Happy New Year!

This first month is all about fitness and getting moving!

I basically will be living by the mantra of “30 minutes or 3 miles, every day”

I like to work out in my living room or outside. I don’t pay membership to a gym because I’ve learned enough about working out and general fitness that I don’t feel I need to. Thankfully, there are fitness crazes like HIIT (high intensity interval training), Yoga, Pilates, Tibata…yada, yada, yada! Not to mention wonderful professional (celebrity and non-celebrity) trainers that are available thanks to DVD’s, regular TV and Youtube (my favorite). I also don’t want to pay for a gym membership because the two options I seem to have available are a) an expensive gym that is right around the corner, or b) an inexpensive gym that is inconveniently out of the way, so – here I am at home. One of my other goals this year is to save even more money, so that further makes a gym membership out of the question. I do dream sometimes of sitting in a sauna at my leisure, that would just be heavenly!

Some of the fitness trainers/personalities I have become fond of over time are Jillian Michaels (she is my all time favorite ‘professional trainer’, Denise Austin (she was my mother’s favorite trainer via-VHS/PBS), Kearia Lashae (YouTube) and Zuzka Light (formerly of Bodyrock.tv), Shiva Rea (Gaiam) and Erin O’Brien, the latter two whom I both really liked during and after my pregnancy.

So, without further ado here is my plan:

1. Week One: Get off my butt and just move
2. Week Two: vary it and step it up, likely with hiit-style exercises
3. Week Three:  add yoga and jogging into the mix
4. Week Four: Jog, lift weights, yoga?

**I am not a fitness, nutrition or health expert. I am a simple layman. So, before you do anything that may cause injury or illness, consult your doctor.

I’ve got to get off my butt and get back into this.

Sorry the plan is not the best. I don’t want to actually commit to any one fitness routine or plan and want to stay FAR away from diets. Dieting doesn’t work. What I am going for here is actually actively moving more. That is my one thing this month, and if I can run consistently and regularly by the end of January, that is an added plus!

Although I do not own a scale, I know that I am back to my pre-baby weight. Unfortunately, I wasn’t all that fit to begin with then. Like the “freshman fifteen” weight that first-year college students put on, I may have put on my “married-and-comfortable” weight. The way my job seems to work at the moment is like feast or famine and little in-between. So, during the first few years we lived in Germany, I worked as often as I could, which didn’t leave a lot of time for personal care. However, I was happily married and living in Europe, so I didn’t actually notice my weight at first. Then in 2012, I did attempt two 30-day-hit challenges and that did make a difference, but, of course it was no magic pill. Oh, how I wish there was a magic pill!

It doesn’t necessarily help that Germany is the land of beer and sausages. The Germans seem to love fried foods almost as much as the Belgians! Indulging in the pleasures of drinking and good food were easy to do, too easy and attempting to reverse their effects have proved difficult. Especially when my husband still loves to indulge but his body metabolises calories differently, lucky guy!

I am not happy with many aspects of my physical appearance and am afraid that the belly weight I brought into my pregnancy may now be my constant companion. Ultimately, though, I would be so very happy to tone up and lose a few layers of fat so that I can fit into more of my favorite clothes again.

Full disclosure, this is what I look like now:

I used to be a runner and overall general fitness buff. I used to ride my bicycle everywhere, run in my free time and lift weights. In high school I used to lift weights with all the guys on the football team AND thier coach. He kicked my butt, but at the time I could armwrestle guys and win, without actually looking like a beefed-up bodybuilder! In college I used to run every day, then when I tried to up my milage too quickly and messed up my feet with plantar fasciitis and a heel spur, not to mention it had become a little wearing on my knees. Yay!

My husband runs every day. It helps keep him sane, plus he is hot! He’s always been darn attractive, but because he has taken more of an interest in his physical health, his sexiness level has gone through the roof!  I miss being able to release stress like he does now and would love to once again be in a position where I can do that too. We shall see as I am not going to beat myself up if I cannot run by the end of this month.

Here we go…