Reasons to Get Your Workout Done

issue, we shared 15 habits of highly fit people. We also talked about some simple lifestyle tweaks to help you lose weight while also discussing weight-loss shortcuts that never work.

To help inspire movement, we covered signs that your body is craving exercise, ways to get more active when you work in an office, and 10 ways to make exercise part of your daily routine.

One of my favorite tips from this issue was from the article covering 10 ways to make exercise part of your daily routine:

“... [F]ocus on a goal or end result, not the exercise itself. Pretend you decided to do some body-weight exercises today—10 lunges, 10 sit-ups, 10 pull-ups and 10 push-ups. If you simply stare at the wall and count off repetitions, you can get bored and distracted before you even get started. Instead of thinking about the exercise or physical activity you are performing, picture a mental image of your body and your mindset when you are fit and in shape. Think of how you are going to look and feel, the compliments your friends and coworkers are going to shower you with. In other words, keep the goal of your physical fitness in sight at all times.”

July Not everyone has a lot of time or experience exercising, so in July we talked about the best types of exercise for sedentary people and provided some ideas for effective 10-minute workouts. We also discussed some heart-healthy foods and researched whether caffeine can boost workout performance.

My colleague and fellow fitness devotee Kevin Schoen stopped by to talk about attaining workout consistency and simplicity. During our interview, he gave a couple of tips for those who struggle to make fitness a consistent part of their lifestyle: August As the 2021 summer breathed its last, we reviewed the top 12 outdoor exercises to replace the gym and discussed why outdoor exercise boosts mood more than indoor exercise. We also talked about overcoming common struggles to start exercising when you’re obese and finding your “why” for getting fit.

I also sat down with BossUp Babe, weight loss and wellness expert Karissa Adkins, to talk about fitness, and she helped me understand what “bossing up” means to her:

“First, get into the habit of actually holding yourself accountable. Come up with some kind of plan. Are you going to go to a gym? Are you going to work out at home or some kind of combination of those? Figure out what that’s going to be. Then secure your gym membership or your home equipment, set it up, and figure out what exercises you’re going to do. “Next, try to work out at the same time every day. Whenever you do it, whether that’s three days a week or five days a week or six days a week, do it around the same time.” “Bossing up is doing anything that scares the living crap out of you. Bossing up is that moment when you’re like, ‘Should I, or should I not?’ It takes courage, but it’s our job. It’s our responsibility in life to boss up. We can either choose to stay stuck or to boss up and become the best version of ourselves, whether that’s with our health, our personal lives, our businesses—it doesn’t matter, the choice is yours.”

September As colder weather enters the scene, we know it can be more difficult to maintain exercise motivation. So in September, we talked about why a sedentary lifestyle is bad for your mental health and how to bust past a fitness plateau. We also discussed whether it’s

unhealthy to do the same workouts over and over again and gave some tips on tracking and measuring your fitness.

I was so excited this month to talk to ultra-endurance racer Leah Goldstein about what it’s like to rain for an ultra-endurance race:

“You can’t really physically train for an ultra-endurance race because you have 12 days to finish it. So in a 48hour period, you’re sleeping from zero to three hours. In any ultra-endurance race, it’s 30% physical and 70% mental. To give you an example, say you and I went to a race and you were 100% fit and ready, but mentally, you were kind of broken. Let’s say I’m not so fit but mentally 100%. I can guarantee you, hands down, I’ll beat you. It’s a matter of being able to push yourself beyond your limits and learning to be comfortable being uncomfortable.”

October We took the opportunity in October to introduce some different exercise options, High-intensity interval training (HIIT) and Tabata. We also talked about whether walking improves your fitness and talked about how exercise boosts self-confidence. We also talked about whether cardio or strength training was best for dealing with anxiety. I interviewed award-winning bodybuilder and former Miss Arab USA Nebras Hayek, and when I asked her what attracted her to bodybuilding, she said:

“I was working on this fitness show awhile back. When I first moved to Charlotte, I’d go to new yoga studios or AIR Fit, where you have the curtain hanging from the ceiling and you do yoga on it, and I started taking on new fitness challenges and having people record them. I’d post the videos on my YouTube channel just to show people experiences I’d had for the first time. “Then one person told me, ‘Why don’t you just do bodybuilding?’ That was in, like, 2018, and I was like, ‘No, that’s not for me.’ Because when I thought of bodybuilding, I’d think, ‘I don’t want to look too muscular and masculine, I still want to look feminine.’ Then the person said, ‘You can do bikini.’ So I looked into it and said, ‘Actually, that’s exactly what I do. I like lifting,’ so that became my thing.”

November Understanding that the holiday season can challenge even the most devoted healthy eater, in this issue we gave readers 10 ways to keep holiday stress at bay. We also looked at how much exercise it takes to experience a mood boost and discussed some simple lifestyle tweaks to improve your fitness. Since not everyone finds working out fun, we talked about ways to combat boredom when exercising and how strength training could improve your daily life.

In our article about how to get fit when you can’t afford the gym, this was one of my favorite tips:

“One super easy and surprisingly effective way of improving your fitness is finding ways to become more active as you go about your day. Walk as much as you can (e.g., take your legs to the coffee/grocery store instead of driving, park a short distance away from your work building, etc.), take the stairs instead of the elevator, take your kids to the park regularly and play energetic games with them, or sign up for a sporting game you enjoy. When done often, any form of physical activity that gets your heart rate up, even for just a few minutes at a time, can do wonders for your overall fitness.”

As we bid goodbye to 2021, we can’t help but get pumped for what’s coming in 2022. I can’t wait for you to see the amazing fitness and diet tips, exercise motivation and inspirational interviews and stories we have headed your way!