Working (out) for the weekend

It's Friday afternoon and all quiet on the home front. The two babies are napping, for the time being, and I've just finished up workout #2 for the day--Insanity Max Interval Plyo (INSANE!!! as you might imagine)--and workout #8 for the week. Yeah, I might be crazy, but I decided to kick it into high gear and try to blast away this stubborn "baby" fat--I'm still blaming the baby... nearly 10 months later.

The real benefit of two workouts a day is to actually give me some "free" time on the weekends--the extra calorie burn is just an added bonus. I cram them in during the week so I can't make excuses for myself on the weekend. "I don't have time." "I'm too tired." Blah, blah, blah... I hate excuses.

Too many times we let excuses govern our actions. You can't join a gym because it's too expensive. You can't get outside and walk because it's too boring. You can't commit 30 minutes a day, three days a week because you just don't have time. Seriously, people? Are we all that busy?

I like to look to my husband as my role model when it comes to losing the excuses and just getting stuff done. His alarm goes off every weekday at 3:45 a.m. Granted, some mornings it continues to go off until 4:15. But for the most part, he is out of the house and at the gym by 4:15 a.m. After his workout he rides the train for 90 minutes, works his job, and  reverses. And he never complains about being tired or not having enough time to workout. He's a machine and that's one of the reasons I love him.

My point is, do what you can do, when you can do it. If you can spend 15 minutes in the morning jumping rope, you can burn 150 calories. If you can do that again after work, that's a total of 300 extra calories you burned for the day. And a jump rope costs about $10.

There is so much you can do with your body with very little equipment, very little time and no financial investment whatsoever. Walking, running, squats, lunges, burpees, push-ups, pull-ups, triceps dips and virtually any exercise where you move your body through the air at a high speed (i.e. plyometrics) is going to burn energy and energy=calories and calories=fat (at least the excess ones do).

So, the next time you tell yourself that you don't have time to workout and instead sit down at your computer for 15 minutes to "surf the net," remember that you could have burned 150 calories jumping rope... just like the good 'ole days in the school yard.

In the beginning...

So... this is where I start.

For as long as I can remember... wait, scratch that cliche. Since college, when I finally decided that I wanted to be a writer, I have known that I have wanted to write about health and fitness. I plugged away at local papers, local magazines, business magazines and even a television station. I've sent my stuff to anywhere I thought I might have a chance.

And now I'm 8 years removed from my collegiate days and 2 kids deep in the game. Life has been busy. Great, but at times I can barely catch my breath. Days seem to never end and sometimes the nights are endless--if that makes any sense at all.

And though I haven't quite (can you insert sarcasm into a blog?) made it big career-wise, we've all got to start somewhere. So this is it. I figure that no one is going to hand me a column in Oxygen or Muscle and Fitness Hers. Why not get at it now? Write what I want, when I want and try to help someone along the way.

I've spent years struggling with my weight and since giving birth finally feel strong, powerful and beautiful.  There's something really magical about pushing an 8 and 1/2 pound human being out of your body without the assistance of anyone or anything... twice.

I do have some fitness qualifications, including holding a personal training certification and a Tae Bo fitness instructor certification. But most of my "expertise" comes from trial and error and a desire to know just what my body and my mind can accomplish when they work together.