Eat. Live. Be. #6 – Getting Out of Your Rut

The Eat. Live. Be. topic of the week is about breaking out of your rut, whether it be food, exercise or what have you.  With us East Coasters being in the thick of a challenging winter, it can be very easy to fall into the rut of not going out to work out.  How do we avoid that?  Change it up!

Here are a few suggestions for what has worked for me over the past year or so; would love to hear about your own personal rut-busters.

• Change your tunes. If you are plugged into your iPod during your work-outs, go on and ask your facebook friends for their favorite work-out tunes and change what you’re listening to.  I have all sorts of different playlists, some mellow, many hard hitting with an energizing beat.  Put together a bunch of different ones to suit your different work-outs.
• Take a new class. Are you taking the same schedule of classes week after week at your local gym?  Scope out the schedule and see what new ones might catch your eye.  Break out of your comfort zone and you  might discover a new one that you love.  That’s how I discovered Zumba for the first time.  I needed a break from the treadmill.  Since then I’ve taken kickboxing, yoga, pilates and Nia.
• Find new work-out buddies. I’m not saying to ditch the peeps you work out with now, but add some new friends to the mix.  Everyone works out their own way, has different routines, walks at varying speeds.  By adding new partners, you’ll also be picking up on new exercise habits as well.
• Change your scenery. Sometimes just doing the same exercise routine in a different location makes everything all fresh, shiny and new again.  Is walking your thing?  Go to the mall and do laps inside.  Go to the local school track and walk there.  Find a hiking trail.
• Find alternative methods to the same exercise. For example, if you’re a runner, seek out 5Ks in your area and start signing up.  Runners World is a great resource for that.  If you like kickboxing, see what other classes you can find in your area, outside of your usual ones.  A lot of gyms will give you a one week free trial so you can test out their facilities and classes, and that’s a great way to find new instructors you might like as well.
• New accessories. It sounds like something so trivial, but even just a small action like being a new pair of sweatpants in a bright, cheery color, or a pair of sneakers, or a water bottle can break your *mind* out of the rut you’re in, which is just as important as your whole self being in a rut.

Now, go on and see what my fellow Eat. Live. Be. team has been doing to bust out of their own ruts:

• Sarah Caron from Sarah’s Cucina Bella
• Joanne from Eats Well with Others
• Maris Callahan – In Good Taste
• Chris Arpante – Melecotte
• Faith – Blog Appetit
• Kristen – Dine and Dish
• Jenna – Stop, Drop and Blog
• Casey – The Starnes Family
• Patsy – Family, Friends and Food
• Tri-Fit Mom
• Claire – Cooking is Medicine
• Allison – Sweet Flours
• Jen – NJ Epicurean
• Leslie – The Hungry Housewife
• Rivki Locker – Healthy Eating for Ordinary People
• Claudia – Journey of an Italian Cook
• Jennifer Schulz – Lick-a-Plate
• Sarah Rogers – Sarah’s Sweet Creations
• Denise and Lenny – Chez Us

Project 365
February 7, 2011, Photo #38

Beth turned me on to these Vitamin C drops from Halls. I mostly love them because they have these happy little rah-rah pep talks written all over every wrapper. Oh, and because they give your body a little extra Vitamin C too, of course. If you want to hunt these down, the little words of wisdom only appears on the drops in the economy size bag, go figure.

PRINT