Please Visit Me At My New URL

Thank you for stopping by The Gym Bunny! 

***Update 6/4/16***

This blog is now at www.morgan-jennifer.com

Morgan Jennifer | A Lifestyle Blog

Hope you'll continue to follow along over there. All posts from here have been migrated over there. Please be sure to update your bloglovin' and follow the new bloglovin' address. I was working with them to get the current followers switched over, but not sure if it was 100% successful, so please be sure to check! Facebook & Google+ will remain the same. Instagram and Twitter have changed. If you follow via Blogger, please find a new route!

Thank you for reading. xo.

30-Day Beach Body Challenge

So, I finally got roped into a 30-Day Beach Body Challenge. I've been using Beach Body programs for years and often get told "You should be a Coach"; "You need to be a Coach"...blah blah blah. Not that I don't appreciate the compliments, I'm just too crazy-busy to put any other sort of "business" on my plate. I do the programs for my personal results, not the Tier-level performance.

Anyway, this challenge came at the right time because it's pretty much been the direction I've wanted to head with my workouts before summer. I wanted to still do 5-6 days a week strength-training at the gym and then I also wanted to do a Beach Body DVD, like Insanity or T25 at night after the kids go to bed. This, my friends, is what I call "taking it up a notch". So now I have a little group to hold me accountable. It starts today.

THE PLAN

Here's a snippet of my workout plans for this week {it worked so well to write it out like this last week that I had to do it again}:

You can see at the top I already had Insanity planned in there!

Today I'll be doing the gym sesh as described above and then tonight I'll do Insanity: Plyometric Cardio Circuit.

Monday

Legs/Glutes

Insanity: Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Tuesday

Back/Shoulders/Abs

Insanity: Cardio Power & Resistance

Wednesday

Legs/Glutes

Insanity: Pure Cardio

Thursday

Chest/Tri's/Abs

Insanity: Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Friday

REST

Saturday

Legs/Glutes

Insanity: Cardio Power & Resistance or a Run

Sunday

Back/Shoulders/Abs

Insanity: Pure Cardio or a Run

Wish me luck, and if you are a Beach Body program owner, I encourage you to take on the challenge as well!

Daylight Savings, Running and Summer is Coming

I don't know about you, but I don't mind losing the extra hour of sleep one bit. I have been waiting for DST to begin, well, since it ended, basically. I swear by the end of the winter, I find myself in a funk with working out...I also tend to have been drinking more with holidays or get-togethers with friends because there just wasn't really much else to do when it's dark outside by 5:30pm. It's all just a recipe for disaster and not keeping sight of my goals. Of course I've worked out throughout winter, but I did let myself get lazy and skip more workouts than I normally would. It just seems to happen every winter. You know what always gets me out of this funk? DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME!

I hit the gym for the first time in weeks this past Saturday. I hate to say that I hadn't been since sometime in early January! Farrah had just been sick for so long, I avoided taking her to the childcare there, which meant I really didn't get to go. I worked out at home instead, but I sure missed the gym. Also with my new job, finding the time for the gym has been tricky, but I plan to squeeze it in Monday thru Thursday around 4pm before I pick up the kids after work. Then of course, I'll continue to go on Saturdays and Sunday after church. Summer is coming and I don't have much time!

I believe having a plan makes all the difference, so I've written out this week's gym routine in advance:

My cardio will get done via running outdoors in the evenings on nice days or Insanity when it rains.

Are you happy DST is finally here? Does it help you with your fitness goals? How do you stay on track?

Tabata Tuesday

Tabata training (aka, the Tabata Protocol) is a type of high intensity interval training that follows a specific format:

• 20 seconds of a very high intensity exercise (e.g., sprints) - it is up to you to perform these at 80-90% exertion {talking should be pretty much impossible}
• 10 seconds of rest
• Repeat 8 times for a total of 4 minutes 

Find out more here. 

I hope for this series to be a weekly go-to for you fitness lovers. It's a great, quick exercise that you can easily carve into your day. If you've got four minutes, you've got time for Tabata. If you're even more rockstar, you can repeat the 4-minute circuit 5x for a 20 min HIIT workout. 

 

 

I recommend downloading a Tabata timer app. I use Tabata+ Lite. I love that it automatically provides a few seconds to set up before it goes right into your first 20 seconds.

Focus.

I have been questioning myself a lot lately. As I sit staring at the last 4 lbs of this 57-lb pregnancy gain...I know I'm SO close...but not as close as I'd like to think because we all know the last 5 or so lbs are the HARDEST to lose. Hell, I've been having trouble since the last 15 considering I reached that point in like October...it's friggin' February already. Four months later and I've only lost about 10 lbs in that time?

My issue has without a doubt been my focus. I've been going up and down week to week with it. Some weeks I am spot on...other weeks I am too crazed, hectic and yeah, I'll even say a little lazy, and my focus goes out the window. Going back to work a few weeks ago hasn't helped...considering my opportune workout time now is pretty much 4:30am. Can you say "snooze"?

Ironically enough, my passion is fitness...yet I spend way more time on my fashion/lifestyle blog than I do here. Yes, I have a passion for fashion too, but I don't think it in any way comes close to trumping my passion for fitness. Maybe if I put more focus into this blog, I'd be more focused on my fitness day to day. I've realized, for me, it's easier to be focused on fitness when I'm already looking great and I have something I can be proud of staring back at me when I look in the mirror. Post-pregnancy, I get angry and I get down on myself...and it ruins my focus. It's not the right attitude. I need to push through my resentment of what I see in the mirror and stay focused on the goal, even if it's hard to see whether I'm getting there or not. 

The way I see it now, there are about 2-3 months left until the weather will be bikini-appropriate and dammit, I promised myself I'd rock a bikini by this summer and be proud doing it! 

The plan is going to go like this...I've made the decision to hold off on Body Beast and first do a round of Insanity. I never really follow the plan with Insanity, I typically do 3-4 of the DVDs in rotation and that works for me. So to call it a round is not really accurate. I just want to spend a good 30-45 days staying consistent with those DVDs and then move onto Body Beast in April, with a lot more outdoor running {because the weather will be so much nicer for it and I'll be able to take the kids without feeling like they're freezing in the jogging stroller - a big reason why I'm not running so much right now}. I love Body Beast, I really do, but I feel my focus right now needs to be a lot of cardio and HIIT to lose a lot of the fat layer and tone what I already have. Then I can focus on building more muscle.

That's all for now...wanted to provide a little update. And I plan to be here a bit more often...stay focused.