Adding Strength Training to Your Workouts

Adding more strength training to your workout routine can be as simple as doing a few bodyweight exercises like pushups and tricep dips. Focusing on strength exercises for the arms and back seems intuitive for me personally, since I mostly do high impact cardio to begin with which already works the legs.

I alternate and do one set of pushups and then one set of tricep dips on the floor for two sets of 25 repetitions each. For a total of 50 pushups and 50 tricep dips. If you can't do 25 reps at a time, then start at a number you can do while still having good form, still alternate between pushups and tricep dips, but increase the number of sets or the number of reps over time.

Once you're doing so many pushups and tricep dips in a row that you're getting bored, you can do harder variations of those exercises by using a stable coffee table or chair to put your feet on for pushups or hold onto with your hands for tricep dips.

In November and December, I stopped doing two a days and just worked out longer by adding bodyweight and abdominal exercises, or HIIT routines to the end of my cardio workouts. I, also, dropped down to only working out 4-5 days a week since I was busy with holiday activities.

Different workouts I did in November and December:

Fast Paced Aerobics

Fast Paced Aerobics

Low Impact Aerobics

Low Impact Aerobics

Step Aerobics (yeah, that's Cher)

HIIT

HIIT

Memes That Perfectly Express My Weight Loss Journey

I've been on the never ending diet the past two years. This one still manages to make me laugh.

This one fits as well.

Getting Through the Holiday Season While Working Out and Dieting

Ah, November and December, where months are spent celebrating and being merry and the time of year when diets go completely off the rails. It’s a difficult time to keep to our diet and exercise goals, but there are a few changes a person can make so we can get through the long holiday season relatively unscathed. Because it would be nice to not completely blow all our health and weight loss goals, especially if you’ve made some great gains the previous year.

One of the things I started doing in November was food prepping. It can be a difficult thing to get into. There’s a lot of planning, shopping, and cooking that a person has to do, but it makes it a lot easier to just eat what’s in the fridge rather than the temptations that are everywhere during the holidays. Heavy rich foods that tempt even the most stalwart of us because “it’s just the holidays, anyways” can be a convincing excuse.

Meal prepping involves preparing all the food in a single day that a person needs for the next 5 days. I actually make yogurt (for me) and bread (for my spouse) one day, then the next day I make food for our meals so it was kind of split into two days. So yeah, both my days off during the week are spent cooking.

In general I don’t eat baked goods, deserts, or ice-cream as part of my weight loss regimen. Oh, how I miss you ice-cream. But during this time of year, I’m extra disciplined about not snacking at night.

Breakfast was ¾ cup homemade yogurt with a teaspoon of granola and a teaspoon of hemp hearts, and ½ cup of oats with ½ a cup of plain almond milk and berries for overnight oats. Lunch was hummus with carrots and celery, or tomato and mushroom omelet over rice with steamed vegetables. Dinner were such things as ginger chicken over rice with a large serving of steamed cabbage, or stir fried beef with peppers over rice. For dinners, I just made sure to practice excellent portion control and included extra servings of steamed vegetables with each meal like broccoli, cabbage, or cauliflower, when I prepped my meals into those black meal prep containers (I prefer the two split compartment ones). You don’t even have to order the containers online anymore, they sale large stacks of them at Walmart for reasonable prices.

Being so regimented with eating the majority of the month gave me the freedom to have those indulgences on days when treats were all around at work, or the week after Thanksgiving or Christmas when delicious high calorie leftovers were everywhere.

By New Year’s Eve I had only gained two pounds while still being able to feel like I got to enjoy the holiday season with plenty of indulgences.

Double Workouts or Two A Days

Back in September I posted how I was considering doubling workouts or doing two a days. I did end up adding a second workout 2 or 3 days a week, to the aerobic YouTube video that is pretty much standing ab workout that I did everyday. So for September and October I did a forty-five minute aerobic workout 7 days a week, plus HIIT/Tabata/strength exercises 2-3 days a week. And I did my usual gym routine once in a while.

The aerobic workouts were completely low impact, you're barely shuffling your legs around for 95% of the video, but it works your core the entire time. After the first two times I did the workout my husband said, "I think I can actually see changes from your workout in just a couple of days."

But after the first two weeks of doing 9 or 10 workouts a week he was shocked. "That workout is completely transformative. It has transformed your body. I can see it in your back and your core."

I wasn't dieting or counting calories at that time, so my energy level was up. I felt great doing the extra workouts, and on top of that I was eating super healthy and eating plenty of food. Breakfast was typically summer rolls with shrimp and pork, and fruit and berries. Lunch was usually stir-fry with rice or a curried udon noodle dish with vegetables and tofu. Dinner was a free for all depending on whether it was my husband or I cooking. I just made sure to eat a little protein with every meal.

I didn't miss any workouts in September and October. The routine was fresh and new and I super enjoyed what I was doing, so it didn't really feel like an effort to get through the daily workouts.

I lost lots of fat in my back, stomach, and arms, they got noticeably smaller. Legs stayed the same since I ran a lot before this and they were already strong, but I did notice I no longer got side cramps at all. Probably due to building up core strength to a great extant.

Here's a list of those workouts I was doing in September and October:

Low Impact Aerobics (This was my go to daily workout)

For the workouts below, I did 4 videos 2-3 times a week plus a stretching video. So, about a 20 minute workout.

Cardio Blast

HIIT

HIIT

Strength Training (I used a 10 pound medicine ball.)

Tabata

Tabata

Tabata

Fast Paced Tabata

Double daily workouts. Folly? Or the Road to Heartache and Despair?

So my belly just won't go away. Why? Damn you, why? And I've been thinking about ways to increase the rate of fat loss.

I could go back on the keto diet. But, ugh. Consuming that much fat, cheese, and heavy cream is just not natural. And the inability to eat fruit while on the diet is soul destroying. I can't do it. I just can't.

I've decided the only way to deal with the belly fat, at faster than glacial speed, is to adjust my workouts and meal plans. Two weeks ago, I started meal planning, otherwise known as meal prepping. On a day or two that I have off, I make all our meals for the week. Homemade yogurt and bread for breakfast and snacks, and then three different meals for lunches and dinners. We've agreed not to eat out until November, so that'll force adherence to the meal plan.

Workout-wise, I've been thinking about doubling up on my workouts. A lot of weight lifters do this in general, they'll lift in the morning and do cardio at night, or vice versa. Of course, if you're weight lifting everyday, most people split the area of the body their working on day to day. But for me, I'll probably do  strength training with a medicine ball while doing Tabata, HIIT, or kickboxing. Then the second workout will be some sort of cardio or aerobics workout probably running, rowing, or aerobics.

Should You Exercise or Run While Sick?

The real answer is: It depends.

Most runners think along the line of, as long as it's an illness that is just affecting your head, then it's ok to run. If the illness travels any lower, like say your lungs or a stomach bug, then definitely take the time to rest and don't do anything strenuous.

We've all been recovering from a summer cold in our household. My husband kept up with his every other day run, and still managed to have at least one long run during the week while he was ill for three weeks. When it got into his lungs, he went to the doctor and quit running. Now, he's over his cold and back at his usual workout schedule.

It's in my lungs at this point, so I haven't run this week. But I did find a fun little low impact aerobics video, that's pretty much 45 minutes of standing ab exercises. So addictive, feel the burn in those arms and abs.

Increasing Protein Intake When You're Sore from Working Out

My husband was getting incredibly sore after workouts or after long strenuous days at work. Days were spent icing his muscles after work, rolling out, and stretching. But the soreness never really went away, although it would die back down for awhile.

I did some reading and decided he wasn't getting enough protein in his diet. I exercise as much as he does and I wasn't excessively sore like him, although admittedly his work is more strenuous than mine. But I eat homemade yogurt in the mornings, and I eat more things that have higher amounts of protein like hummus with vegetables, and soft tofu with crackers and cheese.

So, I started adding higher protein foods to our meals, like brown rice, corn, and beans. Then I purchased hemp seed hearts which have the added bonus of omega 3's and a giant 5 pound container of whey protein powder, both are added to our fruit smoothies. (In all honesty, I did not realize how gigantic a 5 pound container of whey protein really was. It nearly touches the bottom of the cabinets when it sits on the counter.) I also, put hemp seed hearts in my yogurt with fruit, and they are delicious. Much better than roasted hemp seeds, which always made me fear for my dental work.

He has so much energy now and the deep muscle soreness is gone. No more icing, no more begging for hour long messages on a daily basis. Come on. Who has time for that? Plus, my hands were getting tired.

I do think hydration is important when a person greatly increases their protein intake. My husband is always careful about drinking lots of water.