My Work Out Schedule

I am no expert at working out and I still do my best at times to find excuses to not work out. Thankfully Steven is a big encourager of me and he gives me the push to get my butt out the door when he knows I need to. I have had several people ask what I am doing and how often I work out now. I want to start with when I workout. Pretty much when I can find time and my kids are asleep, most of the time. Having one set exact schedule for some things is great, but if you have a a spouse, kids, friends, family, a job, a life at all you are going to have to alter your schedule and work around things to make working out a part of your life. You are going to be able to find excuses not to do it. But finding time and getting your butt in gear is the first step. So find a time that works for you. And if that is in the morning some days and at night others, then do it. At least you are doing something.

So on to how I work out. When I started I was just walking. We would walk and walk and walk everyday. Typically the goal was to walk 30 minutes a day. Eventually I started doing Jillian Micheal's 30 day shred a few times a week. Then we started jogging during some of our walks, and I added in JIllian Micheal's kickboxing. And a few weeks ago I got the chance to join a bootcamp at my neighbor's once a week. I have gradually increased what I do and how often I do it. This has helped me keep motivated and keep going. It is easy to get bored with working out if you are doing the same thing everyday, so I would encourage people to try different things. If you are just beginning to work out and thinking that walking is the best place to start, then try just varying your route, or going a little farther each day. If you do work out videos or can get to the gym try different things that interest you. Get involved in different activities. You will start to feel better like you can do more but you have to get yourself started.

Right now I am walking 6 - 7 days a week, running 2-3 times a week, doing a workout video 2-3 times a week and doing a bootcamp workout 1 time a week. Wow that sounds like a lot more when I write it down. 8 months ago I didn't think I would ever be able to workout more than once a week. And I never thought I'd be able run a mile. But I can. It has not been an easy road though.

If you are like me you want to be able to see how often you are working out and what you are doing. So a couple months ago I got a big teacher calendar to be able to write down how many miles we are walking and how often I am working out. It has also turned into a master calendar for our family. I also write down our goals for the month. How many miles we want to walk and how many separate work outs I want to do. This month we want to walk 50 miles and I want to do 20 work outs. Hopefully that will help put me closer to losing the 8lbs I have left for the year :)