I’ve been trying to figure out how to talk about fitness on the blog for the longest time. Every time I’d hit the gym, I’d wonder, “how the heck can I translate this into a good blog post?”
Fitness is a huge component of balance. It’s also a huge part of my life (as you guys know). So I knew I wanted to include it somehow on the blog.
The trouble is that I find most running, weight-lifting, exercise articles pretty boring to read about. And I don’t usually like to post how-to or tips and tricks articles since I’m constantly learning myself (although, I might do that in the future).
If finally hit me that my blog is usually goal-oriented, with my posts describing how I’m progressing in certain areas of my life. I decided I should take the same approach to fitness posts.
So, I’m going to go at it from a personal angle and blog about my workouts and goals on a weekly basis. And in these posts, I’ll included any other fitness-related things that I want to share with you: links and articles, inspiring blog posts, pictures, etc. I plan to post these articles towards the end of week, but I’m sure they’ll get moved around from time to time.
Now that you know what to expect in my Workin’ On My Fitness Weekly posts, let’s do this thing!
- I worked out 4, yes, 4 times during my honeymoon. Sounds pretty decent, but we were gone for 2 weeks. G managed to work out every day but 2. That’s ridiculous. Most mornings, when he was heading to the gym, I just sat on the deck, ate room service, drank coffee, and read whatever book I happened to be reading. It was glorious. Sometimes you just need time off, ya know? G doesn’t seem to share that mentality. 🙂
- Right before the wedding, I was really getting back into running outside. Running outside is by far my favorite type of exercise. But, the Wednesday morning before the wedding, I woke up with the worst stiff neck of my life. I think heavy lifting workouts coupled with more running on cement (and wedding stress, possibly) threw my neck out of whack. Needless to say, that kinda threw off my running outside mojo. Bummer.
- As I mentioned in this post, I am looking for a new goal. I feel like I need both a weight-lifting goal and a cardio goal. An obvious goal would be to run a race, which I’m definitely considering, but I’m not really the “race type”. I’ve ran one 5K in my life, and while it was fun, it didn’t fill me with this insatiable urge to keep racing like crazy. And weight-lifting goals are easy, I just need to make one.
- Remember how I said I was going to be a morning exerciser? Well, I’m still pushing this goal. Whenever we worked out on our honeymoon, we went in the morning (mostly because we had about a billion cervezas during the day at the pool, so there was no way we could have worked out in the evenings). And every time I work out before work, it makes my day SO MUCH BETTER. However, I struggle majorly with getting up early to hit the gym. Still a work in progress, but I didn’t expect results over night.
- Yoga. Out of my 4 honeymoon workouts, one of those was a Yoga class looking over the ocean. Amazing? Of course. I absolutely love yoga (how can you not?) and really want to make it more of a priority in my life. Besides, I don’t want to be a stiff old women that can’t move and bend.
- Since I spent the last two weeks parading around with hundreds of people in their swimsuits (sighhhh … let’s take a moment of silence), I got to check out lots of people’s bodies. Heh. Among the many things that I learned from that experience is that you can really tell which of the older women 1) lifted weights and/or 2) were active. It is just SO much easier to maintain a lean, fit figure through the years if you life weights. Seeing what the future holds definitely helped to remind me of the importance of weight lifting.
CURRENT GOAL: Just making it to the gym and getting back into the routine. :) We’ll reassess after I’m out of vacation mode.
Tell me about YOUR current fitness goal in the comments!
P.S. The image is a sneak peak into my new blog design which should be launching very soon!
I like it! And when I’m on vacation, I never really put working out high on the list, so I’m in full support of your room service/reading decision!
My goals right now are to ramp up my running mileage to 20/25 mpw and strength train 4x a week. The first is going better than the second. I think I’m doing another 1/2 marathon this fall. I’ve done a handful of races, and 5ks are my least favorite. I really liked my first 1/2 marathon, because at the time, 13.1 miles was farther than I’d ever ran. I understand racing isn’t fun for everyone… i just don’t understand why! 🙂
Yeah, I figure taking a break during vacation is a good balance anyway. 🙂
I would love to do a half someday, but I just don’t think I want to put that much time into training right now. Ya know? That’s why I’ll probably just stick with 5Ks. Short and simple. 🙂
I’d have to say that I’ve found fitness goals to be really hard to make. In mine, I just try to go to the gym 5 times per week, but that’s easy to measure but flimsy. I know enough about myself to know that I sometimes slack at the gym and sometimes my workouts are of a far lower quality than I would like.
I’ve gotten better about remember where I was with lifting so that I can keep on the same level, but sometimes I just forget.
I would have to say that running a race is a great motivator. Not long after I started going to the gym, I got talked into doing a triathalon, so now in addition to my regular morning workouts, I also run or bike (havent started swimming yet) after work. If you’re not into racing for racing’s sake, then maybe consider a run like the warrior dash or tough mudder – they are traditionally marketed towards guys, but you may enjoy it.
My goals are just to continue working out 2x per week. it’s not much, but it’s what I can do and it will keep me from getting burnt out. I love working out on vacation. We worked out the 1st 4 of our 7 day honeymoon. I love it b/c I have the time and I am also more motiviated due to all that extra vacation eating. I also like that it’s a new setting which breaks up the normal work out routine.
loving the new look so far!!!
Great post. I am glad to know that because you ran one race doesn’t mean you need to run another. I love running (can’t wait to get back to it!) but people think that once you run a race you have to keep training and running multiple races a year. Something I have no desire to do.
My goals, are working out regular with Yoga and Weights, and lots more cardio as soon as i can!
Hi Amber! I like your idea of writing your fitness goals down. I have a series on my blog called “fit fridays” and i think it really helps in motivating me. keeps me accountable. The series is on a brief hiatus…..I am now 7 months pregnant yet still doing Crossift, a little jogging and lots of walking. I have just laxed in publishing my workouts. I am going to publish again though starting this week. my husband and i workout 5-6 days a week and this is a goal i want to stick with.
after the baby is here (sept) we are going to start running more to prepare for a spring 1/2 marathon. like you, i am more of a short distance runner, but you would be surprised how far race adreneline can take you. i have run 3 and never ran over 8 miles while training…..you can probably do it if you are already in shape:)
good luck with your routine! stop by http://www.vivacindy.com if you get a chance!