In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t been posting my weekly workouts with you guys lately. To be honest, I just felt like it was a “filler” post and by filler, I mean it was a scheduled post that was quick and easy to write, requiring very little thought or inspiration. I liked it for a while because it somehow made me feel like the workouts I did were worth it since I had an audience to share them with. I pushed myself to workout more than I needed to or wanted to because I knew I’d be reporting those details to you every Monday morning. In turn, this ended up putting a lot of pressure on me to workout and have workouts to share with you. Now that I don’t feel the need to share my every workout with you, it’s been easier to rest and do shorter workouts and in general, feel less pressure to workout as much as I was.

…which leads perfectly into the purpose of this post. If you’ve been following me on Instagram or Facebook, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve eluded to some change ups in my workouts and my mindset towards working out. And, before I get more into the details, I’ll say that what I’ve been doing is nothing earth shattering or mind blowing “omg I have to share my secret with everyone!”. It’s rather small, actually, but it’s working, it’s making me happy and it’s making me look forward to my workouts and be excited about them!

So, you ask, why have I changed my workouts? And, what are those changes, right? Let me make it simple: I’ve changed my workouts because I was just getting tired of spending countless hours at the gym, going to classes just to go to classes, working out because I felt like I had to workout. Back in my single days, the gym helped fill my days, so spending an hour or 2 every day there and not getting home until 8-8:30 just wasn’t an issue. Since that’s no longer the case and I have someone around that I WANT to spend a lot of time with, I’ve realized that I don’t NEED to fill my spare time with the gym and that it’s OK (and good!) to relax and get home early.

Figuring how could I make more time to relax was an issue for a while. I’m not good at change, and figuring out how to change a schedule I had become so accustomed to was hard! How did I do it and how did I start to feel less of the “go-go-go from one thing to the next, planning out everything to the minute to make sure I could fit it all in” craziness? I shortened my workouts! Simple enough, right? Even more than that, I’ve started to workout before work on my work from home day (Monday) and during lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays so that I can have more evenings FREE from workouts and getting home late. Having free evenings where I have no plans when I finish work at 4:30 is the most amazingggg feeling. Seriously. It’s incredible how such a little thing can make so much of a difference. It has been so nice having flexibility and free time to shop, cook and blog during the week rather than stressing about getting that all done on the weekends.

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I’ll admit, though, mentally making the shift of thinking I needed to workout for an hour or more for it to be considered a “workout” to realizing I could get a kick ass (pardon me) workout in 30 minutes or less was probably the biggest challenge of all. I still struggle with it a little, but it gets easier every day. During my lunch break workouts, I have about 30-40 minutes to workout, so I need to plan out my workout appropriately. It’s been really nice because since I know I’m on a time limit and have no wiggle time, I plan out challenging workouts that leave me breathless and shakey by the end. I get there, bust out my workout and leave. Simple as that. And, since it’s lunch time, the gym is generally really quiet so I don’t have to worry about waiting for equipment or space to do my thang 😉

Granted, it’s only been a few weeks since I’ve made this mental and physical transition, BUT, so far, so good! I was worried initially (stupidly), that my short workouts wouldn’t increase my strength or wouldn’t be enough for any change to occur. I actually just chuckled as I wrote that because if anything, I’ve noticed MORE positive changes to my body in the past couple of weeks. I feel like my workouts have purpose and challenge me and leave me sore the next day! I’ve been switching it up and focusing on lifting HEAVIER and you know what? I’ve seen changes! And, even better? I’ve FELT changes. I feel stronger during my workouts and enjoy the challenges that they each give me. It’s amazing!

I’m excited to see how the next few weeks go and I’m looking forward to sharing my trials, challenges and accomplishments with you guys! And, don’t worry- I’ll be sharing more of my shorter, kick-ass workouts with you so you can give them a shot, too. I’d love for you to share workouts with me that you’ve been loving.

Questions for you: When’s the last time you changed up your workout? What’s been your biggest mental shift towards fitness and working out? Do you want to see my weekly workouts in the future?