hey everyone it's morgan yates for this week's video i just wanted to have kind of a conversation
around health and fitness and just kind of share what my experience has been
over the past year related to those topics it's gonna be a chatty video probably gonna be a little
bit long so get a coffee get a snack we're just gonna chat today so some of you guys may know
i've been working one-on-one with a fitness coach over the past year through the company co-pilot
and i recently realized it's been like 300 plus days i think it's close to a year that i've been
working with my trainer olivia so i wanted to do a video just kind of recapping what that experience
has looked like for the past year talking about what has been challenging for me share some of
the lessons i've learned and hopes that they might be helpful for you guys to think about
and just overall talk about how my relationship with fitness and health and body image has kind of
evolved throughout the past year because i always like when other creators talk about this stuff so
if you're someone who has maybe been considering trying out copilot hopefully this will shed some
light on what my experience has been or introduce some of you guys who may not have heard of it to
it right now so i'll explain a lot more about them as i like share my experience throughout
the video but in short copilot is a one-on-one coaching experience that's done through an
app um that's available on ios and android also i am partnering with copilot on this video as
well so i think it makes the most sense to talk about like my fitness journey i guess
chronologically so we're gonna jump back to a year ago and what made me even want to start
working with a personal trainer september of last year i was going through a bit of a life change i
was moving into this house i was wrapping up a roommate situation that was just like overall
really stressful and not good for my mental health while also you know still trying to get in the
swing of like balancing having a relationship that was serious and it was just kind of like without
noticing i had found myself at a place in my life where i was no longer prioritizing working out
like i used to starting to show a little you know but more than that i just did not feel good like i
know from past times where i've been very consistent about working out i know that
that's when i feel my best something just was not clicking in my brain of like i know this thing is
going to make me feel better but i just didn't have any of the motivation or the will to do it
like when i would try to work out at that time i would just feel really down on myself because
i wasn't as strong as i used to be like i couldn't work out quite at the intensity i could before
so i got to the point of starting to consider turning outward for some help and support i know
a lot of friends that have personal trainers and have like raved about how great it's been
for them for me honestly never for one second did i consider getting a personal trainer in person
just it being very outside of my comfort zone for someone to be like watching me work out in
the moment but b no part of me was ever going to spend that kind of money around this exact
time copilot actually reached out to me and i looked into it and i thought okay this is virtual
that would actually be something that would be a bit more within my comfort zone plus what's really
great about copilot is in terms of the personal training world i feel like this is the most
affordable option you could go with and co-pilot is cheaper than if i were to go to three boxing
classes in an entire month like that's what you're paying plus they also gave me a link for you guys
that i'll have below where you can actually get 14 days free my eye is suddenly twitching so if
you see that happening i've waited like five minutes and i can't get it to go away so we're
just gonna continue filming but so we'll call that like my background my origin of like how fitness
has evolved for me we're starting there i was not at a good place with it mentally it was just
like beating myself up that's chapter one okay the origin moving on to chapter two which i will call
the first 60 days because i actually have a video of this whole time frame a whole
other video dedicated to that so you can see it in complete detail there it is day one i'm
super excited so basically when i started using copilot i went in on the app answered
some questions about myself and my goals and i got matched with my trainer olivia who to this
day is still my trainer it's been her the whole time so the first step in working with her was
to have a kickoff call to share my goals with her and let her know the equipment i have so that she
could base my workouts around that and how many workouts i wanted to do a week and i thought it
was realistic for me to start with three 30-minute workouts a week and then the next day i read on
the app she uploaded all of my workouts for that week in terms of getting into using this i thought
it was very easy when you go to do a workout it's also linked with your apple watch so you're
getting all your stats you know your heart rate calorie spur and everything like that but well
the coolest part i think is because again remember it's very important to me that no one was watching
me workout is that the watch monitors your form through the moves for everything you're doing it
knows where your wrist should be so if you are you know not lifting high enough in your hip thrust
it will speak to you if you are going through your bicep curls too quickly like it'll tell you having
that live feedback during a workout i just think it's really cool and when you're doing a workout
on screen it's very easy to follow it demonstrates all the moves and again if you would like to see
all this in detail of my first 60 days you can just go watch that video but my takeaway
here is that during this time frame it brought me back to a place of consistency it was not
always easy it was not like natural especially in the beginning for me to be like motivating myself
to do all these workouts but at the end of the day a motivation is just a feeling and it should not
affect whether or not you are working towards your goals fortunately during that time frame
i had olivia there keeping me accountable checking with me every day and if it had not been for that
like i know i would have let my feelings and my lack of motivation get in the way of me building
back up to a place of consistency during that time also it was really cool to again just build
back my strength see my growth with like of like increasing the weights i was using or the length
of the workouts it was very rewarding and it was like you know it's a snowball effect of making me
want to continue during that time as well i did naturally see some physical results but what was
interesting was that that actually didn't mean as much to me anymore as i thought it would have
because i was already feeling strong and proud of myself and again having that accountability
was just key so with copilot you can talk to your trainer every day schedule calls with them anytime
just straight through the app so let's now move on to what happened after that video that you
guys saw we're gonna move on to chapter three which i'm gonna call the holidays so starting
from around mid-november through january for us youtubers the holidays are like busy season
you know it is ad spending time for me work got crazier in this period than it has ever been in
my entire life i had so many great opportunities i was taking on i feel like every day i had a new
deadline like i would wake up plan a video film it edit it and then wake up and do the same thing
the next day and during that time i did not have the time to work out quite as much as i had in the
months prior in hindsight i could have absolutely prioritized that if i would have just taken on
less obligations pint-sized 20 20 you know so anyways it just wasn't happening what fitness and
movement looked like for me was getting outside and going on a walk around my neighborhood because
i needed to mentally de-stress or doing half of a co-pilot workout like there were times where i
would start a workout and then i would fit in what i could and i would end it and submit it
like halfway and i remember something olivia said during this time because mentally on my
end to myself i was feeling like this didn't count for anything because it wasn't the full
workout that i normally would do and olivia replied back to it and she said like exercise
will always be here like good job getting in what you did just overall being super encouraging and
what that did for me was kind of give me the approval to give myself permission to be okay
with a short workout or a walk instead of shaming myself because it wasn't like this full long full
body workout i had set these goals that worked for me the past couple of months at one time in
my life and then with the circumstances at this time those were no longer working so i learned
at this time it's okay to change my goals and in order to make this realistic my new goal is to
like get outside and go on a walk or squeeze in a short workout where i could and with changing that
i began to just be really proud of myself if i got into any kind of movement during the day
versus every single day feeling like i wasn't doing enough and giving myself the flexibility
to change my goals allowed me to stay consistent with those new goals so on that note you'll see
throughout but i would just forever speak so highly of olivia i know the rest of the co-pilot
trainers are the same way like this is a company committed to encouraging you to supporting you to
never shaming you and never making fitness about weight and just overall helping you build healthy
habits and give you the tools to have fitness be a part of your life like in the long term
co-pilot is all about taking a very healthy and positive approach to fitness and i feel like
it's still just like lacking in the fitness world there's no like do this workout because
you went out over the weekend and like you need to make up for it now it's about enjoying movement
and being proud of your effort so moving on into 2022 like early 2022 we're gonna call this chapter
three no this is chapter four here's the kicker is that my life never slowed down starting in
late february if you follow my content you know i have been going on trip after trip especially from
like april on around festival season i was gone every single weekend a lot of weekdays and i spent
the whole summer in europe but that'll be its own chapter so from february up until i left for the
summer life in l.a or lack thereof was basically just as crazy as the holidays i did have time here
and there to squeeze in a more full workout in march i also got on another boxing kick so i was
doing a video trying that for 30 days and i just like kind of laid out that plan with olivia who
was super supportive of it and she would still you know hype me up for going doing a boxing workout
so if you're someone who has a changing schedule or maybe you like going to some studio classes
too and you don't want to sacrifice that or you like going on runs or whatever your trainer can
program one workout or like six for you in a week like it's really just up to you everyone is not
getting the same thing like your trainer is taking a very personalized approach to your life and
needs and goals so previously my co-pilot workouts have been anywhere from like 35 to 50 minutes and
during this time i actually had olivia program couple shorter like 15 to 20 minute workouts
that would get me moving and be a little bit more achievable so to continue with how my relationship
with fitness has evolved so i'm going to talk more about body image and the growth i noticed
in myself my eyes still twitching we're gonna move into chapter five which is the summer so the whole
time basically that i've been out of the country shameless plug if you wanna watch those videos
i will have the vlogs linked but around april co-pilot released a new habits feature which came
at the perfect time for me so i worked with olivia to come up with three daily habits i wanted to
start doing every day so in april i implemented that i wanted to be getting a certain amount of
steps in every day drinking a certain amount of water every day and stretching every day because
that's just something that i feel like i always neglect so i was implementing those habits at the
perfect time because realistically if i'm like out traveling you know exploring some city all
day every day changing cities every one or two or three days like where am i squeezing in a
50 minute workout so my new goal was to accomplish my habits and i actually got in the habit of doing
them like those have stuck also since i was going to be staying in hotels i had olivia create a few
hotel room friendly workouts that were just body weight because obviously i'm not lugging around
my weights with me i was looking around one really big weight which was my suitcase but what i think
is really meaningful here is that it was over the summer that i realized that my relationship with
my body image and with fitness had just like completely changed over the past year of using
copilot without me really even noticing until i was like where i am now a year ago before i
started using copilot or even like years ago when i was at my like fittest point or actually no
not even my fitness point my thinnest point those things are not related i'll go on a brief tangent
here to say that in the past year as well i came to realize when i was doing all these co-pilot
workouts like i was the strongest i've ever been my endurance to this day is like the best it's
ever been you know put me on a hike put me up a million flights of stairs like i'm not even gonna
get winded my endurance has never been this good and realizing that true fitness-wise i was at the
best point in my life while being far from the thinnest i'd ever been you know that was truly
like for me like a groundbreaking realization to realize that those things were disconnected and
that alone like changed my relationship with body image and i just became really detached from it
because like my current version is more capable than the last one you know what i mean but back
to what i was saying is that in the past when i travel i would feel like every vacation put
me behind i'm you know eating and drinking a little more and heaven forbid like enjoying
being in this place that i may never go back to that was how i would feel in the past and this
summer traveling non-stop for a million years i didn't feel that way at all i went into the summer
again shifting my goals to make them realistic for my circumstances my goals were to keep up with my
habits and to squeeze in a hotel room workout when i had the energy to after like being out
exploring in a million degree heat every day and i accepted that if i did not feel up for that it was
completely okay because i'm out here walking 15 000 steps a day like more than i ever do in la and
at the end of the day my body would be exhausted so like a goal again with the habits was like
to stretch it out every night because my muscles needed that so my fitness mentality for the summer
was just to feel great about how much i was moving every single day again like way more than here
and i accepted in advance to going on this trip that like i'm probably gonna gain a few pounds
from enjoying like the trip of a lifetime with my girlfriend like we're never gonna travel that long
ever again so i just approached this whole summer from a position of gratitude and acceptance and
i felt no guilt and again that's really all just because of co-pilot and olivia and how my mindset
has changed throughout time to being at such a place of just being healthy and positive like i
learned to be kinder to myself and to just do what i can at any phase in my life so let's bring this
to the present i think we're at chapter six when i'm filming this i've been back in la for like a
week and a half and what i've been doing so far is i've been excited to keep up with my steps
every day on the treadmill here that was like a habit i built over the summer out of necessity but
the biggest thing and why like presently i feel so good i had the whole summer to think about
this even before i left for the summer i knew that these were changes i was gonna be making right now
when i got back is that finally i got to a place where i could look back at the past basically your
holidays on and realize how busy i kept myself all the time to where my life was in like no balance
like i'm only gonna talk about fitness here there's a lot of areas i was leaving myself like
the crumbs left over to go towards things that are important to me like working out like doing
things that creatively fulfill me that aren't work so i decided months ago that when i got back to la
that i was done being overwhelmed i can no longer say yes to every opportunity even if i'm excited
about it and it feels so natural to say yes i got to start saying no because saying yes to
so many things just was not serving me like where i am now and what i am committed to like i've had
the whole summer to think about this and i've been implementing it already fitness is a priority for
me that i'm not willing to sacrifice anymore even though like i said i've been in a great mentality
about how whatever my life has been like and like been doing the best i can for the past year and
however that has changed throughout time but now that i'm back i know that for myself i truly feel
the best and i'm able to get in a hand you know four ish rigorous good workouts in a week so i've
adjusted my goals again and that's my new goal and i'm excited to prioritize that and i've already
been doing it both the workouts and saying no to opportunities that in the past i would say yes to
i'm not willing to just keep going as things were before so that brings me to now that's where i'm
at to round up i guess like over the past year the biggest things i've learned through co-pilot
are any movement is better than no movement be kind to yourself i can focus on and celebrate
being active without having to focus on physical results small healthy habits are more beneficial
in the long run versus being extreme which is unsustainable motivation is a feeling
don't let motivation affect if i'm working towards my goals or not this is a big one it's okay for
goals to change in order to be realistic just try to be consistent with whatever those goals are and
lastly my most recent one it's worth it to create time to prioritize what makes you feel your best
i know i've talked for a year and a half this has just been like a lot of things that have been on
my mind right now this is like a very big thing in my life like it's driving my decisions and i just
feel so proud of myself for like how throughout the past year i've seen so much personal growth in
like the areas of fitness and body image which i know are super tricky for like basically everyone
and working with olivia i've built healthy habits that have continued to last in the long
term which is co-pilot's whole goal i genuinely cannot recommend enough having that one-on-one
coaching experience to guide you and support you the workouts on the app are fun like i enjoy them
they can be created to your taste to what types of workouts you like recently i've been doing some
pilates ones and having that accountability and someone to encourage you is just a game changer so
again i will have my link below if you guys would like to try copilot out and get your 14 days free
has been so wonderful to partner with a company whose values and mission and just the way they go
about fitness is so positive and healthy yeah it's just been great to partner with copilot that is it
hopefully this gave you guys a few things to think about and i'll be continuing to share on the vlogs
as this continues but that's it thank you guys for watching i'll see you in my next video