Winter Workouts - Keep Active, Keep Motivated

Hi! Are you as happy to see Friday as I am ?!

This first full week back to work has been L-O-N-G!!!!

Luckily, it looks like we're going to have a pretty lowkey weekend. We have tickets to go cheer on the London Knights (GO KNIGHTS GO!) and I'm planning to go to yoga tomorrow morning, but other than that I'm on no kind of schedule until Monday. {Bliss!!}

I am definitely one of those people who tends to go into 'hibernation-mode' in the winter. It's dark when I get up in the morning and it's starting to get dark by the time I get home from work and I find that my energy is totally zapped by the time dinner is done and cleaned up. This can make it very difficult to find the motivation to get anything accomplished in the evenings, especially a good workout. If I go to the gym right after work, I'm good, but if I go home first, I'm totally setting myself up for failure because once I get home, I do not want to leave the house again.

It's not exactly the winter blues, I just hate going back out into the cold after I've come in and decompressed for the day. Instead of beating myself up about missing the gym, I've been pinning different circuit workouts and treadmill or elliptical workouts like crazy on my Workouts/Run board. I've also decided to take a crack at making up some of my own circuit workouts to do at home. As soon as I get home from work, I tie up the sneakers and get to business. By 6:30 p.m., my workout is done, dinner's started and I still have time to obsessively watch Season 1 of Homeland snuggle with Derek and the pups before bed.

I do love the gym and prefer to do most of my workouts there, but on the evenings when I just can't get myself back out the door, these circuits have been doing the trick.

Here is one that I did this week that I really enjoyed. My biceps and triceps were aching from a workout that I did earlier in the week, so I decided to focus on my core and lower body. It took just under 30 minutes and I definitely felt the*burn* (V-Sits kill me). I used 5lb weights when I did the lunges and squats to make it a little more challenging, but you don't need weights to get results.

(Click on workout to get a larger image)

*Before you go trying out a workout that I've put together, I want to note that I am not a certified personal trainer or trained expert in fitness. This is simply a workout that I put together for myself that I enjoyed and thought you might enjoy as well. Please make sure that you check with your family doctor before you start a new exercise or nutrition program, and most importantly, listen to your body.*

Do you have any tips on how to stay motivated through the cold winter months?

Enjoy the day and have a fabulous weekend!

I will see you on Sunday with some pictures from the week.

Andrea

xoxo

Food for Thought:

Source: Pinterest via Kimberly Krauss