Workout Heaven.

Before we moved out to the country, dh and I had a routine that included going to the gym every other day to work out and on the days off, we did yoga at home. I had a feeling that once we moved beyond the highway, that treks in to town would become scarce. And I was right!! Anyone who lives rurally likely knows what I mean. At the end of the day, once work and errands are done and kids picked up, going home is all we want to do. At times, we have a board meeting or a shoot at night but not too much. I've even had board meetings where I call in on a conference call when the weather is not great so I don't miss out. I love technology! 

Once we decided not to renew our gym memberships not long after the move, we continued to do some yoga and walked around our subdivision. Outside is great but then when the weather turned, we found ourselves slowly becoming couch potatoes. One night, curled up on the couch watching a show and feeling very sluggish, I said to dh "I wish the one thing we had thought of was to put an exercise room in the cottage so we could work out" and that started a plan to create a space and get back in shape. We knew that we both loved using weights and the treadmill is a favorite. But where could we put both a weight machine and a treadmill? If we put them in the turret in our bedroom, we'd lose our little office/writing space. And it would be too tight in there with the window seat. I also didn't cherish the thought of waking up and seeing equipment sitting there. I much prefer our view that is open and airy. Guest bedroom? Nope, we've filled it with a queen bed and a dresser, bookcase and kids table and chairs. Not overcrowded, just right but definitely no extra space for work out equipment. Great room? While watching tv and working out is a bit appealing, we love this space and crowding it out would not be okay. Theatre room? Honestly, I know if it was out of sight, we'd never go down there! Master bedroom walk in closet? It's a great size room (8' x 14") but again, too crowded and even with the window in there, I feel like we'd feel very closed in and it would get stuffy. In the end, we finally settled on the far end of the art studio. It really didn't have a designated use like the rest of the space. And ironically, when we measured for both the weights and the treadmill, both would fit, with room to spare. So that is how we came up with the art studio as our work out space. Our little "Workout Heaven" as we'll be way up in the trees as we work hard to get back in shape! Now we just needed to buy all the equipment to meet our goals.

Fast forward to New Year's Eve. We had celebrated and were feeling fine after a cooler or two! Decided it was time to head to bed and then dh changed the channel to The Shopping Channel and before we knew it, we were buying a Bow Flex! The best was it was more than 70% off and free shipping. So we ordered and the following week, we were putting our weigh machine together. It fit in it's spot perfectly and it's so easy to use. Handy, in our face so we do use it but still out of the way, under the eaves in the art studio. When I had a recent week off and I used that time to purge, I mentioned to dh that we had been saving for a treadmill but we really needed to get serious. He agreed. The next day (we do have the best luck!) I received an email from the store we planned to buy the unit from, with notification of a big sale. And guess what? The treadmill we hoped to buy (NordicTrack) was on sale for, get this, 70% off!! Way less than what we had saved (love when this happens), so we placed our order and that afternoon went and picked it up. Our neighbor helped us get it out of our car and up the stairs. And 2 hours later, we were set to go. It's getting a great work out already as our dd has also joined the movement to get back in shape. Now goals have been set.

The above photo shows my first work out. I went easy as I didn't want to push it and wake up sore the next day. I walked for a total of 20 minutes and 8 seconds (after a warm up stretch) and burned 78 calories. Now I'm up to 30 minutes and have almost doubled the calories I burn by increasing the incline and my speed. Yesterday, despite a nasty cold, I even started to add in some jogging. I never ran at the gym as I felt very self conscious but I can see that at home, I have much more freedom and my workout is much more intense. We also joined Fitness Pal to track our food intake and our workouts. I can feel an addiction starting! Last night, I went to bed and still had 4 calories left over!!

Quiet day at home. I'm heading down the hall to the art studio to do a work out, then a nice shower, make the bed, do a load of laundry, tidy the back landing and vaccum before the contractor comes to do a check of our sump pump and a quote for a bigger unit ~ no issues with ours but we've heard they tend to burn out after a period of time and ours works quite regularly. I'd rather be proactive and not have any issues then wait until it dies one day and we'd then have a lower level full of water! This afternoon I'm finishing up receipts for our accountant so I can drop off our info to her tomorrow for our tax returns. In Canada, the deadline is April 30th. We're a bit behind this year as I'm still waiting for a slip but found out we can file without the slip anyway. And our accountant, even at this time of year, tends to do our returns in about 2 days, so no worries. Fingers crossed all is well and we get another refund. 

Hope your day goes well and you have an amazing week!

~ Chy