What Motivates You to Workout?

My legs are stiff today from my workout which makes me happy. I added lunges to my routine. My bf thinks I'm weird but I do lunges when I walk my dog. Actually, it weirds my dog out too haha. I also added weights to my squats. I hold 5lbs in each hand and hold the weights by my head while I do the squats. Good times good times.

So what motivates you to workout?

I thought about this today. Exercising is not natural to me. When I was a kid, I loathed gym class. Even now, anything that requires physical activity does not interest me. But now, I am feeling that push to exercise. Here are a few reasons why...

1. To look good. I know I know. So superficial. I realized that people who I think have amazing bodies, workout! Gotta work hard to get it.

2. To compensate for the crap I eat. Lately, I've been eating a ton of tacos from Taco Time. I HATE the term clean eating (although I guess it's the same as healthy eating) and associate it with deprivation. Although sometimes I end up doing things like eating a whole bag of crunchy Cheetos in one to two days. So... Exercise kinda compensates.

A portabello provolone veggie burger from White Spot and a salad. Although I just looked up the nutrition count and there's a ton of unhealthy crap in this burger! 50g of fat, 1332.3mg of sodium?? What the-. I chose it because I kinda don't like meat burgers. It tasted good though.

3. Pictures of people working out. Gotta love Pinterest for that. Also, reading about people being fit and healthy.

4. Health. Of course. I'm getting old. Your basal metabolic rate decreases with each decade (true story). Public Health Agency of Canada recommends 2 1/2 hours of moderate to vigorous physical activity every week. I'm sure my body will thank me in the long run.

5. To tone up and get stronger. I struggled a lot in the hospital with boosting patients. I'm super weak. I really wanted to add strength. I'm also soft. It's probably a combination of a chubby childhood and my unhealthy eating habits. I did a plank in front of the mirror for the first time. I was shocked to see my abdomen fat. It looked like I put three blocks of butter in a pouch and it was hanging off my abdomen. However, my back end has the opposite problem. I'm doing squats and leg exercises to increase my muscle and hopefully gain some cushion. Currently, I have my yoga mat (good investment), exercise mat, and a folded blanket that I use for my abdominal exercises. Sitting on my floor hurts my bones... a lot. I can hold the boat pose with my abdomen strength but it's a pain in my bum (no pun intended). Am I the only one who has this problem?

I was watching Biggest Loser the other day. It's my first time watching it and I love it. I think the trainers are SO motivating. In this episode, the group who lost had to stay in a junk food room for 4 hrs/day for a week. The food wasn't an issue as much as they were sedentary being stuck in that room while the other teams were in the gym. I'm watching it thinking, just because you don't have equipment, doesn't mean you can't work out! Planks, pushups, jumping jacks, etc. I myself was doing wall squats while watching the show! Use your own body to your advantage! On the last day, their trainer reminded them of this concept and got them to workout in the room.

What moves you?

The Lazy Girl Workout (3/365)

So my 365 days of blogging will overflow into this one.

Sadly, my hopes to exercise has been futile. I went for my first run on Jan 1. It's the only run I've done. I did some moderate cardio with Tony's 10 minute workouts but found I got bored.

However, I have started getting into strength training and do it everyday. I rotate between arms, legs, and core days. Here is what I currently do when the motivation hits me (which seems to be after midnight unfortunately). I call it lazy because these aren't a full out sweat workout and the exercises last as long as my attention.

My tools of choice right now are weights, resistance bands, and yoga mat. I'm starting out with 5lb weights. I rotate my exercises in sets. I got my weights from Walmart and resistant bands from Fitness Town. I like doing planks/pushups (well I hate them) because they're the most bang for your buck. Tones your whole body in one go. I keep the tv on to keep my attention span.

Here are my ghetto drawings of my workouts. Probably googling/youtubing them would be better.

Arms
1) bicep curls (either with weights or resistance bands)- keeping my arm at 90 degrees then curling my arms up
2) arm raises- hold the weight at my head then raise up to ceiling
3) outstretched raises- Hold the weight at my hip then raise weight parallel to the floor
4) standing tricep extensions- Hold weight behind head with elbow close to head, raise to the ceiling
5) pushups- real ones!
6) various resistance band exercises- My bf got a door anchor from Fitness Depot for only $3. It provides an anchor so I can do the resistance band exercises from 4:00-5:30.

Legs
-squats
-side lying leg lifts- lie on my side and raise leg up 40-90 degrees (I don't think I'm flexible enough to do 90 degrees haha)
-wall squats
-arrowhead leg workout- Too hard to describe but I found a youtube video with butt exercises where the 2nd exercises (1:38) is it.

Core
-Abdominal leg raises
-alternating scissor crunches- Lie on back, raise legs to 30 degree angle, bend left knee to right elbow, alternate back and forth with opposite limbs
-planks
-Sadienardini 20 minute fat burning yoga

Harder Better Faster Stronger

Happy New Year!

As usual, I have my intentions of incorporating exercise into my lifestyle. I also really want to change my diet and eat a lot better. I have no intentions of cutting my favourite foods out BUT I definitely need to moderate. I am at the end of my mid 20's. I can't live like I'm a teenager anymore!

My bf bought some equipment to workout in.

We're going to try working out together! This should be interesting as I tend to be a lone ranger.

I have a fair amount of exercise stuff that have accumulated over the years. It gives me variety to play with.

-Insanity
-P90x
-Pilates and yoga DVDs
-10 minute trainer
-yoga ball
-weights
-elliptical machine
-resistant bands
-chin up bar
-gravity bar
-forearm roller

I also have the great outdoors to go running in.

My hopes/goals for this year are:

1. Run 5km without stopping
2. Replace some fat with muscle and gain 5lbs
3. Actually exercise for the whole year

I will dust off my ol' Exercise Inspiration Pinterest board and start posting more too.

What are your fitness goals?

How Committed Am I to Working Out?

Yesterday I had hopes to run on a track while my bf went to school. However, by the time he had to leave, I had only gotten 5 1/2 hrs of sleep. I chose to sleep some more because I have come to the conclusion my work outs are terrible on lack of sleep. When I woke up, I did a round of Insanity to make it 3 days in a row. I have partially fallen off the Insanity wagon. I follow the order of the DVDs but not the schedule. I throw some running in there and have days off when I'm busy. Days off are important. My joints are starting to get sore.

But that's the thing. I will be busy soon. What if the days off get longer and longer? I went to Sports Chek the other day. I wanted to buy a pair of shorts or maybe another dri-fit tank top. But they were around 35-50$. I only have 2 pairs of shorts I work out in so I'm constantly doing laundry now. And then I asked myself, will I really stick to working out? Is it a worthy investment? In just under 2 weeks, I'm going to be starting my nursing preceptorship. I don't know what my schedule will be like. Is it 4 days on 5 days off? I sure as hell won't be working out in the early mornings. When I leave the hospital, the first thing I want to do is take a shower. I definitely could on days off but seems kind of counterproductive to have that many days off in a row.

Or maybe I should just stop making excuses and just do it. My baseline motivation right now is that there is no reason for me not to do it with all the free time i have. But I'd like for this to be a regular part of my life.

Too Much Cardio is Bad?

That is the question.

Recently I read how cardio can make you skinny fat and cardio is counterproductive to building muscle. My personal aim is cardio. When I only do it 3x/week, it feels like a cop out. I like Insanity (despite how hard it is) because it feels like both cardio and working my muscles. I do like running too. I think the amount of cardio I'm doing is fine. My bf thinks I should do less cardio and do more weights. I'm getting somewhat bony and some muscle padding would help alleviate that. Today, I saw I was to do Cardio Recovery on the Insanity schedule which is muscle strengthening and zero cardio. I was tempted to do a cardio dvd but figured some anaerobic exercise would do me good. My legs were sore. I sweated. I suppose it was a productive workout.

Anyway, I still don't think I'm doing too much cardio. To me, too much is doing cardio for long periods of time every day. At 45 mins-ish 3-5x/week, I think I'm good.

I'm going to run on a track on Wednesday. I'm pretty stoked. It's been years since I ran on one and I like it because it gives me a good gauge of my distance. I don't have anything fancy that measures my distance for me. I'm going to aim for 5km and see how my time is.

Too Busy to Workout

I filled out an entire month (well except those four days of not working out due to hurting my foot) of workouts. It's more than I expected of myself from when I first began in May. You know what the push for me to work out is? If I can spend 10 hrs a day on twitter, facebook, youtube etc, I can sacrifice at least 30 mins of that to get my heart pumping. 

However this week, I felt swamped. I had two finals and a project. My family went to Hawaii so I was in charge of making lunches and dinners for 6 people. I had to take care of my dog who's still hobbling on 3 legs. I was still on my go to bed at 3 am (it's 3am as I type this) and wake up at noon schedule which really screwed up my productivity. So I was too busy to workout. And it sounds so lame. It makes me worry about what it will really be like when I'm at the hospital 48 hrs/week plus paper writing in between. I was only able to squeeze 3 workouts this past week: P90X Cardio X, Running 5.2 km, and Insanity Cardio Power and Resistance. 

But I have 2 weeks of freedom so we all know what that means! Enjoying myself to the full max. I am hoping that within these two weeks, I will be able to run 5km without stopping. The thing I love about Insanity is that I feel like it really improves my stamina. 

Here's some pictures. A friend sent me this pic the other week. I was in Gr 11 or 12. Man how time flies. 

Like my amazing photoshop skills? Pretend I'm in a field with my dog. 

So Much of Running is Mental

An elementary school classmate of mine msg'd me the other day highlighting the above quote. While I was out for my run, I debated that. I initially mapped out a 5 km route but halfway, I had to run home for a bathroom break. I altered my running route and ran that half route twice. Too bad majority of it was in the sun. I started getting a bit wheezy from the heat and wondered if I mentally thought I couldn't run anymore or I physically couldn't. I ended up slowing to a walk for a few meters then picking back up again. My HR was strong at 160-184. A little bit on the high side but I think the heat had something to do with it. I'm really pleased that I can push myself a bit further with each run.

I am totally obsessed with Pinterest.  gillybean604 exercise inspiration is my pinterest board. I do find it motivating. Although right now, my own interest in working out is motivating enough. I actually enjoy exercising!

I need to find some new ab moves for my ab routine. I'm already doing 3 sets of 5 different exercises. I could add more reps or find something more challenging. Currently the best one is the basic plank. I think I will increase  to 1min 20 secs/plank. It's an improvement from when I first started at 30secs. I seriously googled how to get washboard abs. I liked this article because it discussed different type of plank exercises. Plus it didn't suggest crunches or situps which I hate. I don't think it's rocket science to get a six pack. Eat well and exercise seems to be the underlying tone of all the articles I read. There are no shortcuts! Currently, my abs are still hiding.