If one word summarizes the last year and a half for me, it’s transition. In that time I’ve left a job where I’d worked for nearly 14 years, launched my own business, moved in with my man, and–in the past two months alone–sold my condo and moved 500 miles from Washington, DC (my home of over 15 years) to Knoxville, TN.
Needless to say, it’s been a busy 18 months.
We all experience periods of major change and they inevitably disrupt our normal patterns–sometimes for the better, sometimes not. In the past 18 months my eating habits have gone south (the downside of living with a man who’s a foot taller and can eat anything and everything without gaining a pound. Gals, who can relate?). At the same time, I’ve dropped key elements of my regular exercise routine–mainly long bike rides and any kind of regular swimming–and have never quite gotten back into regular long runs for more than a few months at a time since tearing a tendon in my ankle three years ago. I’ve managed to keep teaching Spinning classes and added Pilates and Body Pump to my routine while still in DC, but I just haven’t been as active as I had been in previous years. To make matters worse, I’ve learned that the fabled slower metabolism that reportedly clicks in once a woman hits 40 is no myth.
The results: a not-so-welcome extra 8-10 lbs that seem to have settled primarily on my butt and gut. Basically, I’m in the worst shape I’ve been in in ten years, and it’s depressing.
But our new life in Tennessee promises the perfect conditions for getting back on track. We’ve a kitchen you can actually cook in, and my man’s all about eating and cooking healthy meals. The Smoky Mountains are close by for hikes, there are lakes in town where you can swim, an active triathlon club, and biking/running shops with regular rides. Our sprawling rental home has the space for a home gym that’s at least twice the size of my bedroom in DC as well as a sloping driveway 1/10th of a mile long that’s decent for hill sprints. Our new neighborhood is also fantastic for running and forces me to integrate hills into my runs–something I’ve always hated and avoided.
So I’m re-dedicating myself to improving my fitness here in Tennessee. I haven’t put any races on the calendar just yet, but I’m excited about the healthy new patterns we’re already establishing down here–eating better, eating out less, getting outside more, sleeping more, and getting more regular exercise.
I’m baptizing the home gym with these new sources of inspiration: full-body strength and conditioning workouts that are hitting me in all the places I need work the most:
1. Short full-body workouts with Zuzana the hardbodied Czech. Sure, she’s a bit 
controversial, but the workouts are tough, she’s a stickler for form, and she breaks down the moves to ensure you’re doing them correctly (you can also do them with her in real time. It’s nice to see that she gets winded and has to take a break too!). The free website has an array of short training videos to choose from–some just 3 minutes, many 12 minutes.
2. BodyRock and its Daily Hiit are also fantastic sources of free full-body workouts you can do in 12 minutes or less, and the instructor is solid at pointing out proper form and modifications if the moves are initially too difficult. They also have a free iPhone app with videos of the various moves so you can remind yourself of proper form wherever you may be working out (they seem to be doing them in a living room, so if you don’t have a home gym, it’s no excuse!).
These challenging workouts are great complements to a swim-bike-run routine, working the body in multiple planes to make you more injury-proof (swimming, biking, and running work the body primarily in only one plane, the front-and-back or sagittal plane). They’re also mainly body-weight exercises, so no special equipment is required.
To keep me accountable I’ll post updates on my progress throughout the summer. Another incentive: when I drop that extra 8-10 lbs, I get to upgrade the smallish monitor in the home gym to a bigger screen TV. So stay tuned, see how I do, try out some of those 12 minutes routines and tell me what you think!
The home gym. Come visit!!
