GYM-LESS EXERCISES – GET FIT and HEALTHY: Week 2

I can’t believe it’s already the 2nd week of our New Fitness and Health challenge: GET FIT and GET HEALTHY.  

Rules:

1. If you haven’t yet, join the challenge here: GET FIT and GET HEALTHY
2. Every Saturday come back to The Art of Making a Baby and ShutterMama to read the tips on how to be fitter, healthier and more confident.
3. Weekly write a post about your progress, following the questionnaire below, take a self-portrait (optional) and link up with us.
4. Don’t forget to grab the GET FIT challenge button on the sidebar and display it proudly on your blog or GET FIT post.
5.  Link your post with Selfie Saturdays if you took your week’s self-portrait.  

{Shutter}Mama and I are so excited about the turnout last week. We knew that it would take a few weeks to pick up, due to the fact that it’s a pretty ambitious challenge.
However, what we didn’t expect was that a good number of people would join in immediately. That’s very encouraging and uplifting, because what this challenge needs is as many supporters as possible. Great results and motivation  are not possible to sustain without some kind of support, and we were hoping that the virtual support of other bloggers participating in our challenge will serve as just that. I’m expecting that this week we will do even better with new members checking in and reporting on their progress. I cannot wait to hear how you all did and what challenges you had during the week.
Be sure to stop by the other members of the GET FIT challenge for support and motivation. There’s nothing that motivates me better than seeing other people work hard and reach their goals. 

This week I’d like to talk about gym-less exercising.

I have noticed a lot of members and bloggers mentioning that they don’t like going to gyms or have  no time to make the trip. I totally understand that. I’ve never been a “class” person, I like learning things on my own and I tend to be lazy about getting out of the house, so those two things made me a perfect  candidate for working out at home. Believe it or not, there are a lot of choices for that, and they don’t have to be boring push-ups, sit-ups or squats. Two of my all-time favorite exercises for home use are PILATES and STEP-AEROBICS. Those were my buddies when I needed to get into terrific shape for modeling and they still support me to this day. I went through many different pilates DVDs until I found the perfect one that’s good for beginners, yet really tones you and gets your heart rate up and is still challenging 2 years down the road.   

It’s called 10 Minute Solutions: Rapid Results Pilates(with Lara Hudson). First of all, she’s the most pleasant pilates instructor. Secondly, the workouts that she picked really fit together well, make sense and are a true pleasure to do while still being very challenging. 
The DVD is  broken into 5 categories: Buns and Thighs, Abs, Arms and Shoulders, Body Blast ( cardio pilates) and Stretch. For busy moms and working girls ( not that type), it’s perfect. Every exercise takes 10 minutes and you are truly surprised to see how fast they go. Do 3 sections and you’ve already achieved your mandatory 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise.
This work out routine is so good, my husband does it with me ( and follows it up with additional weight lifting). That’s right – he converted to pilates after he felt how much they do to your whole body. No gym targets the kinds of muscles pilates seem to work out. So 30 minutes a day every other day paired with a cardio work out on alternate days will slowly get you to a nice tone without you even noticing that you’re working out.
That’s all it takes. You don’t need to go hardcore if you don’t want to or can’t. All you have to do is 30 minutes a day of something that really works all your muscles.   

I will post a video for you to follow right here. It’s the first section: Buns and Thighs. Do 10 minutes of it and tell me if it’s not easy, yet challenging.   

You can buy the full DVD from Amazon for only $10. Make sure it’s the right DVD ( link below), because there’re quite a few similar titles. What I love about this DVD compared to others, no props required. You could use dumbells, but who doesn’t own them already. Otherwise, no bands, no balls, nothing- just you and Lara Hudson 🙂  

NEED MOTIVATION?

So those of you out there who are still on the sidelines watching this challenge with a sigh and a “I want to do it, but I’m not sure I am ready”, Join us NOW! I challenge you to add 3 ten  minute a day sessions of pilates. That’s all I am asking for. Type up that blog announcing that you’ll be joining and getting in shape and in your fitness challenge put: “3 ten minute sessions of pilates daily” or “3 ten minutes pilates sessions every other day alternating with a 30 minutes  run/walk/roller blade/bike session”. DO IT!   

Don’t like exercises and need more cardio? Try step-aerobics. It’s one of the best way to get your legs toned and burn calories without leaving your home. All you need is an Aerobic Stepwhich you can buy at the nearest Target or Walmart next time you go food shopping or order on Amazon. It’s a lot of fun because it’s like a dance routine, but it doesn’t require any type of balance or coordination ( at least in the beginning). Any fun step-aerobics DVD will do: Netflix it, buy it, borrow it, rent it- I don’t care! Just try it!  

Next week I will try to post some tips about how to fit work outs into a busy day schedule.   

My week 2 entry 

1.  Height: 5’11″, weight: 133 lb

2. Your  fitness challenge(s) for this week:  30 minutes of pilates every other day + 30 minutes of cardio ( rollerblading, running, swimming or treadmill) every other day. Special exercises designed for pregnancy to increase flexibility (daily) + Kegels (twice daily). A total of about an hour of physical activity a day.

3. Your health challenge(s) for this week: My eating habits are close to perfect,  however I could improve on my water intake. My goal will be 8 glasses of water daily + continue eating the way I do now.

4. How well did it go: I couldn’t do much Saturday since I was gone all day (8 am to 3am) on a yacht trip, however I did eat like I usually do and definitely got my 8 glasses of water, since it was all I was drinking.
The rest of the week went well fitness wise. I almost skipped my rollerblading run on Tuesday because it was cold (-er), but the thought of having to disclose  on my blog that I chicken out because of some cold Florida night made me get on the stepper at home while watching an Argentinian soap opera in Spanish and do my mandatory 30 minutes. Pilates days were good because I had recruited my neighbor to come and do them with me. This challenge is Definitely making me approach the work outs more seriously. As far as Kegels and pre-pregnancy exercises, I did them every time I remembered, since they haven’t not been a part of my routine. I think I might have forgotten to do those once or so.  Will do better next week.
Food challenge went without a hitch. I did have 3 little cookies after dinner once instead of 1, but considering how well I eat otherwise, i’m not too worried about it. Plus I’m out of cookies.  lol.
8 glasses of water has been a lot more difficult than I thought. It’s a LOT OF water! I got up to 6 glasses daily , but never to actualy 8. Will keep working on it.

5. Failures and slip-ups: Sweets after dinner: once. Forgot kegels: once, 6 glasses of water instead of 8.

6. Weekly challenge wisdom:  It’s really a lot easier to be motivated if you do it with a buddy. When you don’t feel like it, they’re there to pump you up and when they try to skip the work out, you have the will power to make them do it. Schedule a work out with someone and it’ll be harder to cancel on it. Blog buddies work the same way. Pair up with someone and give each other support and motivation. Check in with each other daily to make sure the goals are fulfilled. 

7. Advice to fellow GET FIT members: Make a reminder! It’s easier to feel motivated if we have something to remind us constantly of the goal and the challenge. I had failures only when I simply forgot about the challenges. Print the 2 challenges on a piece of paper ( make it pretty if you want) and tape it to the place you frequent most: refrigerator, vanity mirror, baby’s room. This constant reminder will propel you to get it over with  

  8. Your self-portrait ( optional but strongly encouraged) : Ok, so I feel very very weird about the self-portrait I am about to post. The purpose of it for me was to have a record of what I looked like going into that challenge. I am hoping to tone a few parts of my body more and post a similar selfie in a few months to see the difference. I have to say I feel a bit self conscious about this image. Not because I think I look bad, but because …well.. I’m in my undies 🙂 I picked out the least sexy underwear set I had, because the point of this is not to look sexy, but to look real. I don’t expect many of you to post a similar portrait, however that IS the point of our first full body shot.

I know this is going to be a tough one for most women, but it’s important to have a full body shot of where you started in order to see ( and show) progress when we do another full body shot in a few months. Again, there’s no motivation unless you see results, right? And the scale doesn’t always show results, because muscle weighs more than fat, therefore your scale won’t show the progress if you’re working out and building muscle. The only way to see progress is to compare the before and after. And since we see ourselves every day, our naked eye can’t pick up on changes that well. A full body photo will be the best way of judging your progress. Now it’s up to you how “honest” you want to be. If you’re not “there” yet, then take one fully clothed full body photo following my tips at last week’s Selfie Magic and post it with your blog post, but also one that will show your true shape and keep it for you records.   

Now, don’t forget to head over to ShutterMama and check out this week’s tips on exercise and nutrition from her, and link up with your self portrait at Selfie Saturdays. 

It’s also important to visit our participants. They need your support and isn’t it fun to see how other people did on their challenge, read about the lessons they learned and take in their advice to fellow members. Keeping up with other GET FIT participants and encouraging each other is a big part of the GET FIT challenge.   Can’t wait to see how you all did this week!

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Please don’t forget to VOTE daily!