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Full-Body Back Porch Workout

So, I’ve been loving working out on my back porch lately on Mondays and Wednesdays, when I do my regular strength training. (Tues, Thurs and Sat are cardio/running and Fridays are Pilates/Yoga/Barre day).

I realized what an asset this natural setting is for workouts. Why work out inside when I can work out here, listening to the morning birds and crickets?

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I’d also like to share the workout I did this morning with you. Feel free to pin it so you can try it out this week:

 

quick strength cardio circuit

 

I don’t have visuals of the moves, but you can easily Google them if you don’t know what they mean. I was thinking about Livestreaming parts of my workouts, so let me know in the comments if that’s something that would be helpful.

For this workout, I used 15 lb dumbbells to really burn out my muscles. And I just used the stopwatch clock on my smartphone to time the moves. The faster you go through the circuits, the more fat you’ll burn. I was dripping from head to toe after this!

Let me know in the comments: would you be interested in seeing my workouts Livestreamed?

Where is your favorite workout spot? #FlashMe your workout hideout.

I Got Published in the Huff Post

Eeeeee!!!! Yes I did!

I got published in the Huffington Post!

You’re definitely going to want to earmark this article for workout inspiration!

As a writer, this is a huge privilege and accomplishment. And let me tell you, I was totally fitness fan-girling at some of the people I got in contact with. Autumn Calabrese!!! Karena & Katrina!!! Lauren Gleisberg!!! If you’re a fitness nut, these are some of the celebrities in our world! I got well over 100 replies and selected only the best ones. And I tried to get a good variety in there as well.

I asked fitness entrepreneurs (the ones who live, breathe and eat fitness) how they would work out if they only had 30 minutes. Because if this is how they do it, then you know it must be effective!

This process completely validated the premise of my very own FlashFit workouts that I’ve been designing myself. Total-body strength training and cardio built into one 30 minute workout.

We can learn so much from some of the overarching themes I found:

  1. Do cardio intervals in between strength moves to increase calorie burn.
  2. OR shorten rest periods and move quickly from one move to the next (circuits).
  3. Target your biggest muscle groups as they’ll give you the most afterburn.
  4. Compound moves give you the most bang for your buck.
  5. Intervals are bomb.
  6. 30 minutes is more than enough time to work out every day.

So basically, to build a workout that’s the best use of your time, do one compound move followed by one minute of cardio until you reach 30 minutes. This will scorch the most fat and lean you out in the shortest time.

What do you do when you only have 30 minutes to work out?

How to Find Extra Hidden Time in Your Day

You have no time to …………[fill in the blank]

  • Work out
  • Start an online business
  • Take your kid to another extracurricular class
  • Take up knitting

It’s the biggest excuse of all time. But, if you look closer, it’s one that has all different layers of meaning.

First of all, you’ve probably heard it before, but typically the “I don’t have time excuse” really just means “it’s not a priority.” You just don’t want to come out and say that, because it’s much less confronting to say “I don’t have time to come to your home jewelry party” than “I think that party is a waste of my time.”

If exercise was actually a priority, you would find the time, just like you find the time to meet with your boss because she’s a priority. There are a million things I could get done in the mornings instead of working out, but it’s important to me to get my exercise in then, so I do it.

 

K, so now that we’ve got that out of the way, what if you feel like you really don’t have time? Let’s dig around a little and find some for you.

  1. Lunch breaks: you can change your life on your lunch break. 30 minute increments are enough time to make headway toward any goal in your life. Learn a language, do a workout, build your website, write a blog post (ahem!), take a course…I could go on. And in fact, changing your life on your lunch break will probably become a new feature on this blog, I love it so much. Don’t just sit at your desk scrolling through Facebook or daydreaming. Get up and hustle for your goals for those precious 30 minutes. Over time, these repeated activities are going to compound into major traction.
  2. After kids are in bed: I would never want you to sacrifice your sacred time with your family for anything. They are likely the reason you do everything you do. But there is a sweet spot right after the kids go to bed and before you go to bed that you can use to manufacture your dreams. If you sit down and do a Power Hour every night, you will be leagues ahead of everyone in a month or two.
  3. Involve the kids: some of the things you’re working on might make your time with your kids even richer. If your goal is to exercise 5 days per week, take a family bike ride or jump rope together. If you want to make more biz videos for your Youtube Channel, turn the whole thing into a learning experience by turning your kids into little producers and film crews. If they’re interested, you may even have them create their own channels and do films for them too. The entire process from getting the right lighting to editing is educational and will likely give them a huge educational advantage.
  4. TV Time: I have always said and will always say, if you have time to watch TV, you have time to change your life. Period.
  5. Waiting in the car or in lines: there are quite a few things you can do while you’re waiting in your car for school to get our or standing in line at the store. Post something inspirational to your Facebook biz group. Record an audio for your online course. Catch up on some self development reading. Get out of your car and do a HIIT interval. Do deep breathing meditation. Use those few minutes to really LIVE those moments instead of passively letting them slip away.
  6. Commute: I would never recommend anything dangerous, but you can certainly get things done while driving, like listening to self-development podcasts or sermons. If you’re not the one driving, you can certainly do all kinds of things like knitting projects, sketching designs, reading, learning a new skill, etc.
  7. Find 10 minutes here and there: Even if you can’t string an entire half hour together to squeeze in a workout, you should certainly be able to find three 10-minute segments to give you just as good of results. You can easily do all kinds of social media work in 10 minutes or comment on 3-4 blogs to build relationships. You could write an introduction to the book you’re going to write and then write a paragraph here and there. If you want something bad enough, you will use these little time segments to your full advantage!!!

So, come on, be honest, there are times throughout your day when you are truly just sort of puttering about, aren’t there? If you are really serious about your goals, you will reclaim that time for your own self-advancement.

But hey, if your kid really doesn’t want to go to annnnnnother club meeting, no one’s going to stop you if you say “We don’t have time for that.” But if you tell me, “I don’t have time to work out,” I will likely raise my brow, signaling that I’m reading right through that.

 

Where do you think you could harvest some time for your goals?

Review of Unprocess Your Diet by Natalie Jill

I was chosen out of hundreds of people to be part of the Launch Team for Natalie Jill’s book, 7 Day Jumpstart, Unprocess Your Diet. What that entailed was being given an exclusive draft of the book before it was even published to review–it comes out in May!!! Then, we were encouraged to share about the book on social media, however we saw fit. Natalie Jill herself popped in our secret Facebook Group for live chats, which was really neat. So, there were some cool perks to being part of the exclusive team.

 

Natalie Jill 7 Day Jumpstart Unprocess Your Diet Review

Book Synopsis: Natalie Jill has her own unique approach to clean eating. (Someone in our group even pointed out that the term “unprocessed” versus “clean” had much more wholesome implications and is much more clear. “Clean” can be a troublesome, polarizing term for someone with a previous eating disorder.) She makes it so easy to eat real actual food in just one week by completely laying it all out there for you with shopping lists and recipes. But, there are substitutions for everything, so you will never have to eat food you don’t like. And there are way more than 7 days’ worth of recipes. Natalie is gluten-free, but you don’t have to have gluten sensitivities to appreciate this book. It’s about avoiding as much processing as possible.

What I love about the book:

  • I love Natalie’s story, she just printed an e-book on a whim using pics from her iPhone and built an entire fitness business from there. She went from broke single mom to successful entrepreneur.
  • You don’t have to be gluten-free to enjoy the book. In fact, I learned something from the book that I never knew before. Food in its most natural state is already gluten-free. Gluten is something that is added somewhere in processing.
  • I love the approach of this book. It’s a little easier to “dabble” and slowly emerge into clean eating with this book by trying it out and learning to appreciate clean eating and why you’d ever want to try it in the first place.
  • Even if you’ve purchased her 7-day or 4-week Jumpstart programs, you will still get so much out of this book. There are completely new recipes and completely expanded upon information. I already own her 4-week jumpstart and this book has so much more to it, more detailed explanations, more backstory, more testimonials, more food choices, just more.
  • It’s not about just eating strict for 7 days to lose a bunch of weight and then quitting. It’s about starting with just 7 days to completely revamp your diet, see how you feel, and test out the waters. It’s like she’s asking, if you just give me 7 days, I will give you this: a whole new way to approach eating, a whole new energy level, a few less pounds, and a more natural as-God-made-it diet. The title may sound like it’s a quick fix crash diet, but it is soooo NOT!

I would put this book on my shelf right next to The Eat Clean Diet by Tosca Reno! It’s not quite as comprehensive, but that’s why I like it! It’s approachable for a newcomer.

You can pre-order your book on Amazon. Just click the link below! Show Natalie Jill some love and support as she publishes her first book!!! Her goal is to try to get on the New York Times Bestseller List, and you have to sell a certain number of books in the first few weeks to make the list, so time is of the essence!

 

I’ll be back tomorrow to share a recipe or two from the book. These are recipes you can’t get your hands on yet!!!

~Jess

 

PS: You should also follow Natalie Jill and Unprocess Your Diet on Instagram because she posts very motivating content, clean recipes and workout vids, mostly using just your bodyweight. I’ve been a fan for a long time!

PPS: I am not affiliated with the book or Natalie Jill in any way, I’m just doing this because I loved the book and figured it deserved a good review, especially after being gifted a pre-sale copy for free. I am an Amazon affiliate however.

Make Your Own Sunshine Poem

Last week, I talked about how healing the sun is and I promised that there would be a poem about how much I am drawn to the sun. Here it is, in pinnable form:

Sun Spots Poem by Jessica Collins Flashfit Trainer

Like I pointed out in my sunshine post, I am just drawn to the sunlight. I long to be outside in it, when it’s warm. In fact, this past Saturday, when the weather was stunning for a Wisconsin winter day in March, I rolled a picnic blanket out on our deck and took a nap in the sun. Rayna was napping and Kayne was gone fishing, so it was the perfect opportunity to spend some alone time in the sun. I gravitate toward sunny windows and run around opening all the blinds that anyone closes in our house. This poem encapsulates that feeling for me. Hope you like it!

Let me know what you think!

Feel free to share on Pinterest or other social media.