Well, I am one of those newer VF'ers who has gone a little hog wild this year in buying so many different exercise dvds that it is hard to focus on what to do. I find that doing a little of this and a little of that doesn't really work out well for me. It gets confusing, and I forget about other cool stuff that I have already purchased because I have the latest and greatest on the brain. As a result, it is hard to be consistent.
I think that whatever you do, it is great to come up with a plan. So, I'll tell you a bit about my evolution and what gave me the best results:
1. When I first started exercising 8 months ago, I just bought barre workouts and started just doing the workouts. I did just kind of wing it on diet and didn't really lose but a pound or so. (It's a little fuzzy here as it was awhile ago). I wasn't happy with my results though. I was noticing that I lose a couple of inches though -- but I still had chub I didn't like.
2. I bought a heart rate monitor and started to use it. I realized that the barre workouts I had at the time only burned 200 or so calories. That wasn't going to be enough to sustain quicker weight loss.
3. I bought a Zumba exercise dvd set. I started to rotate in Zumba every other day with the barre, and I would burn 400 to 500 calories for an intense hour of Zumba. Since my fitness goals included weight loss, I knew that I would be more successful adding in higher calorie burns.
4. I know this is a sensitive subject for the poster, but I'm going to add in my personal experience because this is where I started getting the results. I began tracking my calories on my fitness pal. It took me a couple of weeks to get on track. And, I was strictly monitoring calories burned versus calories I took in. My food wasn't particularly clean. So...
5. I lost 8 lbs over about 3 months following a rotation that I created where I did barre 3 days a week, Zumba 3 days a week, and I tracked my calories using myfitnesspal. I also had some great muscle tone in my legs, my arms, with my abs not as strong as I wanted them to be.
6. Life got a bit crazy as I'm working on a Master's and was working long hours. My diet slipped. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't as heavily monitored. My exercise rotation pretty much stopped. I started doing a bit of TA Abcentric and Bellyfit and others of the latest craze on this board. The Abcentric caused my shoulders to lock up, and I would not exercise for 3 days because I'd have a vicious headache. The Bellyfits only burned 300 calories for me. Now, I did start seeing the results I wanted with my abs (or more results than I had with barre), but I need to figure out a modifier to add in TA and not have vicious headaches. So, my fitness and diet slipped for a couple of months.
7. I gained about 4 or 5 lbs back as a result. For me, I was taking in more calories than I was burning.
8. During the last month, I have been taking another class and working long hours. So, my workouts are sporadic. I have been trying Ultimate Yogi, but only for about 20 or 30 minutes at a time. I don't know that I could do it everyday and have the muscle tone I want to have (not sure though). I have also been modifying my diet to the Genotype diet -- which is kind of like the Blood type diet. And, I am down 3 lbs. So, I'm still about 2 lbs over my lowest since I started, but it feels like that weight is going to come off. However, I don't have the great muscle tone that I had when I was doing barre.
9. So, I am short on time, but I need to create a rotation with what I have on hand to help me with mental clarity, calorie burn, and muscle tone. I am not sure that I can dedicate 1 hour per night -- but when I did, that's where I had the best results.
So, in short, having specific fitness goals and setting up a rotation can definitely help you meet those goals. Sounds like you are already monitoring your diet, so that is a big bonus. Maybe go through what you already have that has given you results in the past and set up a rotation for yourself. I mean, I know how people can buy turbo fire and lose a lot of weight or some other exercise program and lose weight. Somebody also mentioned that if you pick something for your rotation, you can track your own personal results as you were only about to do 5 pushups when you started, and 5 weeks later, you can do 13 pushups. I think that you can have the same results using what you already have.
For me, I was able to do harder barre workouts for my rotations. I didn't need to do the beginner anymore. I could do the more advanced workouts.
Good luck to you. I hope you meet your goals!
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