I was so excited when BlogHer asked me to be a part of their Inspiration to Fitness program. Mainly because, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this once or six hundred times already this year, it totally lines up with my goal to make 2012 the year of a healthy lifestyle.
(I also promise that I’ll talk about something else tomorrow.)
And I think y’all know by now that I go through periods of working out. The Couch to 5k thing was going great last year until I got bronchitis and then it was like I’d fallen and couldn’t get back up. I’d rediscovered my first love of staying in my pajamas and lying on the couch watching reality T.V. Which is really so much more fun than getting out in the cold and running. Sadly, it doesn’t really do much for what you look like in a bathing suit or skinny jeans.
Anyway, in addition to eating things made of whole grains and ALL NATURAL ingredients which I’m doing on my own (HELP ME.), I’m going to be following a workout plan designed by Ashley at Healthy Ashley that’s designed to get me running a 5K in the next eight weeks. (HELP ME MORE.)
It’s a combination of doing the right stretches, three days a week of running and two days a week of strength training. The good news is I can do the strength training on the same days I run and I like that because it allows me two free days to catch up on The Bachelor and Real Housewives.
So I began this last week, following Ashley’s track but I’m also combining it with the sprint interval thing I mentioned because I still want to have one-tenth of the muscle tone of Carrie Underwood’s legs. And it’s been good.
The biggest challenge for me is to actually make myself put on my running tights and get out the door in the morning. But I’ve discovered that it really helps if I’ll go ahead and get dressed and walk Caroline to school on the mornings I’m going to work out because then that counts as my five minute warm up and then I can just wind my way around our neighborhood for my twenty minute run/walk/jog/sprint.
As for results? Well, it’s too soon. But I definitely have more energy on the days I work out and I’m already sleeping better at night. I’m a little sore from the strength training, especially my abs because OH MY WORD they were used to laying on the couch which requires nothing of them at all.
But it was time to make a change. So here I go.
I’ll keep you posted on the results.
* If you roll over the Best Buy image at the top of my blog, you can view a
calendar of all the Inspiration to Fitness content.