Friday is one of those days we associate with fun – it’s Fri-yay, lets have that drink, eat that chocolate, in fact in our house we’ve renamed it to Treat Friday. We pop to the local news agent on the way home from school, have a chat with the ‘lovely lady’ who works there on a Friday afternoon (we really should ask her name) and leave with a chocolaty treat to have with a cuppa when we get home.
Anyway, rambling as usual. The point here is to remember to make Friday count when you’re training. Earn that glass of wine, lady.
Friday morning is the weekly ‘shed’ session with five lovely ladies and Craig. Today he decided to give it to us full barrels, and we did a Pack of Cards workout. Not heard of that? (probably a good thing). Let me tell you more…
First:
Firstly, get a pack of actual playing cards (hence the name). Assign a set of exercises to each suite, and choose an exercise to assign to it. So, for example:
Here at Mums In Real Life, our healthy living reset is going well. How can we tell? Between the two of us, we have sore legs, sore arms and the ab zone is killing!
Check out our exercise cards, which have been generously created by our friend PT Craig at Keeling Fitness:
If you’ve been following us and joining (thank you!) in, you’ll know that we’ve started each morning with a breakfast smoothie! How simple and delicious – my youngest counted to 63 and my breakfast was prepped and blitzed!
The smoothie for Day 4 is Mango and Pear. In case you didn’t already know, Mangoes are a great source of Vitamin A & B. They’re also high in fibre, a good source of antioxidants and are low in calories.
Recently, we were invited to our lovely friends house for a work out in her garden gym followed by brunch. What lucky ladies we are!
We started off with a warm up run, followed by circuits of planks, burpees, skipping and squats. Some kettle bells were thrown in for good measure too. Oh! And a power hoop.
We definitely earned the brunch, we were really put through our paces but managed to laugh through all the sweat! Here’s what we did:
60 seconds of each exercise, 10 secs rest. Do each exercise 4 x times. Let’s do this!!
Round One: Squats/Leg Raises/Slam Balls
Round Two: Skipping (it’s tough!!)/Lateral Raises/Shoulder Press (with weight)/Power Hoop (if not, go for side plank – 30 secs on each side)
So, let’s get on to the food. Our gorgeous host made a feast for us!
We salute you, eggs baked on Avocados! Bacon lardons, how we love you sprinkled on roasted Tomatoes! Chives, you are a show stopper! Yes, at this point we were all STARVING!
Why not team up with friends to work out? You can motivate each other, push each other to work harder and reach your fitness goals together. Life’s always better with friends! We’ve been busy with our friends at Keeling Fitness and LA Personal Fitness working on an exciting collaboration which will be on its way soon – watch this space…
So, I’ve been busy working with our mate Craig at Keeling Fitness to bring you some beginners workout cards, to help you get started with circuits, and help with technique (and to make sure you’re using the right muscles!).
I’ve been a bit hampered by the sick bug from school this week, but wanted to share with you the pics we’ve been taking of the workouts ready to create the cards for you. I’m excited!
Carly and I are talking about a six week challenge to kickstart our summer bodies and to reset some of the naughty habits that have set in over the Winter (goodbye 4 o’clock Mars Bars, it’s been fun.)
Keep watching for more news, and I’ll post the cards as soon as they’re ready!
Hope your Wednesday has been a good one lovely people.
Happy Monday lovely people. The sun is shining, time to get your gear on and work out! (Actually, it’s Monday, I needed a caffeine injection to get my butt out of bed, and I have a cold.) Luckily my gorgeous running buddy is feeling more motivated and is dragging me out to get the miles in tonight (its’ 13 days until the M word). So, for the sake of putting my money where my mouth is, I’m going out in the garden to have a quick circuit.
As promised, our mate Craig from Keeling Fitness has put together a simple beginners circuit for you lovely people, so now’s the time to get the lycra out and the trainers on…
This is a beginners circuit and is designed to ease you in to circuit training/bootcamp type activities. You can do it at home, ideally with a mat and a small weight but similarly a towel and a can of beans will do for starters! Try doing 4/5 repetitions, work through the list three/four times to start with – see how you get on!
Squats
Lunges
Press Ups (on your knees)
Side Steps
Leg Raises (try one leg at a time if both together is too much)
Mountain Climbers (Hands on a box)
Shoulder Press with weight (or beans!)
Plank (on knees) for 15 seconds
For more detailed instructions, you can download the workout card here. I’ll also be creating some cards to demo the moves for you – so keep an eye out!
Who’s in? Have fun and keep fit. See you tomorrow lovely people.
I’ve spoken to a few lovely friends over the last couple of weeks, who have been following the blog (hello, and thank you!). They’ve spoken to me about wanting to get back in to fitness, but perhaps they’re are a bit rusty when it comes to exercise, have had an injury, or just want to work on their fitness levels a little before they launch themselves wholeheartedly into Bootcamp or other associated group exercise sessions.
Thinking back on what got my fitness mojo going, there is a combination of things that have helped me to get fit (fitter at 39 than at 19!) and to remain motivated to keep pushing myself. I actually think that when you can find the right exercise, the right crew and the right attitude then you can be fit for life.
My top tips to start your fitness journey
Turn up – commit yourself to every session. Turn up consistently and keep going. The results will happen, but don’t expect them to be overnight. It’s taken me nearly 5 years of regular training and exercise to get to the fitness level I’m at now, and I’m not about to stop!
Change your mindset. “I just can’t lose weight”, “I’m not fit enough to try this”, “I am too old/unhealthy/my knees are weak”. Basically, you’re just setting yourself up to fail. To get fit for life you have to shift your negative mindset and focus on what you can achieve. You’ll be amazed.
On the “I can’t lose weight” front, do not confuse exercise and weight loss. To lose weight you need to create a calorie deficit (which you can contribute to with exercise) but simply relying on exercise alone will not show you results if you’re looking to lose a few pounds or so. My favourite PT statement on this matter is “It’s what you put in your mouth that counts”
Cut out the crap. If you eat processed foods you will feel bloated and even if you are slim you could still be “Skinny Fat”. Stick to natural and unprocessed foods and ditch the carb-heavy alternatives like bread, pasta, biscuits etc. I’m not saying you have to deny yourself but be honest about your eating and track your calories using an app like My Fitness Pal daily – you might be surprised about what you’re eating on a daily basis.
Keep pushing yourself to achieve – set clear and realistic goals for your training e.g “I want to run 10k” or “I want to strengthen my arms”. Then WORK towards these goals. It is hard work, but it’s worth it!
Find your crew. I always bang on about this, but my fitness family are the best. They pick me up when I fall down (literally) and motivate me to train on days I’m just not feeling it. On other days I help to motivate them. We genuinely look out for each other and keep each other going. (Seriously, I love you all.)
In conclusion, I really hope this doesn’t sound sanctimonious – I’m sharing the honest conversations I have in my head every day (particularly when it comes to diet). If you are really committed to getting fit and staying fit then today is the day, let’s go!
After the Brighton Marathon I’m going to refocus on strength training, and am going to build myself a 6 week plan which I hope you’ll follow along with me. We’ll create recipes, training plans and help to motivate each other to succeed in our goals. We’re in this together!
I’ve also spoken to our mate Craig the PT, and he’s come up with a simple circuit for you to follow at home. It takes 10 minutes, needs only an exercise mat and some weights.
We’ll be taking some pics at training on Monday to help you with the moves and I will post the training card then too. Watch this space.
Work hard, have fun and let’s do this! Happy Friday lovely people.
So, Tuesday rolls round again which can mean only one thing – Bootcamp! Today we mixed it up (actually, Craig forgot the gloves and pads) so we had a bonus circuits session instead. It was really challenging, great fun, and involved quite a lot of running so we burned more calories than usual too.
Today we did 1-10-1 which sounds simple, but is a really challenging workout. If you’re starting out, just work from 1-10 or set yourself a time limit e.g 20 mins and see how far you can get. Most of us managed to get from 1-10 an back to 8 – setting the benchmark for next time!
In other news – am running the 20 miler tomorrow with my running buddy. I’m absolutely bricking it (as my nephew might say) but have treated myself to a beautiful new water belt so I can rehydrate along the way.
I’ll keep you posted on progress tomorrow – wish me luck!
Tahlia x
PS: Thanks to those of you who’ve been following the plans with us! As promised, Craig is writing a custom plan for beginners so keep your eyes peeled, it will be ready soon!
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