Eating Right & Staying Fit

There's a reason why there is an expression called "The Freshman 15".  With an array of different factors entering into the average college students life, it's no surprise that weight gain can happen.  Even though I am no longer a freshman, eating right and staying fit is still a struggle every day.  Between the convenience of quick and easy food to a constant lack of sleep, there just never seems to be enough time in the day. 

This is unacceptable and has got to stop!  There is enough time during the day, I'm just not taking full advantage of it.  I realized that even if I was only able to work out for 15 min during the day, it would be better than zero, and that's what I needed to do.  I used to be a nationally ranked junior tennis player who could eat two double-doubles from In-N-Out like it was nothing and not gain a pound.  Now that I'm focused on school and my career, I feel bloated and out of shape just looking at it.  That's not to say I'm in terrible shape.  I still play tennis about once a week, and am probably only about 5-10 pounds overweight, but personally I feel as if it's not where I want to be. 

So given even the smallest increment of time I wanted to devise a workout for myself that would fit within a 15-20 minute time span.  I went online to do some research on quick workouts that you can do from home.  Surprisingly I didn't find anything!  Alright that's a lie, apparently I'm not the only person out there to think of this genius idea, there was a wide array of information available to me on the best quick workout.  One thing I noticed from a majority of the information is they do a lot of core and leg workouts, which is great for me because as a tennis player those are the areas of the body that need to be strongest.  Doing jumping jacks is also wildly popular which caught me off gaurd because I always remembered in elementary school doing them and thinking these are so easy.  Well after doing 100 jumping jacks in a row, I realize now why they recommend to do them. 

With my new found knowledge I created a workout routine that was quick, challenging, and would help me get back into better shape.  This is my routine:

100 Jumping Jacks
20 Push-Ups
20 Stationary Lunges (ea leg)
15 Toe Raises
1 Min Plank
15 Push-Ups
12 Squats
15 Toe Raises
30 Sec Inverted Plank
75 Jumping Jacks

It's quick, challenging, makes me sore and after doing this routine for about a week and half I'm starting to see results, feel better about myself physically, and get a little more energy throughout the day.  I recommend this workout to anybody, modify if you have to, and encourage others to comment and add to it.  Let me know what you think.  Til next time.

-Thomas