Last month I discovered you don’t have to exercise as much as you may of thought to stay fit.
To lose weight effectively, aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week, or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise. This could be broken down into shorter sessions throughout the week. Additionally, incorporate strength training exercises on two or more days a week.
As long as you do the basics you can do more but not less.
It is a relief to find if you miss exercise here or there you are still on track with healthy living.
Blank Exercise Table for you to copy and fill in with exercise of your choices
| Exercise | Intense | Moderate | Tick Box | |
| Monday | ||||
| Tuesday | ||||
| Wednesday | ||||
| Thursday | ||||
| Friday | ||||
| Saturday | ||||
| Sunday | ||||
| Total |
I use the duplicate button, you can copy it into your wordpress, then the colums get bigger the more words you add.
Or roughly draw a table in pencil with a ruler.
Once you get the right size you can draw it in with pen.
You could duplicate it to create a new one every month.
You could go on to get a maintenance file folder with plastic sheets to store all your maintenance projects ~ recipes, workouts and so forth.
Or just collect it up on blogger/wordpress.
Exercising for low seratonin
After trying the least recommended amount of exercise needed I realised I need to do a fair amount more than the lowest recommendation as I have low serotonin.
Moving around a lot jiggles seratonin around and can help prevent mood blocks caused by low seratonin.
Yes, low serotonin can get worse during the English wintertime
Everyone probably benefits from having a lamp in winter I would guess, but for low serotonin you need to run up and down the stairs or jiggle around a lot or less boringly do something like Defy gravity which is fun. Also eat beef, ham, tuna and green beans. The beef and ham one works best.
(I know about the running up and down stairs one as a doctor recommended it ~ then thank God I found collage video ~ lifesaver for low serotonin sufferers.)
for food I recommend.
or
A cheeseburger from Mcdonalds for your Weekend treat ~ eat without the fries to loose weight.
I used to use a free fitness Internet site pre miserable covid, that had a diary and what you had to do was put a sad or smiley face each day to help focus your mind. What you discover is you are actually happy a lot more than you realise. If one day you were unhappy ~ you just need to find something to change your mood to happy.
One of mine was fashion shopping.
Exercise No 1 mood enhancer
We can have this at least, if you can’t go out either ~ there are plenty of options for you here.
Also when you are having a sun allergy treatment and have to avoid the sun, you discover the sun is annoyingly there all year round; annoying at the time not now.)
(I used to make sure I got summer mornings and always sat out on balmy summer evenings.)
So there is no need to be sad in autumn or winter if you are a sun worshipper; it is just a mellower sun but still there for you.
I’ve always loved the return of Autumn light, I can’t explain it but it is sort of mellow on my mind as oppose to harsh burning uva rays.
(I used to get more light in Winter as I could go outside more. I used to go for a brisk walk every day. I used to go to this cafe where you could drink coffee in the rain looking at the 17th century landscape. That is just for idiots now who are willing to pay £10 to park. I ought to get in free maybe as it is my old college ~ honoroury member or something.)
Sunshine Breakfast
If you are in a low mood in winter I discovered a good cure is the 70’s diet breakfast option of Grapefruit and egg.
Can grapefruit boost your mood?
Citrus fruits can be like eating liquid sunshine. The rich amounts of vitamin C in oranges, grapefruits, lemons and limes can help fight fatigue and depression. Cherries and dark berries are also great mood enhancers.
I never liked grapefruit and egg before as I don’t like fresh grapefruit halves.
However, since discovering grapefruit from a tin, we now love grapefruit and egg for breakfast and have it a lot.
The tins also support trade from the country it is prepared in and you can drink the grapefruit juice.
It fills us up also.
If you aren’t sure try it on a grey miserable day or when you need a pick me up ~ maybe on a Monday morning lol.
You don’t have to have it, there are loads of other slimming options, but we are still going to do this when covid ends if it ever does?
If you still do full English Breakfasts on a Sunday.
You can have the grapefruit as a starter.
We really miss full English breafasts and can’t wait to have them again.
The myth they are unhealthy comes from when people used to fry everything in lard and have it every day.
If you have it once a week it is part of your Sunday treat.
You can grill the bacon, get rindless salt free bacon, fry the eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes in olive oil, dry fry the fried bread or do it in olive oil and so forth or serve it as toast for after with coffee.
Have it as brunch, then it combines two meals and calories in one.
The grapefruit would also fill you up so you ate less of the English breafast or brunch.
You will be so high on seratonin from the bacon and so mood enhanced from the grapefruit you will avoid being sad for the rest of the day, maybe even enough for the whole week.
Great discovery.
If citrus does boost our mood maybe a citrus candle might work for you.
The nerd found these for me and I love them.
Habitat Scented Boxed Candle
Lemon & Mimosa
I’ve discovered they work well in the kitchen, so will now use them in winter to both fragrance the kitchen and also possibly boost my mood.
Think this is maybe why citrus is one of my favourite fragrances.
I highly recommend citrus in the kitchen works really well.
(Just realised this is a great interior design product for the calendars)
Charting Out The right Exercise program for You
If you don’t need to exercise for seratonin levels you are lucky and I think the advice is brilliant.
I found defy gravity helped me for loads of reasons and am sticking with the program.
If you don’t need it for whatever reason you can easily fill in the timetable with something that suits you more, stick with walking, jog and weights or do the Nivea Challenge.
So glad I started this ~ hope it is helping you too if you have struggled to find exercise since covid.
Lesley Sansone Challenge Sponsored by Nivea
It isn’t really, but they both work and quite easily.
Just do the video 3 times a week and you, ‘will’ loose weight.
Use the Nivea products every day and you will tone and firm as you slim.
October Workout 2025
Had to change some of it.
Monday
Cardio and Weights
Lesley Sansone
Burn Body Fat 3 Mile | Leslie Sansone’s Walk at Home
Or
Extended exercise routine if you have more time.
You can do the whole Zsa Zsa Routine or just choose the warm up and weights you want to do. I can’t do floor work at the moment so I do the standing abs instead.
You can finish with the ten minute weight section at the end of this video.
I do the whole ten minutes of this ~ the zsa zsa warm up then fast forward past the squats as they are in the Lesley Sansone video.
If you can’t do floor abs or if crunches make you hunch.
Finish with the Fit Quick Cooldown
or
Lesley Sansone Cooldown
I tend to vary this combination depending on time or my energy levels, but they used to tell you to think longtime. However much you do it will keep you slim and healthy over the year.
Great relief knowing the least amount we need to do.
If we do more it adds up for weeks when we do less.
You could chart your whole year if you want to be accurate.
I prefer to just work it out in my head and get a feel for it; my seratonin tells me if I haven’t done enough anyway.
Tuesday
Spa Day
Wednesday
Cardio and weights
Same as Monday ~ just do what you can or want to do.
Mini Review
This workout might surprise you.
Just try it and see what you think.
If you have been doing Rosemary Conley Salsacise, you will know some of these moves now.
I found it really doable, enjoyable and gave my head a good shake.
This is perfect for moving into English Wintertime or any other country that goes cold and dark around October.
It is just 35 minutes, so you can really go for it and tighten your assetts.
If you struggle with anything learn the footwork first.
I found I got stuck a few times, but got back with it really easily.
By the end of the month you will easily pick the whole routine up.
You get really hot so have a pint of water at hand and a mineral water spray bottle.
You can finish with these weights if you still have some energy.
I also want to try and get abs in 3 times a week.
Thursday
Yoga
Yoga Playlist
Yoga with applied functional fitness technique.
I’ve started doing the one move Sue Grant recommends on Fit Quick.
(Sue gears her videos to Older women but Functional Fitness itself is primarily for atheletes.
Friday Dance Class
I moved this to Friday Dance class as it is enough to do in one day.
Defy Gravity
Boost Day
If you prefer Salsasise you can still do Rosemary Conley.
Just rotate these each month.
Saturday Walk Club
Or
And
(If you still have some time and energy and are working on your abs like me)
You can change this around or do the Saturday Walk club on Weekend TV.
Some weeks I need to do a long walk like Tami Lee, then others a quick jog like Lesley Sansone.
I really needed high intensity in Joan Crawford Weekend so did Jessica Smith ~ that one is good for low seratonin in winter ~ really shifted a block.
Sunday
Rest day/spa day/declutter day
Evening Spa Catchup
If you want to keep on track but run out of time or energy
Conclusion
Now I tried the least amount of exercise I needed realise I need a lot more than the least amount.
(What I really need is a stepometer watch, I found a pre covid one from Avon but I can’t get it to work, the instructions are really small also and couldn’t find the English version. Could do with a really easy to use one.)
If we detox, we really need to do some level of exercise even if it is just the least amount.
If you can’t exercise during detox and suffer from low serotonin or sad, maybe a winter detox isn’t a good idea; you need to exercise more in winter not less or not at all.
The word sad doesn’t really help if you are feeling low the word cheery, cheerful, bubbly or bright would help more or jogging it along till summer comes back.
If the idea of excessive exercise annoys you just do the least amount.
I’m not a sun worshipper but even I love the idea of Hawaii, sunny Islands brightly coloured flowers, tiki and so forth in England during the Winter months.
I’ll try to share my love of the colder months with you in The Slimming and fashion calender and have now introduced The Interior design Calendar.
Just Bookmark in Chrome and scroll down each day.
Hope you enjoy this workout if you are struggling with exercise like me since covid.
I don’t make any money and the clicks go through to the creators.
I just want it to go back to normal soon.
I’m keeping the calendars if it ever does go back to normal as they do actually work ~ just wish fashion that fits properly would appear in the links, especially boots and coats if you live in England, in fact that would help with sad and low serotonin if women in England could have winter clothes that fitted properly again; we could go outside and get daylight again instead of having to have lamps.
Don’t get Sad get Mood enhanced!!!
Enjoy The October Workout
If you are stuck for TV, I load TV film and entertainment options up for the weekend. It isn’t what we want to do really but we find it cheers us up and we feel like we have had a weekend again.
Felt a bit low this week, made myself order the Hawaiin party fayre for the weekend and have shifted a block ~ looking forward to it now.
I keep doing it till Restaurants for everybody, TV that woprks, sociable pubs and cafes, fashion that fits, holidays abroad, basically anything that you are missing and that works comes back.
Hope The October Workout, TV and The Calendars help you move into Autumn.
Saphire
n.b.
If you hate the current trend for children and teenage boy style Halloween taking over the whole of October?
The Slimming/fashion Calendar is Countess Dracula; it is a daily dose of glamour magick from the goblet of Countess Elisabeth Nádasdy.
I look at it every morning in October and is more what I find normal advertising for an adult woman who is trying to make the best of herself in such miserable times.
I also got loads of the products last year and have been able to repeat purchase really easily ~ so you should be able to get anything you want from it too ~ treat yourself and have a good pamper!!!
(I don’t make any money from this ~ I’m just trying to make it normal again. I haven’t got anything else to do at the moment so it helps me focus.)
Then at the end of October is Countess Dracula Halloween Fortnight and the Halloween Party.
It cheered me up last year and gave me a boost of glamour so it will do that for you too.
Just bookmark the Calendar and October Workout into chrome for easy access. Once you’ve bookmarked the whole calendar just manage the current month to the front each month as the seasons change.
If covid ever goes away and fashion that fits comes back the links will be really useful.
At the end of the day we are all different with different exercise needs.
Hopefully there is something for you here.
Enjoy the October Workout
Saphire
SAPHIRE LIFESTYLE BLOG 