Clean Your Apartment & Workout Too Part 1

This post was supposed to simply be a workout that you can do at home, while you clean your place. Harmless, right? As I started writing, my heart opened up to another issue and that is really sticking with something, even if day by day the results seem small. I've seen so many examples of this with people I know recently, and apparently my heart needed to release it. Part 2, is an actual workout you can put into practice to make cleaning your house/apartment/whatever, fun and workout beneficial!

Often, I hear the excuse, "I don't have time to exercise." I myself often find myself thinking, "I don't have time, energy, etc to clean my space."

The truth is, we all have time. Maybe we don't all have 90-minutes a day, but we all can find 10-20-30 minutes a day to exercise and on somedays longer, if needed to hit your goals.

We can find the time.

But, you have to want it. You see I want to keep my car, purse, apartment, kitchen, bathroom, closet (need I go on?) clean, but the truth is, if I don't set this as a priority or treat it with importance, it happens infrequently. Yesterday, I dumped out my purse on my bedroom floor (in the middle--because ideally this means I'll pick it up faster). For me, this is how I force myself to clean, create an even bigger mess that has to be taken care of. Today I pulled out all the change and put it in a cute box and stacked up the dozens of receipts that had given my purse the resemblance of a trash bag....change needed!

So the above is a funny example, but how often do we treat our bodies and health this way?

"I'll start tomorrow." (no--tomorrow doesn't exist now--today is it)

"I ate a banana today (and kept all my other crappy eating habits). I was healthy today!" (be sure not to kid yourself)

Is your health/weight/food choices/workout decisions/stress management techniques/etc/etc/whatever you need to make yourself better, a priority? Or is it something you only handle when it becomes so severe, like the receipts flying out of my purse, that you only take action at crisis?

No matter what it is: moving your body more, stopping your ice cream binge, halting an addiction, speaking up for yourself more, believing in yourself, training for that half marathon you've always wanted to run, taking that dance class you've been terrified to sign up for....

Whatever it is for you, you CAN do it. You CAN step up and say, I'm all in to hit my goal.

You may need support.

I believe as humans we are designed to be in community and help each other.

Let someone step into your life and encourage you, challenge you and uplift you.

Do you need to dump so trash (old receipts) on your bedroom floor and day by day pick up the pieces? The trash represents past failures, negative people, your situation if you are unhappy with it.

Dump it all out and start fresh today, even if the changes seem insignificant right now. In my opinion, any change that you make for the better, is significant. I don't care how small it is (or how small you think it is). If you are trying to save up money and you put away $5 a day for 30 days, does it look significant? Not really. But if you weren't doing that last month and you continued to do this for 90 days, you'd have $450 (the cost of an iPad mini and some accessories!)

What if you did the same for your health? Just using exercise as an example, let's say you ran for 15-minutes a day (literally just a random example kind of/sort of equivalent to putting away $5 a day!). Let's say in 15-minutes, you expend 125 calories. In 90-days, you would have run 10,800 calories or 3 pounds. Maybe that's not a huge deal and maybe your goal is bigger. But look back 90 days, did you hit your goal of losing weight?

This example can be applied to any goal you have. Let's say you want to be able to do a pullup. If you start from zero and practice several times per week, over time you'll get to your goal--but it may take time.

Stick it out and know that the other side is positive and empowering!

By the way, this is soo not what I was about to post about, but it was on my heart. Part 2 is a workout that you can do, at home, while cleaning up your space!

In health & prosperity,

Monica

Q & A Training on the Elliptical

I got a great question this week about varying an elliptical workout, and thought it would apply to many who are looking to get the most for cardio sessions. This can apply not only to elliptical workouts, but any cardio/strength routine! As the weather chills, don't forget to keep moving!

Question: I have mostly been doing elliptical workouts because I don't like running. Do do you have any recommendations about how to make the best of an elliptical workout, and maybe include a little running?
My answer: For ellipticals (or any cardio), here's my reccomendation: get VARIETY. Even if you were only running, I would tell you to change it up every once in a while. Your body responds positively to changes and differences in your routine. 

For example, if you vary your elliptical workout with intervals, moderate/endurance workouts, circuit workouts with strength training, you will get more out of it. 

Here's example workout routine for 5 day that is mainly based on the elliptical:

Workout 1: Warm-up lightly for 5-10 minutes, then intervals: 2 min on (hard resistance/fast pace); 2 min easy (recovery); 2 min moderate resistance/fast pace,' 2 min easy; Repeat 4-6 times.
Workout 2: 30-45 min at a moderate resistance & pace; then strength training; choose 8-12 exercises and do 1-3 sets of 10-15 reps of each exercise with the last 2-3 increasing in challenge (in general, take about 15-30 minutes on strength training, if you are also doing cardio that day OR skip the cardio and focus on more strength training this day
Workout 3: Warmiup elliptical x 5 min; Run 10-min at moderate pace; Do elliptical for your remaining planned workout time with alternating intervals (30-sec on/30 off)
Workout 4: 20-45 minutes at a moderate resistance & pace
Workout 5: Alternate: 5-min on elliptical, hard resistance/moderate pace; then choose 3 strength exercises with different muscle groups and do 12-15 reps for 1-2 sets (for example: squats, chest press, plank). Repeat this circuit with new strength exercises 3-4 times.
Remember this is general info, and may or may not be right for you! Feel free to ask if you are wondering! Everybody responds to exercise, and specific activities differently, and part of it can be based on your genetics. It's important to do something that will keep you going and getting after it. If you continually try to force yourself to do something you hate, eventually, you may quit. Keep searching to find what it is you like, if you haven't found it yet.