52 Weeks to 52 Healthy Habits series, build your healthy lifestyle one week at a time.

Hi, Friends! I know I say this every week but I can’t believe it's already week 11, 2.5 months into the New Year, are you easily writing 2016 on everything?

How did last week’s healthy habit challenge go? Admittedly, I did not follow along on this one too much because I had a meal service to try out but I’d love to hear what you came up with for your healthy lunch combo ideas!

This week we are taking a turn from the focus off food for our healthy living and shifting to fitness for a hot second. So many times I come up with an idea for this week, and then I think I should save it for the holidays when things get crazy (like getting enough sleep ha ha). This habit is different, though; this is one you want to have good and practiced by the time the holidays take over your life.

Why Make A Workout Schedule?

When I first started getting my act together and losing weight, one of the things that made the biggest difference for me was scheduling in workouts. I was a busy college student with large heavy class loads (think financial accounting and organic chemistry in the same semester), a part-time job, sorority and a boyfriend. If I didn’t schedule workouts in then it just wasn’t going to happen, but since I’ve always lived my life by a calendar putting them there meant I would do them because they were a planned part of my day. It’s made such a big difference, and I’ve done this for so long now that it has become second nature to me and I’m so thankful for it.

Where To Create A Workout Schedule:

In the past, I’ve used one or a combination of these places to make sure I followed through. I’d often put them in my planner, schedule them on google calendar with notifications, and write a list to put on my bulletin board. Now that workouts have become part of my life, I quickly write them down in my planner to make sure I get a good balance of types of workouts.

planners
electronic calendars
write a list and stick it to the fridge
wherever else you might see it every day like a bulletin board

What Workouts To Schedule:

Back in the day when I was a group fit junky, I would plan in all the classes I would attend that week from Zumba, strength, and yoga. I still love group fit, but with an inflamed angry disc in my low back, I need to be in control of the movements I do. So Instead I schedule strength and running workouts to make sure I have a good balance. If I’m training for a race, I plan my training schedule and runs. However, when I was in graduate school and exams would come up I felt that I just couldn’t make the time to workout, so instead, I scheduled walks around our track. I would take my notes and read while I walked, I did this 2-3 times a week to stay up off my butt!

Type of workout (whether your going to do cardio or strength)- be specific as possible it’s easy to blow it off if you don’t know what you’ll do
group fitness classes (anything from weights, Zumba, yoga, etc.)
active recovery on rest days like walks, bike rides, fitness leisure. Do you walk your dog? Schedule that in!
rehab exercises if you are rehabbing an injury

52 HEALTHY HABITS IN 52 WEEKS SERIES:

The 52 Healthy Habits Series is about ditching the diet mindset and making small changes to improve health overall naturally leading to a healthy body composition, increased energy and improved health. Please follow along and check out the past weeks!