I love this tip to help you move more

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Last week, I posted a blog post that I had a lot of fun writing, as well as reading your responses to it. In case you missed it, check it out here, then come back and read this post: How I Stay Active Working A “9-5” Desk Job

With the permission of Lisa, I wanted to share a really great tip to stay motivated to move more, as well as ways to get the movement in. Here was her response to my post- I’ve bolded the parts that really stood out to me:

I work as a 911 dispatcher overnight. I work a long week of 12 hour shifts (7pm-7am every night except Wednesday night off) then a short week (off every night and only work 4 hours Tuesday night and 12 hours Wednesday night). I also have a one hour commute each way. I’ve gained about 20lbs since going back to this schedule about 7 months ago. When I was working during the day, I was going to OrangeTheory classes in the evening and doing some weights at another gym on my own. When I went back to working nights (by choice), there are literally no OrangeTheory class times that I can go to, other than in my short week. I didn’t feel like paying what I was paying to only be able to to OTF every other week and ended my membership. So, I used excuse after excuse. We are also, literally, tethered to our desks at work with our headsets and can’t just freely get up and go to the bathroom when we want. There has to be a certain number of people answering the phones and working the radios at all times so we have to wait for someone to take our spot when we need to use the restroom – definitely hinders the water drinking.

Finally, about 6 weeks ago, I decided enough was enough. I started using the treadmill desk at work when I can. I had forgotten we had it – it’s at the other end of the room from where I usually sit when I’m on the call-taking side of my job. I can’t really walk very fast and I have to stop when I’m doing a lot of typing, but it’s better than sitting. We are allowed several breaks during our shifts so I’m utilizing those better as well. I also have myself on a better sleeping schedule during my long week. I don’t really have time to get to the gym before I have to turn around and head back into work, but I have accumulated a stability ball, yoga mat, and a few weights at home and I use those daily. Between those things, and YouTube videos (yoga, dance, barre), I make sure I get in at least some activity every day before I go back into work.

On my short work weeks, I go to the gym as much as possible and either do some cardio on the bike or arc trainer plus some weights.

Between that and getting my eating on track, I’m down about 10lbs. (<– !!!!!B2B insert)

I also tend to lose sight of the “everyday” if that makes sense. I’m constantly looking back and realizing 3 months, 6 months, 1 year…have passed and I could’ve been at my goal like 10 times over. So, I put a yearly calendar up on my wall and I mark an X over every day that I consciously moved – could be a gym workout, could be 10 minutes of abs on the floor while watching Netflix, any kind of activity that got me off my butt. It has helped me tremendously to visually watch the days pass by.

THIS! This right here gives me ALL.THE.FEELS. There are so many amazing things going on in this post: self-reflection, tough-love/being real, breaking things down, taking it one day at a time, embracing doing what you can, when you can & every little bit counts.

But, I think the biggest takeaway that I have after reading this- and the reason why I wanted to share it with you- is the fact that she a. acknowledged the excuses she was making for not being able to workout or simply be more active and b. that she took action. Nothing huge, but I think that’s exactly why she’s been successful in keeping up with her goal of moving more and losing weight.

So often we get caught up with how overwhelming it can be to make a change like this. We know what we want: to make healthier choices, to be more active, to make movement a priority, to lose weight, but when it comes down to taking those first steps towards making these changes, it can be really scary. What Lisa has done, though, to take these first steps is what is so great. She isn’t telling herself that she needs to get up at 3am to get in an intense workout before working a 12 hour day or that she needs to go to the gym after she’s done. She isn’t saying that the only workout that counts is an hour at the gym. She isn’t doing an all or nothing approach- she is doing her best to to make small choices to get more movement in, which add up to so much more in the end:

She started with using a treadmill desk, which she’s lucky enough to have in her office.  She’s also utilizing her breaks- I know I’ve been guilty of just working all day and not breaking, but the days I step out even for a 5 or 10 minute walk I feel so much better! She’s acquired a few pieces of at-home workout equipment to make it easier to fit workouts in. And, my favorite- she has a calendar hanging up and she uses it to mark off the days she moves. I think this is huge! Just the sheer act of being able to see how much movement you’re getting in is so helpful to continue to move. It reminds you to take it one day at a time, rather than getting overwhelmed with the bigger picture of weeks, months and even years. By focusing on each day, you can appreciate what you get in for movement in be happy about that… not to mention, it’s motivation to keep going!

If you find yourself looking for something new or different to help you meet goals or feel less scared about getting back into something, I really suggest this calendar idea. Start small and focus on what you are able to accomplish in each day. And, if you find yourself looking at the calendar and realizing days or weeks have gone by with no “X” marked off, you know it’s time to have a little chat with yourself (or a friend or a health coach!) to try and figure out why this is the case. Are you stressed? Tired? Busy? Once you pinpoint what is going on, you can probably figure out a way to sneak in even 10 minutes of movement (and notice how I say movement, and not workout- start small, remember?).

Again, I would love to hear your thoughts- do you have any tips to share? I’m always looking for new ways to get movement in, and to help share motivation to the B2B community. Thank you, Lisa, for sharing such great tips and for sharing your story- I absolutely love stories like this!

 

All the feels {why i fight}

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I am still feeling all the feels after the event/class I lead at the New Balance Global Flagship store in Brighton through my connection with MoveWith. If you remember, I wrote all about my first MoveWith experience here. Since then, I’ve taught two more, including the one last week.

Going into this event, I knew I wanted it to be just that: an event. Not just a workout, but rather an event where I could offer more than just a sweaty 45 minute session. When I spoke with the manager at the beautiful new New Balance Global Flagship store in Brighton, I knew that I would be able to achieve my “event” idea if I hosted the class there. It’s a big store so there would plenty of room for a big crowd, a DJ and product samples. I was hoping for 25-30 people, so I was totally blown away with the fact that 39 (!!!) signed up.

As the day got closer, I had a mix of of nerves and excitement because everything was really coming together. But, as soon as people started showing up, my nerves went away and all I felt was excitement. The fact that so many people showed up was so amazing. Some people I knew, but many I didn’t. Some people were friends from college, friends of friends, friends from the gym, friends from my office and friends/contacts I’ve made through blogging, and many from New Balance. But, what was so amazing was that everyone showed up smiling and ready to work.  I couldn’t help but smile because of this- heck, even as we were halfway through the kickboxing aspect, people were STILL smiling!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- the fitness community in and around Boston is really wonderful. So many people make fitness a priority in their day to day and this shows by how many people an event like what I did last week can bring to it. These people- ranging in age, fitness levels, gender, likes and dislikes- all came together for a 45 minute fitness class, many of them likely not really knowing what to expect besides my short write-up in the event page on MoveWith.

And, while this can be a bit intimidating for instructors because we, also, have no idea what to expect in terms of what levels people will be at, it’s also something that gives me so much drive, energy and passion. It puts my teaching abilities to the test, gets me out of my comfort zone and really reminds me why I love to teach. As for many of us fitness instructors, we teach the same classes week to week and similarly, the same base group of members come to our classes week after week, so it gets to be familiar. It gets to be comfortable. Which is great, but it also doesn’t challenge us the way new classes and new groups of class participants do. I always feel like I leave these types of classes with a new perspective on teaching, and a new pep in my step.

So, I thank MoveWith, New Balance and everyone who came out last week for giving me so much happiness from the 45 minutes we were sweating together. Also, a huge thank you to DJ Sprino, who is THE BEST DJ in Boston, especially for fitness events, Purity Organics, DRINKmaple and Larabar. I’m already working on my next event there, and rumor has it, we’ll take Burpees to Bubbly quite literally 😉 Save the date for May 10th- more information, including a signup page, will be blasted soon!

 

The Biggest Ways I Save Time During the Week

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We are all busy. We all have a lot of things happening on any specific day or week. Whether it’s work, hobbies, kids, family, social events, getting to the gym, etc., many of us do not have the luxury of having a lot of free time to do things every day such as cook fancy meals, do laundry, clean the house, relax and read, take a bath… you get the idea. But, just because we are busy doesn’t mean that all of our health and wellness goals have to go out the window. All it means is that we have to put a little more planning into these things- sometimes, even when we don’t want to.

For me, planning or prepping for the week includes:

  • grocery shopping
  • planning out my teaching schedule
  • plan out my workout schedule and any classes I want to take
  • meal prep- whether specific meals or just veggies and protein so that I can mix and match throughout the week
  • laundry

Even though I may not WANT to do any of these things throughout the weekend, especially on busy weekends, I know that even if I can just do one of them, or some of a few of them, I will ultimately feel less stressed throughout the week because I don’t have to worry about figuring out how to get it all done. I thought it might be helpful if I share my “pep talk” or “if/then” scenarios with you in case you’re in the need for some motivation to get sh*t done.

  • When I’m feeling sheer dread about doing something (ex: “I realllly don’t want to prep food right now” or “Ugh. I just wish someone would go to the store for me” or “Can we hire someone to clean our apartment please?!”), I try to think about how I’ll feel AFTER I do it. (Side note: this is also something I do when I don’t feel like working out!) I know that later on in the week I will be SO HAPPY to not have to go food shopping or prep food or do laundry or clean the house. And the great thing is, usually once I think about the feeling of finishing something, I’m more likely to dread the activity a little less.
  • Give myself a timeframe. Let’s say I really don’t want to prep food. If I say that I will just do it for 30 minutes or 1 hour, it seems so much less daunting! And while I may not completely finish the process, whatever I can get done in that amount of time helps so much on the back end. Another perk of this? I usually keep going for a little longer because once I get started, it’s not so bad and the feeling of being done is motivation to keep going! (another side note: this is another technique I use when I don’t want to workout!)
  • Asking for help is another thing that works well- team work is dream work, baby! If I’m exhausted on Sunday but know I have a busy week ahead and don’t want the stress of not being prepared to burden me, I ask for help. Often times it will look something like this: I will prep the veggies and RM will cook them the next day while I’m at work or teaching. Or, I will put the laundry in and RM will fold it. Or, we will food prep together. Every little bit counts!
  • Figure out what’s most critical- For me, food shopping and meal prepping is the most important thing as it saves me the most time throughout the week AND is a necessity since I don’t want to have to worry about buying breakfast and lunch and dinner out (#expensiveAF). Even if I just hard boil eggs, roast some veggies or do a stirfry using frozen veggies, this will help me out so much during the week. However, cleaning? I’m not going to kill myself to get that done if I’m tired or if I’d rather spend my time watching tv with RM, meeting up with friends, going for a walk, etc. Blogging can also wait. Laundry can be done easily during the week. It’s all about prioritizing, which likely differs from person to person.

I realize that some of you, perhaps those of you who are not Type A ( 😉 ), may not feel stressed if you don’t get your life “in order”before the week starts. In fact, it may very well cause you a lot MORE stress or anxiety to have a weight hanging over you regarding meal prep, food shopping, cleaning, laundry, etc. However, for those of you who tend to relate to the Type A personality (#raiseshand), you may relate in that you find it MORE stressful to try and be easy going, go with the flow, do things as necessary & as they come up, etc. Trust me, I have tried to forget about everything mentioned in this post and while it may be nice on Sunday, it feels 10 times worse for me on Monday when I realize I have a lot of things on my schedule and nothing prepped to help make the week a little easier on me on a day to day basis.

But, I think the biggest thing I want to mention- as well as the biggest area of growth for myself over the years- is that prep work shouldn’t make you more stressed, no matter whether you’re a planner or not. I used to get so worked up if I didn’t prep all my blog posts, do all my laundry, clean, and spend hours doing meal prep (and coming up with new recipes to blog) on Sundays. Thankfully, over the past few years that’s a distant memory. I do what I can, when I can, knowing that any little bit extra that I can do over the weekend will come in handy as the week progresses.

At the end of the day, it’s all about figuring out what works for you, which is likely different than what works for the bloggers you may follow, your friends or even co-workers. And that is totally OK. I hope you realize that I don’t share these things to make you feel as though you should do exactly what I do, but rather, I like to share in case people are looking for ways to simplify tasks and to make healthy living a little easier for busy schedules. That, and I love hearing your own tips/advice/thoughts/preferences/etc. because I’m always looking for ways to change things up and save time.

With that said, I’d love to hear from you- do you prefer to plan and prep ahead of time so that you week days/nights are easier or do you just go with the flow? What’s one thing you do to motivate yourself to get sh*t done when you really don’t want to? What’s your best time saving tip for meal prep or something else?

 

Wednesday Workout: 3 Circuit Lower, Upper & Cardio Step360 Workout

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Hey there! Before I get into sharing the workout for today, I wanted to remind you of the fitness event/class that I am hosting at the New Balance Flagship store in Brighton tonight. It starts at 6:30pm and I’ll be leading a 45 minute Cardio Kickboxing Bootcamp class while the amazing DJ Sprino live DJ’s for us. After class, you’ll get a 20% shopping discount and will get to enjoy bars from Larabar, juices from Purity Organics and more. There are already over 30 people who have signed up, so if you want to be part of the crew, make sure you sign up here– you don’t want to miss this event!

And now, onto the workout. A few weeks ago I shared a Step360 workout with you. I enjoyed that workout so much that when I was thinking of what I wanted to do for a workout on Sunday, I knew I wanted to include it. If you don’t have a Step360, any type of step would work for it and if you don’t have a step of any sort, you can totally do the workout without.

The way the sets/circuits are set up is that each one has a lower body move, upper body move and cardio move. Each exercise is performed for 10 reps and you move from one to the next with only as much rest as needed. Try to rest between rounds rather than exercises in order to keep the heart rate up and get the biggest bang for your buck. You’ll complete 3 rounds of each circuit before moving on to the next.

As far as weights, I used 2 different sets of dumbbells: 10’s and 20’s. I haven’t been doing many leg-focused exercises lately so I kept the lunges light- with the 10 pounders- and was soreeee on Monday (but lunges and especially jumping lunges always make me sore!), but used a 20 pounder for Goblet squats and 2 20’s for the deadlifts. The biceps curl to press with 20’s was hard, but it felt good to really work for the reps! these are just examples of what I used- of course when you’re doing this, do what works for you and your body!

I posted most of the exercises on my Instagram story, but if you missed them, I’ve uploaded them to YouTube:

I hope you try this because I think you’ll like it!

Questions for you: What piece of equipment have you been loving lately?

How I Stay Active Working A “9-5” Desk Job

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While many people in my classes think I just live the fitness life of teaching classes/training people (I wish!), I do have a regular “9-5” job (which is actually more like a 7-5 job, but who’s counting 😉 ) that requires me to do more sitting than I need/want. I try my best to stay as active as possible throughout the day, but I’ll admit: when you’re super busy with back to back meetings, it can be hard to get a lot of movement in! I’ve touched upon this topics a few times  before on the blog, but as there are some new followers out there, I thought I’d touch upon it again- I don’t think we can receive too many reminders/tips on how to stay more active in our day to day lives, even if you aren’t working a desk job!

I’m sure we’re all familiar with the “take the stairs!”, “park further away” and the “get up rather than calling”, tips, right? And rightfully so- as much as these may seem like nothing, every little bit does count when you add it up. Which I think is the biggest way that I stay active: I move as much as I possibly can…

I park on the ground level of our parking garage so that I have to walk to the front door and then up 2 flights of stairs to my office.

I use the bathroom downstairs so that I have to do the stairs down and up.

I drink a lot of water so that I a: have to get up to go to the bathroom frequently and b. have to get up and refill my water frequently.

I walk to people’s office’s instead of calling or emailing.

I do laps around the office, sometimes “pretending” I need supplies or something in the kitchen.

Rather than combining my water refill/bathroom/etc. into one trip, I break it up and do it separately

I’ll try and go for a walk- even if it’s just 5 or 10 minutes.

These may not seem like much, but they really do require much more movement on my part than if I didn’t do them. And I’ll be the first to say- it’s so easy to NOT do these things. To take shortcuts to save time. To call people instead of walking to go see them. To get caught up in your work and realize you haven’t stood up in 2 hours.

Creating more movement in your day when you work a desk job requires you to be cognizant of your movement and to continuously think of ways you can move more. In fact, I started doing a lot of the above movement tips when I started wearing a FitBit because I was shocked to see how little I moved during an average day in the office and I’ve even noticed that I move less now that I don’t wear a step/movement tracker because I’m not as aware of how much or how little I’m moving.

Don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with days where you decide to veg out on the couch rather than get movement in. In fact, I think it’s very good to have days like that once and a while, but in general, I think movement is always a good choice. Our bodies are meant to move and if we are lucky enough to be able to move them, we should. It doesn’t have to be intense (it shouldn’t always be intense), it doesn’t have to be long (it shouldn’t always be long) and it doesn’t have to be organized- a simple choice of walking to do errands, go out to eat, go to Church, etc. will help get you moving, accomplish a “to-do” and make you feel better. I feel so fortunate to be able to walk to Walgreens, the dry-cleaners, the grocery store, Church, my nail salon and some of our favorite restaurants so I try not to take advantage of that by driving to them when I know I can walk to them. In fact, as we start to house hunt, a requirement of mine is being able to walk to things (this is not something I had the luxury of doing when I was a kid because I lived in a very rural town, so I love being able to do it now!)).

To sum it up, yes, I work at an office for anywhere from 8-10 or 11 hours a day, but that doesn’t mean that I am completely sedentary all day. All it means is that I have to make extra effort to get some movement in. It’s nothing too hard or time consuming, but – and I hate to sound cliche- every little bit does count. Moving makes me feel good, so I make it a priority to do it in some way, shape or form as much as I can.

Questions for you: How do you get movement in during the day? Do you find it hard or do you work at a job where movement is part of it? Do you have any tips for fellow readers for getting more movement in?