Get Fit

Today I did the Max Interval Circuit and I did it better than I ever have before! I didn’t pause the video to take breaks like I typically do and I pushed myself hard and felt really good while doing it. Once I finished there was a definite sense of accomplishment! And I only have this video one more time before I finish Insanity! That’s crazy!!! I have 1 week and 2 days left until I’m done which I could not be happier about! I’m really excited to experiment with different exercises and find a good routine that I can stick with again for a while. I love the structure of Insanity and knowing exactly which workout I’m going to do on which day, so eventually I’m definitely going to have to create a steady schedule for myself. I know that I want to get to the gym and lift weights more. I really love lifting but it leaves my muscles dead which isn’t the best for Insanity. So I’d like to lift about 3 times a week and then do 3 days of cardio. I’m definitely going to incorporate some Insanity though because I definitely didn’t do all of this for nothing and I feel like no matter what I do after this, I’ll be taking a step down from Insanity. So for cardio I’m going to incorporate maybe 2 or 3 days of Insanity a week. I’ve heard good things about the 30 day shred too, so I may try that at some point too. And I really want to try to run more, which I don’t particularly like, but I’d still like to incorporate it. Gahhh, so many things I want to try! I’ll probably just experiment with all of them until I find a routine that I can stick with and works for me. I’m just excited and also nervous to have that freedom to formulate my own schedule in a little over a week!

So I know I haven’t been posting very much lately but I promise I’m really going to try and change that! Besides the fact that I really haven’t been documenting my workouts, I have been doing them! I have less than 2 weeks of Insanity left, which I could not be any happier about. Each day is kinda a daily battle with myself I convince myself to do Insanity, but in the end I always end up doing it.

I haven’t been eating great but not awful either. I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that there are certain foods I’m just not willing to part with. And I’d rather work my ass off working out than give up those things. Mainly dessert. I absolutely love to bake and although I’ve tried out new healthier recipes, sometimes you just need a chocolate chip cookie, or two. I have made some healthier eating changes that were simply not a part of my lifestyle 2 months ago. I almost exclusively eat whole wheat bread, besides an occasional plain bagel. And I only drink water now where before I would drink soda or sugary juices like lemonade all the time. So those are a few important healthy changes that I have stuck with and really enjoy.

I’ll post again later after I do today’s Insanity to give you all a decent workout update. Thank for waiting patiently while I rebuilt my fitness and fitblr motivation!

I’ve been pushing myself with my Insanity workouts now that I’m back from vacation and even though the first day of starting it back up sucked after not doing it for 5 or 6 days, I’m finally in a good place again! I could definitely be eating better but I’m going to get that on track tomorrow when I go food shopping for some nice healthy stuff. But at least my exercise is back on track. Today, I did Max Cardio Conditioning and Cardio Abs. I still pause the video for Max Cardio Conditioning every once in a while because they don’t take any water breaks in that video but overall my breaks are shorter and I feel like I’m getting stronger and pushing myself harder. Cardio Abs which I haven’t done since Month 1 of Insanity also felt SO much easier! Now that I’m used to doing an hour or more of Insanity daily, an extra video of only 15 minutes doesn’t seem so bad. It still makes me abs burn even though it’s so short, which I love because few exercises leave my core feeling sore and my abs are an area that I’d really like to target and tone.

Random side note: my hamstrings are killing me after my legs day at the gym 2 days ago. I hadn’t been to the gym in almost 2 weeks and I focused entirely on leg machines and my hamstrings are definitely feeling it. They’re super tight and uncomfortable but I’m sure it’ll pass within a couple of days. In the meantime, I had my dad give them a good massage with some Tylenol Precise Cream (basically Icy Hot), so I put him to work on Father’s Day. Thanks, Daddy :)

Just have one more day of Insanity and an off day, and then I’m officially done with Month 2 Week 2 of Insanity! Cannot wait to be done with you, Shaun T.

Today I did the Max Interval Circuit and really pushed myself since I’m trying to get back on track after skipping about 5 days of Insanity from being on vacation. I still had the pause the video a few times and catch my breath but I felt so good doing it! Today was exactly the motivation that I needed to start feeling good about my fitness journey again. I know I’m going to regret saying this tomorrow, but I’m actually looking forward to Max Interval Plyo for tomorrow’s workout!

I got home from Nashville last night and let me just start out by saying that it was incredible! I’m seriously moving there as soon as I graduate college in a couple years. I went for CMA Fest which is a huge country music festival. I got to see pretty much every big name in country music perform like Blake Shelton, Lady Antebellum, Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill, Rascal Flatts, etc. You name them and they were probably there. I also got to meet a bunch of the celebrities which was really cool. Downsides: vacation food is not my friend. We ate every single meal out and I can’t even begin to count the amount of hamburgers I ate. I also didn’t exercise or do Insanity at all. I hadn’t missed a single day up until now so that kinda bummed me out. I just don’t feel good about myself mentally now because I ate poorly and didn’t exercise. I woke up every day around 6:30 and didn’t get in until after midnight every night so there wasn’t much time left in my day other than to sleep. I’m not sure whether I physically gained weight or not because I refuse to get on the scale for at least a week until I get my groove back with Insanity and healthy eating and start to feel better about myself. I just don’t want to see a drastic weight change and then put myself in an even worse position mentally. So I’m ditching the scale for now.

Today I did Max Cardio Conditioning from Month 2, Week 2 of Insanity. When I was on vacation before the festival started and things got really busy, I did 2 days of Month 2, Week 2 of Insanity but I’m just going to repeat this week all together. Right now I should technically be on Day 53 of Insanity but instead I’m at Day 44. Not a huge drawback but certainly enough for me to not feel good about skipping. I felt really sluggish doing the workout today and I had to pause the video and take a bunch of breaks. I’m not sure if it’s more of a mental or physical thing about missing, maybe a bit of both. If I can just eat healthy this week and push my way through Insanity then I feel like I’ll be in a much better mental state and get back into the swing of things again. This transition is just rough in the meantime.

So as I’ve said before I’m on vacation in Nashville now for CMA Fest. And it’s INCREDIBLE!! I seriously want to live here someday. And someday soon. CMA Fest is craziness for those who don’t know. It’s pretty much nonstop meet and greets and concerts and activities with the biggest names in country music. Basically my dream come true. But the schedule is just too much for me to find time to workout. Luckily, I’ve been walking miles around Nashville so that has to count a little bit. So rather than beat myself over going out to eat and enjoying myself and not doing Insanity, I’m going to just take a break until my vacation is over. Once I get back home, I’m going to repeat this week’s Insanity which I already did 2 days of anyway so technically I’ll have added an additional 2 days once I finish the program. Up until now I haven’t missed a single day of Insanity either. I will finish Insanity, and I will meet my goals, and one week of vacation and giving myself a little bit of leeway is not going to change that. See you in a week Shaun T.

This morning at 6am my parents and I left to begin the drive from New Jersey to Tennessee for vacation. We’re going to CMA Fest which I’m SUPER stoked about and my friend from home is flying into Nashville on Wednesday night to join us. One thing that I’m not super excited about if vacation and road trip food. My parents decided we were stopping at Cracker Barrel for breakfast AND dinner today. I ate 4 pieces of sourdough french toast with maple syrup and bacon for breakfast and then grilled chicken tenders with honey mustard, coleslaw, pinto beans, and fried apples for dinner. Not to mention half of my leftover Chipotle from the night before for lunch. So needless to say I did not eat well at all and didn’t feel good because of it. Physically I felt okay besides being full and bloated but mentally I felt like crap for eating so badly when I had been doing so well at home.

The absolute last thing I wanted to do today after eating my giant dinner was my Insanity workout. Especially since we’re staying in a hotel. But at 9pm even though I was still incredibly full and I hate working out when I’m super full I decided to push through and do the video. I had Max Cardio Conditioning today and it pretty much sucked. I was working out in a tiny corner of our hotel room and being so full and sluggish I took more breaks than I think I ever have in Insanity. I kept pausing the video so I wouldn’t actually miss anything, but the important part is that I kept getting back up and hitting play again. I ended up burning 587 calories today which is the most I’ve ever burned from Insanity. That could’ve been because my body had to work harder to keep up with the video today, I’m not quite sure, I’m just happy I even completed today’s video. This next week that I’m on vacation is definitely going to be tough. Eating out every meal plus being super busy plus hotel room workouts will not be my friend. But if I can get through this one week, everything else will fall into place and seem easy in comparison.

The last 2 days haven’t really been the best for me eating wise. I decided to stop using myfitnesspal because I’m always under my calorie limit since I’m trying to maintain my body weight & not lose, it allows me over 2,000 calories after exercise most days. I do sometimes go over my sodium and sugar intake, but by now I know enough about nutrition and if something contains a lot of sodium, etc. Regardless, I stopped using the program. I’m not sure if no longer being held accountable for my food intake had anything to do with it, but I’ve been binge eating for the past 2 days. Everything should be in moderation, so even though I’ve been binging on relatively healthy foods like cliff bars, bagel chips, and a chocolate fudge pie made with tofu, it’s still not a healthy habit. I think I just need to focus and remove distractions because most of my binge eating sessions from the past couple of days came when I was preoccupied like when I was watching tv or on my computer so I didn’t even realize how many bagel chips I was eating until I looked in the bag and saw it was nearly empty. Food is also much less satisfying that way. I also have a tendency to eat when I’m bored or stressed out and I’ve been both of those lately so I think that also played a role.

Now onto the Bachelorette. I’m not gonna lie, this show is my guilty pleasure. I was too busy to do Insanity all during the day since I leave for Nashville tomorrow and was running errands and doing last minute packing all day. But, I told myself I would workout this evening before dinner. I was so busy running around that I didn’t eat a good lunch so by the time I should have been working out I just didn’t have the energy and told myself I would eat first, digest for a little, and then do Insanity. 7:00 rolls around and I’m just eating dinner. Next thing I know, I’m crazy full off of Chipotle (not exactly the best pre-workout meal) and the Bachelorette was starting in 30 minutes. The Insanity workout for today, Max Cardio Conditioning, is 50 minutes so I knew it would cut into Bachelorette time, so I told myself I would wait until the 2 hours of the Bachelorette ended at 10pm and workout since I would’ve had time to digest by then. Finally it ended (p.s. she shouldn’t have gotten rid of Charlie when Ryan and Kalon are jerks), and the last thing I wanted to do was workout. But I did it! Was I sluggish, still grossly full, and kind of unmotivated? Yes. Did I do my absolutely best? Not really? Was I still exhausted and sweating like a pig? Yes. Did my heart rate monitor consistently malfunction during my workout? Also yes. But I did it when it would’ve been easier to just say “eh, what’s one day? I’m going to skip this workout.” and for that one reason, I’m proud.

Today was one of those days where I had absolutely zero motivation to workout. We all have those days but the important part is to remember your goals and do it anyway, and that’s exactly what I did. I started the warmup and the first circuit off really strong and saw a definite improvement in my performance from the first time I did this video earlier in the week. I ended up losing steam about halfway through the video and then had to keep pausing the video and taking breaks to catch my breath and give my muscles a second to relax. It pretty much felt like the longer hour of my life, but when I was done I felt so good and accomplished. Tomorrow will be the end of my first week of Insanity Month 2. I can’t believe I only have 23 days left in the entire program! Almost 2/3 of the way there! I can do this.

Today’s Insanity video was Max Recovery. Note to self: make sure to do the transitions from high to low plank on a yoga mat instead of a carpet in the future. My elbows are completely rug burned. The slow pushups are not my friend either. Normal pushups, no problem. But the second you slow them down to take 4 seconds going down and then another 4 going up, it takes your average pushup to a whole different level. The good news about the video is that it didn’t leave me out of breath, just left my muscles shaking (is it weird that I consider that a good thing?).

I ate really well all day which I’m really proud of. And I definitely need to keep up the good eating now because I’m going to Nashville in 5 days and I’ll be eating pretty much all of my meals out at restaurants where the portion sizes are out of control and it’s just generally harder to eat healthy. I’m definitely going to do my best to eat well & keep up with the Insanity exercises by waking up really early and doing them off my laptop in a hotel room. So that should be ummm…interesting.

I also decided to give Pilates a try today! I’ve never done Pilates before but figured that Recovery day would be a good opportunity to test it out since I wouldn’t be entirely dead. I did this youtube video meant for Pilates beginners: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCg_gh_fppI

It incorporated a lot of stretching, leg work, and breathing. I only burned 64 calories in 28 minutes, but it wasn’t about the calorie burn to me. It was more about keeping my core tight, practicing my breathing, and getting in a much needed stretch. It was very calming too, which was a welcome change from Insanity. I think I’m going to incorporate different Pilates videos into my workout routines more often.