Minimalist Exercise, Yoga and Meditation Routine

 Routines can be hard to establish but once you have them in place they become part of your everyday life. I'm a busy working mother, wife, and friend.  If I tried to stick to an hour a day routine at a gym everyday it simply wouldn't work for my lifestyle and I am quite sure I would fail.  At different times in my life going to the gym for an hour a day may have worked and off and on for many years I did this. I myself worked in the gym setting for many years as a teacher and administrator. Now I live in the middle of nowhere, all but one of my kids has grown and moved on, and life is very different. Finding "Minimalist Fitness" has been such a great find in my life and I am in good shape because of it. What is it you ask. It's setting a routine that works for you that takes very little time. It's also flexible. And for me personally it cost nothing. 
Here is how it works for me. 

1. I work out 5 to 6 days a week for a minimum of 20 minutes at home with You Tube.
2. I commit to two strength training workouts per week of 13 to 20 minutes, with You Tube. I love HASfit.
3. I commit to two to three days a week of cardio, which is often walking on my treadmill. If it's nice out I go outside and usually do two miles. If I am on the treadmill I often end up going at least 30 minutes because I love to listen to podcast. 
4. I do not allow myself more than 2 days without exercise. This means when I don't exercise if 2 days go by I make myself do something stat! This is called the 2 day rule and it is invaluable.
5. I try to go to a yoga class once a week but more often make it twice a month due to time and distance. 
6. I don't get militant. Moving is my priority,  something over nothing. 

What my workouts look like. Here is what the past week looked like. 

• Monday I did 30 minutes on the treadmill.
• Tuesday I did a 13 minute ab routine, 5 minutes of yoga and 5 minutes of mediation.
• Wednesday I did nothing.
• Thursday 20 minutes of low impact combined strength training and cardio routine, 5.30 minutes of yoga, and 5 minutes of meditation.
• Friday I did nothing.
• Saturday I did 20 minutes of strength training. 5 minute meditation.
• Sunday I did 30 minutes of cardio.
• The Monday before I did one hour of yoga at the studio, included about 15 minutes of meditation.

 
This adds up to 3 hours 3.5 minutes of activity and  35 minutes of meditation (outside of my job which I don't count). 
There where two days I did nothing. Notice on some days I did as little as 20 minutes. The most I did was an hour and that was a class. 

I've gotten in really good shape, lost a bit of weight (15lbs) and I've been at this for a year. I was doing much more previously and not losing weight. I combine this will a paleo, low carb diet and have one or two cheat meals per week (which are still fairly healthy, maybe three small pieces of gluten free pizza). 

Do what you can. Something is always better than nothing. 
Minimalist fitness usually is defined as about 15 to 20 minutes a day, most days of the week, with a day or so off here and there. That's not to hard! 

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