Monday Accountability - Week 4

I'm starting to feel really good about myself for sticking with this. Each week I get better about sticking to my plan, eating better, and staying on track. I had a rushed morning this morning though so I forgot to weigh in and check body fat...I'll do that tomorrow.

There were a couple changes to the plan from last week...most noteably:

- didn't get in my Thursday TurboFire workout
- added wall sits and sit ups to my Saturday workout (thank you Nate!)
- did a 1.5 mile run, negative pull ups to fatigue and push ups to fatigue (again, thank you Nate!) instead of my scheduled workouts Sunday; I'll do those today on what would normally be an off day.

Current / Goal Stats:

Weight: I'll check tomorrow...sorry! / goal is under 150 but more focused on...
Body Fat: again...I'll check tomorrow! / goal is under 22%

Nutrition Plan:
1500-1750 calories each day - I've been doing pretty well so far but I can always do better!

Workout Plan:
Monday (Day 7)
ChaLEAN Extreme Burn It Off + Recharge
TurboFire HIIT 20 + Stretch 10

Tuesday (Day 8)
ChaLEAN Extreme Burn Circuit 1
TurboFire HIIT 15 + Sculpt 30

Wednesday (Day 9)
ChaLEAN Extreme Scheduled Rest Day
TurboFire Fire 55 EZ

Thursday (Day 10)
ChaLEAN Extreme Burn Circuit 2
TurboFire Core 20 + Stretch 40

Friday (Day 11)
ChaLEAN Extreme Burn Intervals + Ab Burner
TurboFire Fire 45 + Stretch 10

Saturday (Day 12)
ChaLEAN Extreme Burn Circuit 3
TurboFire Fire 45 + Stretch 10

Sunday (Day 13)
ChaLEAN Extreme Burn it off + Recharge
TurboFire HIIT 25 + Stretch 10

And for a picture of the week: my progress so far! I keep track of my workouts in WOWY and I have the ChaLEAN Extreme program set as my auto schedule workout. The planned workouts are the little green lines and when I complete them, they turn blue. I took this screen shot on Saturday...so proud of being on track (even if it is just 4 days) so far this month! Make sure I keep posting these. I want a ton of blue lines!!

Shakeology cleanse

So as I mentioned yesterday, I'm starting this week with a Shakeology cleanse to "start clean" and hopefully break this plateau! I didn't do perfect on this yesterday but I'm still seeing results! The cleanse is fairly straight forward:

Shakeology cleanse directions:

1. Drink a shake for each of your three daily meals using water instead of milk to mix it. Add fruit to 1-2 of these shakes.

2. Flush your body by drinking plenty of water! Drink at least 3-4 liters of water per day. Eliminate any sport drinks, soda, alcoholic, caffeinated, and high sugar drinks. One cup of tea or coffee is allowed without added sugar or creamer.

3. Eat a light dinner (I actually normally do this for lunch as that's usually my biggest meal of the day) consisting of a salad with 4 ounces of white protein (fish or poultry) with a small amount of salad dressing that is light in calories (vinaigarette, olive oil, etc).

4. Repeat for three days.

This week I'm only doing a two day cleanse as my travel arrangements and weekend plans made a 3 day program near impossible. Two days can still have a good effect though so don't let missing that one day deter you from trying this!

I started yesterday at 160 lbs and 26.1% body fat. As of this morning, my weight is 157and I'm not checking for expecting my body fat to change much as the purpose of a cleanse is to rid your body of the toxins that build up in our systems as a result of the not-so-clean foods we all eat on a regular basis.
As I'm traveling tonight and will not have my scale on Wednesday morning, I can't promise that I'll be able to provide a final weight for this cleanse (trust me...I wish I could!) but I'll do my best to find a scale and get a final number. After the cleanse, I'll stick to my usual plan of eating healthy and controlled portions to meet my nutritional guidelines.

I'd love to help you try this!!

Monday Accountability: Week 3

Good morning everyone! Last week I did alright on my plan but I'm still frustrated with my results. Luckily, this weekend I was able to spend time with my dear friends, Jaime and Jason ...during which time Jaime and I  (with Jason's input!) talked about the frustrations we're both having with these plateaus we seem to have hit at the same time. I can't seem to break this 26.1% body fat / 150-155 lb level...I want to be leaner!

As with any workout program and nutrition plan, your body WILL adjust. You will hit plateaus and just because something worked in the past does not mean it will ALWAYS work and you need to mix it up from time to time....which is why she helped me create a new plan.

I need to do more resistance training and I need to start fresh. That is why today and tomorrow I will be doing a Shakeology cleanse (I would normally do 3 days but with my visit with Jaime and Jason and my travel plans this week that isn't possible this time) and tonight I'll be starting a new workout program help me break through! Instead of doing the TurboFire / ChaLEAN Extreme hybrid schedule, I'm going to do both programs in parallel starting such that my scheduled off day is Monday. As Jason and I talked, he suggested that I think about which program I believe will most help me achieve my goals and make that one the non-negotiable workout. This is what I love about the coaches with whom I surround myself - they respect that we have lives outside of fitness and are real about those implications. This doesn't mean that we use life as an excuse to miss workouts - NO EXCUSES! But it does mean that we are real about the fact that sometimes things happen and especially when you have two-a-days planned, things may happen that impede your ability to fulfill every piece of your plan. His suggestion was that I know and commit to one program as my primary so that when life does make it more difficult, I can be ok with just doing that one program on a particular day. Again, this doesn't mean I can make excuses to only do one but does mean that when life absolutely gets in the way, I will do my primary workout and move on. After thinking about his advice (and knowing that especially with my OCD tendencies, I need to do this) I've decided ChaLEAN Extreme is my primary plan. If my goal is to cut fat, I need to build and tone muscle and that's exactly what ChaLEAN Extreme is designed to do. That in mind, I'll be doing that set of workouts in the morning so I know that I won't miss them later in the day!

Current / Goal Stats:
Weight: 160 / goal is under 150 but more focused on...
Body Fat: 26.1% / goal is under 22%

Nutrition Plan:
Shakeology cleanse Monday and Tuesday
1500-1750 calories each day - I've been doing pretty well so far but I can always do better!

Workout Plan:
Monday (Day 0)
ChaLEAN Extreme Scheduled Rest Day
TurboFire Off Day
Tuesday (Day 1)
ChaLEAN Extreme Burn Circuit 1
TurboFire Fire 30 + Stretch 10


Wednesday (Day 2)
ChaLEAN Extreme Scheduled Rest Day
TurboFire Fire 55 EZ

Thursday (Day 3)
ChaLEAN Extreme Burn Circuit 2 (with resistance bands as I'll be on the road
TurboFire Fire 30 + Stretch 10

Friday (Day 4)
ChaLEAN Extreme Burn Intervals + Ab Burner
TurboFire Core 20 + Stretch 40

Saturday (Day 5)
ChaLEAN Extreme Burn Circuit 3
TurboFire Fire 45 + Stretch 10 (or whatever workout Nate and I do....)

Sunday (Day 6)
ChaLEAN Extreme Burn it off + Recharge
TurboFire HIIT 20 + Stretch 10 (I'll probably actually do this workout first...maybe with Nate?...so I can put max effort into my HIITs)

Me and Jaime after our TurboKick workout with Angie. Burned over 800 calories!!!!