Getting into a regular work out routine is probably the hardest thing to start but once you have a schedule and are used to going, it's just like anything else you do during the day. I don't
love to work out but I do love feeling healthy and fit. My routine for the past 4 months has been yoga 3 days a week and a circuit training class or
Nike Training Club workouts 2 days a week and surprisingly it has not been hard to keep this schedule at all. I'm so used to it that it's just part of my day and not something that I have to fit in.
My tips to keep a consistent workout schedule:
1. Try out different things until you find what you love - I used to run a lot but I didn't really like it all that much, I just did it because I needed some cardio which then made it really hard to go to the gym. I tried several classes at my gym before discovering ones that made me feel like I was having fun and getting a good work out and now I look forward to going to those classes.
2. Set an alarm - Because my days are pretty busy and often times I get so engrossed in what I'm doing, I now keep an alarm on my phone that goes off the same time 5 days a week and it says "GYM!!" This totally helps keep me on track and I for sure always go to the gym when the alarm goes off.
3. Work out with a friend or your significant other - I don't tend to like to work out with people, I like to do my own thing as I get much better work outs that way, but what I do like is the accountability of going with someone else. On those days that I just want to sit on the couch, if I see that my husband is ready to go with the gym, a part of me knows that if he goes to the gym and I'm just sitting at home, I'll feel really lazy and guilty for not going with him too. And on some days, it's vice versa where I'm the one motivating him to go, so it's always nice to have each other to keep you balanced.
4. You get to indulge and not feel as guilty - Of course you can not take this to the extreme and just think "I'm working out so I can eat a huge slice of cake for dinner every night!" but every once in awhile when you indulge, you feel a little less guilty and a little more deserving when you've been taking care of your body and health.
5. Be Patient. Results will come - I don't work out to lose weight although since I've changed my diet and been working out regularly I've lost a bit of weight which was just simply a nice side effect of the changes. But I know that it took me about two months before I saw the physical changes really take place. For those of us that are already on the petite side, seeing results can be harder as I don't think that it happens that quickly for us. (Really for women in general, I think it's just slower.) My husband and I eat the same things (he just eats more portion wise) but when we start eating healthier and work out more, he can lose weight and tone up like crazy within a week. For me, nothing happens until a few weeks later. What does happen right away is that your energy levels go up, you sleep better and just generally feel better. Try to concentrate on those changes and don't let the lack of the physical results unmotivate you. You just have to trust that it will come if you are consistent. And once they come, you will be too happy to stop!
6. Being healthy is a lifestyle, not a resolution - I know that with the new year, there is a lot of these "I'm going to lose 10lbs" or "I'm going to the gym 4 times a week" resolutions. I don't know about you but those types of things never work for me. I can say it all I want but if I don't make it a part of my life, it's always just going to be something that I say and not actually fit into my life. Like I
mentioned before, I've made a lot of changes to my lifestyle in the past year and being healthy is one of those things. Not just working out but also what I eat and how I take care of my stress. All of it goes hand in hand to living a healthy lifestyle and not just a quick fix.
With yesterday's post about my favorite work out clothes, I also wanted to do a review of a new monthly subscription box that I had subscribed to called
PV Body. It sounded like a great concept as it's $49.95 a month for a top and a bottom and they send you clothes based on your style and type of work outs you do. (Just to note, it was $39.95 when I tried it so they've upped it by $10)
I tried it for two months and I canceled. I'm not one to do negative reviews especially on new start up companies as I do know (
from experience) how hard it is to be a small online business but I wanted to give my feedback in case you guys had seen this and wanted to try it out. Like I said, the concept is great, their execution however is not. The first set that I got, the top was not my style at all and the bottom was okay. Both were from the
Electric Yoga which I had not heard of before but based on the prices on the site, the set I got was a good deal. However, that doesn't matter if you don't like the style right? So anyway, they have a good return/exchange policy so I thought I'd give them feedback about the style that I received and that I would like to do an exchange. I wrote them twice regarding an exchange and in both instances I did not receive a personal response from a customer service person. Both times I received a standard FAQ type of response and nothing in the email even answered my question. What really got me was in the email it said "your request is now resolved". How can they tell me that my request is resolved when my question was not even answered? You could tell that nobody reads their customer service emails, it's all automated. It was a bit frustrating when all I wanted to do was an exchange and on their site it said that it was easy enough to do.
In a 3rd email, (which was also automated) they gave me a phone number to call but also during this time, I received my second shipment (oh yeah, my first shipment was about 3 weeks late so the 2nd month came only a week later). When I opened my 2nd shipment, I was equally as disappointed. They sent me the EXACT same leggings as the first month. When I subscribe to these monthly subscription boxes it's because I want to try out different things that I normally wouldn't stumble upon. If I wanted to buy the exact same pants each month, I'd just go back to Lululemon and buy my favorite pair. Not some unknown brand that I'm just trying out. I just thought it wasn't a great service that they could not even keep track of what they had sent their members previously. Even though I didn't love the 2nd shipment, the tank they sent me was better than the first so I thought I'd keep that box and return the first one. Anyway, long story short. I finally got someone on the phone and sent in my return. It's now coming up to 3 weeks and I have yet to see a refund or a response from the company. So in short... I would not recommend PV Body. If they are still around in a year, maybe they will have worked out the kinks and can offer better service but for now, it's not something that I will be joining again.
SarahFit, one of my favorite fitness bloggers just did a
post about them and it looks like they are now doing a bit of a bait and switch where they originally promised brand name clothes and now are only offering their OWN line that nobody has ever heard of or even tried. I also saw in Sarah's
comment section that it seems like I'm not the only one that had a bad experience with them. I'm all about supporting new start up businesses and giving them a chance but it's hard to support one that seems to have so many bad experiences and customer issues.
