Happy Friday! Is it not alright to bring Pringles to the gym on Friday mornings?! Whoops. Guess I did gym-time wrong this morning.
Are you ready for the weekend?! Donny & I are headed to Madison, WI for a wedding of a friend I went to college with. I have only been to Madison one time (for one day last July) and I loved it! I am excited to go back and excited to be meeting my best friend my college, Kelsey! She is flying in from Florida and we will pick her up in the rental car that we grab. I don’t think I’ve seen Kelsey since Donny & I took that road trip last May. Whew, that seems like FOREVER ago. It has been far to long so it will be great to catch up and chat. A lot has changed since I last saw her. She had a baby. We got a new dog! Hahaha I can’t wait to see her.
Time for Anything & Everything Friday. Each Friday I share five random topics of my choosing with you. I try to keep them health-related, but not always. Today I am talking about meal planning, ab exercises and my new book club book. See what I mean? Reading is good for the mind, right?!?!
Meal Planning:
To be honest, I don’t always have a “plan” when I prepare my meals for the week. I do not make a grocery list or write out what meals I’ll eat on each individual day. I basically prepare a ton of food and divide it up after. This plan, or lack there of a plan, works for me and my preparation needs, however a lot of people cannot function that way. Greatist.com writer Allyson Fox has a more structured “plan” for you in terms of meal planning. Check out The Cheap And Easy Way To Start Planning Your Meals In Advance.
When I think about it, I do some of these things already, but I don’t consciously think about them. The very first tip is to check your schedule. I do make sure to go through my week in terms of meals. I will take note of lunch meetings or commitments that will not allow me to eat my prepared lunch. Next, I look at what our week looks like in terms of evening activities. If we have several commitments that will have us home late, then I’ll keep a lot of prepared foods ready to throw into a bowl or on a plate. If we have dinner plans several nights then we won’t make that extra food. Check out the other 5 tips at the link above and then get meal planning! Start small so you do not get overwhelmed.
Core Exercises:
Crunches, crunches, and more crunches….that is what it takes to get abs of steel! Wrong. Crunches have their own place when it comes to exercise, but there are a ton of other ab exercises that can help strengthen your core. I personally find crunches boring, so I don’t incorporate them too often. Amy Eisinger from Greatist.com has a list of 14 Unexpected Moves That Work Your Abs Better Than Crunches. This is not a list of bizarre ab exercises either. High knees, tuck jumps, body saw and several plank variations are included. Check out these different moves and try to incorporate a few next time you work your core. You never know, you could end up with abs of steel!
Gym Partner:
For the last few weeks Donny & I have been working out together when neither one of us goes to Jodi. In the past, I would workout by myself on my days off from bootcamp. Recently Donny has asked to workout with me and I really enjoy it! I get the benefit of working out with a group of ladies in bootcamp, so I get that social interaction part. However, on my days off it was me, myself & I. Donny helps keep me thinking of new workouts and researching new ideas for training. He also pushes me a little more when I am in the gym. Occasionally I will lift heavy and need a spotter. I am fairly shy at the gym and don’t want to bother anyone, so I’d go without. I would not lift anything dangerously heavy, but I never went all out in fear I’d get stuck under the barbell! Donny is pretty dang strong and helps spot me on those heavier lifts now. Plus, couples that workout together stay together. I think I read that on a t-shirt or something once. Completely scientific. Maybe it is scientific to workout with a partner. Read this article from My Fitness Pal The Secret To An Effective Workout: Finding A Gym Partner. I really do think it changes my mindset when I work out with another person. It pushes me to take shorter breaks, lift heavier and move a little more quickly. Do you workout with a partner at the gym?
Leggings:
I wear leggings of some sort to gym pretty much every day. Buying clothes is fun for me and I LOVE buying workout clothes. I don’t get too girly in terms of exercise gear, but like to mix it up when it comes to prints on different tops and bottoms. If you have a workout-clothing-obsession like I do, then check out this awesome list of leggings. This article was on Self.com 21 Pairs of Workout Leggings That Are Comfy And Stylish and want pretty much every pair. I recently purchased two pairs of Reebok leggings and really like them! I hadn’t tried that brand of leggings before, but they are great.
Book Club:
I haven’t talked about book club for a while now. Our last meeting was in June and i couldn’t make it. They decided to take a month off before meeting again, since people get so busy in the summer. I am thankful we did take that time because I may not have finished the book otherwise! We read The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney and I liked it, but didn’t love it! No one else that showed up for the meeting liked it, but I thought it was decent. I started the book in the middle of last week, but it was such an easy read that I breezed right through it. Nothing REALLY exciting ever happens, but somehow I kept wanting to read it to see how it turned out.
The next book we are reading is called One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern. One gal in book club us told us about Book Club Bags from the High Plains Library. Fort Morgan doesn’t offer them, but they are bags with 10-12 books included plus a list of questions for the meetings. We didn’t spend TOO much time researching available books for Book Club Bags, but we found a couple we might try. The other one we were intrigued by was The Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline. Have you read either of these books?
That wraps up Anything & Everything Friday! Have a great weekend!!!
