All or nothing? Never!

I have been taking time every Sunday to write down my workout schedule for the week.  Between my full time job, boyfriend and social commitments I find that having a written workout plan is necessary; it really helps me fit in my workouts and not let me get too distracted.  Also, I just love the feeling of accomplishment that comes with checking something off a to-do list!

That being said, I’m finding that just as it is necessary for me to create a list and try to stick to it, it’s okay to make modifications here and there. Take yesterday for instance, I was planning on fitting in a lunch time yoga class with my favorite instructor. Work stuff came up that couldn’t be ignored for an hour, and honestly it would have stressed me out trying to squeeze it in (which would completely counteract many of the benefits of the yoga class, duh!)

At first I was upset and almost decided just to go straight home and skip the workout. Instead, I got motivated and wrote down the following fitness plan:

Treadmill Interval run (20 min)

-Warm up (5 min)

-Alternate sprinting for one min (8.0-9.0 on the treadmill) and running at comfortable pace for 1.5 min (6.8 on the treadmill)

-Cool down (3 min)

Weight training 10 reps, 3 sets of each exercise

-Bench Press

-Bench dips

-Weighted crunches on decline bench

-Upright row with barbell

-Stretch, steam and shower!

I felt fantastic after this! My muscles felt sore and toned, my endorphins were flowing and 15 minutes in the eucalyptus steam totally made up for the missed savasana. If I hadn’t had worked out, I would have been disappointed about missing yoga all day instead of feeling like a million bucks.
The moral of the story: All or something is way better than all or nothing. Make your weekly workout to-do list, and stick to it as much as possible, but when things don’t go as planned, feel free to be flexible with your schedule as well as your body and substitute a yoga class with a weight training session if need be 🙂

Why alohaboston? Why not???

According to the website http://www.to-hawaii.com/aloha.php:

The literal meaning of aloha is “the presence of breath” or “the breath of life.” It comes from “Alo,” meaning presence, front and face, and “ha,” meaning breath. Aloha is a way of living and treating each other with love and respect. Its deep meaning starts by teaching ourselves to love our own beings first and afterwards to spread the love to others.

According to the old kahunas (priests), being able to live the Spirit of Aloha was a way of reaching self-perfection and realization for our own body and soul. Aloha is sending and receiving a positive energy. Aloha is living in harmony. When you live the Spirit of Aloha, you create positive feelings and thoughts, which are never gone. They exist in space, multiply and spread over to others.

“Aloha to learn what is not said, to see what cannot be seen & to know the unknowable.”
Queen Lili‘uokalani

Welcome, and aloha!

I’ve tried this blogging thing before pretty much unsuccessfully. Despite this, I have been loving reading blogs devoted to health and fitness recently and thought I should contribute!

I’m a 26 year old female living in Boston and trying to figure out life.  Over the course of my 20s (thus far) I’ve made some pretty major life changes: I left a serious relationship in order to find myself, graduated college, traveled to India, started and left my first ‘real’ job, made incredible friends and discovered my passion for health and fitness.

I have been known to be a stressball and can’t seem to stop over analyzing everything. I was diagnosed with IBS a few years ago, and the Dr’s seem to agree that it is aggravated by (if not  caused by) stress and anxiety. The only thing that seems to help me manage this is lots of exercise and maintaining a healthy diet.  Sounds easy, right? Not so much, at least not always. This blog will be about my journey trying to be as happy, healthy and balanced as I can be.  I hope it can bring some inspiration to others striving for the same goal 🙂