Exercise For Stress Relief

I hope everyone is doing okay while in the process of self isolating and practicing social distancing.

It's definitely been a thing. The added stress of being in a strange situation while being trapped at home where the outcome is still to be decided, it can be too much. So I wanted to throw it out there that physical exertion can be an effective way to get out of your head. Exercise can be a good outlet for anxiety with the added benefit of helping you sleep.

Start out easy. Grab that jump rope that's been collecting dust. Follow along to some videos on YouTube. If you have a elliptical or treadmill, now is the time to break it out. It can be even simpler than that though, just start doing those exercises you did in P.E. when you were in middle school or high school. A few jumping jacks, squats, reverse lunges, pushups, and crunches and you'll have yourself a good workout. Just get your heartrate up and sweat a little.

Here's a couple videos I've been doing in March. I've been doing them one after the other to get a hour long workout:

A good 10 minute bodyweight workout. The six year old does this with me.

Fast paced low impact aerobics with great arm work.

I've stopped doing stairs at work since we're supposed to be avoiding close contact with other humans. And of course our gym is closed, so we picked up a used treadmill on Craigslist that needed work done on it. Works great now and we started using it this weekend.

Daily Workout, 3/3/20

Cardio
30 minutes stair sprints
45 minutes aerobics

Meals
Breakfast: 3/4 cup yogurt with 1 tsp hemp seeds. 1/2 cup oats with 1/2 cup almond milk, 1 tsp honey, 1 tbsp chia seeds, strawberry, and dried coconut.

Lunch: 1.5 cups spaghetti with zucchini, peppers, onion, mushrooms, and tofu

Dinner: 2 cups chicken vegetable soup with mushroom ravioli

Daily Workout, 3/2/20

Cardio
30 minutes stair running

Strength Training
Kettlebell 15 pounder:
36 deadlifts
36 kettlebell swings
30 renegade rows
72 single leg deadlifts
36 single leg/single arm to upright rows
36 boat crunches
36 Russian twists

Meals
Breakfast: 3/4 cup yogurt with 1 tsp hemp seeds. 1/2 cup oats with 1/2 cup almond milk, 1 tsp honey, 1 tbsp chia seeds, strawberry, and dried coconut.

Lunch: 1.5 cups spaghetti with zucchini, peppers, onion, mushrooms, and tofu

Dinner: 2 cups chicken vegetable soup with mushroom ravioli

Mini Goal: Lose 20 Pounds by June

My family is having a little family reunion for a nephew's graduation, so I thought it would be fun to time a weight loss goal with the event.

The idea is to lose 20 pounds in three months. That's close to 6.5 pounds a month which should be doable. I would still be 10 pounds away from my ultimate weight goal, but would be close enough to make me very happy in terms of success.

Diet thoughts: I'll need to double down on my nutrition which I've been very lax about this month. Back to calorie counting and making sure I have the right calories and macro ratios for fat loss, while keeping energy levels high enough for intense workouts.

I'll be doing a cutting diet, which is what weight lifters do to get lean and lose as much fat as possible while trying to maintain muscle mass. The macro ratio I'm going for is one gram of protein for pound of bodyweight, one gram of carbs for pound of bodyweight, and 0.25 gram of fat for pound of bodyweight. Within the context of my macros, I'll be aiming for 1400 calories a day but one day a week I'll go up to my maintenance calorie level of 1800 calories (probably on my rest day).

Exercise thoughts: I'm going to try to workout 60 to 90 minutes a day with one day of rest, so at least an hour a day for six days a week.

3 days a week, I'll do a 20 minute full body weight training routine, followed by 40 minutes of cardio. The other 3 days of the week, I'll do 30 minutes of stair sprints and an hour of cardio later in the day.