Hi friends! Thank you for all your kind birthday wishes last week. You guys are too nice.

Today I’m here to talk about fitness lately. My last fitness update was back in May, and some of you have asked me to share what I’ve been doing for workouts in the last few months leading up to my wedding. I hate to break it to you guys, but I really don’t have anything that earth shattering to share about my pre-wedding fitness regimen! Sure, I’ve sported my sweating for the wedding tank many times, and now I rock my ring cozy so lifting doesn’t hurt my hands, but not much else has changed.

This topic ties in nicely with a recent blog project I’ve taken on. I just received some new PUMA gear through my relationship with Fitfluential, and as part of this collaboration, I learned that PUMA has a new social media campaign using the hashtag #NoMatterWhat. This campaign encourages people to make and adhere to a contract that they make with themselves, and so I guess if I had to summarize what my pre-wedding fitness strategy has been, it’s honestly been to simply maintain my active lifestyle throughout the planning process… no matter what. The wedding planning process can be very stressful, so I just promised myself that no matter how hectic or crazy things got, I would continue to make exercise and regular movement a consistent priority in my life.

Here’s what some of that has looked like for me:

–I’ve continued to take advantage of classes through ClassPass. However, since I haven’t had as much time as usual to get into the city or make a lot of fitness dates with my gym friends, I’ve mainly used ClassPass this summer for yoga classes at both Inner Strength and CorePower. I can see significant progress in my yoga abilities from getting to at least one class a week too, and that’s kept me motivated to keep going. My ability to focus during class has improved so much, I am able to hold poses for much longer (hello crow and wheel), and it has helped me a lot mentally too. Aside from yoga, I’ve gone to a couple of other classes there and there (Barry’s Bootcamp and Catz), but part of maintaining my workouts has meant keeping things as easy and convenient as possible, aka close to home or close to work.

–I’ve continued to make strength training the priority. I repeated level four of the Modern Woman’s Guide to Strength Training and was itching for something new after I finished, so I decided to give John Romaniello’s Omega Body Blueprint program a whirl. I found the information in the manual on hormones and the relation to fat loss absolutely fascinating, but the workouts were just not for me. Many of them took me between 60-90 minutes to complete, and I wasn’t even coming close to finishing the number of sets/reps prescribed or resting as long as the program said to! This was too unrealistic for me to maintain, so I stopped. Instead, I purchased the Superheroine Fitness program after hearing about Kristen’s positive experience, and it’s been a much better fit for my schedule. I recently completed the first phase that focused on strength and power, and I really enjoyed adding complexes and some new moves like thrusters, snatches, and cleans into my strength routine. I also have seen a lot of improvement in my inverted rows. Now I’m on the fat loss phase which is perfect for the weeks right before my wedding since all the metabolic resistance workouts in this phase are only 25 minutes long.

–One noteworthy accomplishment to mention is that I did my first unassisted chest to bar chin up over the summer! I really want to write a whole post dedicated to this, so you guys will have to wait until October for that one. But that was a HUGE fitness goal of mine for a couple of years, and I’m so proud of myself for it. I love that I RARELY do bicep curls or tricep extensions anymore in lieu of focusing on bigger lifts like chinups, presses, rows, etc. Wedding ready arms, check. Thank you, chin ups.

–For cardio, I’ve been opting for more 3-4 miles runs than making it to spin class. This is again mainly for convenience and to get some extra sleep. When I go to morning spin, class starts at 6am. When I go for a morning run, I can sleep even just an extra half an hour or so, and it’s been necessary since our weeknights have been full of to do list items. I hate missing Emily’s Wednesday morning spin classes, but I know I’ll be back to them regularly come cooler weather and darker mornings.

–Finally, I’ve rested when my body needs rest. On the days that it just hasn’t been in the cards to get to the gym or I felt really stressed out, I’ve tried to recognize that it’s never a good idea to compound bad stress by putting extra exercise stress on my body! On those days, walks, stairs at work, foam rolling, and stretching have helped me keep movement a priority. To me, maintaining an active lifestyle and the no matter what mantra do NOT equal balls to the wall workouts or overdoing it. Every day is different, and there are ways to keep active without pushing your body over the edge.

And those are my big pre-wedding workout secrets. 😉 Of course, cute new workout gear always keeps me happy too. Here’s the rundown on what I’m wearing in the pictures throughout this post:

• IGNITE XT Women’s Training Shoes: A training shoe with enhanced traction, support, agility, and energy return. They are comfy, and the colors are ON POINT! Like my favorites ever. This shoe is not designed for pure running.
• Women’s Burnout Layer Tank Top: I am loving looser fitting workout tops lately, and this tank fits that bill and is super comfortable. I love love love the low scoop back! This tank is cute on it’s own with a fun sports bra underneath it, but it would be good for layering too.
• Essential Graphic Bra: Perfect coverage and support! Love the design too, especially underneath the solid color tank.
• All Eyes On Me 3/4 Tights: These have the same cute design as the sports bra. The waistband on these pants is a little wider than I’m used to, so they sit a little higher on my waistline. They also have a waistband pocket – this is key for your keys!

Readers, let’s chat! When it comes to fitness, what’s your personal “no matter what?” What contract have you made for yourself? Do you prefer tighter fitting or looser workout clothes? Married/engaged readers, what was your pre-wedding fitness strategy? 

Eleven days to go!

This post is sponsored by FitFluential on behalf of PUMA.