HIIT Workouts and Tracking

Time in the Gym 

I used to believe that in order to have an effective workout, you needed to go to the gym, work out one or two muscle groups at a time and then spend additional time with the cardio equipment. My husband despises cardio and seeing as that's who I typically frequented the gym with, we nearly never did our 20 minutes of cardiovascular workout... We'd spend a couple of hours lifting and doing abs so when you're going after work, you're ready to get home, eat dinner and go to bed. In addition, between the two of us, we were spending around $70 a month to go to the gym maybe more.

I am not saying that this type of exercise regimen won't get you or keep you in shape but I am saying that you don't HAVE to workout for hours at the gym in order to be in good shape! I'll tell you how in just a second...

I was finding it difficult to get to the gym on a regular basis with my work schedule and being tight on money, Brandon and I decided to cancel our gym memberships and workout at home- P90X style. As I have mentioned in a previous post, I have never made it through an entire 90 days with P90X- I inevitably would get sick and lose progress which would make me start from the beginning again. In addition, I did not eat healthy- Remember, I always thought, "If I workout, I can eat whatever!"

Brandon and I took pre-P90X pictures and for whatever reason, we never really got very far with it together so I preceded on my own on a different path. A friend of mine had referred me to Jillian Michaels and I started her 30 Day Shred DVD. (See my previous post on her DVD.) After I cycled through this twice, I purchased her Ripped in 30 DVD which I actually like a bit more- there's four workouts/levels (whereas the first one I bought is only 3). It felt amazing to get through this DVD and I could definitely tell I was making progress. About that time, I started seeing some pins on Pinterest about BodyRock.tv and looked into the program and HIIT workouts.

HIIT

Do you currently spend hours at the gym or wish that you had time to workout? Staying fit is an important part of life. Think about it like this: we fuel up our cars to get from place to place; we must fuel up our bodies to do the same. If we never ran the car, the fuel gets bad, the engine gets rusty, etc. If you're fueling up and never working out, essentially it's kinda the same. Muscles are like engines. If they aren't used, they deteriorate. If you don't want to spend hours in the gym, I've got fabulous news for you- YOU DON'T HAVE TO!
HIIT workouts are High Intensity Interval Training. It is exactly as it sounds. You workout in a higher intensity through a determined number of intervals. As Jillian Michaels says, if you want to workout in 30 minutes, there's no resting. Typically a HIIT workout might be intervals of 50 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest. They contain cardio as well as strength components- so you're building muscle while toning- a perfect combination.
If you've never attempted a HIIT workout, don't be intimidated. Everyone starts somewhere and that's the other great thing about these type of workouts- you do as much as YOU can in that time frame. Let me give you an example of a HIIT workout using the 50/10 interval (50 seconds work, 10 seconds rest). We'll do three rounds of 4 different exercises. This workout would be 12 minutes long.

1.  Jumping Jacks
2.  Tricep Dips 
3. Squat Jumps
4. Push-Ups

Let's say you want to modify tricep dips, you can change your leg placement to make it as difficult as you want (legs further out, hard; legs elevated, advanced) and do as many as you can in that 50 seconds. If  you only get ten, great, because you'll see improvements if you continue these HIIT workouts! You can modify for any of the exercises making it as easy or difficult as you can manage. I like to repeat the same workouts every once in awhile using my old scores so I can track my progress which brings me to another important point...

Track Your Progress

As you embark on your journey of HIIT workouts, keep a notebook with your workouts. (I use a one-subject spiral.) I document the date of the workout, the interval, the exercises and the number of reps I accomplish in that workout in a chart format. It really is a cool feeling to go back and do an "old" workout and blow your scores out of the water! Try doing a HIIT workout routine for 2 weeks and then repeat the first one you did. I dare you.

Think. Work. Achieve. The Choice is Yours. 

Meal Plans and Portions

Meal Plans

Here's how the discussion of "what's for dinner" goes at my house:
5ish
Me: "Brandon, what do you want for dinner?"
B: "I don't care."
Me: *inward sigh- why am I always coming up with ideas AND cooking them?*

6:30PM
B: "I'm hungry. What's for dinner?"
Me: "Tell me what you want."
B: "I don't care."
Me: *LOUD SIGH*
B: "Do you wanna just go somewhere now? It's already 6:30."

Without a plan in mind, most of us will opt for option B: eating out. There is a plethora of great restaurants around our house but there are several drawbacks to that decision:

1. Dining out on the town hurts your bank account. Brandon and I have dined out so often that we are tired of all the places around us (and trust me, there's A LOT). Typically a dinner costs us (with tip) around $50 a pop. So let's just say you eat at restaurants 4 times a week and there's $200/ week or $1000/month and that's JUST dinner. Brandon typically buys breakfast and lunch when he's working too so that racks up as well. 
2. When it comes to eating clean... not all restaurants meet that standard. Have you ever looked up the nutritional value for popular restaurants around you? You will be amazed that even the "light" meals are packed with calories, fat, sugar and salt. I noticed this when I started tracking what I was eating through Lose It (app on iPhone or log online at www.loseit.com). Here's a homework assignment for you: Take a moment, navigate to your favorite restaurant's website and locate the nutritional facts (some do NOT have this so that makes ya think!). 
3. If you don't prepare it, there's no guarantee it's cooked the "cleanest". Cooking at home is the best way to ensure that your food is prepared with no additives you don't want. I'm sure you all have encountered that ONE time that a food service worker put mayo on your sub although you said not to... UGH, I hate that! 

Solution? 

Meal plan. I like to meal plan for an entire week and grocery shop from there. When you're trying to eat clean, you're shopping the perimeter of the grocery store- fresh fruit, veggies, etc. Due to the shorter shelf life of fresh food, you don't want to over buy and waste so a week's worth is a good time frame.

I am a bargain shopper so I do NOT like wasting money and that includes throwing food away. I stick to my meal plans and proper portions so I do not overeat. Keep reading for more information on proper portions. Also, if you buy something with a nutritional label, check the ingredients. I avoid anything with ingredients that are un-natural (pretty much anything you can't pronounce) as well as a lot of salt, fat or sugar. Salt is in pretty much everything on a shelf so be wary of how MUCH salt is in those products. 

Note: If meal planning for several meals a day sounds like too much, start with just dinner. Try it out! Plan one week of meals for just dinner and see how it goes! Here's a dinner/shopping planner for you that I adapted from something I found on pinterest! 

Portion Distortion

In order to maximize your metabolism as well as reap the benefits of a stabilized system (no drops in blood sugar and more), you should aim to eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day. We're aiming for about 300 calories each meal. You want to eat a lean protein about the size of your palm- that means girls, probably about 4-6 ounces and guys, a bit larger. In addition, you're looking for two cupped hands of veggies and one cupped hand of complex carbs (grains or starches). 

You gotta start some where. Why not start now? Go plan your week's worth of dinners. :D

Think. Work. Achieve. The choice is yours. 

Wearing a smile?

ABOUT ME

My name is Jamie. I am 32 years old, married going on five years and no kids... just my dog, Buddy, a five year old German Shorthaired Pointer. He loves water and chases anything that moves.

I have two sisters- I'm the middle kid, say what you want about that- older: Terri and younger: Mary. The picture below is Terri, Mary, Mom and I in NYC Central Park June, 2012. We took us a little girls' trip! (Another blog coming about NYC trip- SO MUCH FUN!)

My dad is retired US Coast Guard and now works for an oil company in Houston. My mom is now retired from office work for a plastic surgeon. My parents just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in Hawaii (see below). AinaKai Photography (same photographer who did Mary's wedding pictures in Hawaii) took my parent's pictures. They are beautiful!!!

I'm an Aggie- graduated with a degree in Animal Science from Texas A&M in 2002. While I was at A&M, I rode on the NCAA Equestrian team in English Equitation (flat and fences). I worked in corporate America for two years and then earned my Alternative Certification for teaching. I taught middle school science for several years before leaving the classroom as a curriculum specialist. This past year, I earned my Masters in Educational Leadership from Lamar University and I just got a new job as a district science coach for middle school.

I met my husband, Brandon, through a friend of a friend of a friend. Literally. We hit it off as friends, hung out a bunch and somewhere in between, started dating. We got married in Lake Tahoe, CA/NV in 2008.

Here is a picture of my bridesmaids, Terri and Mary (sisters) in Lake Tahoe for my wedding.
I loved my photographer and would highly recommend him should you decide to get married in Tahoe as well. Check him out, Matt Theilen.

 Here is another great shot of Brandon from our wedding day in Tahoe. We could not have asked for a more beautiful day.

Brandon worked in real estate and mortgages for a long time and wasn't satisfied with the desk job aspect so he is now a fireman for the City of Houston and works for a volunteer fire department as  duty crew (paid during the day) as a side job. He's much happier.

As for my personal interests, I enjoy cooking and baking (follow me on pinterest: jgricketts) as well as movies and television amongst so many other things. I love being active especially working out and I would like to use this blog as a platform to organize my thoughts, my research and my goals to get in the best shape of my life. 

WEARING A SMILE

I believe that one of my best attributes is finding the positive hence the blog name: Wearing a smile. I make it a point to greet people with a smile. I think of it as I can smile at someone and they in turn smile at someone else, it's my version of paying it forward. In my blog, I aim to help achieve my own fitness goals by publicizing and receiving support from my followers. Motivation is like bathing... do it daily! :D

Think. Work. Achieve.The choice is yours.