Mel Runs

Hey friends,

I’m sorry that it’s been so long since I’ve written. There’s been a small interruption in my life: the creation of Fit Steady.

I’ve been pouring my heart and soul into this new business, with a mission of making health and fitness more personal and accessible for the average person. We match-make those who need a little help getting in shape with a local fitness coach so they can have an expert ally by their side to lead the way and keep them accountable. I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to build a company that has the capability to help so many people finally get the guidance they need! Right now we are making Austin a little bit healthier, one person at a time . It makes me SMILE and JUMP UP AND DOWN every time someone signs up and says “please help!”, because I know we can, indeed, provide that help. If you’d like to, you can follow me as I blog on the Fit Steady site at the Fit Steady blog. That’s where I’ll be for a little while!

Thank you for reading for the past 3 years. Stick with me through this one, it’ll be worth it .

So much love,

Mel

What a whirlwind week! I’ve been getting a lot of feedback that you guys are loving the 5 and 10 minute workouts, so here’s another one that will wake up your mind & body. No fancy gym clothes or gym equipment required. There is one requirement, however. That you do these routines FIRST THING IN THE MORNING after you wake up. Take that morning coffee and put it to good use. Because when you get home after a long day of work, you’re not going to want to workout. You’re going to want to sit on the couch. And I don’t blame you!

5 Minute Morning Blast For Any Size Booty (yes, yours included)

Minute 1: Jog back & forth in your living room, wall to wall. Everyone’s got a living room (or at least a room). Pick a spot on the wall to look at as you jog to each side.

Minute 2: Stand facing a wall and place your hands against it. Lift up your left leg behind you as high as you can (squeeze your butt at the top), then bring it down. Now your right leg. Switch legs for the full minute. Don’t worry if your leg doesn’t come up too high! Just go with the flow & do what your body can do.

Minute 3: Squat in place. Count 2 seconds down & 2 seconds up for the minute. Tips on form: Stand feet shoulder-width apart, toes facing forward. Push your heels into the ground, and when you squat, make sure your knees don’t go past your toes. Pretend you’re about to sit into a chair. It’s okay if you can’t get low–just go with the flow! And you can hold on to a wall next to you for balance if you need to.

Minute 4: repeat minute 1

Minute 5: Wall sit. Stand with your back against the wall, and slide down into a sitting position as if you were in a chair, thighs parallel to the floor. Now, hold it! Engage your abs & your legs. Hold, hold, hold! Note: do NOT do this exercise if you have high blood pressure.

Alternate Minute 5: Jump jacks while holding two soup cans (soup cans = home-made dumbbells!).

I really urge you to give this a shot. It’s 5 minutes. Everyone has 5 minutes. You will feel energized & proud. You deserve that feeling, my friend .

So, what have I been up to the past week?

Well, I’ve met with my Fit Steady fitness coach Alex twice. I’m documenting that on the Fit Steady blog, so you can check it out there if you want to follow!

I’ve also accidentally stumbled upon a great snack I have to share with you: frozen blueberries. Dave and I threw these in the freezer because we were leaving for NYC and didn’t want them to go bad. Yesterday I wanted some fruit, but we were all out of anything that resembled a fruit or veggie (of course because we suck at going grocery shopping consistently). I grabbed the frozen bluebs, and lo & behold, they are awesome as a snack! You can sit there and pop in your mouth mindlessly as you work. (Yes, I’m totally guilty of that, & sometimes eating just makes me more productive. You too? Or just me?)

Before I go, one more thing. This is what happens when I do work for an hour at home without looking up. Sancho attacks.

 If you try the 5 minute workout tomorrow morning, or eat some frozen bluebs, let a girl know

I did it again this morning–the 5 minute morning exercise routine. I even did it pre-coffee, which is extremely bold for me, as it means I wasn’t even conscious yet. At first, it felt bad. I was in my pajamas doing standing push-ups off my countertop thinking that a minute has never felt so long in my life. Next thing I know I’m running in place, my heart rate starts climbing, and my dog is jumping up and down around me thinking it’s play time. By the time I was on my last minute of jumping jacks, I felt kinda awesome.

Seriously.

I took a few steps out of my small apartment kitchen where I did the workout while watching my microwave clock, and immediately felt the adrenaline running through me. It’s crazy that all you need is  5 short minutes of activity to activate your mind and body. For a second I thought I didn’t even need coffee I felt so good… but then I realized that was crazy talk and made myself a breakfast of an oatmeal pancake + 2 cups of coffee .

Getting real about putting too much pressure on myself.

Dave and I had a very interesting conversation the other day. If you’ve been a Mel Runs reader for a while, you know that Dave likes to keep our apartment clean. I’m all for it–who wouldn’t want their apartment clean? But it was noticable to me how often he was vacuuming vs. how often I was NOT vacuuming. This of course amounted to a few heated discussions over time about our different perspectives–my thinking he cleans too often, and his thinking that I don’t clean enough. We realized that we just have different tolerance levels and expectations, resolved it, and moved on.

It got us thinking though, everyone is a little neurotic about something. Dave likes things clean, some people can’t handle the idea of germs, and some people are very particular about what they eat and how it’s prepared. There’s a MILLION things that can be on that list, but what is it that makes ME neurotic? I don’t really care about dirt, germs don’t freak me out, I like to eat healthy but I’m not particularly neurotic about my food. Then we realized, I’m neurotic about myself and my achievements. This is actually a little hard for me to write, but it feels good to write it.

The reason why I don’t care too much about all those small details around me is that I’m 100% focused on driving forward initiatives I’m working on that have my name on it. This includes, but is not limited to, building my own company, the work I do at my ad agency, my physical self, etc. . I want to be almost perfect at everything or do them really, really, really (really) well. Down to the point where I send emails to people and question the way I worded it (I mean, not all the time, I’m not totally cray, but often enough).  And while it’s great to have such high aspirations, it’s sometimes wayyy to much pressure to put on myself. I mean, who is perfect at everything? No one, because perfect is relative. The way I structure my business may not be the way someone else does, and the way I want to look is a picture I made up in my own head.

Okay, I’m ranting.

But realizing this helped me calm things down a bit, and stop to enjoy the things around me vs. throw all my energy into the future of what I want to achieve. It’s really easy to get caught in this slippery slope of over-analyzing everything and self-manufacturing pressure that isn’t really there. I snatched up a magazine at the store the other day that had some stress-breaking tips, and here are 3 that I found easy and helpful for people like me who need help slowing down:

1. Take 3 really deep, long breaths. It will force your heart to slow down, and you to mellow out.

2. Get up and take a walk when a particular issue or project is hard to solve. A small break will allow you to pull your thoughts together and reunite your mind and body to the bigger picture around you.

3. Remember that there is a support network around you who can vent to. Verbalizing things really helps get the weight off your chest. (I called my mom this morning and vented. Thanks mom!).

Bonus #4! I remind myself of this and it helps:

4. The only way to learn and grow is to be uncomfortable. If you’re not uncomfortable, you’re not growing. It’s okay to not always know what you’re doing. (this is a big one!)

What are you neurotic about? How do you keep calm and carry on?