Deciding to focus more on yourself, letting go of excuses and diving deep into your fitness goals will make the biggest impact on your life.
There's so many times I wanted to say "I'll workout tomorrow, I'm too tired after all I've done today". But I realized that taking care of me, and pushing towards my goals, is what will help me show up as a mom, wife, friend, and business owner in a fulfilling way.
These videos are four months apart.
It took dedication and discipline. It took me finding accountability from my friends, husband, and even myself to get here. I continued to stick with my intermittent fasting regimen to structure my day, and rotated between my video programs to target different areas of my body along the week. (Click here if you're interested in learning more about my intermittent fasting routine).
Getting started can be tough but as time goes by, seeing some improvements, you'll want to do more each day.
It's YOUR turn to do something for you. Use SWEAT50 for 50% off.
]]>Sometimes it’s because I am completely burnt out, but other times its pure laziness. You know the difference when you feel it; it's when you have that energy in you to workout, but you’d rather not. YES, I too experience that; no one is exempt from this feeling.
Having said that, I wanted to share with you some of the ways I motivate myself to workout when I get this feeling of laziness, hoping that it will help you stop procrastinating, and start making movement a regular thing!
1. CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE
Often times, when we start a workout routine, it comes from a place of wanting to look better; to fit into that new dress or bikini (which, by the way, is totally not a bad thing). I have found that it helps to also focus on how exercise makes me feel. When I start thinking about how good I feel after a good sweat, or how strong I feel after completing a challenging set, I remember the deeper reasons for my workout routine. Shift your focus to how it makes you feel for a while and you may be more likely to get up off the couch.
2. PLAN SHORTER WORKOUTS
And keep them short! When you plan for shorter workouts, they don’t feel as daunting and it gets you into the habit of moving on a regular basis. A workout could be as short as doing 20 squats and 20 lunges. Keep it short until you re-gain motivation; at least you’re moving!
3. CREATE A FUN PLAYLIST
Sometimes getting to the gym, or getting to a place in your home where you’re ready to workout, just takes some good music! I like to create a personal playlist of all the bada** songs I know, and put it on a loop. When I especially lack motivation for a more than a couple days, I do this for every workout so that I’m listening to something fresh every time. Another thing you can do is get the playlist going even before you get to the workout- this way you are hyping yourself up! My current workout playlist is: https://open.spotify.com/user/b2s9nm37miq5y4nkvhswy3i24/playlist/5cMnKDbupynenima6WKaY0?si=t1XXjdt2Q8W7eKdB146X5Q
4. SCHEDULING
If your health is really important to you, treat it like other things that are important to you. You make and schedule time for those things. Schedule your workouts and post the schedule somewhere you can see when you wake up or somewhere in your workspace. In addition to this, set a time daily that is set aside as "workout time", and keep it consistent. This way, it will become a part of your body’s rhythm and your body will know when it’s time to move! I like to move first thing in the morning. I wake up ready to workout or dance or go for a run!
5. ACCOUNTABILITY
Find a buddy that will workout with you! If you’re someone who likes to workout solo, just find a friend that will keep you accountable. Perhaps a morning text, or get them to give you a little nudge once in a while. Ultimately, this journey is for you but I find that when I feel like I’m letting someone else down if I don’t workout, I am more likely to show up and complete the workout!
6. GROUP FITNESS
This one is actually one of my favourite tips as I am an avid fitness-class-goer. I love trying new classes and challenging my body in new ways. Not only does this motivate me to workout, it also challenges the body in a way that won’t let your body plateau. Try a new spin class, pilates, or weight training class! And if you want to stay at home, try doing follow along videos like the ones you can find on my youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZUUZFex6AaIU4QTopFudYA
7. REMEMBER YOUR REASON
Finally, remind yourself why you started working; and find the deep reason! Perhaps it is so that you can stay healthy so that you can conceive, or so you can stay healthy to take care of your parents, or to increase your confidence and challenge yourself even with other aspects of life. Whatever you personal journey is, it is important that you outline the reason you want to keep yourself healthy and fit. Write it down, and keep it in a place where you can always pull it out and look at it. This one always does the trick, even on the worst of days where I really don’t want to workout!
At the end of the day, life is hectic. But if you are making time for the things that are important to you, like exercising, you’re doing it right. Don’t beat yourself up for missed days, but do your best to prevent going into a de-motivated downward spiral with these tips! I know you have it in you to stay consistent and reach your goals.
Thanks for reading. Make sure you are subscribed to my newsletter for more tips, tricks, and free content.
xoxo,
Jo
]]>Little disclaimer: I talk a lot about “calories” in this article, not to be calorie-phobic, rather to point out that eating nutrient dense calories is much much better than drinking sugary calories. These are just a few examples of options I would order at a restaurant for this reason!
A Moscow mule (ordered differently).
Moscow mules have easily made their way to the top of my favourites list as they are refreshing, but pack a little bite because of the ginger in it. Usually a Moscow mule is made up of ginger beer, vodka, lime and simple syrup. Ask to skip the simple syrup; this will bring the drink down to only about 80 cals. I even order just ginger beer and lime at times when I want to skip the alcohol.
Vodka seltzer
skip the tonic and go for the seltzer. Tonic actually contains a lot of calories because of the sugar in it. Ask for a lemon or lime (or both) for your vodka seltzer and give them a little squeeze, and you’re set! This option is also great for the club scene!
Glass of Champagne
Feeling fancy? Pour yourself a glass of champagne. Champagne actually packs less calories than a standard glass of wine or cocktail. If you’re not a champagne gal, try pinot noir -this dry wine contains less calories because it has a low sugar count.
Kombucha with vodka
While this may seem like its a “healthy drink”, the alcohol really brings it away from that category. The kombucha flavour however really brings it home (especially when it’s a floral or fruity one). Most kombuchas contain 80 calories or less; that a win in the low calorie drinks department
Cesar (or Bloody Mary) Extra Spicy
The Canadian in me says Cesar! Cesar! Cesar! Every time i hit up a patio or have a date night. If you don’t know what a Cesar is, it’s basically a Bloody Mary but with Clamato (vegetable juice) instead of tomato juice. One thing I will note about a Cesar is that they often fill me up before I even get the food I ordered. This can be good and bad. Good because I could potentially eat less because of it; bad because i was taught to eat everything on my plate (darn it). I shy away from them for this reason. BUT if you’re into that sort of thing, try the drink extra spicy this will remind you to slow down on the drink and sip water in between sips!
A Scotch on the Rocks
If you want to skip the sugary drinks all together, a scotch on the rocks is a great option, and can often get you through an entire night if you sip it slowly
Whatever your drink of choice, enjoy this beautiful sunny season! Don't worry too much about calories and do your best to make the 'healthier choice', and you'll be feeling good both inside and outside!
]]>But once i did, there was no turning back.
Sure i have days where i workout later in the day due to a late night up, or when i plain just want to stay in bed for an extra hour, but most days i wake up quite early to get my work out on.
There is something really gratifying about finishing an entire work out before the rest of (what seems like) the world wakes up.The simple fact that that is out of the way for the day may even put a little more pep in your step.
Today, I want to challenge you to work out first thing in the morning, for the next 30 days (with the exception of rest days).
Each day you will be sent a new email correlating with the day on the calendar including links to the workout videos as well as helpful tips to keep you motivated and informed! I want to encourage you to complete the workout of the day (where it applies), and to implement the tools i give you along the way.
If you are starting this challenge later in the month, no worries, still go through the 30 days; it can be done any time of the year!
I will also add that if you are unable to complete the workouts first thing in the morning, you are still welcome to join the challenge; you may do the workouts at your allotted time slot.
There are thousands of women joining you for this challenge, so make sure to hashtag your social media posts with #GOmaymorningchallenge to share your progress with the women cheering for you worldwide!
Before we begin, I want to go over a few points i found proved helpful when i decided to make morning workouts a part of my routine.
Do all your prep the night before
When you have everything you need for your morning workout laid out, and ready to go, you are more likely to haul butt out of bed first thing in the morning. I like to get my workout clothes, shoes, and pre workout out and place them where i can see them immediately first thing in the morning. Not only does this motivate me to get out of bed, it cuts down on the time it takes to make those trivial decisions first thing in the morning, maximizing the time you have to work out!
Move Your Alarm Across the Bedroom
This one may be tough as you may like to go to sleep surfing your fav social media platforms. However, in doing this, you will be killing 2 birds with one stone. Falling asleep with that blue light in your eyes may disrupt sleep patterns, and when your alarm is next to you when you wake up, it is THAT MUCH EASIER to hit snooze. Moving your alarm across the bedroom will force you to get out of bed to turn it off, and once you’re up you just have to decide to stay up!
Turn Some Music On!
Turning music on as soon as i get out of bed helps me get into a happy vibe and gets me hype for my workout. I keep the music on while i put on my gym clothes and make my preworkout drink. If you’re afraid of waking someone else up, simple, put on a set of headphones or earbuds and you can blast it as loud as you want! I like to start my playlist with a song i absolutely love. This usually helps me shake off the morning sleepies. (My current fav first song to listen to is ‘undecided’ by Chris Brown).
Now that you have my top 3 secrets to working out first thing in the morning, all you have to do is JUST DO IT! Enter your email, download and print the calendar, and complete each of the workouts as you receive them in your email inbox!
You got this!
]]>Injury
If you have an old injury that wasn’t properly treated, you may have a flare up from time-to-time. This can cause you to be really uncomfortable especially with squatting down. What is important for this particular predicament is for you to build strength in the surrounding muscles (calves, quads, and hamstrings) with isolated exercises. So, for example, instead of working your quadricep (thigh) muscles with squats, try an isolated leg extension where the force is not on your knee when your knee is hinged. Building strength in the surrounding muscles will take pressure off the joint and will allow the knee to strengthen over time. I have provided a ‘no- knee pain workout’ graphic for you to strengthen the muscles without tension on the knee.
Muscle Tightness
Another huge problem that could occur is muscle tightness (especially in the hip flexor muscles and the IT band). If you have a job that requires you to sit most of the day, your hip flexors are most likely too tight. This stops you from fully extending your hips, making it difficult to properly contract your glutes- which will lead to your knees buckling in when you squat.
When your hip flexors are tight, you can also experience back pain. Also, when your hips are tight, the muscle that goes across your hips and knee changes pull direction when it is contracting, and causes pain and tightness in the IT band. The IT band is a band of fascia that begins at your pelvis and runs down the outside of your thigh and crosses the knee to attach to the shinbone (it’s quite the piece of fascia!) When the IT band is tight it can pull your kneecap out of its groove over your knee and not allow it to glide smoothly (I PERSONALLY have experienced this type of pain and it’s not nice! It’s rude!)
To combat this I would suggest stretching and foam rolling as much as possible as much as possible.
Improper use (buckling)
The third, and most common reason for pain in our knees is from improper exercise technique. If, when squatting, your knees stay straight forward, tracking above your ankles, you probably don’t experience this type of pain. If, when you squat, your knees collapse inward, you are increasing the strain on your knee cap (and probably feel this pain). This applies to jumping movements, lunges, and anything really that has to do with the legs. Our legs are designed to be strong in specific positions and if we don’t follow that form, our joint suffer.
A few exercises to practice to strengthen these muscles so that your knees don’t cave in are as follows: glute bridge, clamshells (can be done with a resistance band), and froggie presses.
Always seek the advice of your doctor or physiotherapist if you are injured; perhaps even ask them if any of these apply to the pain you’re experiencing. Always be gentle with yourself and don’t push yourself beyond the pain you’re feeling (unless it’s the good pain of muscle contraction!)
Comment below what your favourite lower body exercise is, and if you have any questions; feel free to ask!
]]>Its April! The start of the second quarter of 2019!
I don't know about you, but when I reach the end of a quarter, I take some time to sit down and reflect on how the past 3 months went. I think about (and write down) what I have accomplished, what I have struggled with, things I need to do to increase the quality and productivity of the next quarter, and I set some goals for the rest of the year!
Something that I noticed today when writing down all these things is that I haven't been 100% consistent with the plans I had set out for each month; in fitness, in business, and in travel. I blame this completely on myself as I didn't write out specific plans to start out and didn't make sure that I was kept accountable.
For this reason, I thought of you hunnies, and how I could best help you this month! This brought me to creating a 30 Day Tight Tummy Challenge. For those of you familiar with my Big Booty Tight Tummy program, you can see at first glance that this challenge doesn't compare to the depth and strength component of the program, but it provides a great way to keep track of moving at least once a day. And who doesn't want a tight tummy, am i right?!
The entire challenge is made of 4 ab exercises designed to bring your waist in, flatten it and get you SNATCHED for the summer. As you read through each day, you will see that some days there are actions that don't require the regular abdominal exercises. These call to actions represent the focus that we should also have on sleep, stress management, water consumption, and proper diet that all come into play when we are working on making the tummy tighter!
I encourage you to download this calendar, print it out, and stick it to either your fridge, mirror, or somewhere in your room. The exercises will take up to 5 minutes, but you will feel 1000% better having done them to start or end your day (or even on your lunch break)
Note that at the bottom there are guidelines for how much water you should be trying to drink throughout (at the very least). The first week you should be having at least 3 -8oz glasses of water, as the month progresses, we work our way up to 8 glasses, which I would recommend continuing to drink this amount even after the challenge!
If you want to be really challenged and push past some plateaus this month, make sure to check out my BBTT (Big Booty Tight Tummy) program, which includes full home and gym options for every day of the month and demonstration videos for each exercise!
LASTLY! If you are doing this challenge, make sure to hashtag #tighttummybygrowwithjo in your posts across all social media platforms so that we can keep each other accountable and cheer each other on!
I cant wait to see you crush your goals this month, and feel amazing through movement and self-care!
LETS GO!
-Jo
]]>The MOST common questions i get via DM on instagram revolve around motivation; ‘how can i get motivated’, ‘how can i stay motivated?’, ‘what happened to my motivation? I had it a few days ago and now i just ate an entire box of donuts and fell asleep missing my workout for today’. Motivation really seems to be an issue as it is merely an emotion that comes and goes.
I decided to do some digging on the topic and found a bunch of reasons why motivation fails and is renewed week-to-week. What i found is that our motivation levels closely correlates to hormone shifts in your menstrual cycle.
Your 28-day (on average) menstrual cycle is basically a series of hormonal shifts. These shifts have the potential to hinder you from reaching your goals, but when recognized and planned for' they can also be used to your advantage.
When you learn what your body is asking for during these hormonal shifts, training throughout the entire cycle can make it much easier to stick to fitness goals you’ve committed to and can decrease your recovery time from workout to workout, making each workout increasingly efficient.
In addition to optimizing motivation as your body shifts through its hormonal phases, when you train according to your cycle, you are showing the body that you aren’t trying to fight against it, rather to build it up; which makes a HUGE difference internally.
Phases
Your body goes through 2 phases (each lasting around 14 days). The first phase is the “follicular phase” which starts the first day you get your period and lasts until the day you ovulate. During this phase, your estrogen will increase to stimulate follicle growth.
The second phase is called the Luteal phase, which again lasts 14 days, starting after you ovulate and goes until you start your next period. During this phase, a hormone called progesterone increases. Estrogen also increases during this phase but they both come back down to regular levels if the egg isn’t fertilized, to re-start the cycle.
How do these phases influence our motivation and training?
The shifts that happen in our hormones throughout these phases affects our temperature and insulin sensitivity levels. Our temperature, when it rises, slightly increases our fatigue response when we are working out or doing any kind of strenuous activity. This slight change of temperature can even deter you from going to the gym after a long day of work.
Insulin is yet another hormone that is produced by the pancreas to move glucose (sugar) out of the blood stream, into our muscles, liver, and fat cells. This hormone works to regulate blood sugar levels.
The fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone influence insulin sensitivity and changes the way your body readily uses and stores the food that you are eating. Your body becomes more insulin sensitive at the beginning of your cycle when estrogen is higher. During this time, carbs are used more efficiently, which means that strength training and high intensity training should be prioritized as these types of exercises will allow you to use more carbs as energy, and build muscle!
In the second half of your cycle, progesterone takes the lead and you will become more insulin resistant. This means that your body has a hard time properly storing glucose and will resort to sending it to your fat cells. This is the time that steady state (ones that are not high intensity, or high power) workouts are best performed. Steady state workouts (cardio or lifting weights) allow you to reach into fat stores to use energy, rather than using carbohydrates. In addition to this, in the second phase you will feel a shift in energy, which will also prompt you to back off the crazy workouts.
Knowing and understanding these shifts can make a huge impact on the way you structure your workouts and can really make a difference long term.
Let’s take a look at how we should be training week to week.
Week-by-week plan
Week 1 happens in the first half of your follicular phase. During this time, you can increase the intensity of your training and start lifting heavy. Think of this time a week to get your body and mind ready for maximum load and intensity. This is a great time to do interval workouts. Make sure that you are warming up properly. This is especially important this week as you are coming off of a week of less activity.
This week is the second half of the follicular phase and ovulation. During this time, you may find that you are the most energetic! To take advantage of this, make siure that you do a few workouts that use maximal efforts. Now’s the time to attempt a personal best in your weight lifting efforts. This is the best time for you also to be doing your HIIT workouts.
This week is the first half of luteal phase. During this time, you may find you do better with aerobic training. Moderate loads and longer, less intense workouts are ideal. Try an outdoor workout that takes you out of your element or work indoors on training for that jog personal best. As you start to move towards the end of this week, taper your training off according to how your body is feeling as you experience PMS symptoms. Be sure to remain hydrated and be mindful of the fact that your core temperature has increased.
This phase starts when your PMS symptoms start to become more prominent. During this time, you can do light activities like yoga, light home workouts (perhaps a growwithjo follow along at home) or just relaxing and working on some self care.
A Final Note
The training guideline for weeks that i have provided are meant to be a general guideline. We all have slightly different cycles (some ranging from 23-32 days instead of the average of 28), and have different types of daily influences on our routines, so it may not be spot on for you. The key is to recognize what is going on in your body so that you don't feel helpless when you feel sluggish and un-motivated.
Another important thing to mention is to not feel guilty when you take that little break from the gym. If you are coming to the end of your cycle and are just really not feeling it, take a couple days just to relax and do something else for yourself in the time that you would usually go to the gym. I like to do face masks or have a little movie marathon with my boyfriend and pup. Perhaps go shopping or go for a long walk with a friend? Ultimately it is the inner you that needs all the love for the outer you to shine!
For more information and/or blog posts on hormonal shifts and changes in your training, comment below! I’d love to hear if you train according to your cycle or if you have any additional tips that you would like to share with this community!
Keep shining,
Jo
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