Summer Fitness Routine

For about 5 weeks now Adam and I have really changed up our work out regimen and diet. This is due to a lot of things, from cooking at home more, more time from working from home/social distancing, the weather being nice enough to run outside again, etc. We have had some progress towards both our goals and towards our weight-loss, so I wanted to share where we are with our progress right now, and what some of our end goals are. 

Exercise Routine

We currently run 3-4 times a week, as well as do 2 body weight work outs either after running or on non-running days. Our running routines have been:

Week 1 - walk 1 mile, run 1 mile, walk 1 mile
Weeks 2 & 3 - walk 1 mile, run 2 miles, walk 1 mile two days; 6 400m sprints another day
Week 4 - walk/run 3-4 miles one day, timed mile, 1-2-1 walk-run another day
Week 5 - 1-2-1 walk-run two days, 3 800m runs another day, 35 minute run another day

Our body weight workouts have included combinations of:
Dips, Push-Ups, Mountain Climbers, Squats, Planks, Glute Bridges, Leg Lifts, Donkey-Kicks, Sit-Ups, Side Crunches, Bicycles, Jumping Jacks, Quick Feet, and other strength-building exercises usually in sets of 10-25 in circuits of 3-5.

Diet/Diet Changes

Our diet has kept some habits - we are getting a lot stricter on our Intermittent Fasting and working to stick with our 12pm-8pm eating window, and sometimes even shorten it to 3pm-7pm if our schedules work out that way. This has made a big difference in helping us to avoid overeating because we are able to have our bigger/preferred meals on those days since we are looking at 500-800 calorie meals instead of the 300-400 we've always struggled to keep in the past when we at 3 meals a day. 

We have also really worked to eat cleaner. We eat way more salads than I ever thought I'd eat, and we keep our house stocked with fresh fruit and yogurt for quick smoothies or parfaits. We also eat in themes by week, for example - this week is very Southern Italy focused with lighter pastas, chicken, fish, capers, asparagus, cauliflower rice, etc. Last week we were really into trying somen and soba, with lots of fresh vegetables, and it lead into us making a veggie-heavy fried rice at the end of the week. Keeping it fun has made it really doable.

We also have started looking at what gives us heartburn/acid reflex and trying to cut it out. A big one for me is alcohol. After this weekend with family I realized how much alcohol gave me acid reflex and have decided to cut back a lot. Other areas are our guilty pleasure foods (Insomnia Cookies, Dominos Pizza, McDonalds Chicken Nuggets, etc.) If we need to eat out we really evaluate where we should eat and what we could order that won't leave us being so sluggish. Tropical Smoothie and local taco places have been a life saver as examples.

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Our Overall Goals

So all of this started because on Saturday, May 16th I woke up in a really good mood and went for a run. I set a goal for myself to run 5 miles comfortably by the 4th of July. That has since been postponed to the end of the summer to increase my mileage at a pace that won't injure Adam and I, but it is coming along. We started with 1 mile and have increased from there!

We set a goal to be "active people" which we have always defined as people that always work out, make up days they miss, and actively think about the eating choices they are making. We are hopeful that if we can keep it up it will feel more natural by the end of the summer.

For our weights, Adam has a goal of 165lb  and I have a goal of 140lb with the hope to achieve them at an attainable pace over the next year. 

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Our Progress So Far

Here are different weights and dates so far for that side of our goals:

Adam -> 194lb November 7, 2019 -> 186lb May 20, 2020 -> 180lb -> June 12, 2020
Vana -> 164lb November 7, 2019 -> 157lb May 20, 2020 -> 151lb -> June 12, 2020

We took photos for progress, but aren't comfortable posting them just yet since our goals are still in progress.

We do have pictures of our running progress; for our 1 mile running time we have improved by over 2 minutes, going from a 12:30 mile time to a 10:17 mile time. We also have increased from only being able to run 1 mile without walking to being able to run 2&1/2 miles without walking!