You might have noticed that I didn’t mention any of my workouts last week. Maybe you thought oh Jess just forgot to mention her workouts, I mean she told us her plan, didn’t she?

• Mon - Rest
• Tues – Rest
• Wed – 30 min bike at the gym
• Thurs – 30 min elliptical
• Fri – Strength
• Sat – 30/30 each bike and elliptical
• Sun – Strength & Run 3m

Um yeah, sometimes the results of my plan are ZIP, ZERO, NADA, NOTHING. Not one bit of exercise complete. Not good. Yeah, yeah, I know, I did run two half-marathons in October and it would be nice to think oh “you deserve a break”, but that is exactly what happened last year. I ran my first half-marathon, had great intentions to continue my workouts for the winter with P90x, but first I thought, “you deserve a break from exercising”. Little did I know that a one week break would lead to essentially a winter season break. It was that easy to for me to fall back into my couch potato habits.

I guess it’s not even the issue of having a week-long break turn into months. The real issue is why would I consider “taking a break  from exercise” as a reward? I have worked VERY hard at making exercise a basic, essential part of my life and believe me, if you’ve known me for more than a few years, you KNOW that exercise never had that place in my life before. I don’t know when  exactly it clicked for me, I think it took at least two years of steady and consistent workouts before I realized “not exercising, no longer an option” in my head. I don’t mean for the two years it took for me, to scare anyone, but when you are trying to make real long-term change, it does take time. It is also making one good decision, and then another, and then another, and so on and when you don’t make a good decision, letting it go and moving forward. I know, easier said than done, right? :) But let me my complete change in perspective towards exercise be a motivation, I certainly remind myself of this every time I get frustrated with changes I try to make in my eating habits.

Now back to this “reward” of not working out. I am blessed and thankful to have my health and have the ability to exercise, not everyone is that lucky. And one thing that is overwhelmingly evident after that lazy week, I feel SO MUCH BETTER when I work out than not. It’s not just a coincidence that when I don’t exercise, I eat worse or “stress eat“. Exercising is a real stress reliever for me and especially when done in the morning, it is a huge energy boost for my day. Do I have you convinced to get moving yet?

Okay, that’s enough, time to put my lazy week behind me and move forward. Onto this week! So far Monday and Tuesday done! And may I mention that I haven’t done strength training since early September. Ouch, already sore, but I have missed my Jillian Michaels workouts!

• Mon – Rest
• Tues – Strength Training
• Wed – Run with  Back on My Feet
• Thurs – Strength Training
• Fri – Run with  Back on My Feet
• Sat – Cardio 30 min (Run, Bike or Elliptical)
• Sun – Run 6m

Let’s end with dessert. I made this Pumpkin Roll over the weekend. Yum!

What’s YOUR workout plan this week?