New Year: New Workout!

Good morning! Okay, so it's not quite the New Year, but I'm starting a new workout routine today since it's the start of a new week. Since I just finished Insanity and I took the holiday's off for working out for the most part, I did some digging to find my next workout challenge. I actually didn't have to do much digging at all, as the answer arrived in my mail box. I'm going to try Fitness magazine's Lose 10 Pounds workout that is published in the most recent issue (January 2013).

But first off: breakfast. Let's just say my holiday's left me *cough* four pounds heavier *cough* Not a huge gain, but this does not make me a happy camper! Eating healthy again starts today! Today's spread includes two of Van's whole grain blueberry waffles, half a cup of nonfat Fage Greek yogurt, half a cup of fresh blueberries, a dash of cinnamon, and a little drizzle of raw honey. Delish! Also, note the adorable dishware I used today. The "Mrs." mug and plate were a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law. You can't see it, but the plate has the Eiffel Tower on it along with little French owls wearing berets. Love them! I'll probably be eating breakfast exclusively off these plates from now on!

But back to my new workout routine... 

The Plan 

The plan is laid out in black and white and is very time-friendly. The workouts include separate strength sessions and pick-your-own cardio sessions. For strength, you do 8 different moves as a circuit and repeat it once for a full circuit, doing it three times a week on non-consecutive days. For cardio, you can pick any cardio you want - running, biking, elliptical, etc. - as long as you do the minutes of cardio required for each week. You also have the option of adding an abs routine as an extra each week as well. Each week ramps up cardio and strength reps from the week before. The plan looks like this: 

• Week 1: 60 minutes cardio (at 30 min. each), 12 reps of each strength move 
• Week 2: 90 minutes of cardio (at 30 min. each), 14 reps of each move 
• Week 3: 135 minutes of cardio (at 45 min. each), 16 reps of each move
• Week 4: 150-180 minutes of cardio, 18-20 reps of each move 

Besides an intense looking workout, the diet plan includes eating healthy fats, whole grains, a lot of fruits and veggies, at around 1,500 calories a day. The best part? It's all laid out easy-as-pie (or, not eating pie, I should probably say) with this super-organized calendar to mark it all off! This baby is going on my pinboard, asap! 

There's a checkbox for strength workouts, cardio workouts, the abs routine, and eating healthy. There's a place where you sign your name and write the date you start the program as a kind of contract with yourself and the routine (in the yellow box). It lays out all the instructions for each week on either side. It's so easy! I absolutely love when workout plans include a calendar. It makes my little organized heart burst with happiness! 

Why I Chose this Plan 

There a ton of workout plans I could have tried, but I chose this one and for good reason. While this is called the "Lose 10 Pounds" workout, I am not doing this with the intention of actually losing 10 pounds because I don't need to. I'd like to lose five pounds because that's all I really see that I "need" to lose. This plan is much less about losing weight, though, than it is about a challenge and sculpting an awesome body. I chose this plan because... 

• I haven't done a plan that has separate strength and cardio sessions for a while now. Insanity has strength and cardio combined. When I trained for the half-marathon, I was doing only cardio for the most part. And some other workout DVD's I've done have been all combined HIIT training. Time for something I haven't been doing for a while now!

• It's not a workout DVD. For most of 2012, I was reliant on workout DVD's. This is definitely not a bad thing, but I'd like to be able to workout on my own too and step outside the box, literally. 

• The idea of ramping up cardio and reps each week seems challenging to me. Anything that's a challenge inspires me!

• The workout calendar was too good to pass up. I mean, it's just screaming for me to check all these awesome workouts off my list! 

For me specifically, I think I am going to try and have M/W/F be my strength days and T/TH/S be my cardio days. For cardio, I am going to try and run as much as I can, but considering that New England just dumped a foot of snow - we'll see about that. I have access to a treadmill, though, so hopefully I can still eek out the mileage. I'm also going to track my food on the My Fitness Pal app to keep things in perspective. Overall, if I can eat generally healthy (or at least better than I did over the holidays!), complete all the workouts, and have fun while doing it, it will be a month well spent. Off to try my first strength session! 

• Question for you: What are your fitness goals for 2013? What workout plan are you following now?