Yesterday I laid out a basic plan for tackling daily and weekly chores. Just enough to keep the house in decent shape. Nothing too fancy. Just the basics. Today I want to do the same, but this time for keeping my body in decent shape. I look back at this post from a little over a year ago and realize nothing much has changed. I’ve gone up and down the scale by 10lbs or so in either direction at various times, but I’m back at a weight I’m not happy with and it’s time to break this thing down to baby steps. And there are really only two things that need to be done to accomplish a more fit figure. Eat better and exercise. That’s it. I’ve googled it a million times and that’s all google can come up with, so it must be true. Well, there are also lots of creepy pills or weird plants that are suggested, but they aren’t fooling me.
I talked a little bit about step one in this post. I’m going with protein, vegetables and fruit. Add in some water and the multi vitamin with iron my doctor suggested and that’s it. Sugar will be at a minimum as will carbs and dairy. I’ve almost entirely stuck to it since Sunday and I’m already getting that rush of energy that not eating carbs gives me. I haven’t lost an ounce of weight, but at least I feel pretty good. And I am only 3 days in so I will give myself a break.
As for step two, the whole exercising thing, well, if I haven’t said it before, (and I’m sure I have) I hate it. Really hate it. You know I don’t use the H word lightly. I thought if I could find a way to keep myself accountable for working out, I might have more drive to actually move around. I attempted to do this last year, after my yearly physical, when I decided that I wanted to be able to look my doctor in the face and say, “Yes, I do exercise on a regular basis”. That didn’t happen. But, I’ve brainstormed another idea. I am famous for pinning an inordinate amount of exercise tips. Unfortunately, the amount of calories burned while clicking Pin It just doesn’t add up to very much. (did you know that it takes a 3500 calorie deficit to burn ONE stinking pound??). So, I’m going to start trying those pins and reporting back my thoughts and results via this here blog. That might be enough to get me going because you know how I love this little blog.
And, so far so good, because I have already tried three different workouts!
When I started this one, I kind of thought it was going to be easy. I was wrong. This was tough and had me breathing heavy and sweating a bit. And I only did two rounds for a total of about 17 minutes. I love any workout that doesn’t involve any crazy equipment (like weights, who has those?). I will admit I sort of made up a move for Oblique v-ups because I have no idea what that is. I could have googled it, but that’s not as fun as making things up. I will definitely be adding this to the regular rotation.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZuujTQ4amA&w=740&h=370]
I bought a mini trampoline. It is very fun. It is also a very tough work out. I did try the workout above, but I honestly had a hard time with some of it. I think I need more practice before I’m ready for some of the moves that require, well, grace, I guess. Can you practice your way to grace? Well, either way, the tramp I bought came with a DVD that demonstrates about 30 different moves you can do on a trampoline, including things like push ups and leg lifts, so you’re not just hopping around constantly. You get a little bit of a break and can catch your breath. I’m going to experiment with the moves and put together a customized workout. I’ll be sure to share. If you have a mini trampoline (or rebounder as they are also called), google some workouts! It is fun and low impact. If you don’t have a trampoline, they start at about $40 and go up to about $100. Mine was 40 bucks from Target.
Lastly, I tried this ballet workout. I didn’t really love it. Sorry, ballet. It was a smidge boring and it was not a video, just details on each move. I did like that it seemed to target different muscles than the other work outs I did. I’m not going to give up on the ballet work out, though. I will continue the hunt for a video that will capture my attention!
I think I managed to work out a total of 4 times in the last week. That’s a good number for me. Ok, it’s four times more than pretty much any other week. I WILL be back with reviews of new workouts next week!
