Last week I decided to do something that I pretty much never do: take an entire week off from working out. I had been exercising pretty hard, and my nagging calf and foot injuries were bothering me, so I knew that at least a few days of rest was necessary. With a 4-day trip to Miami coming up, I decided it was the perfect time to give my body a rest from working out for a solid week. Besides a very mellow yoga session one morning, walking around a decent amount in Miami, and taking my pup for walks once I got home, I got little exercise all week. Everyone has a different exercise balance that works for them. Me? I'm somewhat of a fitness freak. Typically I train 6 days a week, with one of those days being something low-impact, like a long yoga session. I switch up my routine a ... [Read More]
working out
Avoiding Pigging Out After Workouts
While checking out the July/August issue of Fitness magazine tonight, one of the cover stories caught my eye: How to Beat Post-Workout Pig-Outs. You see, I recently realized that I kept coming home from the gym feeling starving and wanting to just shove food in my mouth - as of late, handfuls of cereal, dried fruit, and spoonfuls of peanut butter were my picks. Since I most often workout in the late afternoon/early evening and make dinner once I come home, I'm about to eat soon after I exercise anyways. But in the time it takes me to get home, prep dinner, and then sit down to eat it, I found myself eating unnecessary calories. Once I realized that this was something I'd been doing that I did not want to make a usual habit, I came up with a few minor adjustments to make in order to help ... [Read More]
Live with Intention
Last night after watching my DVRed episode of The Following (SO good yet SO disturbing!), I needed to watch something lighter to get visions of psychopaths and murder out of my head before going to sleep. I wound up putting on a reality TV show about Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte. In the episode, Ryan talks about his work hard, play hard mentality. While I don't think show is meant to be inspirational or anything more than goofy late night entertainment, I went to sleep thinking about how this mindset really resonates with me and is how I always want to live my life giving my all, taking chances, and living life to the fullest. When I woke up, I zipped through my work with great productivity. Later on I had a session with a personal trainer at my gym. I went into the workout with Ryan ... [Read More]
A Body in Motion
Staying active looks different to different people. For some, it's that daily long walk with their dog. For others, it means regularly going to CrossFit, boxing, running, biking, weight lifting, and the list goes on and on. I think that as we go through different phases and stages of our lives, our fitness regimen sometimes changes. There's nothing wrong with that friends, as long as we keep on moving. I find that I go through phases of being into different types of exercise. While last year I was at the gym almost everyday, lately I've hardly been there at all - even before I moved last weekend and actually had a gym that I could go to (must join a new one soon!). Instead, I've been more into outdoor workouts - mainly hiking, tennis and biking. Those workouts have just felt more ... [Read More]
Making Exercise a Priority
Last night, I checked out my schedule for today and determined the best time for a workout to be first thing in the morning. I set an early alarm so I could fit in a nice 75 minute hike with Harley as the start to my Friday. This is common for me, as I schedule my workouts the vast majority of days as I would a conference call or doctor's appointment. Sure, some days things don't go as planned and my workouts might have to get switched around. Perhaps every now and then I won't get a workout done at all when I had penciled it in. But, because I make it a priority to exercise, I usually find a way to fit it into my days. When I hear people say that they simply don't have time for exercise, I cringe a little and then think of this quote: ''If it's important to you, you'll find a way. If ... [Read More]
Lemon Chickpea Couscous
I certainly got my feel-good workout endorphins going today! I took a break from work at lunchtime to do a walk/run interval sess around my neighborhood trail with Harley, and then this evening I boxed. I was a sweaty beast by the end of the class, and it felt great to get some hardcore exercise in. While my friend was in town I favored laying by the pool and drinking wine to working out and guzzling water like usual, so it was good to get back into my routine today (though it's fun to take a break from the typical regimen, especially when it involves time with a good friend!). Dinner When I got home from the gym, I was in the mood to eat a lot of veggies. I had the last of my leftover couscous from last week's dinner recipes to use (you can see those recipes here and here), and this ... [Read More]