I went into this 21 Day Fix with thinking that it was going to be easy. I mean Autumn is cute, bubbly and adorable....what was she going to do to me? I spent January working out with Tony Horton (and P90X3) I spent last spring with Shaun T (Insanity) and this fall and winter lifting heavy with Chalene (Chalean Extreme) so a little 30 minute total body workout. I got this. I may even need to do doubles from the start because I am so-o-o above this. Ha!
Let me tell you that I haven't been able to walk all week. (And I did not start with doubles.) I am seriously hurting....in the best way possible. (That's what I get for thinking I was in shape and totally ready for this program!) I did push it when I could and there were some times I had to drop to the modifier too. My abs are no where near as strong as say my shoulders or legs (and I have some problems with my wrists so a lot of plank work and I am toast!)
As for the containers....I will tell you the first few days I was starving. I was all...no wonder people lost a ton of weight on this program. They starved it off. (So I drank a lot of tea in the mid-afternoon those first few days!)
But after Day 2, I was good. Good to the point where I was kind of forcing myself eat my containers. And I haven't been perfect about getting all of my containers in each day. As I sit here and write this I still have a purple and half a green container I can nosh on if I want. (Which the fact that I could still have a snack right now is very reassuring. It makes me want one less. Go figure.) So the containers are kind of awesome. They hold a lot of food....seriously. I had a mini-freak out when I got them and saw how small they were but once I filled them and dumped them onto a plate. I was amazed.
And I do love the fact that I get to bust out my favorite sharpie highlighters and color code my meal plan. (I have a highlighter/color coding addiction.) So the whole planning thing is right up my alley. It actually makes me WANT to meal plan (which for me is huge. Sitting down and making the meal plan is where I really struggle.)
I am really looking forward to week 2. The workouts are good. I won't say they are my favorite (I am still partial to Chalene Johnson and my Chalean Extreme and TurboFire hybrid.) I like lifting heavier weights and not doing as many reps as I can in a minute, but struggling to get to 8 or 10. But I do know it is good for me to mix it up. Muscle confusion is a good thing. And this is a great program for that. 30 minutes and done. (And I am loving the pilates that is thrown
in there.)
Here is my meal plan for week 2 (which making it this week was so much easier than last week!)
I do eat A LOT of eggs. The red container is my struggle. I try to avoid meat. It just isn't my thing. I also don't do soy. And since beans and quinoa (my go to sources for protein) are considered yellow containers, I just keep putting eggs in the red container. (I am either going to turn into an egg after these 21 days or start to hate them.) I think on this program there is going to be one container that is a struggle for everyone. It may be blue (if you love cheese!) or yellow (which I am so shocked that I am not in carb withdrawal!) I have learned that I do tend to eat mostly fruit and complex carbs (like beans and quinoa). I also learned that I thought I ate a lot of veggies but in reality, I was not eating near as many as I should. The containers really make me focus on my food groups, which I love. As of right now, I this is something I can adopt for a lifetime. And I can't wait!
If you would like to join me in this challenge or any other one, please message me or comment below.
I would love to have you!
I both love and hate starting new workouts. I love the excitement of something new and mixing it up. I love the potential for killer results. I even love how sore I am after starting something new or different from what I was doing. But I also hate starting new workouts. I hate not knowing what each DVD means (especially when they are called things like The Warrior -- what does that even mean except it is a workout for warriors. Maybe I should borrow my daughter's makeshift sword?) I hate not knowing what equipment I will need when. I hate not knowing all the moves and spending the extra time watching what they are doing, sometimes waiting for the modification and then skipping back to try and get the most out of my time doing the workout.
So during week one of P90X3 I followed the classic schedule which is designed to have the traditional balance of
cardio and resistance with muscle confusion. I am crazy sore and feel great but I also feel a little bit lacking in the cardio department (mark that down because this girl hates cardio!) So for week two I am going to switch it up and follow the lean schedule. Now the lean schedule isn't better for weight loss. It is just designed to have a bit more cardio so your results are a more toned look. Both lean and classic can work equally well for weight loss but with lean you target functionality, mobility and cardiovascular fitness instead of muscle hypertrophy (growth of muscle cells.) So after looking into both options further, I am opting to switch to the lean schedule.
Even though I am switching to the lean schedule I am scheduling a doubles day and keeping The Challenge in the rotation. I LOVE it. It is so hard. Essentially for 30 minutes you alternate pull ups and push ups. Since I suck at push ups, I feel this is a personal mountain I need to climb. I want to be an awesome push up doer (and to be able to do them ALL on my toes. But looking at the fact that last year at this time I could barely do five on my knees, I have come a long way! Yay for non-scale victories!)
CVX was another awesome workout (it might be my favorite) that I am so happy to see included in the lean schedule. It cardio with weights. That had me dripping sweat and feeling like I was going to die (in the best way possible!)
And I lost three pounds this week. Whoo hoo! Even with messing up my meal plan big time due to schedule changes, weather problems, unexpected meetups with friends we haven't seen in forever and all that stuff we like to call life happening. This is a double edged sword for me because I have trouble keeping my eyes from wandering over to the whole "well what would my results be like if I did what I was supposed to do?"
So my big week two goal? Follow my meal plan.
I am also going to be running a new challenge group starting on January 20th. If you would like to join me in a New Year New You challenge or would like more info please fill out the application here.
October is here. Time for the nights to start getting colder (and for me to start freezing at Friday night football games) and for everything to officially become pumpkin flavored. Everything. (Sometimes I feel bad for other yummy fall members of the squash family. Like the butternut squash and the acorn squash which are both just as yummy -- if not yummier -- than the pumpkin.)
So other than October being the month where pumpkin should be running through our veins it also means that within the blink of an eye the holidays will be upon us. (And in a house where I am running around like a crazy person 99% of the time this is more like a half a blink.) 53 days until Thanksgiving. 79 days until Christmas. 86 days until New Years. Eeek! Time to start freaking out a little bit. (or a lot!) Christmas shopping, juggling family obligations, fighting about who is hosting what holiday and what they are going to make. (Because if I have to eat anyone's stuffing other than my mom's, there will be words. Hands down the best.) And of course there is the obligatory family photo for on the Christmas cards and the one relative who always had a camera attached to his face (and typically captures photos of me eating. Because honestly, when I am dead and gone that is what I want everyone to see. Me stuffing my face at every family get together.) So I spend much of my holiday dodging the sniper with a camera and buying at least a dozen outfits in an attempt to find one that makes me look the skinniest (because we all know those who get the Christmas cards are those we rarely see and the whole point is for them to know you are thinking of them and that you want them to see how great you look and how cute your kids are.)
So what if we could rock any outfit we choose (and skip the fashion show that happens right before the picture) and actually enjoy the fact that there is someone running around with a camera and embrace the "Me, me! Right here! I am ready for my close up" attitude?
Welcome to the Rocktober challenge!
Here is how it would work --
For 60 days I would put you in a closed Facebook group with others trying to achieve the same goal (including me! yay!) We will break our goals down into 30 day and 60 day goals. We will talk about clean eating, meal preparation, meal planning and everything you need to get set up for success. We will measure progress by not just using the scale but by measurements and photos (I know. Super scary but when you think you aren't making any progress it is amazing to see what you actually done in the photos. Believe me. I've been there! (To see the first part of my journey check this out.) We will do this on Day 1, Day 30 and Day 60.
We will post daily in the group and rate our day on a scale of 1-5, 5 being the best and 1 being the worst. We will rate our diet and our exercise (basically how hard you brought it!) and whether or not we had our Shakeology.
We will commit to trying out Shakeology for 60 days. I know once I did it, I fell in love with the
energy I had and how great I felt from getting all the nutrients I need. (*Side note* my nails look awesome. Better than when I was on prenatal vitamins. It is my current obsession since I have struggled with weak and peeling nails forever! One of the perks I didn't know I was going to get.) So Shakeology is going to fuel your body (key word fuel) with the vitamins and nutrients you need throughout the day. And there is a 30 day guarantee on Shakeology so if it isn't working for you, we'll talk (and you get your money back.) --For more on my experience Shakeology read this. AND you can totally make pumpkin Shakeology. (It is awesome.)
We will eat clean. (For more info on what that means read this.) But basically just strive to eat real, whole food. No chemicals and no processed food. I will provide you with recipe ideas, meal planning and all the tools that have worked so far for me on this journey.
We will also commit to working out 5-6 days a week. I don't care if you run, walk or lift. Just get that body moving! If you already workout regularly think about stepping up your game. Adding some weight training to your cardio. If you don't have an exercise regimen we can talk about options. If you are interested in trying a Beachbody program, we can talk about that too and get you set up with something that totally works for you. There are so many options outside of P90x and Insanity (which I feel gets all the love) so if hard core intensity isn't for you, we can totally find something that is. I am currently doing TurboFire and am in LOVE with it. It really gives my inner cheerleader some much needed attention. I have found success with the at home programs from BeachBody because they are a killer workout and they all come with a schedule. So I can wake up, get my toddler some breakfast and toss in a movie, look at the schedule, pop in a DVD and press play. I don't have to worry about getting her ready to go to the gym with me or what series of exercises I am going to do that day. I know me and I need that schedule. I get really freaked out if I am going to miss a day and "mess up" the schedule or the order. But whatever works for you, we will make it happen.
Plus I will give you daily motivation, tips and tricks and share all the research I have accrued over the last few months.
If this sounds like something you would love to do contact me! I am going to have TWO groups enrolling this month. One starting October 14th and the other starting October 28th.
And honestly who wouldn't like to meet their New Years resolution before New Years? How amazing would that be?
When I ordered Insanity, I had just done a month of bootcamp (with a Groupon) and was in love. I was getting up at 5 and busting my hump 5 days a week. My month with my Groupon was almost over (and I couldn't afford to stay without the discount) and I didn't want to lose the incentive or the good habits I had started. The infomercial for Insanity came on and I thought why not? I proved I could do more than I thought by taking a bootcamp class for a month, maybe this was step 2. Go big or go home. And really how much harder could it be?
Ummm....so much harder. So much harder that I couldn't even get through the warm up without
pausing the dvd to catch my breath. Yes. The warmup. I was all wait a minute this is the warm up? I thought I just did the workout. This whole your workout is my warm-up thing I see floating around on the internet. Totally true. Jillian Michaels so did not prepare me for this. Neither did my beloved bootcamp.
Despite the difficulty, I was pumped. And that adrenalin and excitement got me through the first two weeks. Granted, week 1 I spent a lot more time watching than participating. I focused on what I could do and had to base my progress off of that, because if I didn't I would just quit. (Or go crazy because sometimes I just wanted to punch those people on the video in the face. Cheering and smiling while I was trying not to puke. Dude, I don't know if you know what type of activity constitutes cheering and smiling, but I assure you, this is not it. Go get drunk in a bar and dance on a table. Ride a roller coaster. Something.)
And then week 3 hit. I was tired. I didn't want to do it. When I was lacing up my sneakers, it seemed like every part of my body was whining, please don't make me! But I had joined a challenge group (something that was so not me.) And I had to post every. single. day. to strangers if I had worked out. Sure, I could lie. But I wasn't going to let strangers beat me by getting better results than me. (I have just a teeny tiny competitive streak.) I mean they were people I didn't even know. I could totally crush them. That is what kept me going. And as much as I didn't want to admit it, the challenge group was worth it. I had always scoffed at the idea of online support in the past. I mean talking to strangers on the internet was so 1994. I was envisioning something like a chat room (cue the dial up internet humming to life in the background) where people whined about how someone brought cake to the office. And that cake is the devil and that person is just so mean to sabotage your diet like that. They must be jealous. Or hate you. But it was just people posting about how well they worked out or ate. Some motivational stuff thrown in there by my coach. Just that little thing, posting in there every day about how well I did, gave me enough to push through the horrible third week.
By week 4 the end of month 1 was in sight! Whoo hoo! But at the end of week 4, I didn't feel ready to move on. What if it's harder? What if I can't even do anything? So I repeated week 4. Then I temporarily relocated across the country, dealt with packing and travel and jet lag. Did the recovery week. But by that point it had been a week and a half since I had done a death by cardio workout. So I was afraid. And I repeated week 4. Again. Ugh. Talk about being sick of Shawn T. Totaling up the weeks, I should have been almost done with this program. At this point, I was only halfway through. I had also finally broken down and told people (besides my online pretend friends) that I had bought the program and was doing it. So real people would know if I didn't do it. Grrrr....
I was pleased to find that month 2 was a little less death by cardio and a little more strength. I was so excited for it to be different. Yay variety! There is still crazy cardio in there but it didn't feel like a form of torture. It was good. I was good. Don't get me wrong I was still super excited for all the leg kicking but the cardio didn't make me feel like I wanted to die. Or just lay on the ground until John came home from work to physically pry my body off of the floor. Month 2 was good. I got through it. I had some pains toward the end, in my back and my wrists. But it was all downhill. If it wasn't for the finish line being right there, I may have thrown in the towel the last week. I was so ready to be done. And now I am so glad I didn't quit.
So here is the good:
The workouts are all pretty much under an hour. The first month they are 30-45 minutes. The second month they jump to 45-60 and the one or two days a week you ad the cardio abs maybe a smidge longer.
Despite all of my setbacks, I saw results. I didn't follow the meal plan. I wasn't a crazy person about my food intake. We did a temporary relocation across the country. We ate pizza and take out around that time. More often than I should have. On average I still ate pizza once a week. I still drank beer. And I still had successes.
The month one warm-up is the same on every dvd. Month 2's warm up is very similar on all the month 2 dvd's. I liked this because I knew what to expect.
I feel so much stronger. I can do things now, at the end of the program, I couldn't do at the beginning.
You stretch. A lot for a home fitness dvd. I was impressed with the amount of stretching he did in each video.
My flexibility has also increased. I've always been pretty flexible, but nothing compared to when I cheered and used and stretched those muscles all the time. Thanks to all the stretching built in, I am way more flexible than when I started.
My core is so much stronger. As a result, my balance is even better. (I've always had pretty good balance.)
The bad:
It does get a little bit repetitive. (Or maybe because I added the extra weeks I was annoyed by this and ready to break up with my new exercise boyfriend.)
The month one warm-up is the same on every DVD. Month 2's warm up is very similar on all the month 2 DVD's. (Both good & bad in my opinion. It depended on the day and what kind of mood I was in.)
The stretching is almost always the same.
I never was able to come close to competing with the people on the video who can jump like ninjas. Ugh. Maybe next time.
And there is so much jumping. If you have any problems in your back or your knees, this is not the workout to try. The ugly:
By the end my lower back was starting to hurt - especially when doing things like power jumps. I modified those the last 2 weeks.
My wrists also started hurting. There are more push up and plank based exercises (sometimes those are combined) in month 2. For someone who has weak wrists (this girl right here) it was extremely difficult and I had to modify.
Total, I lost 9 lbs, 9.5 inches overall including 2 inches off my waist! Those are some pretty good results, all things considered. I'm not going to be recruited for an Insanity infomercial anytime soon, but I am pleased with where I am.
In reality, Insanity was way out of my league. I am now compeltely comfortable admiting that. Despite my best efforts, I could never really do push up jacks followed by ab push ups followed by in and out abs. When I started I couldn't even do a push up off my knees! I may not be able to do the crazy combination above for a minute strait but I can do a push up now (on my toes!) My core is so much stronger. My cardio endurance is so much better. I started running again. Despite not having run so much as a mile since before my daughter was born, I was able to go out there and actually run a mile. Better than I ever had before, even when I was making an attempt at running daily. (I really am a terrible runner, despite my best efforts.)
Had I been in better shape when I started, I think my results would have been better. But I am still so happy with what Insanity has given me. It gave me a schedule. I am now in the habit of working out 6 days a week without pause. It's just what I do. Completing Insanity was something I needed more for my mental state than my physical. Finishing has given me such a feeling of accomplishment. That I can do anything. That I will get there, even if I'm not there yet.
Last Insanity Workout Done! Yay!
I am excited to try Insanity again, although not anytime soon. My boyfriend, Shawn T, and I just need a break. I mean it was good while it lasted. Great, some days. But I just need some time. I learned a lot in the time we spent together and emerged a much stronger person, maybe even a better person. I learned to push my limits and what I am really capable of. But I am ready to move on and find someone I am a little more compatible with every day.
My husband calls me a hobby dropper. I get something new. I love it to the point of obsession. I fill my hours and days with research about it and participation. And about a month later, I am sick of it and move onto the next shiny, sparkly thing I find.
I have reached that point with Insanity. I was so pumped to get it in the mail and get started. Even though the first week (or two) were so hard I spend more time on the ground than actually working out, I was pumped to run down to the basement every morning and work out. I creeped around the Beachbody message boards to see what everyone else was saying. I poked around on some Insanity survivors' blogs to see what their advice was and what their results were (I love seeing the before and after pictures - exercise porn!) I would get sucked in for hours dreaming that those would be my results too. I tracked my calories. Invested in a BodyMedia Fit band (which is kick ass by the way and I will talk about soon.) Planned my meals. A week in I even gave up all my hesitation about the online support groups and contacted a colleague of mine to be my coach. She had great success and honestly if I was going to do this, I was going to do this. I signed up for a challenge group. Ordered Shakeology to try it out for a while. I was driven. I was going to do this.
I struggled to finish month 1 but made it through to the month 2 workouts. When I stared the new workouts, Insanity was all shiny and new again. The workouts were different. Yay!
Well the sparkle started to wane before the week was up. Every step of this week so far (and even the end of last week) has been so hard. I don't want to press play. I don't want to look at Shawn T's face anymore. I am sick of it. (Ironically, this lined up with reporting my 30 challenge group progress. I saw results in my pictures, weight and measurements this still was not enough to push me through.) I was dragging ass when I pushed play not giving it my all. There was no digging deeper. So what was the point. This is where I had to stop and assess what exactly I was doing.
Why am I doing this? Am I trying to make myself crazy? No, I want to see some results and not drop this hobby so my hubby can't say I told you so. (The monetary investment isn't anything to sneeze at either...)
So today I busted out my old gym playlist. I haven't really touched it since I let my gym membership lapse when I was pregnant (which was in 2010.) And I busted a groove. Music seriously motivates me. I love to dance and shake my ass. So I turned off the terrible music that plays in the background of the DVD's (sorry Beachbody, but it's bad) and I turned some Brittany on. I love me some poppy dance tunes and it never fail to not only put me in a better mood but to get me off my ass. I did what I used to do when I would run on the treadmill for an hour, I choreographed in my head. This maybe really weird but if in my brain I am dancing around (and not doing squat jumps or pushups) it really helps. During the water breaks, I wasn't laying on the floor praying for the minutes to move faster. I was dancing around in circles with my toddler. And then was ready 30 seconds later when it was go time. It was so motivating. I've had the best workout I've had in a few days.
Today's lesson: Find what motivates you and use it! As humans, we get bored easily so mix it up. Make it shiny and new everyday and your workout will feel less like work and more like a dance party (for me anyway.)
And when I am sick of my late 80's -90's jams I may just turn on some Pandora. I am hoping this will keep me moving and grooving (and sticking with this Insanity program) for another couple of weeks. Because I will finish this time.
