Sure, you may laugh at the ardent commercialism when Costco decides to bust out Christmas trees and wrapping paper in September; however, truth be told:there are exactly 12 weeks until Christmas.Like legit 12 weeks from this very day! Gasp! Do you know what else is significant about the span of 12 weeks? I thought you’d never ask…
It takes roughly 12 weeks, barring individual differences and exercise history, to truly lose body fat and gain lean body mass.I am not talking about dropping a pound or two, but actually shaping your body and changing its composition.Staying committed and grinding it out for 12 weeks takes determination and will power. Just know that Christmas will arrive whether your waistline is ready for it or not.Why not plan ahead and end the year with a new sense of self, a healthy heart, AND a bangin’ body? The sweet spot to transform your current self into your fit self (aka…getting off your butt and making better food choices) is NOW.
2. Fall is Fattening
It is easy to get sucked into tailgate wishes and pumpkin spice dreams.Furthermore, inconveniences of colder weather tend to go hand in hand with decreased fitness levels. Outdoor activities become less fun and downright uncomfortable. If you start to coast along now… sampling every warm, gooey dessert and saying yes to Sunday Funday nachos, you will add an extra layer of winter insulation by the time the turkey hits the table at Thanksgiving.JUST SAY NO never worked for drugs (sorry Reagan era), but it does work for healthy eating. Don’t let yourself slide down the slippery slope of saying yes to food you know won’t properly fuel your body. If cellulite and fat were considered an allergy, you would have a perfect excuse. Use it…the gluten-free peeps need some competition.
3. Fall Fashion
Warmer clothes make it far too easy to simply cover-up the indulgences of fall.
My recommendations…
*Keep a bikini handy to try on once a week as a reminder that the sun still shines on other parts of the globe.
*Buy some skinny jeans and boots that make you feel sexy.
*Book a winter vacay in a warmer, tropical location.
*Buy the perfect Christmas party goal dress that you know will make others want to push you under the mistletoe.
4. Be The Example
Imagine how powerful and amazingly awesome you will feel when the New Year rolls around and you are already ahead of the game. You won’t be one of those sad people signing up for a gym on Saturday, January 1, 2022. Put in the time and your body will reward you. Don’t wait another year.
Shannon Baisden is a Fitness Expert, Girl Mom, and Native Californian currently living in the Midwest.Shannon has a Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science from the University of California, Davis, a Master’s degree in Sport Sciences from the University of the Pacific, and holds 15 national certifications in the areas of fitness and nutrition.Professionally, Shannon is a Master Trainer for the American Council on Exercise and designs exercise programs for a variety of special populations.Drawing from her background in Clinical Exercise Physiology, Corporate Fitness, and Fitness Nutrition, Shannon also works as a Health Coach, motivating clients to develop healthy lifestyles.She can be found @shannonbfit and shannonbfit.com.
Maybe it was the pandemic, or maybe you always hated the gym, either way, there is a huge influx of people who have decided to break up with their gym but still want to stay in shape. Historically it was ingrained in us that physically going to the gym was one of, if not the best, way to get, or stay in shape. While that fact is not wrong, people are discovering that there are many other ways to get their sweat on that do not include a monthly fee, gym-timidation, and waiting for the machine that you want for thirty minutes that you do not have.
Create a Home Gym
As with any other culture, fitness culture was not geared towards working out at home for the longest time. Large mainstream gyms as well as studio or boutique fitness studios reigned supreme for fitness enthusiasts. Lately though home gyms and working out at home have surged in popularity. People are realizing that there is a huge value on their time and being able to cut out the commute to the gym exemplifies that. Figuring out which pieces of equipment to put in your home gym can be tricky since budget and space need to be considered.
Once you determine the essentials that you need to get started, then think about how to purchase them in an order that makes sense for your budget. But if you are someone who does not want to wait and accomplish this project bit by bit, consider making the investment to get it all done at once. Your homes existing equity is a great place to get this quick cash because the rates are typically more favorable than a personal loan or a credit card, and unless you have the cash on hand out of pocket, a loan might be your only option. The home equity loan is making a comeback as housing values increased post-pandemic so think about that as a benefit of your investment as well.
Use an App
Fitness apps are amazing because there are so many available that you would be hard-pressed not to be able to find one that you genuinely love. These apps have started to replace gym memberships because people are learning that they can either use what they have at home or get outside in tandem with their app to achieve their fitness goals. These apps are quickly becoming the secret ingredients of better health overall, beyond just physical fitness. With offerings like meal prep ideas, sleep and meditation guides, and nutrient trackers, your smartphone can now do way more for you than a gym membership ever could.
Join Clubs or Teams
Your hometown newsletter or social media page is probably full of intramural sports teams that you can join that you might not have even knew existed. If you are sick of doing the same old thing at the gym every day, then team sports can be a great supplement. So in addition to your home gym workout with your adjustable dumbbells, clubs or teams are great for your health. And typically are low commitment in terms of time and money. They will also offer an element of socialization that gyms notoriously lack. Even if you know how to meet people at the gym that does not mean those acquaintances will carry over into the rest of your life. Once you enroll in one team or club you will likely find that there are many more opportunities to work on your fitness in this way simply through meeting new people and branching out from there.
Inactivity may lead to several health problems, which encompasses the onset of acute and chronic illness, weight gain, and low productivity in daily life. On the other hand, you may prevent severe diseases and other related issues by remaining energetic. By running, walking, and jogging, you may give a much-needed boost to your overall health. With the implementation of social distancing norms during the pandemic, fitness trackers are now more in use to help individuals track their fitness goals.
Keep in mind that moderate physical activity gives a profound boost to your immune system. For keeping track of your progress, there is no better alternative than fitness trackers. According to Hani Zeini, you can keep track of your calorie intake, your steps, distance traveled, and they even track your heartbeat. Some of them also offer GPS tracking technology to help you with directions. Hence, it is not a needless investment but rather a lucrative option.
Take a look at the following benefits of fitness trackers as provided by Hani Zeini
• Personal accountability: When working on your fitness objectives, keep in mind that you should compete with yourself. Fitness trackers help in tracking your progress and goals. They also help psychologically by motivating you to take more steps than you usually do, run faster, and sustain a peak heart rate for a longer time. Recent studies reveal that by using fitness trackers, you may increase your daily activity by 30%.
• Individual goals: If you are looking for ways to increase your daily activity and have set a goal for yourself, you may realize the significance of fitness trackers. Most fitness trackers come with tips, workouts, and realistic goals to help you in your regular activities. It is necessary to start slow and gradually increase your workout time. Fitness trackers help keep a check on your regular physical workout regime and help you improve the same.
• It is all about you: There is a lot of anxiety about hitting the gym. Whether you engage in a regular workout or not, choosing the gym is a difficult decision. It is because people feel that they have to indulge in strenuous exercise if they choose the gym. In this regard, fitness trackers are not a bad option and ease their anxiety and fear of physical workout. According to Hani Zeini if you decide to exercise at home, at the gym, or the park, fitness trackers will help you achieve your goals.
• Motivating financially: Fitness trackers are available at a lower price than the equipment for the workout. Most athletes these days utilize fitness trackers in comparison to other gym equipment. You do not need to invest a large amount of money to keep yourself fit.
By tracking your sleep hours and workout goals, you can ensure a proper balance in your lifestyle.
Relationships are full of surprises. The more time you spend with the same person the more you learn about them, especially once you’ve moved in together.
Living with your significant other teaches you a lot about who they really are—what their weird habits are, what annoys them, and sometimes you find out they have some very odd vices. So odd, in fact, that you seek advice from the internet.
At least, that’s what one boyfriend did after he discovered his girlfriend was wiping herself with his gym socks…
Redditor u/whattodobedroom recently shared a story with the online community about something very odd that happened with his girlfriend.
He titled the post: ‘I (28) think my girlfriend (26) has been using my gym socks to wipe after going to the bathroom.’
Feeling disgusted but curious, we continued reading and um, brace yourselves…
The post reads:
I don’t even know where to start with this. I’m dumbfounded. She just stormed out the house and I’m sitting on the bed asking myself A LOT of questions.
I live a pretty normal life, and I thought so did my girlfriend. We’ve been together for a few months and after things got serious, we moved in together. We started sharing a lot of the household responsibilities, but the one thing she was adamant on doing was the laundry. She would come home and find me in the bedroom getting the laundry together and would quickly ask me to go do something else. I’d come back to finish the laundry and she would have already started it. I always thought it was sweet and never her job to do it alone, but hey, if it makes her happy to do it all the time, I wouldn’t stop her.
This is where it takes a turn for the weird.
I keep all my socks and underwear in the bottom drawer of my dresser. I also go to the gym frequently, so I always keep a good supply of clean gym socks ready to go. I never kept count, but I know by just a visual glance I several pairs. This morning when I went to grab a fresh pair to pack for the gym, I noticed there were several dress socks, but no gym socks. Again, not weird, they must have been in the laundry. I went to check the laundry basket and it was empty, so I checked the washing machine and dryer. Both were empty. I couldn’t figure out where all of my gym socks had gone. So, I did the very natural thing of asking my girlfriend what had happened to them. After all, she is the one who does the laundry all the time. She went silent, turned red and ran out of the room. When I went after her to see if she was okay she wouldn’t talk to me. I told her I wasn’t mad, I was just looking for my socks. She kinda mumbled “I’ll don’t know.” I still wasn’t mad, of course, but I was super confused. Socks just don’t disappear. So I asked her again, even laughed about it and she just looked at me and got mad and said “I’ll buy you new ones!”
The first thought that went through my head was she had somehow managed to destroy my socks while washing them. I thought the sight of that was actually pretty funny, so I joked with her about ruining my socks. Wrong. Thing. To. Say. She started immediately crying. Like, full on sobbing. At this point I don’t care about the socks anymore, I want to know what’s wrong with my girlfriend. I sat down next to her on the bed and put my arm around her and asked her of she was okay. She just kept saying she was sorry and that she would buy me new socks. I tried assuring her again it was okay. Even went so far as to say I would buy new socks and she didn’t have to. I sat with her for a few minutes trying to calm her down and eventually had to get ready for work. I told her loved her and got my things together to leave for the day.
On my way out I grabbed the garbage to take outside. When I got outside I lifted the lid off the garbage can and I noticed a small plastic bag sitting on top of the garbage already in there. I could see through the bag (kind of the semi see through ones) there were socks in the bag. Since I was sure she had somehow managed to ruin the socks washing them, I wanted to see for myself. I opened the bag and immediately regretted my choice. There, inside the bag, were several pairs of my gym socks covered in what looked like poop. As soon as the smell hit me I knew it WAS POOP.
We don’t own any pets.
We don’t have any kids.
WHOSE POOP WAS ON MY SOCKS?
Work could wait. I couldn’t go the rest of the day wondering why my gym socks were covered in poop and inside a plastic bag in the garbage can. I grabbed the bag and walked back inside. As soon as my girlfriend saw the bag she flipped out and started yelling at me. She said I shouldn’t be going through the garbage and that I was disgusting for bringing it back into the house.
I asked her to calm down and that I just wanted an answer as to why there was poop on my socks. I wasn’t blaming her of anything, but she started accusing me of blaming her. That’s when it clicked. I don’t know what it was that lead me to ask this, but everything leading up to this moment had just been so crazy. I asked her “Is this your poop?” She started sobbing again and ran out of the house. I didn’t go after her this time.
So, now I am sitting on my bed with a bag of poopy socks on the floor and a lot of questions in my head. The only conclusion is that she used them after going to the bathroom. Which that alone has its own set of questions above everything else. I sent her text asking her to come back. She hasn’t responded yet. I don’t even know what I’m going to say when (IF) she gets back.
We can imagine the author felt something like this:
Fortunately, it wasn’t long before he posted an update:
I had to leave for work and am now at work. Yes, I threw away the bag of poopy socks. She texted me back and she’s clearly embarrassed but felt she owed me an explanation. She said she didn’t want to talk about it in person and that we could discuss it over texting and to NOT bring it up in person. I’m condensing the conversation and filling in some gaps as best as I can. Her responses are super short, but I’m getting the idea.
I flat out asked her if it was a fetish. It is not a fetish. She confessed to using the socks after going to the bathroom. I found the reason she always does the laundry is because she was hiding the fact that she uses socks to wipe with, primarily her own. I had no reason to question the amount of socks she ever has because who pays attention to that kind of thing? She thought I would notice and think it was weird since she doesn’t own many socks. She admitted she has done this for a long time. Her reasoning, as best as I can understand, is that because she is a germaphobe (her word) and she is afraid toilet paper will tear and is afraid of getting her hands messy in ANY WAY. She uses socks because it covers her entire hand. After she’s done with them, she throws them away. She used mine because she didn’t have other socks.
So, my girlfriend has a fear of getting poop on her hands so she wipes with socks, and has done so for a lone time. It could be worse, I guess. I hope we can laugh about this later. I’m trying to find the humor in it now, but I’m still weirded out.
And people have a lot to say about his situation.
Now, if you’ll excuse us, we need a minute to erase this from our brains.
Some ladies, for this reason, don’t like wearing regular underwear with leggings, in the fear that their underwear lines will show. I remember vividly wearing a pair of leggings with my “regular panties” my freshman year of high school and getting mocked until the end of the day for having “granny pantie lines.” It scared me into sticking with thongs for good. But, there are women who choose to go completely pantie-less when rocking their yoga pants—even at the gym. I, truthfully, have one question—is it safe?
As a woman, there’s nothing more important to me than my heath—including my vaginal health. It’s so easy to develop UTIs and yeast infections from wearing the wrong type of underwear, wearing clothing that’s too tight, or even wearing pants too many times before washing (let’s face it, we always wear out jeans a few times before finally calling them “dirty”). While everyone is entitled to rocking what they find the most comfortable in terms of underwear or going commando, you should be informed on how losing the panties will affect your overall health.
Due to the overwhelming trend in women going underwear free with their yoga pants—even at the gym—top OBGYNs and doctors have weighed in on the issue.
Dr. Scott Osmun, a board-certified OB-GYN physician at BloomOB-GYN in Washington, D.C.,told HuffPost:
“Bacteria and yeast tend to grow in warm, moist places. I hate to use that word because I don’t like it, but it’s true
Any extra moisture in the vaginal area can definitely promote yeast infections, bacterial vaginosis.”
Essentially, bacteria breed and grow in extra moist places—which is why many women get UTIs when they wear a wet bathing suit for too long or stay in their sweaty gym clothes hours after working out. Dr. Osmun added that there’s no harm in going commando with your yoga pants, but, if you decide to, you should be careful about the material of your pants.
Cotton and spandex/Lycra have been known to be safe materials to keep away bacteria, but, additionally, there are some companies that use silver in their clothing—such as Lululemon—because silver works as an antibacterial agent. On top of the material, doctors say you should make sure that your yoga pants are thick enough to ensure you won’t pick up any bacteria left on gym seats from others—which would totally be my #1 worry in terms of going commando and working out at a public gym.
But, if you’re someone who wears thongs during a workout, the doctor strictly advises against doing so. Dr. Osmun adds:
“The material causes more friction and irritation, and any friction or irritation can make little cuts or microabrasions in your skin, and those cuts can lead to bacterial infections, which can cause discomfort, itching, redness, pain.
I think thongs are definitely something to avoid when you’re exercising. It’s actually probably safer to go commando than to wear thongs.”
Wow, so, if you’re in the predicament where you can’t decide if you want to opt for a thong or go commando to avoid those underwear lines—it may be best to avoid the panties altogether!
Leggings everywhere? No. In a world where women have been held down by the strong, long arm of men—we’ll do just about anything to succeed. Fighting tooth and nail, clawing our way to the top, it takes a lot more for a woman to reach success than it does a man. In all honesty, I’m proud to be a woman—damn proud. But, in order to reach my peak, I have had to fight for my right. And, a lot of this had to do with the way in which I hold and present myself in the public eye.
So often, I see women going out in public—to dinner, shopping, even on job interviews—wearing workout attire. Things such as leggings, shorts, big t-shirts, and hoodies—they make you look sloppy and unpresentable. Sure, comfort is key and many women wish to be more comfortable than walking through the world in heels. And, sure, many women believe that heels were invented by men to make women hard to chase—but, in all reality, some of the things women want to do away with due to “feminism” like skirts, dresses, and heels, actually makes you look professional and confident.
Think about this: if you were to walk into a job interview wearing leggings and Nikes, would you get hired? If you’re looking to work at a gym or fitness company—sure. But, as someone working in the corporate world, you need to dress for success.
But, this shouldn’t stop as soon as you leave your office.
Putting time and effort into the way you look gives you a sense of confidence that can become contagious. The way you feel about yourself can, many times, be read by others meeting you for the first time, or even those you surround yourself with every day. Why would you want to walk the world feeling sluggish and sloppy, when you can walk around feeling successful and thriving?
While social media and trends may dictate your life, you may fall into the traps of looking a certain way to “fit in.” But, fitting in may not always be what’s best for you. Instead of doing what everyone else is doing, and wearing what everyone else is wearing, make your own path. Don’t just reserve your “nice” clothes for important occasions and events—wear them regularly.
Try it out—even for a week, and watch how much your world will change.
There are many times in life when we witness people doing the wrong thing. When we see people ganging up on others, bullying them, and putting them down, we can’t help but wonder—why?!? What can we do to help those who are the victims, or, prevent the bullies from further attacking and hurting others again? The sad part is that we can’t truly stop bullies from being who they are—horrible people. What we can do is try and help those who feel bullied and try and help them understand that they are not alone and not everyone in the world is a complete waste of space and piece of garbage.
One woman recently was working out at the gym and noticed that other gym goers were mocking and filming a woman working out. Instead of ignoring the situation, she jumped into action and decided to show the woman that not everyone is a garbage person.
People who saw the story on Reddit were touched to see that the user took the time to go out of her way and speak to the woman, and, even workout with her to make her feel less nervous and a bit more comfortable getting into the swing of a new routine.
Thank you for being a kind person in a world of horrible, ugly people. Bless!
They say that “Obsessed is a word that the lazy use to describe the dedicated.” Whether that motivation derives from a genuine desire to better yourself, or the craving to make an ex-boyfriend jealous… all fitness freaks should be able to relate to this one.
1. You wake up, and it’s the first thing on your mind.
“Three words, eight letters, say it and I’m yours.”
“I love Gym.” (Hey, it’s a guy’s name if you say it out loud…)
2. When you share its presence, your worries begin to fade away – you are completely absorbed by it.
The excessive amount of work projects you have this week? Not a primary concern at the moment – all you’re focused on is that new ab workout. If you ever start to feel yourself getting side tracked, putting on “Lose Yourself” by Eminem always does the trick.
3. When you go a day without seeing it, you experience separation anxiety.
Sometimes no matter how badly you want to be with it, time restrictions will get in the way. We’re all busy, and unfortunately it just isn’t always possible to squeeze in a workout. When this happens, you try to tell yourself “It’s just a day off – I’ll do an extra-hard work out tomorrow” and move on, but it’s really not so simple. You can’t help but feel like you’ve somehow betrayed it. Your mood will only be lifted when you once again have a medicine ball in hand, lying down on the safety of your favorite mat. (Which hopefully, the person before you remembered to wipe down.)
4. You have to make a conscious effort to hold yourself back when others make unintelligent comments about it.
“I hate going to the gym because I feel like everyone is just staring at me when I work out.”
“Yeah, and I seriously hate cardio – it’s too boring. I think I’m just going to only eat carrots until summer.”
These statements are painful to hear, but you restrain yourself. You simply remind yourself that not everyone will share the same love for the gym as you do.
5. You don’t display pictures of you working out on social media, because you feel no need to broadcast it to the world.
Looking at you, gym selfies. (P.S. Two sit-ups and sitting on the bike for 10 minutes doesn’t exactly qualify as a workout. But hey, at least you have that selfie to prove that you went!)
6. After spending quality time with it, you feel happier, energized, and more confident.