Exercise

Open Thread: What Are Your Health and Fitness Routines?

08/08/2018 by Kat 60 Comments

I feel like I am constantly trying to get into a good routine for workouts and eating — so I thought it might be a fun discussion for today. What are YOUR health and fitness routines, ladies? What about other self-care — do you do it as needed or do you try to routinize it? A few specific questions:

How OFTEN do you work out? Do you mix it up (HIIT one day, Barre the next?) How do you reward yourself if you get X workouts in a week? (On a bigger scheme, do you reassess your workout routine at a regular interval, e.g. every 12 weeks or seasonally?)
Does your eating follow a schedule of any sort? For example, do you meal prep on Sundays so you’re super healthy during the first part of the week, then less healthy as the week goes on? Do you always order pizza on Fridays or do brunch with friends on Sunday?
What other self-care do you do as a routine — for example:
- do you have a “beauty schedule” where you try to do a hair mask once a week or anything like that? Haircut every 3 months, Keratin/Botox every 6 months?) Facials? Massages?
- Do you try to meditate regularly, or do other activities that you look at like meditation/being in the moment (I’ve had this discussion with friends re kayaking, hiking, berry picking…)

For my $.02, these are my health and fitness routines at the moment:

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Filed Under: Exercise, Food, Personal Care Tagged With: posts

Etiquette Tips for the Office Gym and the Gym Near the Office

06/14/2018 by Kat 35 Comments

Here’s a topic we haven’t talked about in forever: what are your best tips office gym etiquette? Whether your workplace has a gym for employees, there’s a gym near the office so you always see coworkers there before, after, or during work — or you’re traveling with coworkers and see them at the hotel gym — what are the dos and don’ts? (ARE there any in 2018?) We’ve talked about a lot of office to gym issues in the past, including how to fit in mid-day workouts, what to wear to workout in front of your coworkers, and how to handle workouts near the office — and we kind of discussed whether leggings with “daring” mesh cutouts were appropriate in our recent conversation on comfortable workwear for late nights.

So let’s discuss! Various questions:

do you really care about how much “cooldown” time you’ve got as a buffer between your gym time, or are you cool to go to a meeting with your cheeks flushed and some sweat still in your hair?
If you exercise at a gym before work, is wet hair at work ever acceptable?
Are there certain things you won’t wear to the office gym (e.g., bra tops, short shorts, leggings with mesh cutouts, graphic t-shirts, 80s-inspired workout headbands)?
Are there any workouts you won’t do in the office gym, like preferring not to do a bouncy aerobics class in a windowed room?
Similar to our discussion of the dos and don’ts for salons near the office — do you try to avoid dumping a lot of work on your subordinates and then working out in a more public spot like something viewed from the windows (or being seen in the office hallways with workout gear on)?

For my $.02, I’ve seen more men make gaffes with “gym near the office etiquette” — I remember one older partner regularly coming into work at like 9 AM straight from his shower at the gym up the street with his shirt completely unbuttoned so his bare chest was on full view… and while I’m not sure it’s a gaffe or not, I do remember one more junior partner who would dump a bunch of work on me and my team members and then loudly announce he had a 4 PM spin class to get to. (Good for him for fitting exercise into his busy day… just maybe keep it more vague?)

All right, ladies, let’s hear from you — what are your thoughts on corporate gym and gym near the office etiquette?

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Filed Under: Business Etiquette, Exercise Tagged With: office to gym, posts

How to Stay Fit in Winter: Snow Days, Resolutions, and Other Fun

01/09/2018 by Kat 41 Comments

We haven’t had a discussion on how to stay fit in winter (or fitness in general!) in far too long, so let’s discuss today. Here are the questions:

what do you do to stay fit in the winter? If you go outside the house (running, gym, etc) do you have a backup that you do if it’s too slippery/cold outside to motivate, or do you just not work out?
for those of you who stream your fitness (YouTube, Beachbody, etc), what are your favorite channels/trainers/programs?
for those of you who do apps for things like strength training, what are your favorites?
if you own a machine (elliptical trainer, rower, bike [or Fit Desk], etc) what do you own, and are you happy you purchased it?

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Filed Under: Exercise Tagged With: posts

How to Build Good Habits: Tips & Tricks

09/14/2017 by Rebecca Berfanger 31 Comments

2018 update: We still think this is a great discussion about how to build good habits, but you may also want to check out our post on how to stay fit in winter.

Readers, what are your tips on how to build good habits? Which healthy habits have you successfully started? Have you found that one healthy habit had a domino-type effect on other healthy habits (for example, getting to bed earlier)?

A few months ago, I started to get healthier by fitting exercise into my busy day, getting more sleep, and eating healthier. Although I bought a FitBit for points for my health insurance program several months earlier, I only recently started to use its tracking capabilities on a regular basis. I started by setting easy but meaningful goals, including how many days and minutes per week of activity. I made sure to enter all of my activities. To further motivate myself, I got a new bike. I started tracking my miles on two or three apps each day, as well as a legal pad, and set a goal of 100 miles per month. I also set reminders on my calendar. Looking back, I think it was about 4-6 weeks after I started that I realized that I was making exercise a priority and was consistently hitting my goals. I also felt healthier and my clothes fit a little better.

So let’s discuss some of the best tips on how to build good habits…

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Filed Under: Exercise, Food, Hobbies, Personal Care, Sleep, Weight Control Tagged With: posts

Resolutions for 2017 – What Are Yours?

01/03/2017 by Kat 79 Comments

Resolutions: Do you do ’em? We talked last year about how some people have a resolution theme instead of a list (I had to read my post to remember that “hungry” was my resolution — sad!), but I think this year I’m back to a simple list of things, all aimed at finally losing the baby weight and trying to grow my business.

Like I did last year, I thought I’d round up some of our posts that might help you with popular resolutions, like looking more polished, moving more, growing your career, and more. Ladies, what are your resolutions for 2017? How did you do on your resolutions from 2016? Did anyone have any breakthroughs that you’d care to share?

Look More Polished

Appreciate More, Stress Less

Summer Workouts: Open Thread

07/28/2016 by Kate Antoniades

2018 Update: We still think this is a great discussion about summer workouts, but you may also want to check out some of our more recent posts on exercise and busy women, including gym near the office etiquette tips.

When it’s hot and muggy out, it can be difficult to stick to your regular workout routine, whether it’s running outside, walking to/from work, or doing a studio class like barre. So let’s hear your thoughts on summer workouts! Do you tend to exercise less during the summer? Do you move your workouts inside (perhaps with the help of a personal trainer?), or do you simply switch your summer workouts to mornings or evenings, when it’s cooler? Maybe you’re a hardcore runner who still goes for several runs a week and trains for the many 5Ks, 10Ks, and other races offered in the summertime — or maybe the closest you’ll get to vigorous exercise this summer will be watching the Olympics next month. It’s been a long time since we last talked about summer workouts for busy women, so let’s chat about it today!

Before we hand it over to the readers, we’ll share a few general tips for summer workouts from our last discussion:

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Filed Under: After-Work Activities, Exercise, Lifestyle, Weather Tagged With: posts, summer, summer workouts