workout

4 Easy Workouts

| The Bee Life

Since I have been having a hard time staying motivated and getting a workout in, I wanted to share some easy workouts that allow you to start small, are manageable AND able to be fit in during convenient times to make them work during your busy schedule.

You're only one work out awayfrom a good

  1. Small sets before you shower: If you’re already ‘stinky’ or in need for a freshen up, why not try and squeeze some easy but impactful workouts in just before?
    50 squats | 30 crunches | 25 side plank leg extenders (each side) | 20 push-ups
  2. 10-minutes of stretches before bed: You’ll be amazed at how much this will help you and relieve the day’s stresses. Be sure to take deep breathes in and out throughout and don’t rush to the next position.
    Suggestions: Tree pose for 30-seconds on each side | Simple side stretches alternating legs and arms | Lay on your back and hug your knees, rocking gently (one of my favorites)
  3. Lunch break walks: Take 30-minutes of your lunch break to get some extra steps in, find some stairs near by and take some laps, the quicker you start to continually exercise, the easier it’ll become to keep it up.
  4. Get back into running: Whether your more experienced or trying to start – pick any mileage range between 1 to 3 miles and just go for it. Don’t worry about your pace or if you have to stop and walk.  Getting a good sweat on is the mission. Pick a few days a week for your run and even try to increase your distance!

How do you fit workouts into your busy schedule?

Balancing Life

| The Bee Life

Work: “activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result.”

Life(style): “the way in which a person or group lives.”

Balance: “an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady.”

Work - Life
With no major vacation this year, I am having some serious struggles with my work-life balance, not to mention my workout routine has been nonexistent, and I hate it.

Being able to workout and maintain a healthy lifestyle is something that is important to me, although it mostly annoys me that cost and work get in the way of a large portion of things that make me happy and used to be a huge aspect of my day-to-day routine. Knowing that I am essentially gym-less and on my own to get some motivation (and have to work) I decided to put together a list of items to be more cognizant of starting ASAP at home and at work (because complaining gets you nowhere).

Life

  • Morning workouts & weekend runs: Waking up an hour earlier to do a set of exercises for 30-40 minutes in the morning is more than I am currently doing – taking advantage of free time on the weekends will balance out anything missed during the week
  • Breakfast & Coffee at home: Waking up earlier will allow time to prep a breakfast and make coffee, so that I won’t be tempted by Starbucks which is in the lobby of my office building
  • Walks with Moz: A quick walk at the end of the day allows for the extra motivation and fresh air – maybe even a quick walk in the morning
  • Yoga before bed: I have a 10-minute yoga routine I do occasionally before bed, it needs to happen more often
  • Weekly scrap-booking: It’s something I love to do and don’t do enough up, I have a lot of catching up to do!  Even if it’s 30-minutes a week

Work

  • Afternoon fresh air: A quick walk around the block to break up the afternoon and recharge will take 5-10minutes out of the day but have a lasting effect
  • Packing a lunch & snacks: Will allow for me to save money and not be tempted by a quick sub or the leftovers in the cafe
  • Stay above the crap: It’s so easy to get sucked in or be the hitting board for someone’s bad day – remembering to stay above that and not sweating the small stuff
  • Drinking more water: No explanation needed

I want to start with little items that can be accomplished in order to stay focused and not get overwhelmed, creating good habits is half the battle – so starting small makes sense.  How do you maintain a good balance between life and work?

2 months in

| The Bee Life

What’s that saying? Something like…

“It takes 21 days to form a habit and one day to break it”

… Well it’s been nearly 2-months (30 days) since I got back into my workout routine, and although I am still not 100% where I want to be as far as frequency I am gaining traction! With work and my new circuit/interval training classes the availability and class times is something I have been needing to adapt too. I have been making 5:30am classes work, well sort of, it’s been easier when my aunts carpool with me, but when I am driving myself that internal mind-game of just getting out of bed is hard.  The thing is, once I am up and at the class, I am totally fine! It’s just getting my butt out of my warm snuggled self out of bed that is the struggle. It’s such a mind game. I am shooting for 3-days during the work week in the mornings and then a nice Saturday late morning class, still need to get those 3 early mornings down. I get stuck at one or two.

The positive side is that I have been seeing results, not to mention with Lent – I have given up some sweet temptations which are definitely tying into my results. No Starbucks, no beer, no sweets. I’ve surprisingly held to my guns the last 3-weeks, everything is dialed down significantly.  I’ve been eating better all around, smaller portions, trying not to eat out as much, lots of kale salads and fruits, limited, to no coffee and extra water and tea! I also haven’t been buying sweet treats from Starbucks with my morning coffee or a cookie to bring home for after dinner with B.

As soon as you start seeing results, everything becomes addicting. I am already getting that insatiable crave back that I used to have that drives me back every time and pushes me through the long run or the workout harder than the time before, and it’s awesome.


Image taken Monday at 5:30am Boot Camp (I am far left with pink sneaks!)

Here’s to staying motivated!

I’m Back.

| The Bee Life

Well my workout hiatus is finally over.  I received fitness classes for Christmas (AWESOME present, btw) so this past Saturday I decided to start! The classes are interval strength/cardio training circuits.  The interval and circuit length’s change from class to class so every exercise is manageable; because the longest  you’ll ever be doing an exercise is 15-60 seconds before you’re on to the next one!

Saturday – Cardio
Monday Night – Strength + Cardio
Wednesday Night

These workouts have kicked my butt. (1) I haven’t worked out “hard” in at least 4-5 months (2) I haven’t weight trained in over a year … so an hour of strength and cardio let me know how out of shape I’ve become.

I really did not want to go to the class last night, I was exhausted, sore, and it was freezing cold, snuggling up with Moz and B sounded much more appealing than going back out into the cold and getting home after 8 o’clock. But I made myself go, the pain was still going to be around today whether I went to the class or not… also I know the pay-off, I’ve seen the results before, so I pushed myself to go. And, I’m happy I went.

“The only workout you’ll regret, is the one that didn’t happen.”

This is only the start, I’m going to keep going to these classes, and it’s only be a matter of time until the snow melts, the sun shines a bit longer and I can start running outside again. It feels good to be back, it was way to long of a break, but that break is definitely over.