I am the STAIR MASTER

Here I am! Sorry for the lack of Beans. After a full week of busyness, I have finally found some alone time with my computer. Let's rewind 24 hours and pretend today is Wednesday, because I want to tell you about a new workout I've incorporated into my weekly routine.

Early last week, a coworker of mine presented me with a task: "I need to lose weight for my wedding and I want your help!" A few problems I saw with this were: (1) we don't belong to the same gym, (2) we only see each other at work, and (3) we have different fitness levels. Because I was determined to not only help out a friend, but to also integrate more exercise into my day, I wanted to come up with a solution!

The answer: At the beginning of our lunch break on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, we are going to run/walk the STAIRS in "the tower". The tower is the highest section of our building that has 7 floors. This workout plan overcomes all the problems I found because: (1) we are doing this at work, (2) we are doing this at work, and (3) I can run (ehhh..jog)/she can walk and I can go up & down 4 times/she can go up & down 3 times. We will both still be getting a GREAT cardio/leg/butt exercise! My main rules for her were, "Don't STOP. Keep going. If you get tired, just walk slower" and "KEEP BREATHING" (<- very important).

Since our first stairwell expedition, we have had two more people join us and a few more who are interested in starting next week :) yay! May I also add that after the first session, I could not walk like a normal person for 3 days, so stretching is also très important- especially the quads, calves & gluteus maximus. I suppose you're wondering how sweaty we get and whether we have showers at the office. To that, I say: pretty sweaty (but we change our clothes) and not real showers (but Mexican showers--deodorant and perfume).

It is also fun to go DOWN stairs in a sleeping bag!

If you have any free time at work, I encourage you to keep moving--take a walk, do push-ups. If you sit in a chair behind a desk all day, stand up and do your work from time to time so all that flubber doesn't get so comfortable settling in your booty. I love to eat, so to balance that out, I cannot stress health and fitness enough. OBESITY is reaching EPIDEMIC proportions, people! Together we can fight obesity, one STEP at a time!

Is this the beach body you want?

...I didn't think so.