Physical Fitness

 I mentioned in my last post how physical fitness and eating healthy are very important to me and how I realize how we treat our bodies today will impact our health in the future.


I recently joined a gym.  I decided to create a little list to help me get out my door and into the gym easier.  When you have a toddler and the responsibilities or running your household, it's really easy to get caught up in your daily activity and put your workout on the back burner. 

1.  Set a Goal:  Have a realistic goal.  Set a date you want to reach your goal, and write down how your going to reach your goal.  When you set a goal, don't just say I want to lose "x" amount of pounds.  Write down why you need to lose "x" amount of pounds.  Make sure to set mini goals, too.
Saying you want to lose 50 pounds is great.  But physcological it seems like a lot.  Breaking that 50 pound loss into mini goals, like losing 5 pounds a month seems much more attainable.  You'll be celebrating the 5 pounds you lost in a month instead of focusing on that 50 pound that can sometimes seem out of reach. 

2.  Schedule it in.  I use Money Saving Mom's Household Management charts to keep me organized and on schedule.  This also helps me not to neglect anything important I have to do around the house.  It helps to schedule your workouts in during the same time and days during the week.  Put it on your daily "to-do" list.  I like mine first thing in the morning so I don't have to worry about getting caught up on something "more important".

3.  Make breakfast the night before.  I'm in love with making overnight oats.  Super yummy and super quick to make.  I'll make my oats for The Hubs, me and Little Man when I'm making dinner. 

4.  Lay out gym clothes the night before:  Can't tell you how many times I've skipped a worked out because I couldn't find my sports bra, or all my shorts were dirty. 

5.  Pack your gym bag the night before:  Make sure your water bottle is full, your towel is packed, and you have your plan.

6. Create a plan:  Wandering around the gym wondering what to do next is a waste of time.  Plan your workout ahead of time.  Even if you're working out at home you should always know what you're going to do the night before.  It's really easy to get distracted. (visit bodybuilding.com or Oxygen Magazine for ideas) 

7.  Understand your Workout:  Nothing worse than creating a plan and then forgetting how to do the exercise.  Feel free to write down notes in your workout journal. (bodybuilding.com has a lot of videos that will help you learn how to do your exercise right)

8.  Create a Backup plan:  You wake up to run and it's raining outside.  That's not an excuse to ditch your workout today.  Can you lift weights instead?  Or turn on an exercise video?  Even stretching is good.  

9.  Write it down: I like to write my completed workouts on a monthly calender.  This helps to keep me accountable.  Seeing all my workouts makes me feel proud of myself for my dedication and makes me want to workout again.  

10.  Create a Workout Journal:  Use this to create your plan.  It's really cool to look back after you've made progress with weights, or distance, or just feeling better while you're working out. 

11.  Motivation:  Find some sort of motivation.  Post your goals somewhere you can see them often, or create some sort of vision board, read fitness magazines or blogs. 

12. Tell Someone:  Tell someone, anyone, your goals, your accomplishments, your failures.  You can tweet it, blog it, Facebook status is, tell your hubby, BFF, a stranger, or your dog.  This helps you hear encouragement and also kinda holds you accountable.  They might ask how your goal is going or how your workouts are going, and you'll want to tell them something positive. 

13.  Create a reward:  Could be something small or something big.

14.  Workout as a Family:  The Hubs and I really enjoy it when we run together.  It's quite bonding to us and a way to spend time together.  It's also a great way to inspire your kids and to show them it's important to take care of themselves.   Play catch, ride bikes, swim, kick a ball.  Working out doesn't have to be work.  Make it fun!