That’s my workout buddy & baby sister Haddie. She’s a little dream. Anyhow, I went from 117 to 103 lbs through good old-fashion diet and exercise. It took about 6 months. That sounds horribly long, but I didn’t know what I was doing at first. I thought my one mile runs and semi regular workouts were enough. I found out that diet is really key though – they say it’s about 80% of the results, but workout is essential for toning and especially for blasting off the weight that just likes to stay around. Once you get where you want, it’s a lot easier to maintain that weight and tone with a lot less effort. It isn’t fair, but it’s great! I put one of my first go-to workout pictures I found useful from Pinterest below.
How I Started Working Out:
I’ve worked out since I was in middle school semi regularly. I joined cheerleading in 7th grade and cheered for 3 years as a flyer. Cheer got me going running, then I ran track in 8th grade. I was really bad at track because I’m not really competitive and my dad told me I was great at everything, so I didn’t have anything to prove. 😉
I tried cross country for 1 day but it was a 2 mile run for the warm up and 1 mile was all I normally ran. I was dying and it was embarrassing to have a fast runner have to walk with me.. so I quit that in a hurry. I did basketball my senior year so I could play on a real team before I graduated, but I’m sure the girls wondered why I was on the team.. I ended up being the water girl and got the intercessor (prayer) award.
Anyhow, all that to say, sports were my intro to workout. Then after I graduated school I gradually got older, kept eating healthier than most in my family, but gained a little weight and didn’t like how some of my clothes fit or how round I felt my face would look – I was still small, but everyone knows how they look or feel best.
MY FAVORITE WORKOUTS:
In September 2015 I started working out regularly and doing this routine pictured at the bottom 1-3x through and it’s a good total body workout. I would run 1 to 2 miles as well.
I did 1/2 of Insanity. That was great, but it takes 45 minutes and isn’t very enjoyable.. but people get great results.
Then I went to the gym for 40-60 minutes, 5 mornings a week for 3 months when our family got on a personal training plan. That was great, but I don’t prefer traveling to and from the gym – I could be working out that whole time! & Memberships aren’t fun to pay or pay to break if you move like I did.
Then I gradually built up to 100 push ups starting from 30. Not without breaks, just 100 in a setting. I try to do 20-25 without stopping at first, then do sets of 10-20 after that. I do regular, wide and tricep pushups. I don’t believe in girl ones.. sorry. It takes me like 15 minutes, which is a long time.. but they get done! After I did push up regularly for a while I found out I could do 4 pull ups in a row, which was a big deal for me being that I couldn’t even do 1 before that! That was a fun surprise. 🙂
I did T-25 for a bit, which are great 25 minute high cardio workout videos by Shawn-T. I love that series, but it was a friend’s and I couldn’t finish it.
Running is good and I enjoy it, but I twisted my ankle a few years ago and had to try something different. That’s when I found Alexa Jean Fitness and I’m really happy I started doing more strength training than cardio. I don’t want runners knees someday. If you do run though, DON’T RUN ON THE PAVEMENT! It’s bad for your joints.
Alexa Jean liked one of my cooking blog pictures (@CamilleMeals) and I bought her stuff. That’s good marketing on her side – and I absolutely LOVE her at-home, no equipment (besides dumbells) workout guides. They’re super cheap too! They’re like $7.99 for a 30 day challenge unless they’re on sale. She has 4 challenges for legs/butt, abs & upper body. I highly recommend those. She also has a pregnancy plan (which I really hoped she would make) so I can use it when I get married and have kids one day. P.S. She doesn’t know I’m recommending her. I’m just passionate about her stuff.
For indoor cardio I like to do 4-8 minutes of knee ups, butt kicks, front kicks & jumping jacks. I usually do 1 minute of each in a row, take a break and then do another set. I learned those from Insanity.
If you want results, you need something that pushes you, makes you feel it, preferably makes you sweat, and you need to be working out at least 30 minutes a day, preferably 45 minutes to an hour. Not my rules. 😉 I like to listen to something useful while I workout. I don’t listen to music in that time because it doesn’t feed my mind like motivational or education audio or preachers do. 🙂 See my post on my favorite podcasts if you’re interested in some good places to start. 🙂
DIET:
Really, diet is what so much of what looking the way you want to comes down to. The more you eat, the longer you have to spend working.. 1 lb is about 3,500 calories.. It takes a lot to burn that many calories. When you think about it, it’s easier to just not eat them. If you cut 500 calories a day, you’ll lose 1 lb a week. Pretty good deal.
Then I went on a 21 day Daniel fast in January 2015 & really started getting to the weight I wanted to. Daniel fasts vary, but mine consisted of fruits, vegetables, nuts, fruit juices, maybe protein shakes.. I might have added bread. Basically: No meat, no sweets, no dairy, no eggs, no coffee.. I’m not sure how I did that.. 😉
After that another way I lost weight is to NOT EAT AFTER 5pm. I found this out on accident because I went on a dinner fast for 10 days to hear from the Lord from 5pm on and basically skipped dinner or ate a light one. I wasn’t trying to lose weight – but I lost 1/2 a lb to 1 lb a day! That’s when I realized that late night eating really sticks to you. Cut that out and you’ll really get results faster. That’s not the funnest thing to hear, but if it makes you feel better – I skipped dinner tonight. 🙂 I realized I gained some weight back a few days ago and you gotta keep yourself in check. It’s easy to eat when you’re not hungry or bored, but food shouldn’t be just an activity to fill time – at least I don’t think it should? 😉
Health is a long haul thing and recently I’m realizing that it has to be a passion and hobby to eat right and make time to take care of yourself. Being in shape has so many benefits besides just looking good – and there are so many downsides of being overweight or out of shape. It’s worth putting the consistent effort in for however long it takes. My family’s gym trainer, when we had one, said you have to look at your health goals in terms of a year. That’s great advice. There are few shortcuts to success in life – but cutting calories is a great one! 😉
SLEEP, WATER & VITAMINS:
It’s easy to forget that these 3 are an essential part of health too. Our food is often deficient in how it’s grown from some vital nutrients, so I believe in supplementing our diet with mulit-vitamins and the whatever your body needs. Nutrients help prevent disease, and that never hurt anybody. 😉
When we sleep our body recovers. Apparently 10pm is the best time for our body to start cleansing while we sleep. I never get to bed that early, but it’s kind of a goal. Looking up the benefits of sleep makes me feel better even if I don’t change my ways. 😉
I’ve been bad about drinking enough water lately, but I’m gonna get back to 1/2 gallon – 3/4th gallon a day. Being hydrated, especially with alkaline water, gets your body out of an acidic state and lets your body release fat. When you’re too acidic from your diet, your body holds weight because fat protects your organs from acidity. Tony Robbins taught me that. When your body knows it’s safe from such acidity from foods like pop, sugar, red meat, white bread etc it can let go of some of the weight it’s holding on to. Look up an alkaline and acidic food chart that shows the scale of bad, better & best to see what you might not know is acidic.
Hope you find all that helpful.
I believe it’s Zig Ziglar that says any workout you’ll do consistently is the one for you.
Camille
