Life Lately & Exercise "Rules"

Gooood morning, everyone! How's your Tuesday going so far? Mine has consisted of working on finishing up my research project from grad school, job hunting, and some cardio - not too bad of a Tuesday! I thought today I would pop in with a "Life Lately" post, along with some of my thoughts on a topic that I'm calling Exercise "Rules". 

Life lately has consisted of finishing up my research project as I mentioned I'm working on today, serious job hunting (getting a little antsy over here), exercising, and enjoying time with friends and family!

Doesn't that salad look so delicious?! I was able to grab lunch with my mom, dad, and sister on my sister's lunch break last week. My sister and dad work about two minutes from each other, so it's nice to be able to sneak in a family lunch during the week. This salad is from a local cafe called Brew Haha. It's romaine lettuce, plain ramen noodles, sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, and red peppers with a sesame-ginger dressing. It was really tasty, and it seems like it wouldn't be too hard to recreate at home!

I've been trying to vary my cardio routine to keep my body guessing. I do cardio three days a week (I follow the BBG guide, read about it HERE) and I've been alternating with going to the nearby high school track and doing intervals and using the Aaptiv app (read about it HERE). The Aaptiv app is quickly becoming my new favorite way to get my cardio in! 

Life lately has also included cooking, like this salmon we threw on the grill the other week. We got this wild caught salmon filet from Whole Foods, and I rubbed it with extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary, garlic, and some salt & pepper - yum!

That's my life lately - I haven't been super great with snapping pictures so I'll have to get better at that :) 

Sooo, what are these exercise "rules" I'm talking about?

I think that we all set rules for ourselves in all different areas of our lives. We have to stick to our eating "rules" - maybe you have a rule that you have to eat a specific thing for lunch during the weekdays. What I'm talking about today though are those exercise "rules" we set for ourselves. Now, don't get me wrong, I think that setting some rules for ourselves for exercise is a good thing because it holds us accountable. So, the accountability thing is great and all, but sometimes I find that backfires. Say that your rule is that for your cardio you have to run for 3.5 miles, but one day you're just really burnt out from work so those 3.5 miles just don't seem doable. Since you're so tired and you've set this exercise "rule" for yourself, you decide you just can't exercise that day since you don't feel that you would be able to run the 3.5. I'm totally guilty of doing this, but within the last year I've realized that it's OK to deviate from your exercise "rules". You're feeling too tired to run those 3.5 miles today? That's alright! Run 1 mile, walk/run a few miles, or just power walk. The bottom line is:

Some exercise is better than no exercise.

Don't beat yourself up if you can't muster up the energy to get your 3.5 mile run in, but also don't use it as an excuse to get no exercise in. Don't feel like you're not doing as well because you're just going for a walk instead of a run - exercise is exercise and calories burned are calories burned, period. 

Granted, we all have those days that we are just absolutely spent and need a rest day - which is very important too so that your body can recover! I just think it's important to be mindful of your exercise "rules" and how to handle them when you may not be able to stick to them. 

Do you set exercise rules for yourself? If so, what are they? Can you relate to this post? Let me know in the comments! I would love to hear from you!

Until next time!