February Favorites

What a lovely month February has been.

Here's a few of our most loved February moments:

Who loves a good treadmill workout? We do!

Wouldn't you love to eat this healthy spinach egg white omelette, like, right now?

I'm still loving my junk counter organization. It's made my life a little calmer.

March is going to be so Springy and green. We are excited to celebrate our blogiversary NEXT WEEK! If that's not reason enough to be excited about March then I don't know what is.

Happy Friday, friends!

20-minute Treadmill Intervals + Easy Ways to Step it Up

I love my treadmill. I know exactly how far I'm running, and I can stop whenever I want and not have to worry about getting back home. I can stop in the middle of a run for a bathroom break or a quick snack. Ok, ok- I don't stop for snacks, but I mean, it's a potential benefit of running on my at-home treadmill. Water, though, I do stop for if I run out. Snack... water... same kinda thing. Back to the treadmill...

It's important to keep your body guessing when it comes to any kind of workout. If you do the same workout day in and day out, your body will eventually plateau because it's used to the routine and energy required to complete the workout.

One of my favorite ways to do this is with intervals. Switching up the speed every minute or 2 keeps your body guessing and, honestly, it makes the workout go by much quicker because you have to really pay attention to switching your speed!

Here is an example of a 20-minute interval treadmill workout: 

0-1 min. 5.0

1-2 min. 5.5 

2-3 min. 6.0

3-4 min. 6.5

4-5 min. 7.0

5-6 min. 7.5

6-7 min. 8.0

7-8 min. 8.5

8-10 min. 5.5

11-12 min. 6.5

12-13 min. 7.0

13-14 min. 7.5

14-15 min. 8.0

15-16 min. 8.5 

16-17 min. 9.0

17-18 min. 5.5

18-20 min. 5.0 

3 ways to switch up this workout:

Increase your speed. Start out at 6.0 and move up in .5 increments from there. Or, start at 4.0 and vary your increments. As an example:

0-1 min. 4.5 

1-2 min. 5.5

2-3 min. 6.0

3-4 min. 7.0

4-5 min. 7.5

5-6 min. 8.0

6-7 min. 8.5

7-8 min. 9.0

8-10 min. 5.5 

Increase the incline. Increasing the treadmill incline, no matter how much, will have your body working harder and you'll burn a few more calories as a result. Try a 1.0 incline next time you do intervals! 

Increase the time between intervals. Instead of switching your speed every minute, try every 2 minutes!

Once you're ready for a challenge- increase all of these things during one interval run. Higher speed, longer interval time, and an incline? That'll get your body workin'!

Are you an outside runner or a treadmill lover? How do you switch up your runs? 

Happy running, friends!

Mountain Climber Treadmill Workout

I've been trying to mix up my treadmill workouts. I usually only get about 20-30 minutes of kid free time so I try to make the most of it! I've started "mountain climbing" twice a week. This sounds silly because, obviously, it's not a real mountain, but when you look at the incline pyramid it looks mountain-ish and when you are doing it, it feels mountain-ish. So, it'll do.

My treadmill comes with pre-programmed workouts but I rather enjoy having control over how fast I'm going and what the incline setting is at. Usually, I set my own workout.

Here's what my favorite version of a "mountain climber" looks like:
Min.     Incline     Speed
1-2         0               3.5
2-3         0               4.0
3-5         2               4.2
5-7         4               4.2
7-9         6               4.0
9-11       8               4.0
11-13    10              3.8
13-15     8               4.0
15-17     6               4.0
17-19     4               4.2
19-21     2               4.2
21-24     0               3.5

This is a good way to work your glutes and get in some good cardio.  The speed should be adjusted to what you are comfortable with- if you can go faster, go; if you need to slow it down, that's fine too. Just step at a pace that you can keep up with, but is fast enough that you breathe harder and break a sweat. If you aren't sweating by the 13 minute mark you probably aren't at a pace that is intense enough.

On the higher inclines, make sure you hang on to your treadmill so you don't lose your balance :-) Safety first.

If you have more time, stretch out the intervals. Make sure you spend enough time warming up and cooling down though!

Happy "climbing"!