Hydration and Exercise Fitness Goals

My Hydration and Exercise Fitness Goals for Day 8

Hydration and Exercise Fitness Goals image courtesy of Pixabay

A little encouragement for anyone who didn't reach their fitness goals today...

I didn't quite reach my Day 8 goal of drinking eight glasses of water and extending the length of my exercise time, but I did drink more water and do more exercise than normal.

• I made it to six 8-ounce glasses of water when I was trying to do eight.
• I spent about fifteen minutes dancing around the kitchen while doing housework - but I had planned to do a full half hour and include cardio/dumbbell interval training. 
• Fifteen minutes dancing was long enough and intense enough to get my heart rate up and make me feel like I had worked my muscles pretty hard, so I'm counting that as a low intensity cardio workout. 

It would be really easy to let myself feel defeated over not managing to do something as basic as drinking water, but it's not a habit I'm in, and I made progress, so I feel good about it, and I'll try harder tomorrow. (Same deal with the exercise - a missed goal or two isn't the end, or doesn't have to be, it's an opportunity to do better the next day and every day going forward.)

How about you?

Did you achieve your fitness goals today?

If you did - good job!

If you didn't achieve your fitness goals today, that's okay - don't get discouraged - just embrace whatever you did do - even if it was just getting mentally psyched - and try harder tomorrow - because if you keep at it, you'll get there! 

Laure J

Ways to Stay Motivated When You Don't See Results

It's perfectly normal to want to see fast results when you start a new exercise plan, and it can wreck your motivation if nothing happens, or worse yet, you gain weight. There are, however, reasons to stick with it, and ways you can stay motivated when you don't see results as quickly as you want.

Ways to Stay Motivated When You Don't See Results image courtesy of Pixabay

Stay Motivated When You Don't See Results

Even if you aren't seeing changes on the scale, if you are sticking with your exercise regimen, there are still changes going on inside your body. Exercising builds muscle, increases your strength, and releases endorphins that make you feel more positive.

Use more than one way to measure the effectiveness of your workouts. The scale might not be the place where results show up first, and weight loss can take longer than expected, especially as your body ages.

Understand that your body changes and responds differently to stimulus than it did when you were younger. For example: when I was younger, I could drop 6 pounds overnight by eating 2 Snickers bars before bed. If I did that now, the only results I would see would be heartburn around 3 am.

Know yourself and the things that inspire you, and use them. If fitting into a certain outfit inspires you, put up pictures of it where you can see them frequently. If the health dangers that come with being overweight frighten you, put little notes around that remind you of the potential for heart attacks, diabetes, and other weight-related diseases. (Personally, I like to keep it positive, but everyone is different, so find your inspiration, and use it to your advantage.)

Know that getting healthier and fitter is a journey you can take and succeed at, regardless of your age or starting point, and the key to succeeding isn't in seeing immediate results, the key is (keys are) starting, adapting your regimen to fit your life, sticking with it, and increasing your efforts regularly enough to keep it challenging.

Yesterday completed my seventh day of daily workouts and sharing info about the experience here on Fat and Cranky. This morning I got up and rushed to the scale expecting a loss of at least a pound, only to be greeted with an extra pound that wasn't here when I started. THAT was the inspiration for this message, and a reminder about using more than one metric to measure results. 

If my weight were the only thing I was using to measure success, this fitness project would be done right now. But using how I FEEL as a measuring guide as well as weight, and the fact that my jeans are touch looser, lets me know I am making progress.  

Also, I know it's going to take more than just adding a short workout session each day to change my weight very much, I just chose light exercise as a place to begin. It supposedly takes 21 days to make something a habit, so my first focus is just creating the habit of exercising and finding ways to be more active. 

This week I plan to increase the workouts a bit, and begin tracking my water consumption, so I start getting the recommended eight 8-ounce glasses per day - and then next week I'll start looking at dietary changes.  (I'll be posting about that some more later today.)

So, how about you? Did you make any positive changes last week? If not, today is a great time to do something for yourself, and it can be anything you are comfortable doing, or you can follow my workout routines, they're posted in order on the Fitness page here on Fat and Cranky so you can try them in the order I did or choose the ones you like any time. 

Laure J

Save Time With a Multi-Tasking Housework Exercise Routine

If you're having a hard time fitting exercise into your daily routine, consider combining your workout with your housework to accomplish two things at once, and you don't need ANY fitness gear to do it, either!

House Cleaning Exercise Routine image courtesy of Pixabay

Save Time With a Multi-Tasking Housework Exercise Routine

Your housework will be more fun, and just like that, you gained half an hour, or longer, in your day because you don't have to find extra time to exercise - your workout is done when the housework is finished!

• Music: Just like this WebMD article suggests, it's great to turn on the radio or your favorite playlist in your MP3 player or smartphone so the music can help get you moving, inspire you, and entertain you as you work. 
• Focus on Your Core Muscles: Pull your stomach in, tighten your glutes, and dip deeper into your thigh muscles as you clean to burn more calories and strengthen your muscles. 
• Be Smart: If you're used to cleaning, but not exercising at the same time, remember to use extra caution when moving faster than normal or carrying heavier laundry baskets than normal - the extra activity and weight are good as far as exercise, but if you get hurt, it's going to block your fitness and health goals. 
• Go Old-Fashioned: Whenever possible, if time allows of course, tackle cleaning tasks the way your great-grandmother would have - use the broom instead of the sweeper, wash dishes by hand instead of in the dishwasher, and take advantage of the chance to do squats for your leg muscles every time you have to put away something in a low drawer or cupboard. 

This type of multi-tasking is really great because it gives you two things to be proud of without taking any extra time - just think how great your house will look and what a great thing you're doing for your body when you tackle a housework exercise routine! (And, if you keep it up, your body is going to look and feel as good as your tidy, fresh house!)

This post was inspired by my day today. I was swamped with work and had clients waiting on articles, plus my house was a wreck from a busy weekend. I couldn't think how to fit in a workout longer than four or five minutes, which I would have done to write about here, but I wanted to share something a bit different. Then, I remembered years ago, when I went to Weight Watchers, one of the ladies asking if housework counted as exercise and the leader saying it did. So, I made up my own house cleaning exercise routine and I have to say, cleaning the house can be a great workout and a total win-win! How about you? Have you ever noticed what a great workout housework can give you?
Laure J

Ten Minute Seated Dumbbell Workout for Upper Body Strength

I'm mixing it up a lot this week on my exercise routines, because I want to share a lot of ideas and having new things to talk about here on Fat and Cranky keeps me motivated; today I went with a ten minute seated dumbbell workout to help build upper body strength.

Ten Minute Seated Dumbbell Workout for Upper Body Strength image courtesy of Pixabay

Ten Minute Seated Dumbbell Workout for Upper Body Strength

I warmed up as I normally would, with a few stretches and moving around a little bit to warm up my muscles, then I took a seat on a padded bench with no backrest.

I slowly went through a series of presses, stretching, bicep curls, stretching, and tricep extensions followed by stretching. I went through my simple set of dumbbell exercises a couple times until my ten minutes were up.

The Good and Surprising Things About a Seated Dumbbell Workout

What I liked about this routine was that it's a great alternative workout you can do if you have a hurt leg or any kind of lower-body limited mobility, or even just if you have sore legs from a hard lower body workout the day before.

What surprised me about this short workout was the intensity of it - by taking the lower part out of the workout, I found I focused more on my arms and chest muscles and got a more intense workout in a very short time - my muscles were actually burning and quivering in that short time span. 

Since I'm not doing pictures of my own yet to actually show you these exercises, I wanted to share a link to a web page that shows some of the exercises I'm talking about - Sport Fitness Advisor.

Thanks for visiting Fat and Cranky, I'm so glad you took the time to drop by and I hope you'll feel free to leave a comment to share your thoughts. Laure J