sure I get my work done. Apple’s calendar app has been such a huge lifesaver. I used it before I moved away and was still working in the space, but it’s usefulness has tripled since then. I time block every hour of my waking days, and the push notifications allow me to stay on track with the hours I schedule for myself.

3) ERIN CONDREN TEACHER PLANNER

I have a tendency to group things, almost to fault. Running two departments can be exhausting and there is so much to keep track of. The Teacher Planner by Erin Condren has made this incredibly helpful. I relabel categories from the top and bottom to fit the categories associated with work the and dates I show up for work. This allows me to stay on track with projects, deadlines, communications, and literally anything else that may be thrown my way.

4) EARL GREY TEA

This one is a bit random. I worked at Starbucks for three years when I was in college. After far too many flat whites and blonde drip coffees, I realized I had to scale back on my caffeine intake. I switched to Earl Grey tea about 2 years into working there and since then Earl Grey has been a staple in Aleena’s pantry.I quite literally can’t sit down at my desk without my cup of tea. I suggest everyone find a soothing and mildly stimulating beverage to start their day with and to build a routine around the preparation of that beverage. I might’ve picked this habit up from my father. He had a daily morning routine in which he would get ready, wake his kids up for school, and while we sat at the dining table eating breakfast he was making himself a cup of coffee in a travel mug. I would look at him thinking “that is such an adult thing to do” and perhaps as an adult I’ve found it a necessary part of feeling like I’m having a productive morning. 

5) PILOT PRECISE V5 CAPPED LIQUID INK ROLLING BALL PENS

I do most of my work on a computer, but with my physical planner comes a need for a pen. I always recommend finding a pen that does more than just write. And yes, a pen is a pen is a pen, but THIS pen hasn’t let me down since I was in middle school. No other pen writes the same way this pen does, at least in my opinion and my experience. We’ve all had that moment when we write with a pen for the first time and think “wow, that’s a good pen.” I think a huge part of enjoying your work is enjoying the things you use to complete your work, so I choose to use these pens and these pens only for work related notes and planners. It just makes the process that 0.5% more enjoyable. Find the pen that soothes you. 

I’ll tell you all something that no other personal trainer in the fitness industry will tell you. It’s nothing new, and all trainers and instructors know this very well. The only reason you’ll never hear a trainer mention this publicly is because they will miss out on potential money by sharing this information with you. Before I share this information, I’ll give you my own credentials so you know I’m not just pulling your leg (although I’m certain most of you will already know this information intuitively).

If you’re new here, hello! My name is Aleena! I’m a NASM Certified personal trainer, and I’ve been working in the fitness industry for nearly three years now. That’s not a terribly long time, however I’ve experienced massive growth and success in my career since I’ve began as a personal trainer. First a trainer then a class instructor and eight months later I was gifted with the opportunity to become a fitness manager. I work for a boutique gym located in Downtown Los Angeles and the entire premise of my job is help the other trainers in my facility grow in their own training abilities. Beyond my career, I’ve been active my whole life. I ran track in elementary school, played basketball throughout middle school and high school, and was an active gym rat in college continuing on. When COVID struck and we all went into quarantine, I became a yoga nut and runner, and you can most certainly bet as soon as gyms opened up I found myself right back in there. Post-COVID I got my first ever personal trainer and quickly realized how easily I could translate the information I had learned throughout my life to help others in their own health and fitness journeys. A few months later I was certified and ready to start building in my profession. The growth has been unreal, but I feel it’s a deep indication of how I have found the path that is right for me. 

So what is it that other personal trainers won’t tell you?

You don’t NEED a personal trainer. Sure, that sounds normal and understandable, so let me clarify with more information. 

You don’t need a personal trainer for the FIRST THREE MONTHS of your fitness journey.

It’s a fairly intuitive understanding, but most of us will get scared to do something new on our own. The reason I say the first three months is because, if you’ve never done anything fitness related or it’s simply been a long time since you’ve been active, the first three months should be dedicated to getting into the habit of becoming active. If we’ve been sedentary for a long time, quite literally any consistent movement will yield results.

I like to explain it like this - if you pick up a weight and you move the weight in some way and you do this everyday for 90 days, you will see a change. It doesn’t matter what you do with this weight. You can pull it, press it, raise it, walk with it. Just do it every single day for 90 days and watch how something will change. Now… it may not be the change you want to see, but there will be change. This is something we all know, and yet no trainer is going to tell you this. Instead (as an unfortunate result of the capitalistic nature of our society) they’ll try to sell you on the idea that you have absolutely no clue what you’re doing and you need a trainer’s guidance in order to make change happen. 

Here’s my issue with that - most people know what they want, but they don’t have specific and fully developed fitness goals. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve sat down with a beginner client and asked what their goals are and the answer I get in return is something along the lines of “I want to lose 20 pounds” or “I want to tone up.” In turn I’d have to get specific with them by asking what movements they want to learn, what modalities they do and don’t enjoy, what amount of time they are realistically able to dedicate to their fitness, and so on and so forth. My job is to be a trainer, and I actually do enjoy having these conversations with people, but there’s room for error when we start from ground zero together. 

Firstly, and I say this with absolute conviction, your only friend in the gym should not be your trainer. Community at the gym is proven way to keep people motivated and interested in their fitness. People will stay at the same gym, even when the equipment is falling apart, the AC is leaking or broken, or the staff is terrible, because of the people they see at the gym. People also find more motivation to show up to the gym when they know their friends or their gym crush is going to be there. You should establish some semblance of a gym community before you start working with a trainer. Secondly, shoveling money out of your pocket will definitely weigh you down in the hopes of seeing results. Generally when we pay for something, we look for instant gratification (we can again blame capitalism and rampant consumerism for this). Fitness never has been and never will be a source of instant gratification. In order to trust the process, avoid paying the big bucks up front and instead see what you can and can’t do on your own. Show yourself that the change is possible first, before you begin to invest in a trainer, that the way when you’re paying for a trainer’s guidance you already know that it’s well worth it because you know the results will come cause you’ve already seen how consistency on your own made change. Thirdly, these initial 90 days that you spend working out on your own will be the source of inspiration. You will get to spend time in a gym, or just moving your body and trying to learn more on your own. This gives you the time to become specific with what it is you want to do. It’s day 1 in the gym and you have no idea what a deadlift is, but now it’s day 90 in the gym and you’ve seen the same girl deadlifting since day 1, so you did your research and now you a specified goal to take to the trainer you end up working with. Specified goals will also help you when trying to select a trainer. Every trainer can teach you how to deadlift, but a barbell technique specific trainer is going to teach you the sport of the deadlift. You wouldn’t ask a math teacher to help you write an english essay, and same applies here. You wouldn’t ask a body building coach to teach you athleticism and mobility. You wouldn’t as a powerlifting coach to teach you how to become absolutely shredded. Become specific, and the path will become obvious. 

I’ve given you my three reasons as to why I believe people should start their fitness journeys on their own.

I’ll also share with you the exceptions I have to this belief. 

First, if you struggle with discipline or motivation, this will not work for you. If this is the case, I recommend looking for a coach, not a trainer. You may be thinking… what’s the difference. There’s a huge difference. A trainer will tell you what to do when to do it, they’ll show you how to do things correctly and they’ll send you on your merry way. A coach will do all of those things, but they’ll also help you build sustainable habits, they’ll help you push past your limiting beliefs, they’ll hold you accountable and do check-ins with you, they’ll make appropriate adjustments to your program without you having to say anything, they will monitor ver closely, your journey and course correct if something is not lining up with the path. Second, if you’ve had multiple failed starts to your fitness journey, I also believe looking for a coach will benefit you for the same reasons above. You may already have some knowledge around fitness, or you may have been very active back in the day, but again - the struggle is consistency and accountability. A coach is meant to be an accountability partner, it goes deeper than teaching someone the movements, it’s about reworking the brain’s chemistry associated with fitness. 

You are one of these two people: you have set your New Years Resolutions and you look forward to keeping them OR you are someone who no longer sets New Years Resolutions because year after year you’ve had unsuccessful attempts at keeping them. No matter which of these you are, I’m here to tell you that New Years Resolutions don’t need to be as complex as you think. Today I will teach you my tried and true method on how to stick to your goals.

But FIRST - we must define what a goal is. It is important to understand how setting goals is really just a bravado way of saying you want to accomplish something but you have no interest in creating a sustainable and organic path towards these accomplishments.

Okay, if you were able to read that without your ego inflating and feeling the need to defend itself, I officially welcome you to the Wellness with Aleena Club! Here we face the real truths behind developing habits, systems, and (sometimes) goals, that help you lead a healthier and more wholesome and fulfilled life that doesn’t force you to sacrifice the HUGELY attractive lifestyle you’ve always envisioned for yourself. In fact, we make those seemingly unattainable goals more achievable. Stick around for a little while longer, you just might find new tools or receive the reminders you need to ground you back into what you are growing towards.

BACK TO — goals? While yes, goals are incredibly helpful in specific situations, living your life from goal to goal leaves very little substance in between those goals. What goals lack is what habits and systems make up for. When you don’t have a goal up on the board, what does your life look like? Is it in line with the lifestyle you were living before achieving your goal? Is it in line with the lifestyle you want to live as your grow and expand more into your life? Most people who live from goal to goal would answer no to these questions. I am guilty of this myself. So… how do we ensure each step of our life is productive, fulfilling, and constantly moving forward?

What we will do now is restructure our goals within a lifestyle framework. First we will build the system, the sustainable habits, the consistent framework, that allows space for any measurable goal to be achieved with little to no effort… then we start setting the goals. And yes, we are going to do this right now. I want you to grab your New Years Resolution List. If you don’t have one, I want you to make one right now. Read through it and read through it again. Pay close attention to the language you used to write these resolutions out.

Language is so important. That’s why all these self-love b!tches keep talking about “be nice to yourself” and “talk to yourself like you’re your best friend.” Firstly, I say b!tches with a lot of respect, but also because tbh - they can be overwhelming. Nonetheless, what they are saying is valuable information and applies to literally everything you do in life. The language you use has to; resonate with you as an individual AND resonate with the situation at hand. So we’re gonna go back to that resolutions list and look for any resolutions we have set that fall into these categories - are things we do not currently do on a regular/consistent basis AND goals we have set that are measurable or based on a timeline. I will give you a few examples:

I will lose 15 pounds this year.

I will read every day in 2024.

I will post to instagram every weekend until July.

Now there’s nothing wrong with these goals. These are GREAT goals… but how can we expect ourselves to follow through on the consistency needed for our goals (and hopefully the goals following it) when we don’t have any consistency with these habits in our life to begin with. You want to become an influencer but you have no systems around instagram and currently post as you feel like it. You haven’t read a book for pleasure since you were 14 but you want to get back into reading. You only find the motivation to workout when friends join you and you still need to find the consistency in the habit to be able to go alone when you need to. This is where building systems and habits slowly and over time is key. What we’re first going to do is reword all of these resolutions. Because Jan 1-7 you’ll have gone to the gym once, you’ll have read for 10 minutes two evenings, and you’ll already feel so behind that you’ll find no motivation to put on a cute outfit and take a nice picture for instagram.

Instead of giving ourselves the space to fail our goals straight from the bat, set the framework to be so that you’ll fall into achieving these resolutions from the start. This is how we will reword these resolutions:

I will exercise consistently and learn how to eat healthy.

Reading will be part of my routine.

I will consistently feed my creativity through instagram posts.

What do these all have in common?

A sense of consistency and routine.

So now, Jan 1-7 you went to the gym once and that’s okay because if you go to the gym once between Jan 8-14 you’ve already built consistency. If you go to the gym twice between Jan 8-14, now you’re growing within the framework. This applies for it all. Once the habit and the consistency has been built, you can start tweaking the system. You know your goal is to lose 15 pounds this year. How about (once a sense of consistency has been built), the goal becomes: start weight checking consistently. January through March you’ve been going once a week, you haven’t missed a beat for about 6 weeks, you’re feeling really good… maybe for the month of April we now apply a quantified goal, can we go to the gym 2 times a week this month? On at least one of those days can we do a weight check in? A short term goal with low consequences, because even if we don’t achieve this goal, we are still on track to fulfill our New Years Resolutions.

Side note: please, ladies and gentlemen, do NOT look at New Years Resolutions as something to be achieved within the year. This is exactly why we reword the resolutions.