Planning my week...

I always find that planning is the key to success. I may have even said this before.

I wanted to get my workout week on paper (or, more accurately, on Blogger). I'm basing it on the following goals:
1. I want to lift 6 days this week, working legs twice.
2. I want to run 3 times this week (we broke up temporarily.)
3. I want to get a chance to practice Turbo.

So here you go:

Monday:
AM: Pump, Back
PM: Run 2 miles

Tuesday:
AM: Turbo
PM: Legs

Wednesday:
AM: Pump, Chest
PM: Run 2 miles

Thursday:
AM: Turbo
PM: Legs

Friday:
AM: Pump, Shoulders
PM: Run 2 miles

Saturday:
AM: Turbo
PM: Biceps/Triceps

This post is mainly for my own use, but just in case it's too dull for you, here's a picture:

Getting back on track after a slip...

So, I had a dietary slip last night.

(Source)

 

 

I had a rough day, and I cheated on my diet. There were several factors involved, but the fact is I choose to eat some things that weren't on my plan.

We've all been there. I wanted to write about it because, it's the 14th of January, we're 2 weeks into the new year, and maybe some folks who set their resolutions 2 weeks ago have also slipped.

I came up with some tips to help if you feel yourself slip-sliding down that road...

1. Plan
One of the issues I had last night was that I didn't have my dinner prepped. I was tired after work, and my husband was having pizza, so when it came time to eat, it was easier to just eat the pizza. One piece wouldn't have been too bad. Two might not have been that bad. I had three. Then I kept going with some chocolate chips. And a Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwich.

Source

2.  Get out of the situation

There are times when a cheat has the potential to become a complete, all-out binge. You eat one thing. Then you start thinking, "What can I eat next". Before you know it, you've binged on a bunch of stuff you may not even remember.

I could have kept eating after the Skinny Cow. I was in the mood to do it, and stuffing my face was making me feel better (even though it was temporary). But I caught myself, and I just left the kitchen. I brushed my teeth. It took a lot of strength of will, but I did it. And once I was away from the situation for a moment, I remembered my goals. So you do whatever you have to do remove yourself and break the spell. You can prevent an even more extreme slip.

3. Take responsibility- without beating yourself up.

There is a fine line here. It does absolutely no good to beat yourself up for the slip. However, justifying it doesn't help you either. "It's not my fault. I was stressed out." The fact is that eating something you shouldn't doesn't change your worth as a person. It just takes you farther away from your goals. So, as long as you eat what you shouldn't, you won't reach your goals. If you can step away impartially, you can see that, and hopefully make better choices next time.

I hope these tips help you. But I really want to hear if you have any. What do you do to get back on track?

Les Mills Pump: How I'm Making it Work for Me

I posted last week that I started Les Mills Pump. I really like it, but I wanted to find a way to work it into the other things I wanted to be doing.

I want to continue working my legs heavy. I feel like I get the best results doing that. I also really want to keep working on pullups.

Also, I want to to Turbo- either Turbokick, Turbofire or Turbojam, since I'll be recertifying to teach Turbokick at the beginning of next month. (Oh, did I mention this? YAY!)


So, here's what I'm doing:

I aim for 4 lifting workouts each week: 2 upper and 2 lower.

For the lower body workouts, I do heavy legs at the gym.
For the upper body workouts, I do Pump.

Let me explain:

Each Pump workout divides the body parts into songs, or "tracks". For example: A squat track, a biceps track, a shoulder track.

There are two tracks in each Pump workout that focus entirely on lower body: The squat track, and the lunge track. During those tracks, I do pullups. I don't just constantly do them the whole time (good grief, that would be challenging).

But I do 5 pullups (assisted... for now), then walk around for about 60 seconds, and do another set.

There is one track that has back work and deadlifts. I go ahead and do that track, because I don't think it will hurt to do some light deadlifts.

So far, this is working great for me. I still have time to do Turbo and run, and I'm getting the lifting done that I want to do right now.

It just takes a little planning and flexibility (I think I have a theme going on here)...

Loving the Monday!

Okay, that may be a little bit of an exaggeration.

More like this:

Either way, Monday has its benefits:

- Fresh start of a new week!
- A chance to get organized.
- A chance to get back into the routine, if you had a crazy weekend...

So, I'm starting off the week successfully. Here are the things I did to increase my chances that things will go as planned (remember, planning + flexibility...)

1. Prepared my meals for Monday through Friday. Every meal. (I'll do a post on that later, with some tips. Seriously- it's the best thing I do. Besides parent effectively, of course).
2. Planned my workouts.
3. Made my to-do list

Now, I realize (AGAIN) that even the best planned week can change....

How are you making sure your week starts off right?

Blog Hopping..

It's been a while since I blog hopped. I thought it would be a fun Friday thing.

If you're new here, WELCOME! I love you! New people ROCK!

If you're not new, I love you! People who have been here a while ALSO rock!









Comment below and let me know if you're a new follower! And HAPPY FRIDAY!

All it takes is a little planning... and flexibility..

Source

My deep thought for you today: There are two keys to success. 1. Planning. 2. Flexibility to adapt when the plan doesn't work out.

I'm flexible, but not *this* flexible. (Source)

I am a planner. I get really nervous if I don't have a plan.  I plan my workouts. I put them in my calendar. If someone asks me to meet with them during that time, I tell them I'm not available. It's true: I'm not.

Source

I plan my meals in advance. I prepare them as many days in advance as I can. This way, I'm never looking around, wondering what to eat next. I still struggle. I still get tempted, and I have to make the choice one day, one hour (sometimes one minute) at a time. But having the food prepared and ready makes it about 90% easier to stay on track.

I plan my workouts too. I need to have a certain amount of running, a certain amount of lifting, and hopefully some gentle yoga or stretching on a rest day. But things happen. Some days, I oversleep (like I did Wednesday) and miss a planned workout. Or, I'm more sore than I thought I would be, and I no it would probably hurt more than help for me to do a certain workout.

The point is, I'm flexible. I aim to get the workouts I'm supposed to get in during the week. But if I need to rearrange and modify, I'll do it.

Right now, I'm running a Beachbody Challenge Group. There are five members who work out daily, drink Shakeology, and check in at least once a day in our Facebook group. These folks are doing great and are all really committed to seeing some progress! (I can't wait to share their results with you).

Anyway, one of the members posted yesterday that his legs hurt, and he was scheduled to do a leg intensive workout, so he changed his planned workout. He worked some upper body and abs and swam- all still a great workout. He was flexible enough to know that the plan could be changed. He still got a great workout. He'll still see results.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is this:
1. Plan
2. Be flexible

Oh, and come on over to Sarah Fitness. The contest is STILL going on- when we get to 700 fans, I'll do a random drawing and give away a copy of Shaun T.'s "Rockin' Body"...

Have you ever had this day?

Looks a little like me after the trip. (source)

Today is my first day back at work after almost 2 weeks off. Well, "off" as in "traveling, parenting, visiting". I feel a little tired still. In fact...

I had the highest of hopes for this morning. I had done pretty much everything I could do last night: cooked my food for the next few days, gave the kids a bath, fought with children who wanted to put things in the toilet, fished half of a door-childproofing-thing out of the toilet.... so I just set my alarm a little early so I could workout AND get my meals together for the day. 4:15 am.

This morning at 6:45 my husband woke me from a deep sleep: "Don't you need to get up?"

This was me (source)

I kind of wandered around the kitchen for a minute, in a panic, wondering what to do first. Eventually I got it together and got my meals prepped (including breakfast. It was going to have to go with me). I showered and got ready, and managed to leave the house about 10 minutes before I was supposed to be at work.

Just as I was leaving, my son decided to throw a huge, jumping up and down, screaming, spitting tantrum. So that made leaving a little more fun (although I did feel a bit bad for my husband, who would be staying there all day).

Here's my point: My meals are prepped and I'm eating right, so missing the morning workout is not as tragic as it could have been. I'm not counting on it to "burn calories". So, it's no big deal. Later, I'll go to the gym for my heavy workout, as planned.

I'm also planning on consuming more coffee. Yes, even though I'm rested, I still need it.

Hope you have a peaceful, centered day, with few tantrums (although, if you're going to throw one, make it a good one).