My personal H.I. I.T cardio plan

I wasn't feeling well yesterday so as I was hoping the kids didn't bring me a gift from school I wrote up my own personalized H.I.I.T. cardio plan.

I took some things from other workouts I'd found online and had been doing for a few weeks then wrote my own plan using the exercises I liked most or that challenged me the most at this point in time.

I'll post a pic at the end of this post so that y'all can see it. This has definitely helped me get my cardio in at least two to three times a week.

Picked up weights again!!

The above is a video of me I took this afternoon when I picked up the weights again and did some deadlifts after not touching weights for two months.

If I did the math correctly (which there is a chance I didn't) I did 3 sets of 10 at 70lbs. I was trying to concentrate on my form, proper breathing and pausing. I know I need to work on some shit still but I do feel like I've improved since starting weightlifting in June. However I am always open to constructive criticism just no negativity please. I am teaching myself everything as I go and working with what is available to me at this time.

Mental fitness

To every person mental fitness will mean something different. To me it means taking care of yourself and taking care of your mental health or mental fitness.

For the past almost 6 years now I've had anxiety and depression along with anxiety attacks. I never told anyone other than my mom and best friend until a year ago when I opened up about it on my other blog. Anyone that personally knows me also knows I'm my own worst critic.

A year ago I realized it wasn't just the gym I missed from my life but being able to mentally overcome a situation and be able to do the things I love to do like devour books and write on my blogs or write poetry or short stories. So I decided to change that.

I started with just setting some time aside for me, which was hard. I've always put everyone before myself. But when I did this by the end of the first month I felt kind of liberated. I started writing on my other blog again, which like me is completely random and probably contains quite a few cuss words as I can make a seasoned sailor blush 😁. But I also started reading again and devoured books of all genres.

Do I still have depression, anxiety and anxiety attacks? Yes, probably always will. Does it bother me as much as it did? No, I've opened myself up to basically the entire world and as I've said before if anyone ever needs someone to talk to or anything I'm always here and will always have your six.

In closing make sure you take time out for your own mental fitness while you're getting physically fit. Do something you love other than the gym and I promise you'll be glad you did.

What do you mean cardio doesn't always mean running?!?!

First let me apologize for being gone so long. It was completely unintentional and then my laptop and tablet shit the bed and my phone is a POS. 

But yes cardio does NOT mean you absolutely must run. It also doesn't mean that you have to use a treadmill, elliptical or spin bike either. For most people cardio is pure utter tortuous hell and I used to be one of those people at one time. I've ran 5K's in the past and was working my way up to a half marathon before my support system well quit. 

So now instead of running I tend to lean more towards H.I.I.T. Cardio. I do this at least twice a week but am shooting for four times a week.
Below are some routines I've been using that I found online while I'm currently making my own routine. Once I'm done perfecting my own routine if anyone would like to have it to use just let me know!

Non scale victories & pictures!

So I don't even own scale at the moment because for so long I let those numbers control me. If I didn't like what they said I would either eat less or run more sometimes  both. Now I'm going by some non scale victories and changes I can see.

Yesterday was the first non scale victory I saw and was also the last day of my arm challenge! I was quite pleased with the results and will post some pics at the end of this entry.

While I'm still learning I also am starting to feel more confident in myself, feel like i have more energy, able to do more both physically and with my kids. I also learned I have more to learn especially when it comes to the nutrition portion as my calories in are always way less than my calories expended. So I need to eat smaller more nutritious meals throughout the day so that my body doesn't convert the muscle I'm building into food for my body to keep going.

So with all that being said and knowing I need to buy a scale eventually here are my pics!

Friday Progress Report

So I'm almost done with the 21 day arm challenge (after having to start over) and am seeing progress! Its been slow and steady but I am seeing some muscle definition and muscle tone. I even have little baby biceps! Chicken arms are going away and any progress is progress. I'll post pics on the last day. I already plan on waiting a week and redoing it but this time increasing the dumbell weight to 10 pounds from 3 pounds.

I also started a new 12 week training program from an app I found on my tablet. The first workout today kicked my butt and I literally collapsed when I was done. Mainly worked legs and core today. So far it's a pretty good app as you can pick the program I'm doing for weight loss or one of their other ones. I took my before pictures today before I started and I'm actually really excited to post the final picture with today's picture so I can see the progress.

My iFit is working again after being MIA for a year. I've been wearing it for a week straight and so far I've realized that I eat less than I burn which is what you want to lose weight but you also need to feed your body right. So that is something else I'm working on. Right now my cals out are about twice as high as my cals in.

I'm a work in progress but I'm not giving up this time.

What I've been learning

So I took some time to learn some things and try them out and find what works for me. I've followed some great fitness people on IG and Twitter and have been learning and getting some great ideas from them.

I've learned that counting macros is not going to work for me with the kids and I can't afford to buy different food for myself. I can however count my calories without changing the kids diet to much to where they complain about the food.

I need to start meal prepping again irregardless of what people think or say. It'll not only make my dinners and lunches easier but the kids complain less surprisingly.

I break up my workouts throughout the day because of them. I clean and play with my kids throughout the day so to me it only made sense to break up my workouts as well. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but it might take me longer to see any results than if I did it all at once. This isn't exactly a bad thing but I'm usually a results driven person.

Knowing this I've made the decision to do my workout all at once during the day or at night when they go to bed. I've also got to eat healthy and more regularly during the day since I'm burning more calories than I'm eating which is not good for my body. I've also decided that while I love working out at home eventually I'm going to have to join a gym, which I've wanted to do for awhile but can't afford at this time.

With all that being said, I'm going to go plan my workout for today, plan out meals for grocery shopping tomorrow and of course play with my kids and clean.

Keep it moving!