Workout Diary: January 24 – Feb 24

It has been a hot minute since I posted my last workout diary, so I figured it was time to update all of you on what I have been up to at the gym, what I am struggling with, and some of the new things I have added to my life to support my health and fitness goals.

Workouts

I am very happy to say that I have been to the gym at least twice every week since my last update. It’s been really important for me to stay consistent, even when I have been traveling for work or to visit family, which is all I’ve been doing since my last update.

You can see below when I was at the gym in the last month, all tracked on Hevy, of course.

January 26 – February 1

After my last update, I was able to get to the gym 4 times, which is the goal. It was also a “perfect” week for me as I followed the schedule that I find feels the best for my body. Squats and chest on Monday and Tuesday, a rest day on Wednesday, and then deadlifts and back on Thursday and Friday, respectively.

February 2 – February 8: Vegas

The following week I was actually in Vegas for a work conference, but I made sure to book a hotel with a good gym. I was staying at the Bellagio, which has a great gym. I didn’t take any pictures (sorry), but have included the pictures from their website below:

This picture above is taken from the far end of the gym in the stretching or calisthenics area. The bikes were all Peloton bikes, which I thought was really cool and a great value-add to the guests staying there. Just beyond the benches you can see in this image, there was a good selection of machines.

I knew that the travel would likely impact the rest of my workouts for the week, so I put together a posterior chain and anterior chain workout for the mornings I worked out in Vegas.

Posterior chain and anterior chain are just another way of saying I did a pull day and a push day, or I trained the muscles on the back of my body, and the muscles on the front of my body.

If you know you can fit in 2 workouts, this is a great way to workout the whole body, and a fun way to change things up from splitting your workouts between up and lower body.

When I got back from Vegas I was exhausted. A busy couple of days working, a couple late nights, and a red-eye flight made Thursday and Friday of that week a write-off for me. The impact of travel and jet lag can be seen in my heart-rate-variability data that I keep track of in my FitBit app.

On the left is my HRV from the week in Vegas. Not bad on the first day, but it was definitely low. And then Wednesday it tanked to 24. I had my watch off Thursday and Friday, so I am missing that data, but a low HRV is a good sign that the body is less resilient to stress and therefore rest is needed. I’ve included my HRV from my last follicular/ovulation week in January where you can see my HRV is much more steady and even reaches a peak of 90ms.

I was able to get to the gym on the Saturday, but it was a slower workout. I didn’t know it then, but I was fighting off a cold or something that I likely picked up from all of the folks who were coughing on the plane ride home from Vegas. I really need to start packing my mask in my travel bag again!

February 9-15: A new gym

The following week was, of course, slower because I was fighting off a cold, but I still managed to get to the gym (and thoroughly wipe down equipment/apply hand sanitizer!).

The workout on Tuesday was at my gym, but on Thursday morning I traveled to Ottawa to visit my sister for 10 days. My sister has always kept a great training routine, and I actually got her and her friends onto the Hevy app so we can all keep each other accountable.

The Thursday when I arrived, my sister let me know that I’d be able to train at their gym when they go in the evenings. I have spoken about this before, but I am usually a morning gym girlie. I love the way it sets up my day and gets my brain right before I have to go to work. But, I figured I would try being flexible and adapt to their training schedule while I was staying with them.

The equipment was a different brand from what I am used to, so I had to modify some of the exercises to suit the equipment I was using. For example, when I am using the leg extension machine at my regular gym, I have been able to lift 100lbs, but at my sister’s gym, I was only able to do 35lbs. That’s a massive difference, but this isn’t something to discourage me.

The same weight will feel different from one brand to the next based on how they’ve set-up the seat, how much you can modify in terms of the position of the different moving pieces, how heavy the parts are, and even how many pulleys are used in the system. With the older equipment at my sister’s gym, I think it was a combination of the actual machine being made of heavier materials, fewer pulleys in the system, and the fact that the only thing I could move was the back of the seat.

Safe to say I am excited to be back in my gym this week.

February 16 – 23

This past week I was really grateful to have my sister and her friends there to keep me motivated because I was really starting to feel tired from a number of late nights and operating on a different schedule than I am used to.

I am an early morning girl, but everyone I was living with were night owls so I was staying up with them, but still getting up at my regular time (between 5AM and 7AM). Again, you can see from my readiness scores from last week that I wasn’t really ready to workout until the Tuesday, but actually training on the Tuesday ended up tanking my scores for the rest of the week. So it was challenging to get in there and do my workouts, but with the help of accountability buddies, I got there.

It is also important to note that, had I not taken my next package of birth control, this would have been my luteal and menstruation week in my phase, so it is normal to be tired and to feel a little weaker during this week.

Week 4-7 Recap

The biggest takeaway from the past few weeks is that life is very rarely consistent. It is hard to wake up every day, every week and know that you will have the same energy or environment to train in.

As busy women, we are traveling for work, going out with friends, and spending time with loved ones, and sometimes that means you have to modify your workouts based on time, energy levels, or the equipment available to you. But if you build up good habits during the times when you can keep up with your regular routine, you’ll be in a better position to be more adaptable to changes.

I am personally really proud of myself for being on my 10-week streak. There were times in 2024 where I would go 2 sometimes 3 weeks without getting to the gym, and when I look back on last year, I know that those inconsistencies really impacted my physical and mental wellbeing.

Although I am really proud of the good exercise habits I have built, I am still struggling with my eating habits, which I really want to focus on these next few weeks.

Current Challenges: Eating Habits

I want to be very transparent with you and let you know that I really struggle with staying consistent when it comes to eating food that fuels my goals. I don’t strive for a perfect diet, but I also know that only having coffee, and then McDonald’s takeout isn’t a great way to fuel my body, but sometimes that’s what happens.

A few things have impacted my mental state around food since the start of the year. I’ve been sick, I’ve been traveling, and I’ve been stressed about my budget.

When I am sick, I either have no appetite, so I will just eat the bare minimum and whatever I can eat quickly. I don’t have the energy to prepare a good meal so I go for things like peanut butter on toast, yogurt and berries, and whatever can be delivered to me in 30 minutes or less. Thankfully I do take a range of supplements that help me get more nutrients during these periods, but I also struggle to take those consistently when I am sick.

When I travel, I am at the mercy of whatever restaurants or cafes are nearby because I can’t cook for myself in my hotel room. Being in Vegas, especially the week when the tariffs were supposed to be announced, the cost of a simple meal was shocking. So now not only am I relying on food prepared by someone else, but I am also having to look for cost-effective options so I get the most calories for the fewest dollars.

And on that note, money is a huge impact on my mental state when I thinking about food. As a single person, I worry about buying ingredients for something, and the food going bad and therefore I waste good ingredients. I also always plan my meals around a source of meat protein for my dinner. The cost of meat has gone up significantly here in Canada, so I am constantly worried about if I’ll have enough or if I’ll blow my grocery budget on protein because I want to have a certain recipe prepared this week.

I love cooking, and I have a lot of knowledge about what kinds of food fuel my body best when I have a specific training goal. So you would think that eating is one of the easier parts of my healthy lifestyle, but it is actually one of my primary sources of stress and therefore how I end up taking 2 steps back when I have taken a great leap forward.

But, I don’t want this to continue to control my life. So I am going to be taking very intentional steps to make sure that work through the anxiety I feel around grocery shopping and my budget, so that I can benefit from delicious, home-cooked meals that are supporting all the good work I’ve been doing in the gym.

As I mentioned before, I am taking a handful of supplements right now that do give me some peace of mind that I am getting enough essential nutrients, even on the days where I am not eating the best food.

New Supplements in my Stack

I recently partnered with the Canadian brand, Organika, after years of using their supplements. I am also happy to offer you 25% off when you use code RILEY_25 on the organika website. I am also including Amazon associate links for Organika, but you won’t be able to use the discount code on Amazon.

I have repurchased a couple of items and added 2 new supplements to my stack from Organika.

Repurchased

New Products

I am also trying a new gut health supplement from Blume health. I purchased their Super Belly purely because I didn’t bring any of my supplements with me when I was visiting my sister, and I was feeling like I needed a gut reset and additional hydration throughout the day. This package includes 15 sachets, and I am already almost finished them because I shared with my sister.

I think these taste great and are great in a pinch when I don’t have my other supplements with me, but all the other supplements I take have me covered for gut health and hydration, so I likely won’t repurchase this anytime soon.

What’s Next?

Looking ahead to the next 3-4 weeks of the year, I am going to keep up my current training schedule and get the gym 4 times per week as often as I can.

As I mentioned before, I also really want to start working on the anxiety I feel when I have to go grocery shopping. I’d really like to work through those feelings and figure out a way to take the stress out of grocery shopping. I really believe that if I can get my eating habits in order, I’ll really start to see some amazing results.

I am also going to be trying a new supplement that I have just recently spoken about on my blog, IM8. This is an all-in-one supplement, and I am hoping that if it all goes well, it will help me cut down on the number of supplements I am buying on a monthly basis.

I am also going to be traveling at the end of March, so I’ll be preparing for travel to Europe where I’ll have to physically prepare myself for some serious jet-lag, change in temperatures, and potentially doing at-home workouts for the duration of my stay there.

I’m really looking forward to the upcoming weeks and think this is going to be a pivotal couple of weeks that will further solidify my exercise habits and routines, and keep me on this really great path I’ve been on these past few weeks.

How have the first 2 months of the year gone for you? Have you hit any bumps in the road on your health and fitness journey? Is there anything I can write about that would help you? Let me know in the comments below. I always love reading comments and getting your feedback.