Hope everyone had a great start of your week! Woke up to the sound of rain and I have to say I am enjoying this winter feel!! The holidays are right around the corner, that is for sure! 🙂 Used today as my active recovery day. Seems a bit weird, right? It is the beginning of the week and you started with an active recovery…. Well I headed to the gym and had some time set aside for my workout, started with a little cardio, followed where my heart was taking me and before I knew it, I was off and running… 3 miles later decided to hop on the super incline treadmill and I was off and walking on a super high incline! It felt so good to sweat and get moving that I decided to go with an active recovery day of cardio and stretching! This is what I mean when I say, go with the flow, follow your heart, walk in the gym and be flexible. It is great to take advantage of those days when you feel the energy to run or the energy to hit the weights… It depends on your mood and you have to go with it. Of course, we love structure and have to have it 99% of the time but so often if we go with the flow, we perform so much better. Yesterday, my heart was not in the higher intensity cardio and felt as if I was going to die at 1/4 mile… dug deep and finished up a mile but it was not fun, let me tell you… Then today was a different story. You see, we all have our days. So many variables, what you eat, how you slept, hydration, dehydration, etc. I have found that what has worked really well is to have a plan but to be flexible and okay with being flexible. We always think of Mondays as the first part of the week and we have to hit it hard. Then we tend to see the weekends as the time to relax…. What if you used the weekends to hit it hard and a day like Monday for that rest and recovery. Hummm… thought about that for a change! I find that it really works to just listen to your body and feel. You will have such better workouts by taking that approach. Keep in mind you do have to know when you are mentally or physically tired and if it is mental, push on and if it is physical, follow your heart. If you find yourself in a rut on the weekends or maybe your rut falls in the beginning or end of the week. Whatever or whenever your “rut” is, adapt and take advantage of going strong on those full energy days and taking it easy on those days where you find yourself in a rut. Listen to your body and find patterns. If it has been 3 weeks and you notice that the weekends you have all the energy in the world and come Monday you feel a lack of energy and motivation, maybe it is time to change your program around. Change does not have to be permanent, remember change is key to success!!! Take a look at your current program and see how you may be able to make adjustments to keep you motivated all throughout the week!
Speaking of change… I really changed it up with the menu with a variety of fruits and a different source of protein!!!
Meal 1: typical Oats and protein shake with Flaxseed 🙂
Meal 2: Pear with QUEST bar
Meal 3: 5 oz tilapia and big salad with 1/2 c. wild rice
Meal 4: 4 oz octopus salad with celery and minced basil– love octopus!!!
Meal 5: Protein shake
Meal 6 & 7: tbd
Signing off for the evening and have to be sure to get my rest. Not only is there a big week/weekend up ahead with several girls competing in a local show but have a super early 6 a.m. client tomorrow and Wednesday so must get to sleep early…
Remember that fitness is a way of life and rest is part of that fitness. Your body recovers and builds physical and mental strength only when you get sufficient sleep and of course are serious about your nutritional program. We must refuel our systems with adequate food, recovery and rest! Your body is a machine that needs consistent input, maintenance and fuel, in order to produce maximum output. You will never be able to reach your true potential if you don’t put just as much time into your fitness routine as you do your sleeping routine! We need sleep! We want to think that we are super human but the reality is we cannot function day in and day out without getting our rest! You should aim for at least 7 hours of sleep a night! It has actually been shown that a lack of sleep can seriously jeopardize your fitness and fat loss goals! There was a study done where 10 overweight men and women lived in a sleep lab for two separate two-week periods. Both weeks the participants were kept on a calorie-restricted diet, but for one week the individuals slept for 8.5 hours per night, then the other week, study participants only received 5.5 hours of sleep each night.
Results showed that dieters lost the same amount of weight under both sleep conditions, but during the sleep-restricted week, the individuals lost muscle rather than body fat. That is the last thing we want is to jeopardize all our hard work by a lack of sleep! To ensure that you are functioning optimally and living the fitness lifestyle to its fullest, you must pay close attention to all areas of fitness; diet, exercise habits and of your daily sleep routines! On that note.. off to make a healthy dinner and get a good nights sleep!
xoxo
