1. Always exercise on Monday. This sets the psychological pattern for the week. Along the same lines …
2. If at all possible, exercise first thing in the morning. As the day wears on, you’ll find more excuses to skip exercising. Get it checked off your list, first thing.
3. Never skip exercising two days in a row. You can skip a day, but the next day, you must exercise, no matter how inconvenient.
4. Give yourself credit for the smallest effort. My father always said that all he had to do was put on his running shoes and close the door behind him. Many times, by promising myself I could quit ten minutes after I’d started, I got myself to start—and then found that I didn’t want to quit, after all.
5. Think about context. I thought I disliked weight training, but in fact, I dislike the guys who hang out in the weight-training area. Are you distressed about the grubby showers in your gym? Do you try to run in the mornings, but recoil from going out in the cold? Examine the factors that might be discouraging you from exercising.
6. Exercise several times a week. If your idea of exercise is to join games of pick-up basketball, you should be playing practically every day. Twice a month isn’t enough.
7. If you don’t have time to both exercise and take a shower, find a way to exercise that doesn’t require you to shower afterward. Twice a week, I have a very challenging weight-training session, but the format I follow doesn’t make me sweat. (Some of you are saying, “It can’t be challenging if you don’t sweat!” Oh yes, believe me, it is.)
8. Look for affordable ways to make exercising more pleasant or satisfying. Could you upgrade to a nicer or more convenient gym? Buy yourself a new iPod? Work with a trainer? Get a pedometer to keep track of your walking distances? Exercise is a high life priority, so this a worthwhile place to spend some money if that helps.
9. Think of exercise as part of your essential preparation for times you want to be in especially fine form—whether in performance (to be sharp for an important presentation) or appearance (to look good for a wedding) or mood (to deal with a stressful situation). Studies show that exercise does help.
10. Remember one of my favorite Secrets of Adulthood, courtesy of Voltaire: Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Don’t decide it’s only worth exercising if you can run five miles or if you can bike for an hour. I have a friend who scorns exercise unless she’s training for a marathon—so she never exercises. Even going for a ten-minute walk is worthwhile. Do what you can.
11. Don’t kid yourself. Belonging to a gym doesn’t mean you go to the gym. Having been in shape in high school or college doesn’t mean you’re in shape now. Saying that you don’t have time to exercise doesn’t make it true.
I also love how the article ends:
People often ask me, “So if I want to be happier, what should I be doing?” and I always say, “The first thing to do is to make sure you’re getting plenty of sleep and plenty of exercise.”
I know that answer doesn’t sound properly transcendent and high-minded on the subject of happiness, but research shows that you’d be wise to start there. And I’ve found that if I’m feeling energetic and well rested, it’s much easier to follow all my other happiness-inducing resolutions.
Sarah, from SarahFit.com, created a killer ab workout just for Your Nutritionista readers! She says:
It’s a great series that is similar to the Pilates core series. It can be done 3 times a week on nonconsecutive days. I would recommend doing it on cardio days before you start huffing and puffing. This will help you engage your abs during the rest of your workout.
You can easily do these moves anywhere, so you have no reason not to work your core while watching that trashy reality TV show (I know that’s what I’ll be doing!).
And don’t forget to subscribe to the Sarah Fit Show and check out SarahFit.com! Thanks for the burn, miss Sarah!
It’s totally possible to get a butt-kicking at-home workout with very minimal equipment. Trainerpack will prove it to you!
The Home Workout is a simple but effective workout you can do almost anywhere. All you need are a set of dumbbells and a Swiss ball (you could get both for $30-50). Trainerpack says the goal of the workout is to give you a nice burn in the convenience of your own home.
If you need equipment, you can get 20% off at SPRI.com by using code NUTRITIONISTA2010 at checkout. Now you REALLY have no excuse not to get sweaty at home.
I truly love at-home workouts (who doesn’t love a workout you can do while watching TV?), so I’ll definitely be trying this one soon! Who’s with me?
To beat boredom, I switched up the way I do the DVDs. While I used to split up the three 20ish-minute segments on each DVD and spread them out over six days, I decided that for the rest of the month I’m going to just do a full 40-60 minute DVD twice a week. Sure, those two days are killer, but then I get to do whatever workout I want once I actually get to the gym.
This week, my strength felt a little stagnant. I didn’t feel like I could do more of the moves or use heavier weights, but I know that feeling is temporary. I’m hoping to come out strong for the last week of JWJ!
In other Jackie news, Miss Bess got to meet Jackie herself! She said Jackie loved hearing the positive blogger feedback on her videos and she’s coming out with two NEW DVDs (SO EXCITED!!). Jackie’s also coming out with a new show on Bravo in September called (wait for it) THINTERVENTION.
I’m skeptical based on the name, but I know Jackie will come out stronger than Jillian did with her new show (Losing It with Jillian), which is all drama and no good information.
After hearing about Bess’s encounter with my trainer crush, I’m even more excited to do her DVDs and support what she’s doing. She seems like she really knows what’s up!
boopabelle asked: How do you keep yourself motivated to keep working out and staying active? Even with a variety of workouts that don’t take up a great deal of time, I tend to find myself falling off the wagon fairly quickly after a week or so of being really gung-ho and excited about it. Sometimes just seems so much easier to lounge around and not take those extra 30 minutes to get up and move. Any advice for getting myself motivated again to get up and at ‘em, even when my time is limited?
One of my guiding principles is that you don’t need to spend hours in the gym to get an effective workout. But when even 30 minutes seems daunting, here are a few tips to get yourself up and moving:
Schedule to move with a friend. This means instead of going to happy hour to catch up with a friend, you plan on taking a walk or going for a bike ride. You can always hit the happy hour after! If you have something on the books with a friend, you’re less likely to skip out. If your friend is particularly workout-oriented, you guys could even make a gym date!
Bribe yourself. Give yourself something to look forward to during or after your workout! Some suggestions: a new mag to read while you’re doing cardio, a new song or two for your playlist, or the promise of a pedicure after your tough strength training sesh. New songs really get me excited about gymming it, actually. What a cheap and easy way to get yourself pumped for working out!
Don’t do the same thing twice. Yes, sticking with something can be beneficial, but for those of us who are prone to boredom, we need to switch it up often. If you pick a different activity every day (a new class, workout DVD, type of exercise, etc.), you’ll be too immersed in the novelty of it to get bored.
Give yourself 10 minutes. You can actually get a decent workout in 10. Just set a timer for 10 minutes and do whatever pops in your head! Start with things like lunges, squats, push-ups, crunches, jumping jacks, etc. You might find yourself raring to go at the end of the 10 minutes… or you might want to flop back on the couch. Either way, 10 minutes is better than nothing!
Just CHANGE CLOTHES. If 10 minutes sounds too daunting, just tell yourself you’re going to change into your gym clothes and that’s IT. Chances are, once you’re in your spandex, you’ll feel a lot more like working out (it’s a psychological thing). Trust me, you’ll feel silly changing back into your regular clothes without having moved at ALL.
Do chores. I don’t know about you, but I can work up quite a sweat doing everyday chores (vacuuming, getting down on my hands and knees to wipe the floor, etc.). If you let it, this can be a mini-workout in itself. And bonus, you end up with a clean space!
Don’t set yourself up for failure. Don’t plan to work out more than 4-6 days/week. If you do MORE than you planned, great. But you’ll get easily discouraged if you do less.
I love food. I love food that tastes good, is satisfying, energizes, and delivers lots of nutrition. There's lots of food like that out there. Let me prove it to you. Email questions, comments, or suggestions to yournutritionista@gmail.com.
Disclaimer: I'm not a Registered Dietitian (RD) or mental health professional. For medical or psychological counseling, please consult an RD, certified nutritionist, doctor, or mental health professional. All content on this blog is based on my own acquired knowledge/research and personal experience. It is not meant to qualify as medical advice.
