I am not a vegetarian, vegan, or anything. I am not on a crash diet, flush, or fast. I'm just a young mother trying to eat better and get my kids to do the same. I fell in love with vegetables during my last pregnancy, and that's usually what I have for lunch. Most of my reason for starting this blog is to document the simplicity of the healthy meals I eat so that others can enjoy them as well, even in a short amount of time (or with one hand, as is often my case).

Monday, January 25, 2016

Workout Ideas

Guys, sometimes life just isn't fair.

I'm coming to accept that there are things wrong with my body that just won't let me be as active as I'd like to be. I've been on recovery hiatus since October from my 2nd stress fracture, and more recently I seem to have injured my hand from knitting too much. Yes, you read that right. We're working on figuring out what the problem is, but in the meantime I still want to do as much as I can, even with modified workouts. I want to be strong, and I feel like I can do that. It may mean that I won't be the half marathon runner that I want to be, but that could mean that I become a good swimmer (if my weird shoulder injury will let me...lol). At any rate, I'm going to do what I can. Sitting around and waiting for my body to heal only makes me depression eat, which has put me up 5 lbs over the past 3 months. I now have 10 lbs to lose before more than 2 pairs of pants will fit me, and I'm going to do it.

I started this record to inspire people, and I'm sorry that it probably hasn't done that. I'm quite sure that my inconsistencies are likely more annoying to myself than anyone following along, however. So much so that I am starting fresh right now. Or a week ago, actually.

For today's post, I wanted to share what I've been doing lately and what I'll continue to do for the foreseeable future in terms of working out. Hopefully this can give you some ideas, in case you're in a workout rut.

Running:
I'm religiously following the 10% rule. Last week I started running half a mile a day, doing 3/4 mile on Saturday. This week I'm doing half a mile a day with a full mile on Saturday, and I'll continue adding a 10% increase in weekly miles from here on out. I don't normally run every day, but I think doing these very small amounts will be okay, especially with all the cross training I'm also doing.

Strength - Knees:
I typically do 30 lunges per mile run, but I think I'd rather front load things this time around. I'm now doing 20 lunges and 20 rear lunges every day, regardless of distance. I'm adding in 10-20 side lunges every other day or so as well.
I'm also doing one-legged squats for knee strength. They're super hard, so I'm doing 2 reps of 5 per leg each day.

Core:
30 sit ups every day. Non-negotiable. I do straight-legged sit ups with my hands crossed to my shoulders, and I go very slowly.
Upping my rockets every day. I started at 10, and today I did 14. A one-a-day improvement is good enough for me :)
Half bridges - 20 or so
Plank - 30 seconds, upping each day. 
I'd love to be doing scorpions, and I did some last week, but my hand is not letting me know. I was at 6 per leg, and I'll up it one-a-day once my hand lets me.
Some other ideas of things I should be doing:
Metronomes
Leg drops
Cha-cha crunches
Supermans

So that's the last two weeks. Next week I'll start swimming again, doing half a mile twice a week. And once it warms up I'm going to start biking! When my hand stops hurting I'll get back into push ups, scorpions, maybe some burpees, and working on pull ups.