Working Out (Part 2)

Hey! Welcome back to the conclusion of my workout post from last week! 

If you missed it, you can click HERE to check it out! 

Today, I want to share with you the workouts that I have done, or am currently doing, and some tips on what I eat/drink before and after a workout. 

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This is the Jillian Michael's workout that I have done in the past:



The whole thing on on YouTube here:
Jillian Michaels: No More Trouble Zones

Buy it on Amazon here

I really enjoyed this one. It is a total body workout, but divided up into sections. There are 7 sections, each one lasts approximately 5 minutes. You can do the entire workout, or just one section. The warm-up has a little cardio, but other than that, the entire rest of the workout is just very intense strength training. She uses 3 pound hand weights in this workout.

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This is the Couch to 5K workout that I did for several years:


Couch to 5K Running Program

I really enjoyed this! You download the app on your phone or iPod, and it guides you through the entire thing. It's a 9 week program that is supposed to take you from not running at all, to running a full 5K (3.1 miles) in 30 minutes. I stretched it out a lot longer than that, because I wanted to build up endurance, and strength, rather than just doing it in a certain amount of time. It is not a free app, but it only costs a couple of dollars, and is so worth it! There are many different 5k apps that you can download. They are all a tad different from one another, but basically the same. And the point of having it, is it's just so nice to have that guide and also to be able to log your progress. 

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Here are some of the workouts that I am currently able to do:
All of these are by Leslie Sansone's Walk-At Home.
There's a ton of them, but here are my current favorites and go-to's:

1 Mile Happy Walk

1 Mile Walk with Light Weights

2 Mile Walk with Light Weights 

5K With a Twist

She has so many different ones, and I know you can find them at Walmart and many stores. You can check out this link HERE to view many of them on Amazon. She uses 1-pound and 2-pound hand weights in some of her videos. I love to do her videos with weights, because she does very gently and controlled movements, which is so much safer on your joints.
These are not on an intermediate level, but I would say moderate. If you are a beginner, these are perfect to work up to! I like to switch it up, and not do the same workout 2 days in a row. This keeps your body from getting too used to something, and only working certain muscles. By switching it up all the time, you are constantly surprising and calling on new muscles to help you out, which in turn, helps you get better results. And it works good for me, because these workouts are not super intense for my body, so sometimes I feel like I'm not really even working out. By switching things up, and surprising my body every day, it has helped to tone muscles and give me a good workout feeling. All of Leslie's workouts have the same steps in them, but each workout is still different...some are faster than others, some are longer than others, and adding the weights is another layer of intensity and variety. For a super fast, yet effective workout, I will do the 1 mile happy walk. If I have a little more time, I love the added intensity of the 1 and 2 mile workouts with weights. And at least once or twice a week, I try to do the 5k workout. 

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Now, as far as eating/drinking before and after a workout, there are so many do's and don't's out there, and some of them contradict themselves! 

Again, it's one of those things that you have to figure out what works for YOU. No matter what works or doesn't work for someone else. 

Before a workout, my 3 rules are: I am well hydrated, I have eaten a well balanced meal with plenty of protein, and I will not wait more than an hour to work out. 

For me, if I am hydrated, and have eaten a good meal, and don't wait too long after eating to workout, I know that my body can handle it, and I will mostly likely do fine.

I also keep water near-by while working out.

As far as post-workout:

If I have had a good, hard, more than 40 minute workout, I will sometimes drink a small glass of chocolate milk, or eat a banana after wards. I guess it's possible that my blood sugar is dropping too much after wards, so I can balance it back out with either of those things, and it won't make me feel sick.

However, lately I have been drinking a packet of Emergen-C after a workout. That has been probably the very best thing I have done so far. If I'm feeling slightly bad after working out, I can drink one of those, and will be totally, completely fine. If I feel good after working out, but sweat really, really good, I will drink one of them, and stay feeling good! They are cram-packed full of all kinds of vitamins, so they are healthy anyways, but they also have electrolytes, so I think that's why it makes me feel good when I drink one after working out....it just helps replace some of the good stuff, that I lost, without adding bad stuff back in as well, which is what things like Gatorade and other drinks will do. They work good in the moment, but are so full of sugar, that it's counter-acting anything good you are getting! 

So anyways, that was way longer than it probably needed to be! But I hear a lot of controversy about exercising and working out! And it's not a black and white thing. There is no definite right or wrong, across the board, for everyone. 

I just want to encourage you to do what YOU can do. That might be a super intense work out every day, or simply trying to drink more water, eat healthier, etc. It's all important, so keep on trying and find something that works for YOU!!