Work-out Wednesday: Walking & Yoga

Last night, I went over to Mom’s to have Pizzeria Testa and wine together. We started talking about my post from Monday, and all of my exploration with goal-setting and habit-forming lately.

We started discussing how I have struggled with questioning if I truly want writing as my “thing” because of the fact of how I’ve procrastinated writing so much in the past. Thinking like, if I really wanted to write and enjoy it and can find meaning and purpose in doing it, then why do I put off doing it? Isn’t that a sign that it’s actually not or shouldn’t be my thing?

For which I think I’ve come up with an explanation: the real fact is that at the moment, procrastination has just been more of an ingrained habit for me than ANYTHING else I might try to do.

It’s probably always “easier” to choose the instant gratification of binging a Netflix show or watching Love Island on Hulu. But, when I get into the groove of writing, and sharing through the publish button, and look back over my growing little collection of posts, I really do enjoy the feeling of flow and happiness and pride. Not to mention, the dopamine spike when someone actually reads what I write and comments that they enjoyed it. I maybe shouldn’t look to external validation to encourage a personal habit, but connecting with people through writing is a definite motivating factor and inherently rewarding too.

It’s just like exercising – we all know we need to move our bodies more and actually do feel better immediately afterward with the mood-improving energy generated, and know the long-term health benefits with the side effect of looking better too. However, until the habit of working out is formed, our habit of eating or watching TV pulls stronger on our inertia.

Exercise Plan I Designed at Mom’s

Through combining Rachel Hollis’s Foundations to Success and Brendon Burchard’s big 4 from his masterclass’s physiology day, I came up with that I should work out 5x/week: 2x 60 minutes cardio, 2x 20 minutes strength, then 30 minute brisk walk on the 5th day. This looked like:

• Monday: 30 minute brisk walk Lincoln
• Tuesday: 60 minutes yoga HIIT or cardio yoga
• Wednesday: 20+ minutes yoga
• Thursday: 60 minute walk Lincoln
• Friday: 20+ minutes yoga

Then, when I got home and talked to Reid about our plan, he reminded me about The ONE Thing habit tracker, and since I want my thing to focus on first before I move onto anything else to be developing a daily movement habit, we said I should do 30+ minutes of activity every day, which can be a combination of walking and yoga and would include weekend days too.

So, I’m committing to the 66-day Challenge of either yoga or brisk walking to solidify this habit of 30+ minutes of daily movement.

Go-to Yoga Videos

If you’re not planning ahead for your goals, then you’re planning to fail, right? So to make this as easy on my brain as possible, I wanted to pick a selection of videos from my favorite YouTube Yogi, Adriene, then I can just reference this post when it’s time to get on the mat first thing in the AM.

~30 Minutes

Strength // Flexibility

• Core Power Wake Up
• Yoga for Strength
• Balancing Flow
• Yoga for Core (and Booty!)

Cardio // Weight Loss

• Yoga for Weight Loss
• Power Yoga
• Yoga Tone – for Weight Loss
• Yoga for Weight Loss – Abs & Arms
• Yoga For Weight Loss – Fat Burning

~One Hour

Strength // Flexibility

• Shakti Power Flow
• Self Love Yoga
• Compassion Yoga – Core Strength Vinyasa

Cardio // Weight Loss

• Yoga for Weight Loss – Balance Practice
• Weight Loss Yoga – Total Body Workout