How many times have you purchased a gym membership for the year and had to end up canceling it because you only found yourself there once out of the 6 months you’ve had it? How many times have you actually told yourself you were going to purchase a membership but never got around to it for some reason unknown? Well, I’ve been in that situation more than I’d like to admit.
I have never been a big fan of physical fitness, let alone the gym, although I wish I had made exercising a habit before I got to college. I wouldn’t be working as hard to get my body back to where I wanted it because it was already there. Thanks a lot La Vics, San Carlos Pizza and a big shout out to marijuana because that’s when those pounds really started kicking my ass. For the first time I had realized I was completely over my new found weight & ended up getting that gym membership I was talking about.
I was committed to the process for a good month but I wasn’t seeing any results and being in the gym was making me feel more insecure about myself. There were the females in there that already had the nice bodies but wanted to keep up a healthy lifestyle, the guys that were basically pros at lifting weights and then there was me the out of shape girl walking on a treadmill. Every time I walked in I felt like all eyes were on me and it was embarrassing, feeling like I was being judged. After my poor attempt of trying to get in shape failed I pretty much gave up all exercise and let myself go.
As of today I’m back on my journey of getting in shape, which has been an on and off one for about 5 years now but I’m happy to say I’ve been sticking to my new lifestyle for 3 months and I’m down 23 lbs. Oh and guess what? I didn’t need a gym to get the results. I once had a fitness coach that told me that getting in shape is 80% of what you eat, 20% exercise and 100% mindset. With her advice and guidance all those years ago it’s made it easy for me to get back on track and even easier for me to do it in the comfort of my home. All you need is your body-weight, a little space and a plan.
If you’re anything like me and can’t stand to go in a gym, I want to share a few of my favorite at home workouts I enjoy!
YouTube
So, I’m not big on having to plan out my own exercise routine, nor am I any good at it, so my number one place to go is YouTube. There’s a ton of exercise channels with videos ranging from 10 minutes to an hour. I’m big on variety and I hate for my workouts to get boring. My focus is mostly on cardio but I also like to add in full-body strength training, so I tend to go for cardio kickboxing videos.
Here’s a few of my favorite channels:
- Body Project: If you’re looking to lose fat & tone this is a perfect channel for you to use. I come here when I want to get in a good HIIT Cardio workout. I tend to stick to the videos under 35 minutes and I still burn about 300 calories in that short time.
- POPSUGAR Fitness: Now this is my favorite channel when it comes to getting in a good kickboxing workout. Sometimes when I want to have a little more fun I go for the dance cardio videos.
- Leslie Sansone: My great aunt has almost every one of her walking videos but you can also find them on YouTube. When I first got back into working out I wanted to start with something simple that would still allow me to burn fat. Now you’re probably wondering why not just go outside for a walk? I do depending on the day but I also find that I burn more calories and sweat a lot more when doing these indoor walks.
Exercise Apps are also a good go to as well. I enjoy using the Peloton app to get in extra stretches, especially since I workout 7-days a week. You don’t have to workout that many days. Start with 3 and then work your way up to 5, switching off days if that helps.
When it comes to your physical fitness sometimes you just have to find what works best for you and for me, THE GYM AIN’T IT!
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