new routine anxiety - any advice?

Want2bHealthE

Tomorrow I officially transition from a grad student to a full time professional! I'm excited about the job, but it will be the first time in three years that I'll be working a regular full-time/day-time schedule. I put on the majority of my weight at my last job and I refuse to let that threaten all of the progress I've made. I've already planned on packing a lunch and keeping healthy snacks in the break room. I'm most anxious about how my schedule will impact my gym routine. Most days I will only have an hour to spend at the gym. Since starting MFP my usual gym routine has been about an hour of cardio plus another 1-1.5 hours of weights/abs. How can I make the most of my hour? Should I continue with an hour of cardio and then try to do crunches/push-ups at home? Or should I cut back to 45 minutes of cardio and then do 15 minutes of abs, or weights? I would really appreciate any advice from others who only have an hour to get their gym routines in.

AggieCass09

Congrats on the job! I generally only have an hour to work out when I go to the gym in the mornings so I make sure everything I do is very high intensity. This is how my hour generally looks:
I stretch while I'm climbing the stairs up to the work out area by taking 2 or 3 at a time.

1. 20 minutes intense (you cant say more than a word or two between breaths) treadmill running (incline or speed intervals) or indoor cycling (also some sort of interval -time, speed, distance, etc.)
2. 30 minutes intense circuit training. I alternative upper and lower body workouts that I have acquired from doing p90x. I feel that free weights are better than machines since you are using more muscles at at time...I often combine curls with squats or do push up/jumping jack sort of exercises so that my heart rate is up and I'm using different muscle groups. Since you are crunched for time you want to aim for the big calorie burners...hamstrings, quads, back, chest, first then spend a few min on biceps, triceps, and calves.
3. 10 minutes abs/stretching/yoga...which ever my body needs that day.

In terms of the food, I ALWAYS have almonds on hand for when I get hungry and I'm always drinking water. Best of luck with the new job and the "real world" life transition!

andremott211

Hello,

Working full time again is time consuming! You will have to be smarter and plan.... this things don't happen on their own. Having a schedule will help you have less anxiety.

I plan my week on Saturday/ Sunday and I mean I plan all of it. Any excuse not to work out can throw me off. I plan my evening meals and then head to the grocery store to get ingredients. I make something big on Sunday night so I can have healthy leftovers or fresh sandwich fixens all week for lunch. I keep light salad dressing, almonds, lite popcorn, dried cranberries, tea etc at work. I keep an emergency Amy's burrito in the office fridge.

My best work out advice is simple, schedule it. Do they have a gym at your office? Is your current gym good for your work commute? I like my gym near work, that allows me to commute with less traffic. I got there early and miss the traffic. I also work out two days a week at lunch, a pilates class. For lunch work outs I don't want to get tooo sweaty. I prefer to work out in the morning/lunch. It seems like after work I am just ready to go home!

That being said, my current routine is:
Monday-yoga pm (I like to knock out one good work out right away)
Tuesday-AM tae bo, Lunch pilates (both don't always occur)
Wednesday-yoga pm
Thursday-AM tae Bo, Lunch Pilates "
Friday-off
Saturday-yoga am
Sunday-planning day/errands/rest

I go to yoga at Sunstone, www.sunstoneyoga.com
I like them bc they offer a ton of classes and you can go to anyone you want.

I also have a stationary bike at home, if everything goes to hell in a hand basket, I ride the bike for 20 minutes minimum in the morning.

Just toss some clothes/ipod/package of peanuts in your car...you will do great!

Craig772

Mix it up and make it count. Have a dedicated cardio session one day and a weights sessions another.

OK so you've got a packed lunch but don't overlook the other things like sports kit. It might sound mundane but sometimes washing your kit after a long day when there's other things to do just doesn't happen. I've lost count the amount of times I remembered the next day I have a gym kit festering in my bag. If you haven't got a spare set of clothes then no clean kit will the first thing to derail you. Once I've found an item of clothing I like I buy a couple of them. That way I have my favourite kit for every session and have a big wash up at the end of the week.

Want2bHealthE

Great! These are all exactly the suggestions I needed to get the most out of my gym time and especially planning ahead to make sure I stay on tack. Thank you. I have gym clothes washed and ready for the week and I even put a reminder in my calendar to change them out at the end of the day I like the idea of switching things up cardio days/weight days, but I also want to give circuit training a try... right now I've been taking my time doing 4-5 sets of twenty each on the equipment and it feels too slow... I need to speed things up! My office and the gym are both on campus, the only thing in between them is a really steep hill... a little added workout never hurts! I walk to campus everyday - we are about a (hilly) mile from the office & gym so I'm getting a little exercise in there as well. I'm going to get through my first week of work by trying out a morning routine, an evening routine and seeing what my lunch schedule looks like. I'll also add a longer workout on the weekend, which I haven't been doing. Once I figure out what works best, getting the week planned out on Sunday should be a big help.