Mental Monday Challenge: Week 5 - Variety

 

It's Monday again! How was your Monday? Mine was a little gloomy having to say goodbye to my boyfriend for a few days (thankfully, I get to see him again this weekend - so, I really can't complain too much) along with a long day at work under grey skies. I did enjoy my minestrone soup, green beans, and apple crisp dinner and dessert though! Alright, so moment of truth - who can proudly say they ignored excuses of some sort over the past week? If yes, doesn't it feel great? If you struggled, don't worry! Keep working on it this upcoming week. 

So far we've mastered the mind over matter philosophy, organized different aspects of our lifestyles, learned to keep pushing ourselves in our training, and on how to ignore excuses that cloud our paths to success with a healthier lifestyle. If you haven't read through the other posts yet with this 8 week mental challenge, I encourage you to start by visiting HERE! You can get the free printable there, print it out and hang it somewhere that will encourage you to stay determined. The other posts can be viewed starting by visiting HERE! As for today, I'm going to talk about how important variety is in our lives.

When I first started my journey to a healthier lifestyle, I was stuck in a routine that quickly became boring. I'm going to mostly discuss this mental Monday topic from a fitness level, but I hope you'll understand that variety is needed in every aspect of your daily life. I went through a period of time where I would eat two 100 calorie packs for lunch or a bagel every day for lunch. I learned that this was incredibly unhealthy and after receiving a few healthy cookbooks as gifts, I introduced variety to my diet by trying out healthier meals with a wide selection of fruits, vegetables, grains, and more.

The photos I am illustrating this post with are from this past weekend, when I was watching Cash while Zach was volunteering with the local 3 mile and 10K race. Cash wanted to jump on and play with all of the people attending the race, and so I decided to help expend some of his energy and take him on a small hike through the beautiful trails of the park to keep him occupied. We came upon some beautiful sights.

 

So...Back to the importance of variety. When I started working out, I stuck to the treadmill or eliptical machine in my college's gym. I ran the same mile or two distance every day or for the same 20 to 30 minutes a day and called it good. I wasn't losing weight or toning up at all with this workout regime. My body had grown so accustomed to this plan that it began to believe it was part of my normal day and not meant as a hard workout to burn fat. Therefore, I decided to add some variety to my fitness plan. 

It's so important to step out of your comfort zone and trying something new when attempting to add variety to a workout. If you are nervous and/or not a big fan of change, find another person who can hold you accountable and will make sure you don't quit or fall into old habits. 

I have learned to never say no to a new or different type of workout because I have found some of my favorite activities to do just by trying out a new workout once. Some examples of things I have added as elements of variety to my workouts are Zumba classes, SPIN classes, BodyPump classes, etc. I even tried Yoga once, which was a lot harder than I had thought it would be! For gym memberships, these classes are great! However, if you're like me who no longer has access to a gym as a poor post college graduate, there are also other ways to get variety in. 

I must first mention that if a friend refers you to try a fitness class, don't turn down the free experience if they are allowed to give you a guest pass or other method that cancels out any fees for the class. I recently tried a kickboxing class with a friend and had an absolute blast and was dripping sweat. So non- gym membership methods of variety that I like to mix up with my workout schedules are 5Ks or other running races to train for, workout DVDs (different leaders like Jillian Michaels, Shawn T, etc), hiking (like the pictures in this post. I haven't been hiking in a while before this), swimming, and more.

Cash and I had a great time on our hike! It was fun for me to get outdoors and enjoy the crisp, fall air after my back has been injured all week! He somehow decided to close his eyes for our picture, but he had a great time out on the trails.

This week's challenge is to find one new activity, recipe, or other thing that will add an element of variety into your life. Add it to a typical routine that will spice up that routine. One more thing about the challenge though is that it has to be something that requires you to step out of your comfort zone. So, what will it be? What are you going to try this week that will accomplish this goal of creating variety to keep us from being bored or mundane along our journey to a healthier lifestyle?