Insanity Day 28

Woohoo! I made it through 1 month of Insanity!  This week will be a "recovery" week... I will be doing the same video all week before hitting it hard next month.  This is part of the program.  I already did the recovery video today, and I did still sweat and got my heart rate up.

Through the last week, I have really been focusing more on my eating habits.  I stopped eating candy/chocolate at work; it has become a habit to grab some candy every time I pass my secretary's desk.  Now that I haven't been eating it for a week, I don't miss it as much as I did the first two days.  It's sad that I was truly addicted to it.  It was a nice little pick-me-up to have several times throughout the day. lol

My food plan looked like this last week:   Greek yogurt with frozen fruit for breakfast, an apple for lunch, Muscle Milk light chocolate (100 calories, to be consumed 30 minutes before workout) after school, frozen fruit and/or hot tea with honey, and a small dinner.  No evening snacks.  This plan made me savor my food a lot more than I usually do!

My eating habits actually helped me lose about 3.5 pounds from Monday to Friday.  I worked out really hard on Saturday (yesterday) and I believe my muscles are holding in water (my weight went back up a little bit but I think it'll easily come back down this week as I will continue my eating plan).  My workout yesterday included:  stair master 70 floors (10 minutes), 5K on the rowing machine (28:28), and 5K jog on treadmill (28:50).  I also did ab work and pushups.  I did the most "boy" pushups I've ever done straight--- 40! My old record was 30, which I've been able to do the last few years.  Insanity is full of pushups so I can definitely tell a difference in my arm strength now.

I went shopping for a pair of capri jeans at Old Navy yesterday.  Now Old Navy does seem to run a little large in their size; as in, a size 10 at Old Navy might be a little more loose than a size 10 in another brand.  However, I have some very exciting news!!!! At my heaviest weight (220 pounds as a freshman in college) I wore a size 16.  For the last couple years, I've worn a size 10.  Yesterday, I fit comfortably in a size 8!!! I've been wearing a belt for a long time, haven't bought any new jeans since literally 2 Christmases ago, and I've been wondering what size I would be..... I finally found out!  The last time I remember fitting into single digit sizes was in elementary school!  Yesssssssssss!!!!!!!  Maybe by the end of Insanity I'll fit in a size 6?  We'll see.  One of my favorite parts of fitting in a size 8 is when I hold up the pair of capris, they don't even look that big.  I always hated holding up my pants over the last several years to see how large they looked, and I always denied they were that big.

Ok, here are my stats and pictures.  I included a picture of Day 1 vs. Day 28 to see the side-by-side comparison.  I feel like I am finally seeing results and can't wait to see how much more I change in the following 5 weeks!

Just an FYI, On the side view for Day 28, I am not sucking in at all.  Just flexing my abs as much as possible.  It looks kinda weird.

See you next week! :)

Insanity Day 21

It is the 21st day of Insanity, which means I am 1/3 of the way through the 9-week program.  I am still in the early stages, so I'm trying not to get discouraged by my [lack of] results, but it is tough to see few changes after working out 18 out of 21 days, and even adding extra workouts to some days.  It's disappointing that my weight is higher today than any other day this past week.  I had gotten down to 150.0 lbs and now I'm right back up to 153 again. Ugh.  I am hoping that with continued healthy eating and consistent exercise, I will see more results in the next 6 weeks.  I have to remind myself it's still early on in the program.

That said, I am feeling better, I have more endurance, and I'm finding my strength growing tremendously.  The other night, while watching a show, I decided to do 30 pushups every commercial break.  By the end of the show, I had done 150 pushups, and I'm talking full-on, "boy" pushups, parallel to the ground, 100% effort pushups.  That's something to be proud of.

Here are my stats and pictures.  If you look at the 1st and 21st day I *think* you can tell a difference in my stomach.

See ya next week.

Insanity Day 14

Hello, Day 14 of Insanity...
The more I've been working out, the more energy I've had.  I still haven't skipped any workouts, and I've even added a few of my own workouts here and there.

On Friday I did Insanity right after I got off work!  Usually on a Friday I  would have been so wiped out from the week, I would have just gone home and sat around.  However, after my Insanity workout, on a whim, I decided to go run at Capitol Lake.  Marathons and 5Ks are frequently done at this lake... 2 laps around equals 5K.  The last time I ran at the lake, a couple of months ago, I could only run 1 lap and had to stop and rest for awhile.  This time I made it my goal to run 2 complete laps without walking or stopping.  Guess what?! I did it!! I ran my first 5K straight!  The furthest I had ever run straight before this was 3 miles, but it was on a treadmill!   Treadmills are SO much easier than running outside.  I am so proud of myself for being able to run 5K.  I didn't have a timer on me, but I estimate it took 25-30 minutes.

Yesterday, I had the energy to go kayaking for 3 hours.  The grandmother (and classroom volunteer) of one of my students invited me and Collin out to have lunch and let us take out their kayaks.  They're so generous!! They have a beautiful home and live in an ideal place in Olympia: Boston Harbor.... where we discovered it costs $300,000 just to get 1 acre of land.  Most of the time we stayed near the beach, but on our way back we had to cut across some open water... and boy, was the water choppy!  It was pretty fun to hit the waves head-on and have water spraying all over the front of my kayak... I almost felt like I was kayaking down rapids :)  The only mistake I made in kayaking was failing to put sunscreen on my legs, so my legs are pretty upset with me today.  I didn't realize I'd be using a sit-on-top kayak.  Here are a couple pictures from the day:

So anyway, I need to get back to Insanity.  In photos I can't really tell a difference in my body tone and shape, but in real life I notice parts of my body are getting more toned... mainly my legs and my abs.  Here's a comparison of me before Insanity, 1 week into Insanity, and 2 weeks into Insanity (current):

I almost seem to have looked better last week than this week. LOL... Oh well.  I know my endurance is increasing, because I had to take the fit test again.  I improved in every area!
Also, I lost a few pounds, lost fat, and gained muscle!  Woohoo!

See ya again next week!  I am one-fourth of the way through the program! Several reviews say you see more results during the second half of the program, as you start doubling-up workouts.  Let's hope this is true!

Insanity Day 7

Week 1 of Insanity is complete!  My body aches, my calves are so sore I can't stand on my tip-toes without getting charlie horses, my back feels like a 70 year-old's, but I was dedicated all week and never fell off the exercise path.  I even added 2 extra workouts here and there.  I had lots of extra time because it was spring break, so I don't anticipate having much extra time (or energy) to add workouts when I get back to school this week.

I was worried that my bad knee would act up during this program, but so far the cracking has actually gone away!  Hopefully building the muscles around my knees will help them become more resilient.  I do have to say, these workouts are very comparable to stair climbing, as far as pure exhaustion goes.  However, I sweat a LOT more doing Insanity than stair climbing.  

Now, let's get to the numbers... good news: I lost an inch of my waist :) :) .  Bad news: I gained an inch on my hips (I'm assuming all the squats and lunges are building my glutes up... like I needed more of that??).  More bad news: I'm a pound heavier.  Good news: I know exactly why I'm a pound heavier and it has nothing to do with working out or eating. It should be down again next week. ;)

And here are the pictures of my progress so far.... can't really tell a difference, except I look a bit more confident in today's because I'm wearing makeup for the day.lol  Oh, and do you like my new workout outfit?  I got it at the Nike Outlet store in Chehalis.  I wanted to buy everything in there!  I also got a purple Livestrong dry-fit shirt that I ACTUALLY wear during workouts... you would never be able to catch me working out in just a sports bra and shorts :)

Thanks for checking in!  See ya next Sunday!

Insanity Day 1

Now that stair climbing season is over for a few months, I am taking on my next challenge.... to complete the Insanity workout program.  My goal is to tone up and to be committed by working out and pushing myself 100% each and every one of the 60 days.  I would love to see a dramatic change in my body fat and muscle composition.  After reviewing people's transformation stories, it seems that not a whole lot of weight is lost through this program, but fat is lost and muscle is gained.  Even so, I'm hoping to lose about 11-12 pounds. 

I've been debating whether I want to post before pictures yet... a part of me wants to save them until the end, if I'm actually successful, but another part of me knows that I'll push myself harder if I'm  publicly displaying my results.  Even though this idea terrifies me. 

Today I did the fit test, which is the first workout of the program.  It was very difficult, my heart was really pumping, I was breathing very heavily, and I discovered this is the only workout I've found so far that makes me feel the pure exhaustion that stair climbing does. 

Here are my fit test results, followed by my before pics (yikes!!!):

ew.

Wish me luck!  I'll be back again in 1 week!