One of the things I’ve learned over my many years of life is that you have to learn to be flexible and adapt to your situation. Sure, sometimes change is scary and sometimes we resist, but change is necessary and keeps things moving forward… usually. To that end, I mentioned in last week’s post about the fitness routine that kicked off my fitness life, and said that I no longer engage in that craziness.
The reasons for this are manifold. It started off with wanting to free up more time to spend with Hubba Hubby, so evening workouts quickly fell by the wayside. I kept up early mornings, but then I wanted to sleep in sometimes – sue me! – and the expense was pretty high… and I wanted to free up more of my budget to spend on trips and fun stuff with Hubba Hubby… so all of it fell by the wayside temporarily.
Luckily, a happy coincidence, Hubba Hubby is actually super focused on his own fitness and has his own goals. He’s been working out for way longer than I have — he was an athlete in his pre-college years, and kept up the fitness aspect long after he stopped participating in organized sports — so he totally understood and encouraged my dedication to working out to continue. To that end, we began working out together — I don’t mean like that, you pervs — and he helped me formulate my own fitness regimen. Having an in-building gym helps out a lot, of course, even if it is on the small side and not fully-stocked like a more expensive gym membership might be, but honestly if you wanted to you could easily do what I did with only a few free weights or kettlebells at home.
The first thing: download Strong Lifts (free app for both iPhone & Android) to your phone, enter your stats, and get started. There’s also Strong Curves (program by the same person) that focuses on different areas for women, and I know people swear by it — but I’ve yet to use it. While Strong Lifts will encourage you to keep going up in lift weight steadily, you can keep at a weight until you’re comfortable before moving on. I admit that I pushed forward initially in every category until I was squatting (with weak form) 200 lbs, but not everyone wants to do that.
Ladies out there, I assure you that lifting heavy did not make me bulky or muscle-bound. In fact, if you saw me right now, you probably wouldn’t notice that I even lift. You’d think I was a little “toned” but not bulky whatsoever. My weight may not have dipped as low as it would have had I stuck to just weight loss, but I am smaller physically and I feel better than I ever have. I’m in way better health than I ever have been in my entire life! I have better stamina for hiking, better breathing for running, and I feel stronger. It’s amazing!!
I did Strong Lifts 3x a week with a 10 minute treadmill cool down after each session, and on “off” days, I’d run a couple of miles (on the treadmill because it was winter). This generally translated to M/W/F for lifting and T/Th for running.
Of course, life changed a bit more, so I now do something slightly different to keep my fitness goals going and to keep myself sane… which I’ll detail next week!!
How have you had to adapt your goals and routine to change as life progressed? Any tips on how to be flexible with your workouts?
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