fitness tips

Keeping fitness on track during the holidays

 in Fitness  tagged fitness tips / workout ideas by

Bay Club at Courtside Holiday decor

pictured: Holiday decorations at The Bay Club where I workout.

The holiday season is in full swing, and all of us are experiencing busier schedules. I feel like my days are so jam-packed, keeping to a regular fitness routine is downright impossible! Thankfully, there is a way to stay on track, and fend off those nasty holiday pounds, during this festive season.

Although I have a regular workout schedule for the winter season, the most important thing about it is that it is flexible. When the holidays hit, my schedule fluctuates, changes, and becomes extra hectic. I need to have backup workout plans in my fitness arsenal in order to keep on track, and get my five workouts per week in.

If you like to go to classes, keep them in your schedule, but have independent workouts available to you as a backup plan; just in case you can’t make it to your regular classes. Here is my holiday fitness schedule, and my back-up plans.

Monday: BodyCombat (backup-treadmill and abs work)

Tuesday: Spin class (backup-jogging in my neighborhood)

Wednesday: H.E.A.T. (interval-strength class) (backup-treadmill and weights)

Thursday: Rest Day or makeup day if I missed a day earlier in the week

Friday: Insanity (interval class) (backup- swim  workout)

Saturday: BodyPump and Step (backup-treadmill, weights, and abs)

Sunday: Rest Day or makeup day if I missed a day earlier in the week

The backup workouts are all individual, so I can do them at any time during the day. If I know I can’t make a scheduled class, I can wake-up early, and do my backup workout at 5:30am, or whenever it fits into my day. It can be difficult staying on track, but having a backup workout plan is essential to keeping fit during the busy holiday season. Nothing is more difficult then not fitting into your jeans after the New Year. Can’t have that!!

What is your holiday workout routine like? Do you have a workout back-up plan to stay on track?

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO

Cathy

Fall 2016 fitness routine and outfit ideas

 in Fitness  tagged fitness gear / fitness tips / nike / outdoor fitness / workout ideas by

fall fitness outfit ideas routine

Indoor and outdoor fitness outfit ideas from top left: cobalt blue fleece / blue and purple print workout leggings / black and white fitness tank top / black and white capri leggings / blue Nike running shoes (my favorite running shoes!) / Nike ID running shoes

The fall season is here. For me, this means my kids are back in school, and I have a full schedule surrounding their activities; as well as homeschooling my fifth grade daughter. My challenge during the fall season? Fitting in my workout routine!

My fall fitness routine is not as robust as I would like it to be. During the summer I was able to workout five days per week at the gym. This enabled me to stick to me goal of 1200 calories per day, and lose the ten pounds I wanted to shed over the summer months. Yay for being ten pounds lighter! The fall challenge? Keeping the weight off, and possibly losing more!

I have another fifteen pounds I would like to shed. If I can lose fifteen more pounds, I will be back to where I was in 2013. I really liked my weight back then, and I would like to return to it! My challenge is fitting in workouts when I homeschool one child. I do not have free time to go to the gym, so my only gym time is on Saturday mornings. This means I need to get creative the rest of the week in order to at least maintain my current weight, and possibly lose more if I am lucky.

I know there are other Mom’s out there who are struggling with schedules, work, and attempting to fit in a workout. This is how I have been fitting in my workouts during the week, and maintaining my end-of-summer weight.

Monday: Rest (super sore from the weekend workouts!)

Tuesday: Walk/Run around the neighborhood 25 minutes, abs and push ups at home 10 minutes

Wednesday: Just Dance on the Wii with my daughter, 30 minutes. Squats and Lunges, 30 each side/leg

Thursday: Walk/Run around the neighborhood 25 minutes, abs and push ups at home 10 minutes

Friday: TGIF rest!

Saturday: BodyPump followed by Advanced Step. (This burns over 900 calories and incorporates weights and cardio, I die a little inside when I miss this workout)

Sunday: BodyCombat (I rush home after church, change into workout clothes, and dash off to the gym!)

This is my ideal fall fitness routine. I have not been diligent about sticking to it this season. My son is playing Pop Warner football and his schedule is quite full. This means I cannot always make it to my weekend workout sessions. My daughters have activities during the week, and my son has football practice, this can interfere with my weekday fitness goals. While I struggle to get in five workouts per week, I try really hard, and hopefully I can maintain my current weight without gaining back what I worked off over the summer.

As far as calories are concerned, I am still trying to stick to 1200 per day. I use MyFitnessPal to keep track of my workouts, and caloric intake. I love this app, if you have not downloaded it yet, please do. You will love it!

Since my workouts are not as intense this fall as they were over the summer, I am not burning as many calories. This means sticking to 1200 calories a day is quite a challenge! As long as I don’t go over 1600 calories in one day, I can maintain my summer weight. Fingers crossed this works through the fall season!

Now, about all that Halloween candy entering the house this month. . .hmmmm

How are you sticking to your fitness routine this autumn season?

Indoor and outdoor fitness outfit items on my wish list:

Summer fitness: staying on track

 in Fitness  tagged fitness / fitness gear / fitness tips by

From left: top / pants / coverup / shoes

Summer is here! The wonderful thing about summer vacation is my schedule. The kids are out of school, and enrolled in camps, as well as activities. These camps and activities are much easier to handle then the schedule we maintain during the school year. This means I can make it to the gym six days per week! Love that!

My goal over summer break is to not only workout six days per week, but to also lose ten pounds. As I write this, I am already down three pounds, so things are looking good! In order to ensure I stick to my fitness, and nutrition, goals this summer vacation, I have a set workout schedule which I put into my iPhone calendar for the entire break until school starts. I also use an app to count my calories and track what I am eating.

If you are trying to lose one pound per week, this might be a good sample schedule for your own personal fitness routine. This is my summer fitness routine:

Monday: 60 minutes LifeFitness Course. I set the treadmill to 3.7 and 6% incline. The incline moves between 11% and 4% throughout the hour as the course takes me through hills, trails, and flatlands. If your gym has a LifeFitness Treadmill, I highly recommend trying the courses. They are a lot of fun! After I finish my routine, I do 15 minutes of weights, then I do 15 push-ups, followed by 15 minutes of ab work. When I am done, I stretch for ten minutes. This workout burns over 500 calories and is low impact; easy on the joints.

Tuesday: 60 minute Spin class. This is always fun and burns almost 400 calories.

Wednesday: Tennis or swimming. My schedule changes every Wednesday, so depending on when I can get to the gym, I either schedule tennis with my friends, or hop in the pool for a workout. I usually burn just over 400 calories.

Thursday: 45 minute Spin class. This burns roughly 350 calories, The teacher is more intense then the one on Tuesday, so I always burn calories faster.

Friday: BodyCombat. I burn roughly 700 calories in this intense, cardio kickboxing class. Always a blast!

Saturday: BodyPump followed by Adv. Step. This burns almost 1000 calories. Super fun to get both cardio work and strength work in to kick off the weekend.

To summarize, Monday, Friday, and Saturday I do cardio. Tuesday and Thursday I do interval training. Wednesday is a combination of interval and cardio due to the starting and stopping nature of the sports. I get my strength training in on Mondays and Saturdays.

In order to lose one pound per week, I try to keep my daily caloric intake to 1200 calories. I use MyFitnessPal app, which you can find in the app store, to track my caloric intake and my daily fitness routines. The app gives you credit for your workouts, so if you burn 400 calories, you can eat 1200+400=1600 calories that day. It works! This app is the best way, in my opinion, to track my calories, and stay on track to lose one pound per week.

If you are like me, and love to eat something sweet, you will love this idea! There are two ways I get my sweet kicks while I am trying to lose weight. For ice cream, I eat Skinny Cow products because they are always under 200 calories. When I don’t feel like ice cream, I will eat a cup of jello with some whip cream on top. This is always under 200 calories and super sugary! It is a great way to get my sweet fix in, so I don’t feel deprived while calorie counting. You should never deprive yourself.

For hunger between meals, I keep plenty of fruit on hand. I prefer grapes, cherries, and strawberries for between meal snacks.

Are you working on losing weight, or trying to maintain your current weight this summer? What are your fitness goals, and your workout routine? Please share in the comments below!

Thank you for stopping by

XOXO

Cathy