fitness goals

Fitness Friday 04.19

| The Bee Life

Guess what! It’s still cold season – but when is it not? With cold season and daylight savings (have you recovered yet?) in full force it’s important that we take care of our bodies and our immune health, here are a few ways I make sure to combat this every year, especially when I start feeling like something might be creeping in – plus it’s just good to be our best, healthy selves.
Fitness Friday 04.19 - the bee life
Good Sleep. In order to get good sleep, I like a natural herb Valerian Root at night – this helps my thoughts and stress shut off and get a bit of a deeper sleep than I normally would.  I seriously get some of the best sleep when I take this, although please read labels and consult with a doctor before taking! (because I’m definitely not a doctor!)

Drink Lots of Water. Getting into a good routine and pattern of drinking water is crucial, you mind find yourself using the restroom more, but staying hydrated keeps your skin healthy – helps muscles and joints work better – and helps keep the toxins out!  I’ve always heard drinking water helps suppress your appetite, but I have yet to have that happen to me. *smiles*

Remember to Laugh. I’ve been lucky enough to have a few good catch-ups with good friends, and one in particular was filled with belly laughs, literally the entire night. My face hurt, my stomach hurt, but it felt SO good, and I realized I hadn’t had a good laugh in a long time, and I needed it – it’s just good for the soul.  We need to nurture our souls just as much as our bodies because our mental health affects our physical health.

Exercise. It wouldn’t be a Fitness Friday if I didn’t mention exercise! Sweating out those toxins is another great way to combat cold and flu season – just be smart and clean if you’re in a group workout facility and hand sanitize as needed!

How do you combat cold season to be your best self?

 

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Fitness Friday 03.19

| The Bee Life

If you read my post about Life Lately & Bee or keep up with my Fitness Friday posts – you know my fitness routine and goals have been struggling a bit! But as I’m working to pull myself out of my winter slump – I’ve made an intentional change to my fitness routine within the last week. Woo! Fitness Friday 03.19 - the bee life
In the last week and a day, I’ve already worked out more than I did in the entire month of February! EEK! But it’s all positive now – I’m back on track, I’m making strides to fit ME TIME into my days and making my health a priority.  Not to mention with a birthday (tomorrow) – I want to continue to stay in my best health, and keep getting better after all the progress I made the last two years.

Looking forward and into the rest of the year – we have a 10-miler race (that we’ve run the last 4-years) at the end of April so I have to get my butt in gear so that I can have a successful run!  From there we need to sign up for another half or two, this year still and continue the running game while sticking to my cross-training.

Here’s to making more intentional changes, for good!

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Catch-up on other Fitness Friday’s: Eliminate Excuses | 2019 Fitness Goals

Fitness Friday 02.19

| The Bee Life

Guys! Confession: I’ve been totally slacking from a fitness perspective – after working through and fighting the urge to rest with prolonged chronic back pain (almost 4-months) – my routine has been completely shot, because I all of a sudden haven’t been resisting the urge to rest as much! #FailedRoutine
Fitness Friday 02.19 - the bee life
I’ve been slowly working through the back, getting back my strength and working to be back to the place I want to be with my routine.  I’ve also been itching to get running again, I’ve actually been dreaming about running – but I’m an outside runner and the winter doesn’t really jive well with that. But, enough with the excuses – time for plans on how to get back into the groove for 2019, for real this time!

First things first, stop making excuses.  I haven’t been getting up out of bed for my early morning workouts, and I easily bow out of the evenings blaming the commute or being tired.  It’s time to start waking up and working out!

Seriously, cut those damn carbs. Again, lazy is easy and carbs are a lazy way to eat.  Better planning for meals and proactively cutting out those carbs will help balance the inconsistent workout routine.

Establish a running routine. As I mentioned in my 2019 fitness goals and above, I want to incorporate running as a more prominent staple into my fitness routine this year. We are already signed up for a race in April, but I want to sign up for half marathon… or two *grins* this way I’ll have a training schedule to help me stick to this goal.

Are you struggling with your fitness goals? How do you overcome them?

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Fitness Friday 01.19

| The Bee Life

It’s a new year, which mean it’s time to reset on your fitness goals, evaluate wins and losses from the past year and start focusing on the now and make things happen! Because Fitness has and will continue to be a priority for me, I wanted to really focus on specific goals for my health and wellness beyond my other goals for the new year and what better way to kickoff the first Fitness Friday than with clear goals of the year!
fitness friday 01.19 - the bee life
Run More! Running has always been part of my fitness, some years more miles than others – with the goal of still running a handful of races, I want to incorporate running in my routine beyond the training for the races and making it more of constant.

Build My Core Strength. This should have been a priority for the past 13 years – due to  my chronic back pain – which has been flaring up more than lately, I’ve been thinking about ways to moderate this more as I get older.  And one thing that I’ve been told in my years is building my core strength, so by adding in a simple addition of regular planks I hope to build this up!

Less Carbs.  Plain and simple. I’ll begin buckling down on this a bit more, as I’ve been enjoying the finer things in life lately.

Remaining Consistent with Bootcamp. The last two years I’ve gotten into a good groove, seen progress and continued to get stronger.  I like the group fitness class and it’s an easy way to check off 2 or 3 days of workouts in the week!

Although I’m not working towards fitting into a wedding dress – this past year was a good year of maintaining my routine, sticking strong on my diet.  I worked so hard to establish that routine and make the big progress that I did – I don’t want to loose that routine or happiness I gained in myself.  So here’s to another year of becoming and loving your best self!

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Fitness Friday 11.18

| The Bee Life

It’s that time of the year, the  gatherings, dinners, the holidays are creeping in quick!  If you’re like me and go to THREE different Thanksgivings within a four day period, you can quickly kiss away all your fitness progress, that’s if you decide to indulge in each and every one, not to mention all the booze!
Fitness Friday 11.18 - the bee life
So in order to maintain and not gain this holiday season, here are some easy tips to remember and still enjoy the holiday meals and get togethers.

(1) Get that Workout In! This is one of the most important ones and will help you keep your sanity – the best bet to insure you check this off the list is getting it done early.  Just because you have a few days off doesn’t mean you should forget your normal workout schedule, plus once festivities start and the first mimosas is poured you won’t be too motivated to workout!  If you’re traveling to visit family, hit up your cousin who spins or goes to the gym and go to a drop-in class with them.

(2) Smarter Alcohol Choices. Tis the season for holiday brews… and yes they’re delicious but they’re packed with calories and carbs – one of our local favorite Christmas Ale’s has 200 calories in a 12oz. bottle and 20 carbs! Ah!! Try not to drink your calories and carbs and check out the Keto Alcohol rulesI like to follow, stay away from beer, opt in for those bubbles! Red wine is also a good choice or pure spirits, but be sure to avoid those sugary mixtures.

(3) Don’t Go For Seconds. Don’t do it!! This is where all bets are off, and no good will come of it.  In addition to refusing seconds, limit your portions – when you’re heaping that stuffing onto your plate use the rule of thumb to make sure you see the bottom of your plate!

(4) Stay Hydrated. It’s important to stay hydrated throughout the day, it helps flush out toxins and even can help if you’re planning to indulge in the adult beverages.  This is also easy to forget if you’re traveling and driving to multiple houses throughout the day making the rounds – pack a water bottle ahead of time and keep it in the car!

(5) Eat Breakfast. Make sure you eat a good breakfast and other meals throughout the day before your big meal – I think it’s human nature to try not to eat so much during the day knowing you’ll be indulging later in the evening, but this can lead to going up for seconds and binging.  By eating healthy throughout the day you’ll be more full and less likely to over do it at your holiday meals!

At the end of the day you’ll enjoy the holidays as you want, but after Thanksgiving starts the endless holiday gatherings, pretty soon we’ll be making New Year resolutions – so remember, it’s OK to NOT over indulge in the holidays, just maintain balance, because you don’t want your New Year’s Resolution to be the same as the year before!

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Catch-up on past Fitness Friday’s: Physical vs. Mental Battle | Accountability and Food | Maintaining Balance

Fitness Friday 09.18

| The Bee Life

Can you believe it’s already September? Like the end of September?  Time is seriously flying! And with that we’re almost saying good bye to another year – another year of learning and adapting to work towards our fitness and health goals.  I’m sure not many of you have been reading along for as long as I’ve been writing on the bee life, but trust me it’s been a journey, especially my fitness journey!
Fitness Friday 09.18 - the bee life I look back at old fitness posts and I cringe a little, but I also smile because I’ve finally beat my old ways that were SOO annoying and full of excuses (even though I said they weren’t excuses) and I finally know what I have to do.

I get it – the mental battle is just as much as the physical battle – but it took me a long time to really accept that and finally making the financial investment, time commitment and leaving the excuses at the door.  If you’re like me (stubborn) the mental battle may be winning over your physical one… trust me you’ll reach your breaking point – you’ll reach your complete unhappiness, mine happen to come to being 15+ pounds heavier, not being able to fit into over half my pants and not feeling great about myself.  And even then, I started working out but it still took another switch to click with the food, and having those hard talks with myself to stop lying that I was eating ok enough.

So with all my rambling, what I’m trying to say is the physical challenges will be easy, you’ll be able to grow stronger and master the art of burpees and lifting – but that mental battle will always be something you can cheat yourself out of.  So take a hard look, question your excuses or reasons and overcome that mental battle!

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Catch-up on past Fitness Fridays: Food Accountability | Maintaining Balance | Reaching Your Goals

Fitness Friday 07.18

| The Bee Life

I’m not sure about you guys, but the 4th of July holiday really whooped my butt! With it being on a Wednesday, I regrettably didn’t take any time off directly before or after – I figured a holiday in the middle of the week would be no biggie, if anything a nice way to break up the week.  Well it definitely broke up the week and then derailed it completely – day drinking on a warm summer day, leading to a Thursday night happy hour with family, only to still have one day of work to wrap up.  The food, fun, friends and family continued through what seemed like a 5-day weekend (with some work thrown in) and I was not only exhausted, but feeling super unhealthy after over indulging on delicious cocktails and tasty eats the entire time!! Ick!!
Fitness Friday 07.18 - the bee life
This past week was a rough start, but also a time to reset, recharged and get back into a healthy routine of balance.  I told B, Sunday afternoon we were going to be ‘detoxing’ this week – and I think my version of detoxing is probably different than many others and I’ll tell you how.  My detox isn’t a juice cleanse, it isn’t eating celery sticks for 4-straight days, it’s simply cutting out the crap and getting back on track.  No sweets, no alcohol, no chips/snacks, no candy and low-to-no carbs.  My detox is making healthy choices, picking veggies over chips, salads over cookies, and no bagels/bread/rice/heavy carbs.

For me, when I know the balance has been lost, it’s better for me to be a bit tougher on myself, keeping myself accountable than letting a few more things slip through the cracks.  I maintain plenty of that balance – but it’s getting back into the mental state of making those smart choices and saying ‘no’ to the ones we often want to say ‘yes’ too.

I fought many temptations at the office this week and stuck to my guns when it came back to getting back into my balance, waking up and running or getting to the gym and then maintaining those healthy food choices (cheated with some bubbles one night!) throughout the day of what I put in my body.  How do you get back on track? Have questions, or need help – leave a comment below!

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Fitness Friday 05.18

| The Bee Life

Since my workout routine consists of bootcamp classes with circuit, interval training any given day I do anywhere from 6 to 12 different exercises – so there is a lot of variety, but I admittedly have my favorites… and my not so favorites *smiles* so that is why I want to share with you my favorite exercises, how I learned to love them and why.
Fitness Friday 05.18 - the bee life
So let’s get down to it, here are the exercises I never get sick of and always look forward to seeing in my fitness routine.

Squats.  The reason I love squats is because they build muscle throughout your entire leg hitting the hamstrings, quads and calves.  Not to mention they help with your upper body strength as well.  If you want some added cardio for squats try a pop squat or jump squat.

Bicep Curls.  These are an easy exercise, if you’re starting with a lighter weight or building up with a higher LB.  Plus your arms, no matter how strong you are, always look super ripped when your working this move!

Burpees.  These are a full body workout and sure to get your heart rate up.  It’s important to do burpees with good form, starting with wide feet and jumping back narrow then up wide again.  I used to hate burpees, but since I’ve been doing them more I learned to love the challenge and now they aren’t so tough anymore.

Sit-up Fighter. This exercise primarly works your abs and core, but it also is an arm exercise as well.  I like this ab workout because it eases on the strain of my lower back, as a person with chronic back pain, I have to be super sensitive of all the movements and adjusting appropriately.

Pull Ups. The real kind!  Since I’ve built my upper body strength, I’ve been able to do some real pull ups, using a larger bands I am able to help support myself and actually work on building more muscle.

What I really love about these exercises is they hit each of the main body parts.  It’s important to work all parts, even the ones that we might not be self conscious of, because we can always tone and build muscle.  Leave a comment and tell me what your favorite exercises are, and why!

TGIF!

 

10-Miler Recap – 2018

| The Bee Life

This past weekend we only really had one thing to do, and it was to run 10-miles at the annual race we partake in!  Last year’s run was a struggle for me, so I was looking forward to seeing how all the progress I’ve made this past year would improve this run for me (not to mention being down 15+ pounds).
10-Miler Recap - 2018 - the bee life
I started the race, as I often now do with my races… with no expectations. It was raining pretty decently when we woke up in the morning with a forecast of rain for the first hour or so of the race.  Walking up to the start line along the lake with the rain and chilly breeze wasn’t really inspiring me to run! But, we got started at good pace and kept it up throughout.

It wasn’t until we I saw the mile 6 sign that I started to get emotional, as I started to realize I’ve been able to run this entire time and I was still feeling good – last year I broke at mile 5. I pulled it together reminding myself the last few miles are always the toughest. But mile 8 came along and I felt those tears again.  It was that realization at how much I’ve accomplished this past year.  Going into the race last year I wasn’t in a great space physically and I was just getting out of a super stressful and toxic work environment (which I had let affect me physically – the weight gain, not being able to get out of bed, unhappy, stressed with constant added anxiety). Now a year at my new job, it’s a worlds difference how all that has shifted for the better – which started me with making some major changes.

Needless to say, this race was bitter sweet for me, it was a full circle of how far I’ve come, compared to where I was at this time last year and how much stronger and happier I am. B and I finished the race together and it felt so good to cross that finish line!