It’s been 61 days since my company informed us that we would be working from home in their efforts to slow the spread of “the Rona” (yep, I call it the Rona lol). 61 days of half workouts or no workouts at all. 61 days with no access to a gym and 61 days of me saying maybe tomorrow. It’s safe to say I’ve fallen off the wagon, rolled down the mountain, and Gold Medal, Olympic level swan dived into a pool of daily indulgences that aren’t balanced out with a good workout. Basically, my fitness journey has come to a full stop.
Before I get into my plan to get myself back on track. Let’s talk about where I started.
In 2017, I was the heaviest weight I had ever been at 200lbs. I worked very hard to lose the weight, and by May 2019, I had gotten down to 145lbs. The question I always get asked is, “How did you do it?” Well, I am sorry, ladies, there was no magic pill or secret drink to how I lost the weight. It was just good old fashioned exercise and eating smaller portions.
Since 2019, I have gained a little weight back. But, I didn’t beat myself up over it because over the past few months there have been some significant changes in my daily routine, like my new job where I had to commute 2.5 hours every day and sit at a desk all day with endless lunches and treats didn’t help either. However, I was able to continue exercising, just not as consistently as I had been in the past. Then the Rona happened, and my daily routine had once again changed, and as I said earlier, I’ve completely fallen off the wagon. Now, I just wish the weight came off as quickly as it went on.
All that being said, I know that I need to re-focus and get back to basics! I believe I’ve come to a point where the exercise will come quite easily if I make myself a plan.
The plan
Phase one started three weeks ago. I started off with walks, a minimum of 2.5km on days where time was not on my side and 5km when I was “arms swangin” with no kid to slow me down 😊.
Phase 2, incorporated yoga, which was a total game-changer for me since I won’t have my nice ergonomic desk/chair until I return to the office. In terms of finding the right instructor, there were a ton of resources and Instagram pages doing live feeds, but I found I needed to slow it down a bit since I hadn’t done yoga in a couple years (it almost felt like I was a born again yogi). Luckily I was able to find a YouTuber named Sarah Beth (@sarahbethyoga) Sarah had so many videos to choose from I found myself taking more time to look through them all then doing yoga because I didn’t want to miss anything.
Phase 3 included strength training videos from Emi Wong (@emiwong); she is also a YouTuber. The beauty of her workouts is she had versions with a range of different time lengths and, most importantly, condo friendly exercises with no jumping.
Phase four is the creation of a workout schedule. The most important thing to remember when creating this even if you have assistance is that it needs to be reasonable in time lengths and something you can fit into your schedule, whether you are a night owl or early bird. At the end of this post below, I’ll show you the one I created this week and intend to stick to for at least 2 weeks, and at that point, I will tweak it or leave it as is.
Phase five, the last and final stage is the hardest (for me, which is why I put it last because I’m very good at procrastinating). Regardless of how much you exercise you do, you have to watch what you put into your body because that’s more than half of the battle. My plan starting tomorrow is to get back into the habit of logging what I eat into the My Fitness Pal . The first week will be just logging, and the second week will challenge me to stick to a specific calorie intake.
I’m hoping this plan will not only hold me accountable but hopefully help someone else ease their way into change that is permanent and not just another short term resolution. Please remember it’s different strokes for different folks. Some people find it easier to just go in full force, and if that works for them, great! But for me personally, I’ve found this method better for maintenance. Cara also has some great tips for jumping starting your fitness journey, you can find them here.
My schedule
The below schedule is based on what works for me in my current situation. When gyms reopen, I’ll likely do the hour straight in the morning or night.
Monday
(Morn) 20 min yoga
(Aft) 20 min run
(Night) 20 min strength
Tuesday
(Morn) 20 min strength
(Aft) 20 min run
(Night) 20 min yoga
Wednesday
(Anytime) 20 min yoga
Thursday
(Morn) 20 min run
(Aft) 20 min strength
Friday
(Morn) 20 min yoga
(Aft) 20 min run
Saturday
(Morn) 20 min strength
(Aft) 20 min run
(Aft) 15 min yoga
Sunday
(Morn) 20 min yoga
(Aft) 5k walk
Don’t forget to check our Insta account, I will be giving updates on my progress in the stories: Instagram
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