Exercise motivation tips for exercise slumps

Hi everyone! We're in Albany now and heading off to Syracuse this morning for a day of walking around downtown and shopping. It will be a nice change after spending the majority of the past two days driving! It's been such a fun trip so far though and I'll have tons to write about when I get back. But for now I have this pre-written post about finding motivation to exercise when you're in a rut.

When I first started this blog, I considered it to be a food and fitness blog. But lately, as I'm sure you've noticed, I've been leaning heavily towards the food side of things. So what's up?

Well as most of you know, I've been dealing with some knee and hip issues ever since last July, which means I haven't been able to run. So I've been doing other workouts in its place, like spinning, strength training and incline walking... but here's the truth: I'm not enjoying my workouts.

I'm bored and frustrated and just wish I could run. On top of that I've been feeling really fatigued lately (more on that in a future post), which makes it hard for me to find the energy to work out. But despite how much I would love to just park my butt on the couch, I try to get active for an hour 4-5 times a week because I know it's good for me. So here are my tips for finding motivation:

1. Make it enjoyable - I sometimes plan my workouts around times when there are good movies on TV so that I can keep myself entertained. I also treat myself to magazines more often than I should because having some good reading material makes 30 minutes on the elliptical almost enjoyable. Almost.

2. Scale back the intensity - some days when the thought of doing cardio makes me cringe, I just go for a walk instead. An hour of walking at a moderate pace is still a pretty good workout!

3. Switch it up - the thought of 45 minutes on the elliptical makes me want to run from the gym in the other direction. But 15 minutes? That's doable. Followed by 15 minutes on the bike? Also doable. Followed by 15 minutes of incline walking? Wow, I just did 45 minutes of cardio. Go me!

4. Browse Pinterest - when I don't want to go on the machines, I like to find circuit workouts on Pinterest to do. Since they are new and different, I get kind of excited about trying them out.

5. Do weights - when I'm feeling lazy, doing weights is always way more appealing to me than huffing and puffing through a cardio workout.

6. Customize your workouts - I don't like doing spin classes because honestly, 60 minutes of intense spinning is just too much for me. So instead I go when the spin room is empty and I do my own 30-45 minute spin workouts at my own preferred intensity. I like it way better!

 Source: Chelsea A via Pinterest

7. Skip your workout - if you are really not feeling up to it, skip it. Use the time to relax, stretch, and prepare your body for a better workout tomorrow. 

Have you ever gone through a long exercise slump?

What are your favourite low intensity workouts?

Weekly Meal Plan: April 20 - 26

Hi everyone! I'm having such a great time in Halifax and I'm going to bombard you with posts about all our amazing meals when I get back. But for now, here's a post with last week's meal plan for my last week at my apartment:

FOODS TO USE UP: Chicken, eggs, meatballs, cilantro, feta cheese, cheddar cheese, all my fruits and vegetables, tortillas

MEAL PLAN:

Saturday: Dinner at Veg Out with Andrea and Rae. This curried chickpea and spinach stuffed sweet potato was amazing!

Sunday: I was at a staff party at Organic Works for dinner - Chef made us an awesome family-style dinner with way too much food and wine. But for lunch I had black bean tacos with guacamole, pico de gallo, cheddar cheese, and plain Greek yogurt.

Monday: Black bean stuffed sweet potato with all the leftovers from Sunday's lunch. I've been on a huge Mexican food kick for the past few months and I'm still going strong.

Tuesday: Chicken stir fry with brown rice topped with leftover Goddess Bowl sauce - this was the perfect meal to help me use up all the veggies in my fridge!

Wednesday: My last two meatballs, a fried egg, roasted sweet potato and Brussels sprouts

Thursday: Mom came to help me move out, so we went out for sushi at Gozen. I got started with a wakame salad - I could seriously eat like four bowls of this stuff!

My entree was a sushi special that came with a veggie California roll and 2 pieces each of salmon, tuna and red snapper sushi.

Friday: Best of the Best Farm Start fundraiser dinner aka. the night I gave myself a food hangover!

GROCERY LIST: Bananas, blueberries, broccoli, 2 sweet peppers, 1 sweet potato, 2 tomatoes, avocado, carton of egg whites, plain Greek yogurt, coffee filters

What are your favourite vegetables to put in stir fries?

Are you hooked on any cuisines at the moment?