FIT: So You Wanna Get In Shape?

With each and every post we are getting closer to the big post about what I am actually doing to get in shape! I quite possibly will be writing that post on the way to Mississippi this weekend for my cousin's wedding!!! I will post it by the end of next week!

Everyone has excuses for why they cannot and will not exercise or eat right, but I think I can solve at least one of those issues. Whoa! Now I am no genius, but I have realized that I am not into going to the gym, I don't want to blow money on a personal trainer and I hate when people tell me what to do! I am a strong-willed person and I am BEYOND self-motivated!

So I ask you, Do you want to get in shape?

Well, OK then! DROP THE EXCUSES!

1. I don't have time!
2. I will die!
3. I'm tired!
4. I have kids!
5. I don't have money for a personal trainer!
6. I don't have money for a gym membership!
7. I have school!
8. I have work!
9. I will miss my TV shows!
10. Pilates and yoga is boring!
11. Insanity is too INSANE!
12. I don't want to be in pain!
13. I don't want to sweat off my makeup!
14. I don't want to buy a lot of equipment!
15. I never finish!
16. I will do it next year, tomorrow, or the next month!
17. I am going on vacation!
18. I have no space in my room!
19. It is boring!
20. I just can't!
21. I don't want to do it alone!
22. I'm too fat!
23. I can't do that move!
24. I am already small!
25. I have a 6-pack already!
26. I don't want to mess up my hair!
27. I can't put down the cheeseburger!
28. I hate exercising!
29. I never see any changes!
30. It takes too long!
31. It takes too long to see results!
32. Oh man that means I have to go on a diet and eat like tofu or something!
33. I don't know how to!
34. What's it going to change?
35. I can just go get surgery!
36. I'm not motivated!
37. I'm not self-motivated!
38. I can't make the commitment!
39. I don't want to stink!
40. I prefer to look at the guys at the gym!
41. I'm not in the mood!
42. I'm on my cycle!
43. It's embarrassing!
44. It's inconvenient!
45. I just ate!
46. I don't want to wake up early!
47. I just don't want to!
48. I will be judged?
49. I don't want to look like a body builder!
50. I'm healthy!
51. I'm unhealthy!
52. Sex is a good enough workout, right?
53. I don't feel well!
54. I'm traveling!
55. I'm about to go out!
56. It's too early!
57. It's too late!
58. I'm uncoordinated!
59. I can't do it on my own!
60. I don't believe in myself!
61. I can't lose weight on vacation!
62. I'm too young!
63. I'm too old!
64. My family is all big!
65. I'm just big boned!
66. I can't lose these last 10 pounds!!!!!!!

BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH...

The fact of the matter is anything else that you really want to do in life, you always rearrange your schedule to do it or find a way to sneak it in. Why can't you do the same with exercise?


The first thing is PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! I can't stress that enough! (It's the same with meals as well!) I will speak more about this and give you my approach soon I tell ya! :) Let's take a few of these excuses and explore them, shall we?

I don't have time!

My thoughts are the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, finds time to do it and she has campaigns, traveling, THE WHITE HOUSE, her husband is the the president, she has children, she has money... and so much more! What do you mean you don't have time? Get real!

An hour of exercise only takes up 4% of your whole day. (Yes 'ol algebra there: 1 (hour) / 24 (hours in a day) = 0.04...some other numbers... move the decimal 2 places and you get 4%) So again, you don't have time for something that is only 4% of your day? OK. "You can lead a horse to water..." Well, you know the rest! ;)

You can make time whether you are at work, school, at a friends or relatives house, while you have your kids, while you're watching TV, before you go out or while you're on vacation.

I have to go to work!

At work you can walk around the building outside or inside, you can work your biceps with your desk chair or with small hand-weights, and some jobs even have gyms with showers. Either way I am not saying you have to go crazy and work up a sweat, but at least you're MOVING. You are not at work a full 24 hours, so you can do that in between giving your children time, cooking, laundry, getting ready for the next day, so on and so forth when you get home. This is pretty much the same concept as you having school as well.

I am at a friend's house! I don't want to do it on my own!

If you're at someoneelse's house, make it fun and get them involved. Take a walk, play the Wii, have a sit-up or push-up or racing contest, or challenge them as to who can finish a whole workout DVD of your choice. It can be done if you really want to get it done. (Remember when you wanted to date before your parents wanted you to and you found ways to see your boyfriend/girlfriend? It's a similar concept.

I have kids!

Just because you have children does not mean anything. Yea I know I have no kids, but I am sure if I did this would work! Promise! You can get the kids involved. Play with them. Run around with them. Dance with them. Be creative. This will be a workout for you and guess what? The child will be all tuckered out afterwards and you can get them ready for bed without any problems, you will have gotten your quality time in with them, you will have prevented them from being in the same state you are in and the best part: You will have gotten your workout in!

I don't want to miss my TV shows!

So you're watching TV. You can do bicep curls with light weights or some other exercises while just sitting there. You can suck in your stomach for minutes at a time or do some sit ups, jumping jacks, or push ups among other moves during workouts! Challenge yourself!

I am on vacation!

You're on vacation, and for example, you're sitting on a beautiful beach! Why would you want to exercise? Well the beach is a great place to workout. There's sand that is hard to move in, so you can do a long, Bay Watch worthy run across the beach, race your friends, you can play sand volleyball, you can take a swim, you can go surfing, and so much more.

Always remember to have fun with it! (YES working out can be fun!)

We are always hearing that social media is the place to be for keeping in touch and for business marketing well this is more and more true. Even personal training has took to social media forums. People, such as myself have taken to blogs to give you fitness or other tips and ideas, they have taken to Twitter to do the same, they are on Instagram posting before and after pics or quotes or mantras, and they are also on the great sensation, YOUTUBE!

When I was sitting around planning my workouts, I took to the Internet to look up free workouts to do at home. As I mentioned before I had excuses too and many of them are on the list above. I didn't want to go to the gym, I didn't have money for a personal trainer and neither did I want to hear them tell me what to do, I subsequently had no money for the gym or felt like working out in front of anyone, I did not want to pay for expensive DVDs such as Insanity, P90X or any others, I didn't want to go to any group classes and I was sure I hated calmer means of working out such as pilates and yoga!

I started out by not just simply typing into Google "workouts" or "exercises" or trainers that I knew of, I typed in parts of the body I wanted to work such as "love handle workouts", "ab workouts" or "arm workouts".

Many things came up. I started seeing YOUTUBE videos. I started searching the site and found so many great workouts. This is my free way to get a really effective workout and since there are so many to choose from, I can mix and match to get a total body workout, I can also try something new every time. I don't get bored. Each day is a challenge and then I can go to the gym whenever I feel like leaving the house. I have a few pieces of equipment and even if I didn't, one can get quite a good workout at home without any equipment. (I will discuss this in a later post.)

My favorites are:

MOST FAVORITE: POP Pilates with Cassey Ho (Blogilates and BlogilatesTV)

She has a new approach to pilates with pop infused sounds. She has several different videos targeting many parts of the body. She is fun and very intense! You will definitely get some wonderful abs if not any other body part and she has fitness tips, recipes, challenges and nice apparel and bags!

SHOCKER! I know, I used to hate pilates, but people can change. (LIKE YOU!) This lady made me love it!

POP Pilates: Crazy Core Workout - Intense! Fun! (Full 10 min) Pilates Video

I also love working out to Tiffany Rothe (TiffanyRotheWorkouts), Sarah Pussaults (Sarah Fit Show), Denise Austin (BeFit), Charlie James (charliejames1975 and BodyRockTV), Laura London (LauraLondon100) and  Jeanette Jenkins although she mostly has stuff via DVD. You can even get Zumba workouts on there as well!

Tiffany Rothe: 10 min Booty Shaking Waist Workout- Lose inches off your waist by shaking your hips! 

 The Sarah Fit Show: Thinner Thighs and Legs Workout 

Charlie James: FITNESS - Cardio Exercise Workout 2 by BodyRock.Tv

Laura London: Bounce a Quarter off Your BOOTY Workout

Jeanette Jenkins: Booty Boot Camp Workout With Jeanette Jenkins

Try one or all of these and the plethora of videos on youtube.com.

Hope this helped!

XOXO,
Kim

P.S. Think of the Xs and Os as moves on a board, just as coaches mark for football plays. :) They mean: JUST MOVE and PLAN AHEAD!