Free Workout Plan: Month One

Disclaimer! I am not a certified trainer or a medial professional. I am just a mom needing to lose my pregnancy weight. 🙂

Hello!! It is August 1st and I’m ready to start a few new things this month. The first thing I want to do is getting up earlier. When school starts in a few weeks I can’t keep sleeping in until 8. But I wish I could. I knew I would need to start getting up earlier before school started so I can get used to it. Hopefully I can! What am I going to do when I get up earlier? Well, thanks for asking! 😉 I want am going to workout. I created a free workout plan that I am going to do for the month of August.

This exercise plan is called the Three Minute Workout. Now don’t get too excited thinking it is just three minutes. But wouldn’t that be nice? It is a 3 minute per body part workout. What I mean is I will do biceps for a solid 3 minutes. Then take a short break and move onto shoulders for 3 minutes. Again, take a short break and keep going until I have done biceps, triceps, shoulders, back, and chest. Then it is time to do the legs. Again, it is 3 minutes per movement: 3 minutes of doing squats, 3 minutes of doing dead lifts, 3 minutes of doing lunges. You get the idea.

We can’t forget the core! I added 5 moves. One being a free pick, so have fun. I don’t know about you but I do not have the core strength to hold or do these moves for 3 minutes each. So I am going to start at 30 seconds or 1 minute. I may work my way up or keep it at 1 minute. It will depend on how much time I end up having to work out for that day.

In order to have a nice rounded out exercise plan we need to include cardio and either stretching or yoga. Both are good for the body and soul. You can do any cardio that tickles your fancy. Want to walk? Maybe go for a bike ride or a swim. Turn that music up and start dancing. Have fun and get your sweat on. I’m going to eat my words right now…yoga or stretching is so important! You can’t leave it out. This is one area where I skip or say I’ll do it after such and such. I need to stop and make sure I get it in to make my workout plans more effective.

I have made a workout log for you. Get excited! I sure am. 🙂 One page will last for a week. So you will need to print up a few of them to last the whole month. While you are at it you can just print front and back to save a few pieces of paper. 🙂 I made it work for what I plan on doing. I will also include a blank one so you can add whatever exercises or moves that you want to work on.

My exercise plan is to lift four times a week: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I also plan to do cardio and yoga a few times a week. There are some days that I am able to go to the gym to do a spin class and it changes each week depending which days my hubby is not working. So I made the cardio and yoga on the workout log to accommodate that.

Let’s chat about specifics for a minute. I was planning on using an exercise band but I busted mine so I am going to use weights. You can use either a band or weights. Use what you have, make it easy for yourself. Just like with core, if you need to work up to 3 minutes please do so! I don’t want you getting hurt. I’m good to go for 3 minutes on my upper body, sometimes I need to take a mini break. However, with my lower body I will need to work up to 3 minutes. I have knee and hip issues. Too many times I have gone too fast and made things worse. So I will go slowly, build muscle, and work my way up. There isn’t anything wrong with that! Start where you can and work up to 3 minutes.

Now we can not talk about exercise without talking about food. This is going to be the hardest part for me hands down. I like food. I love treats and sweets. In fact as my hubby was on his way home about a half hour ago I asked him to stop and get us some ice cream. It’s soooo good! I have tried many different eating plans. Here are a few reasons that they don’t work for me. I am a vegetarian. So many of the plans have meat included in them that I am having to change so much of the plan. It gets very annoying. I also can’t cut out sweets. I just can’t. I have been able to cut back or limit them but I still need chocolate.

As I was looking around at different eating plans I came across portion control containers. As I started to look more into them I realized this was something I could do. I do not have to have a certain meal for dinner. I can have the freedom to eat what sounds good and what I have. I was sold. I bought the containers on Amazon and was set to go. I started in the spring and it was going pretty good. I was really liking the portion control containers. Then we went on a road trip and I blew it. So now I’m back and ready to go full force on this again.

Here is the quick version of using portion control containers. There are different colors and size containers to represent different foods (fruits, vegetables, protein, carbs, healthy fats, and dressing). Depending on how many calories you want to eat in a day you will get a certain number of containers per food type. So for me I will be able to eat 3 fruits, 5 veggies, 5 proteins, 4 carbs, 1 healthy fats, 1 dressing, and 5 nut butter/oil. There is not a container for nut butter/oil. You will just use a teaspoon.

Trust me you will get enough food with portion control containers. I was surprised. And if you are still hungry eat a little more, just don’t go crazy. Maybe grab a banana or some carrots. In addition to my workout log I also created food logs for using containers. If you don’t want to buy containers here’s what each container holds:

• Veggies (green) 1 cup
• Fruits (purple) 1 cup
• Proteins (red) 3/4 cup
• Carbs (yellow) 1/2 cup
• Healthy Fats (blue) 1/3 cup
• Seeds & Dressings (orange) 2 tbsp

In order to figure out how many calories you will need to eat to loose weight follow this formula:

1. Take your current body weight in pounds. Then multiply that number by 11 to get your baseline calories.
2. Once you have your baseline calories add 400 to make your daily caloric needs.
3. Last subtract 750 from your caloric needs. This will equal your target calories.

If you want to maintain your current weight follow this formula:

1. Take your current body weight in pounds and multiply that number by 11.
2. Take that number and add 400. This will be your target daily calories.

If you want to gain weight follow this formula:

1. Take your current body weight in pounds and multiply that number by 11.
2. Take that number and add 900 calories. This will be your target daily calories.

Please make sure you are eating at least 1200 calories each day. If your target daily calories are below 1200 round up to 1200. 

There are many lists out there that will tell you what foods go in each food group. A quick search on Google or head over to my Pinterest page, All Things Food, to get some food lists I have pinned. Don’t be alarmed by the few things on my Pinterest page, I’m a newbie. Or by the treats on my food page… 🙂

So who is with me on this?? I am going to start on Monday, August 6th. This will give us 4 weeks to get through my free workout plan. Don’t forget to print up my workout log and portion control containers log to help you.

Click below to get the printables! 🙂 And to get two month two abs three.

Free Workout Plan Month One

Free Workout Plan Month One, Plus Blank

Free Workout Plan Month Two

Free Workout Plan Month Three

Food Containers 1,200-2,400 calories

Xxx

Steph