Join my tribe of empowered women. Get fitness tips, life hacks, and inspiration delivered to your inbox.
Luwame
Join my tribe of empowered women. Get fitness tips, life hacks, and inspiration delivered to your inbox.
Luwame
We all have our own healthy living journey. Here is where I share mine, step by step what has helped me lose weight, gain strength and maintain it through out the years.
Would you believe me if I told you that you could achieve all your fitness goals from the comfort of your very own home? Yup…Working out from home can be just as effective as exercising at the gym.
For the last couple of months, I have been working out more from home because of Bini’s travels and Novu’s sleep pattern changes. This is something I used to almost never do because I consider my gym time as my “me time” and somehow being at home didn’t feel as such.
The first thing I had to do was get in the right mindset and quit downplaying my home workouts. Just because I didn’t have the fancy equipment, tons of weights and classes at my fingertips, didn’t mean I couldn’t get a great workout.
Our mind is a powerful tool that can indeed make or break us. If your mindset is not in the right place, it becomes easy for all the daily excuses to cloud your judgment.I encourage you to get rid of all the negative thoughts and replace them with positive affirmations instead.
“I’m too tired today” becomes “I have the energy to do anything I want.”
“I don’t have time” becomes “I always have time for what’s important to me.”
“This isn’t going to work” becomes “This works because I am determined to make it happen.”
I can already feel the hype building up inside me.Positive thinking changes EVERYTHING; situations you once thought were impossible become possible and the world becomes yours for the taking.
Once my mindset was finally in the right place and I made a choice to become serious about my home workouts, the rest was easy! All I needed was some basic equipment (since I focus a great deal on strength training to build muscle and tone up), some YouTube videos, Afro-Beats music and the determination to succeed!
Check out the different types of workouts you can do from home:
I have always had a set of free weights, and yoga mats in the house kept aside for days when I couldn’t go to the gym. The only equipment I bought was resistance bands to help tone my arms and legs and a jump rope. If you cannot or do not want to purchase free weights,try using your household items such as milk or water gallons as workout equipment. They work wonders!
If you are looking to lose weight, you will want to focus more on cardio workouts. Your body has to burn fat for you to lose weight. Below is a list of different cardio workouts you can do from home:
Running is probably one of my favorite things to do when it comes to working out. Not just because of what it’s doing to my body (feel the fat melting away LOL) but also because it gives me time to think and just be alone in my own world. When I’m running outside, there is nothing else happening other than my feet hitting the ground and the music coming from my headphones. If I’m home and on a treadmill, I typically use that time to catch up on all my favorite shows while running 3-4 miles and the time goes by much faster.
If you have children, try including them in your running habits, by going out for walks or light jogs in the evenings.
Who said the gym was the only place that had stair climbers? Use the stairs at your house or the hills in your neighborhood if available.
A friend of mine recently told me; you burn just as many calories from jumping rope for 10-15 minutes as you do in running an eight-minute mile. Crazy right? It really is a fantastic form of cardio exercise that burns fat and strengthens your upper/lower body.
I lost all my baby weight after Isabella using workout videos (80 pounds/40 kilos in total). I loved using videos because all I had to do was follow their plan and do the work. It’s perfect for new/ busy mothers that are just looking to do a quick workout and call it a day.
Here are a couple of my favorite workout videos. You can find all of the Shaun T videos on YouTube as well.
Strength Training- For Toning and Building Muscle
We all want that perfect firm body that is lean in all the right places, right? Well to get there, we have to include strength training in our workouts. It is also a great way to burn fat and combined with cardio will help you lose weight quickly. Check out this blog post I did on all the Benefits of Strength Training to see just how essential it really is.
Strength training workouts can be done using body weigh tor free weights/resistance bands. Travel Strong has a fantastic article on how to build muscle without weights where they explain “to build muscle without weights, you need to continually challenge your muscles by doing increasingly difficult body weight exercises – just as you would use heavier weights in the gym.”
My go-to strength training workouts always encompass the following exercises:
I tend to do all of these 12-15 times in 3 different sets. Like Travel Strong mentioned in their article, it is best to add weights to each exercise for better results, but you can always do each exercise with just your body weight.
In the upcoming weeks, I will be providing Life Planners that include monthly fitness challenges for everyone. This will be a great addition to your fitness plan.
I hope this blog post helps you or someone you know.Always remember that you do not need a gym to workout, you can do it from anywhere and at any time. If you would like any tips or help on how to start, read my blog post on Starting your Fitness Routine. Also feel free to contact me if you are looking for a personal trainer. I’d love to work with you.
As always, I’d love to hear from you. Do you workout from home? If so, what do you like and hate about it?
Yours,
