Showing posts with label Exercise. Show all posts

New Work Out

I don’t know about you but I’m tired of being kept in the house. Of course we can actually go places now but we tried that this past weekend. It was no fun. I have some birthday money and a couple gift cards I wanted to spend. Some places required a mask to enter so we stayed away from those. I only wear my mask in places that I need to go, not places I want to look around for leisure. I could not buy any clothes because the dressing rooms are closed. I have to try on things before I purchase them and I hate having to return stuff. But it is what it is. Needless to say, I came home with a new yoga mat.

Why A yoga mat? Well, I have decided to start a fitness program called Body Boss Fitness. I have lost 50 lbs on the Nutrisystem diet and kept the weight off for 4 years until the past few months of not working. I have managed to gain 15 lbs and been trying to get it back off. I still do Nutrisystem but not faithfully, due to job loss, I do not have the motivation or extra money to put into in right now. So since I’ve lost the weight with diet, I am now ready to lose more weight with exercise. 
You can read my journey with Nutrisystem HERE. It really does work!


Body Boss Fitness is a 12 week program of three 25 minute intense workouts a week. 
It will take me 16 weeks because I will start by doing the 4 week “pre-training’ workouts first.
I hate making my body hurt but they say, “what doesn’t hurt, doesn’t help”.


I also needed a workout step. I was going to use the step in our sunken living room but my husband remembered seeing a workout step in the attic when we moved in this house 17 years ago. I asked him if he would go up there and see, so up to the back corner of the attic he went. He came back down and sure enough, there it was. It also included some extra 2 inch stacks. There were some cracks and it looked like something Jane Fonda would have used back in the 70’s but it will work for my routines. 


I have completed my first week of pre-training and boy am I sore. During the first week I have learned a few things.

1. My mind has not caught up with my body.
2. I can’t get up and down like I used too.
3. And who the heck invented “burpees? Satan?”

I am really devoted to complete this program and hope to lose a few pounds while also toning my abs, legs and butt. Wish me luck because, it does have a warning for anyone over 50 not to do the workouts. 


Pffhh, I’ll show them!!!



What is Your Why?

We all make goals for ourselves. For me it was to lose 30 pounds. I went above that goal and lost 50. I did this with *Nutrisystem. I'm not going into my whole speech about how great this diet works or how good it makes me feel. You can simply find that information on one of the page tabs at the top of my blog.

I'm posting today about one of the struggle most dieters go through. I am guilty too. 

I have not fallen off the diet, but those pieces of moms cakes have started getting bigger on my plate.
My hula hoop routines have turned into arm workouts using the recliner handle.
My three mile walks have turned into half miles walks around the grocery store.
You get it? Need I say more? Ok ill say it......I put on an extra eight pounds that I do not want.
My pants have started getting snug, my energy level is low and I am feeling that low self esteem creeping up on me.

It's hard. I work alone in a tiny office eight hours a day. I do not get a lot of motivation to do anything for myself. I simply do not have extra money to join a gym or hire a fitness trainer. It's easy to get depressed, to envy others and just loose all hope of ever bettering myself.

I have to ask myself "what is my why?' I had a reason for dieting in the first place. There was a “why” I made that choice. For me, it was to be able to wear those cute outfits again, to get my energy back and to have a healthier lifestyle. I put a lot of work into getting there so why would I want to just let it go?




So, I refuse to let cake and recliners win. I'm grabbing the bull by the horns and plan to push myself harder to get that extra eight lbs off. I love that I have Nutrisystem foods stocked up and my Nutrisystem friends are always there to motivate me. 

Dieting is a life style change. I compare it to a drinkaholic. You simply can not give into what destroys you. You have to stay away from the temptations (that's why I have not had a Krispy Kreme doughnut since Jan 2015). You have to always fight to stay on track. We have to push ourselves to be better and not fall back into bad habits. Only we can make this decision. 

So if your trying to reach a goal and feel like giving up, put your hat back on on remember why you started in the first place. 


*Expect to lose 1-2 lbs on Nutrisystem

Exercise

People often ask me what I do for exercise. My answer is “Not much”.

I do not belong to any gym, dance teams or boot camps. I used to do zumba classes twice a week but that did not work for me. It kept me energized but I never lost any weight in several years of doing Zumba.
I do not do yoga. I am not against people doing yoga and know that it has a lot of balance and strengthening benefits, but as a Christian, I choose to stay away from it.

So, What do I do?

I WALK. I do a lot of walking. For example: I do not try to park close to the door when I go shopping. We will park at the top of the parking lot and walk. If there are other stores around, we walk to those instead of driving the short distance. I mean, if you walk there, you got to walk back. Right?  Unless of course I'm alone, Then I will park as close to the door as I can for security.
In the afternoons, my husband and I will take a fast pace walk around the neighborhood. We do almost 3 miles in about 45 minutes. I try do do this every day. We enjoy this time together. We love to walk and talk about our day, greet neighbors and pet dogs along the way. It’s not only healthy for our heart, its healthy for our togetherness.

I Hula Hoop- I love to hula hoop on my fitness hoop. When I thought I would never be able to hoop, I purchased an adult size hula hoop. It’s weighted and padded and I was able to work it! Ha. It’s crazy how with the right size and weighted hoop I was able to bring back that childhood fun again. The hula hoop works great for toning abs and legs. I put music in my ears and hula hoop for about 20-30 minutes. On top of that, I have been doing a 30 day challenge using an app called FXP Fitness for strength and stretch.


 Fitness hoop - Walmart  (I actually got mine here at TJMaxx)

When I want to play, I grab a regular hula hoop. This is more like the toy. It’s light weight and thin. It’s so much harder to keep going but since I’ve done a lot of practice on my fitness hoop, I can now keep this light one up and going. I have even learned some new moves and trick by watching YouTube videos. 

Hula hoop -Santana Hoops.  Exercise ball- Walmart 

Exercise Ball- I recently purchased the exercise ball. (AKA stability ball, yoga ball, or Swiss ball). I was going to use it for an office chair. It suppose to help with core strength, balance and posture when used as a chair. However, after getting the thing pumped up, It’s way to big to big to just toss in my car and take to work. I decided to use it at home instead. I found a great stability ball workout app that takes me through a routine of moves to either loose weight or tone up. You can pick a workout to target the areas you want to work on. 

There ya have it. So far, all of these activities work to help me keep active and toned.

For those that are able to workout, what are some of your workout choices? Do you go to the gym or workout at home? What are some ways you keep moving?