Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Fitness Plan for January 2015


This workout can be found in Oxygen Magazine January 2015 issue. 

I have had a subscription to Oxygen Magazine on and off for the past 3 years and I must say that I enjoy the constant inspiration and many fitness plans that they offer. I may not have a fitness model's body right now but I can with all the information that this magazine has provided me over the years. 

Yesterday I did a fasted run and ended up over eating by 700 calories!! Today I found myself sliding right back into poor eating choices and realized that if I continued to eat with abandon,  I would be countering my efforts gained from the past week. To get back on track, I steamed up some greens and am waiting until 6:30 p.m. to eat again. 

It is a little unsettling how quickly I can fall back into poor eating habits after one indulgent dessert/snack. 

The rest of this week, my workouts will consist of two more runs, a bike ride, and two full-body heavy-weight circuits. 

Happy Holiday! 

Monday, December 22, 2014

Making Goals into Reality

Health and Fitness Goals

This past few days I have been working making my goals stick for the long run. I am glad that I wrote them down in ink and paper and again by typing them. 

Apps I am currently using


I love my iPhone apps because they help me track and keep myself accountable for my current goals. These apps are: 

MyNetDiary 
RunKeeper
Welios

Welios is a newer app for me. It is a great app for motivating and inspiring you to reach your health and fitness goals. Users who are winning and struggling with their health and fitness goals post regularly and I have related with each end of the spectrum. 

So far I have upped my running and yoga practice in conjunction with my weight lifting because other users have reminded me through their inspiring posts that a combination of lifting, running (biking, swimming), and yoga are what works for me,  I have posted regularly for the past week and this also helped me to consistently eat healthy and according to my goals.

Family and Personal Creativity Goals

My boys have also watched less TV and we have had some additional quality puzzle, blocking building, and reading time together so this is also another win!

As for letter writing to my lovely friends, I have been working on sending personalized Holiday cards to friends and family, so another win!

Finally, my personal creativity goal is has not been as daily as I would like but I have seen set time for myself to journal so I am happy with this!

Screen shots and pictures from the past five days or so on choices I am making to achieve my healthy and fit goals. 



Thursday, December 18, 2014

12 Week Goal Setting

12 Week Goals

Recently, I have been listening to No Meat Athlete Podcast and I love it! Each week of so they do a podcast on various topics or with a guest vegetarian/vegan athlete. Listening to these podcasts are a constant source of motivation to be the healthiest and fittest person I can be.  

Yesterday on my long commute to work (2-4 times a month I drive 3 hours drive to and 3 hours from for work!!!!), I was listening to their goal-setting podcast titled: "How to Use December to Avoid the New Year's Trap." From this I was inspired to begin to write out my goals for the year, and to even better than just goals for the year, but 12 week goals in 4 areas of my life: 

(1) Family/Relationships
(2) Personal Creativity
(3) Fit and Healthy Body
(4) Work/School

Family/Relationship goal is two-fold and not related to one another: 
  • Limit boy's tv time--ESPECIALLY during the week and engage them in creative activities.
  • Write a letter bi-weekly to one of my friend
Personal Creativity goal is for me to journal daily. I have a journal already for these purpose and now I will bring it with me so those spare moments when I would before get on my phone and browse the web/Pinterest/Facebook, I can instead write my thoughts and feelings and perhaps a poem. 

Fit and Healthy body goal is a little more detailed as that is the area that I have been struggling the most this past year, although I have had strength gains but no real fat loss. 
  • Adopt a modified Eat to LIve Nutritarian 6-week meal plan.This is something I have been building up slowly to do and I finally feel that I can commit to the whole 6 weeks.  
  • Currently, I am exercising consistently 3-6 days a week. The only alteration I will make to this part of my goal is that I begin swimming or biking once a week, on top of my 2 runs and 2-4 days of heavy lifting circuit/HIIT training. I currently am using 20 lbs/25 lbs/30 lbs dumbbells in my training so YIPPEE for strength building!
Work/School goal is to continue learning as much as I can from work and paralegal cert. classes. Last term was a success and this upcoming term will likely be a success as well. 

The Balance Act


Balancing these four areas of my life is challenging some weeks and that is okay with me. The first thing to fall wayside is my health and fitness goals which are usually just reduced in effort exerted in accomplishing them. I have accepted that this will happen from time to time. The most important thing for me to remember is that a few bad days during the week will not derail my healthy and fit body goals. 




One of the Fitness Facebook groups I am part of, the admin posted this and I loved it so I am sharing it on here as well :)

So yes, the next 12 weeks my goals are as outlined above. The concrete days are from December 18, 2014 to March 12, 2015. 

Heres to weekly check-in!