Survival Guide For The Gym In January: Home Gym

Welcome to part 3 of my survival guide for the gym in January. If you missed part 1 or part 2 check them out!

Let's say you have been weighing your options about a gym membership. You haven't been able to wrap your head around all the fees and the overall cost of the gym and it doesn't work for your budget. Or have you been going to the gym for the last 2 weeks and now that it is the middle of the month you might have decided that they gym just might not be for you. You tried it out and, well it didn't quite fit you. Well, This post is for you!

Have you ever thought about making a home gym in your house? A home gym? I bet you are thinking, I don't have the space, or a separate room, or the money? I'm not talking about having a ton of equipment but just getting the essentials for your house and what you personally need. The basics might be a set of dumbbells, a treadmill or elliptical, resistance bands, really that's it! You don't need all that fancy equipment to get a great workout. Here are some ideas below to help you out!

Let's say you just go to the gym and use the treadmill. No classes, no pool, no kids zone. You just go for the treadmill. Compare the costs of a gym membership for a year and the cost of the treadmill. If you have a corner space in your room you might have some space in your house for a treadmill. This can save you money over the long run and you will be able to do your workouts at your own time. Not the gym's scheduled. Same goes for an elliptical.

LifeSpan Folding Treadmill 

If you just use free weights, what about getting a free weights set. That have free weights that you can select the weight and with just a move of a button you can change the weight setting and they take up very little space. Or just get a standard 10-25 lbs set of weights. Or even a resistance band you can get a pretty good workout with!

Bowflex Select Tech Adjustable Dumbbells

Another great investment are at home workout DVD's. These are not like your mom's jazzercise workouts of the days of old. There are some major butt kicking workouts that will, WILL get you into shape as long as you follow their eating plan and exercise routines. A lot of workouts nowadays are 30 minutes or less. The makers are realizing that people don't want to spend hours at the gym. They want to get the same results in as little time as possible. The 30 minute workouts make you go, go, go for the entire time, and then you can rest. 21 Day Fix, Insanity Max: 30, P90X3, and T25, are all through Beachbody, and are all 30 minute or less workout programs. And if you want to get bulked up too, there are workouts for you too. But they are longer dvd lengths and program lengths. You can pretty much customize what kind of workout program you want to do. There is a DVD for you and whatever you want to do.

As with any workout regime if you want to lose weight you HAVE to incorporate healthy eating into your daily lives because you will not see the results you want unless you cut the crap food and eat clean. Abs are Made in the KITCHEN!

Words To Live By

Today I was checking out my favorite blogs and I love what Heather at  Through Heather's Looking Glass said today about finding time as a new mom to exercise, and glad to know that I am not the only one out there that would rather do something else!

4.) Sacrifice: There are a lot of days I would rather take a nap then go for a run, or skip the gym in favor of watching my favorite TV series. However, I know if I don’t make an effort and make some sacrifices, I won’t get my workouts in, and I won’t be a happy person which equals not being a happy mommy. I NEED my sweat sessions, so it really is for everyone’s benefit for me to sacrifice something else so I can workout.

This is so true, especially for me right now. When Collin and Mason are down for "mommy quiet time" I want to rest, relax and just not do anything but turn off my brain and sit down with my favorite TV show. Well, the great thing about Hulu, Netflix or TV in general. It will always be there later. All I have to do is just 30 minutes a day here at the house. That is my goal. Go to the gym and do my run and the elliptical for an hour and then sometime later in the day, most likely when the kids are down for a nap, do another 30 min of PiYo for strength training. So time for me to sacrifice and watch later and continue to FOCUS ON ME! Because I am worth fighting for!

Thank you Heather for your words that made a profound impact on my day! 

January Week 2 Recap

This past week I was hit with miserable exhaustion! Hence why this is out 2 days late! I have been in such a bad habit of going to bed super late and then sleeping in, in the mornings. That it has just thrown off my whole schedule. I am eating later in the day and my whole eating pattern is off too. I am going to be trying better this week to be in bed and asleep by 10pm. (as long as the kiddos let me!)

My workouts suffered a little because of it but as long as I get my weekly mileage in I am ok with that. I will say that this last Saturday my legs felt like they didn't have enough strength. I felt like I really had to dig deep and push my legs while running around Charlottesville. There are a TON of hills here in Charlottesville and I just feel like I need a little extra boost in my leg strength to get me comfortably over these hills. So I am going to add PiYo back into my training mix to help with my flexibility, and overall strength. The more I read about PiYo and how amazing it is for running the more excited I am to add it back in again.

Mason: Mason loves being a big brother. He loves to pick on Collin, like a typical big brother does, but he also shows him the most heart warming love I have ever seen. Often when Collin cries Mason alerts us to it and will rush over and give him a hug, kiss and a pat on the head. He also loves to help Collin out by fetching his toy for him when Collin throws is down on the ground. Mason is learning new dinosaur names everyday! He now knows pentaceratops.

Collin: Is growing up way too quickly. We found out this week that he is still not gaining enough weight. Thanks in part to him crawling so much and being such an active baby. So Now I am pumping him full of healthy fats and he really does love it. Since I started feeding him solids, I have noticed that my milk supply has suffered so we are trying to boost that back up too by making sure he nurses first before solid food feedings. And I was advised by his doc to add in 1-2 more feedings during the day. So already in the last half of this week he is starting to fill out more, and even spit up at the end of feedings because we are actually topping off the tank! He is cruising for sure now. He will pull himself up on anything and walk along the couch or whatever he is standing next too. His face is just plastered with a HUGE "I DID IT!" grin and he is such a happy and loving and happy baby!

Workouts: 
As I said earlier, my workouts took a decline this past week due to me just not taking care of me and going to bed so late. (even my dad made a comment the other night about how I was going to bed so late!) My runs this week weren't the best. My legs were still recovering from the Saturday long run so my 3 mile run ended up being a 2 mile walk. I have decided that I need to do my running days on Tuesday and Thursday again. Because Monday is just too soon after my long runs for my legs to function properly!

Sunday: rest
Monday: 2 mile walk
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: 1 mile walk
Thursday: rest
Friday: 1 mile walk
Saturday: 5 mile run 15:59 min/mile. It was 18 degrees and it hurt to breath. I just wanted to finish. And I ran to the downtown mall. That is just so "far" away and unbelievable that I ran to there from the university. (all my c-ville peeps will know what I am talking about!)

Fitbit:
Total Steps: 55,570 Equals 24.75 miles
Total Floors: 94

New Year Giveaway By For Two Fitness

I am thrilled to partner with For Two Fitness for an amazing New Year giveaway. If you recall, I wore For Two Fitness apparel through my pregnancy with Collin and they quickly became my absolutely favorite maternity fitness apparel brand. For Two Fitness is running a phenomenal giveaway for the New Year. Read the details below.

Happy New Year! We are so thankful to YOU — our community, customers, and friends. To express our thanks, we are hosting a huge giveaway this week in partnership with some amazing brands and our ambassadors. The Grand Prize is valued at $1000.  We have phenomenal prizes, including the newest offering from BOB - a Revolution FLEX  jogging stroller - plus prizes from ASICS, Ergo and Maison Drake baby boutique, and For Two Fitness – all facets of your healthy mom lifestyle are in this prize pack!

The grand prize winner will win everything you see listed here.  Prizes have been furnished by our wonderful brand partners in connection with a sponsoring ambassador (Katie from Mom’s Little Running Buddy and Melody from Will Run For Margaritas). Here are more details about the amazing products that have been generously donated for you to win and enjoy:

Grand Prize Giveaway items:

●      The New BOB Revolution FLEX single stroller

●      For Two Fitness maternity athletic outfit (top and bottom of winner’s choice)

●      Ergo 360 Baby Carrier furnished by Maison Drake baby boutique

●      Asics Running Shoes (1 pair of the winner’s choice)

Wow!  We are thrilled to give away these amazing prizes.  This contest runs from Monday, January 12th through midnight on Friday, January 16th.  Visit the For Two Fitness site to enter.  Be sure to follow @ForTwoFitness and our co-hosts @run4margaritas and @momslrb on Instagram in order for your entries to be valid.

Thanks for celebrating the New Year with us!  Good Luck!!!

Running In The Cold

Oh man, today was a brutal run! I just checked the weather indicator that my Garmin has and it clocked todays run at 18 degrees. Not including the cross wind we had the whole time. I had no idea it was that cold, and boy was it COLD!  So what can we do to make sure that we are prepared for for that kind of cold.

1. Layers and more layers. Layers are good cause if you do get cold you can tie your jacket around your waist. But honestly I didn't see anyone take off their jacket today.

2. Head Coverage- Wear a headband that can cover your ears or ear muffs or even a beanie. I don't have this but I do have a hoodie on my jacket which helped out today, a little.

3. Wear a scarf to help cover your face and exposed skin. I didn't have this and I can tell you right now that my face is covered in wind burn. My face hurts. Around my lips the most.

4. Gloves. My fingers were very cold. I have a jacket that has the thumb holes that cover most of my hands but my fingers were exposed.

5. Just know that when it is that cold your pace could slow down because it is a little hard to breath when it is that cold. I had a hard time with my legs too because they were FROZEN! And at about 2.5 miles they were so frozen that they were numb. Which helped in me needing to take less walk breaks but my legs were so cold they were numb. CRAZY huh! Or it could be completely opposite that you might run faster to get out of the cold. But most people I talked to today ran just a little slower than usual.

6. DRINK WATER! The winter months are so deceiving but it is a lot easier to get dehydrated during the winter than the summer. We know in the summer to drink. We feel it, we see it with our sweat. Water out means water in. But when it is so cold, you don't sweat as much so we don't compensate with enough water. So make sure you drink WATER!

Hope this helps the next time you have to battle the cold.

~All my Arizona friends are basking in the sunny warmth right now as the are reading this! They live in AZ for a reason. Perfect winter days of 70 degrees!