Beachbody Challenge Update #4 (Final)

Challenge is done.

But my work is far from over.

I was anxious to compare my before/after pictures and before/after measurements (which I totally took incorrectly the first time...).  While I feel a big sense of pride in myself for making a change/dent in those 30 days - I feel a little disappointment too.  Not a 'woe is me,' disappointment, but an, 'oh...' disappointment.  As if I was expecting more.

I know I am my own worst critic and am going to analyze (OK, over analyze) my bod and flaws more than anyone, but I guess I just "felt" better about my progress before comparing the pictures and measurements.  If that makes any sense at all.

What's important is that deep down, I know that I've worked really hard and did my best - so I need to cut myself some slack and be proud of what I have accomplished in these 30 days.  And I am proud!  I guess the feeling of slight disappointment is just fuel to motivate me to continue working and keep working harder.

I must have asked Ryan every day for the past month, "How am I looking?"  Poor guy.  I've never been that person either but I needed that encouragement that my hard work was noticeable.  Just the other night I asked and he said, "Definitely less jiggly."  Gotta love honesty.

I am thankful for this challenge and the opportunity to get my jiggle in gear.  When I get down on myself, I need to remember that I met both of the goals I set to achieve - lose a little bit of weight and tone up.  I did that! Today, I feel stronger, healthier, and happier then I did 30 days ago.

The work doesn't stop here!

Source

Take Luck,

LP

Beachbody Challenge Update #3

Three weeks down.

Getting my booty up and going on my workouts has been more of a challenge, as of late.  But, once I'm going - I'm golden.  And sweaty. 

Why I'm lacking motivation recently?  I really can't say because I have been really happy with the progress I've made in these three short weeks.  My goal had two parts - one, to lose the weight I was hanging onto, and two, to tone up.  I'm happy to say I've achieved both.  Although, I still have some work to do with the latter.  Baby steps, people.

I have never been (and will never be) a teeny-tiny-skinny-mini.  I'm just not built that way.  I have athletic meat on these bones that seems to be permanently affixed to the old bod.  Even though I still have work to do (and one more week of personal butt kicking before this challenge is over!), I feel comfortable in my skin again... My new mama skin.  The scale may say I'm back at my pre-pregnancy weight - but my body is different.  And I'm OK with that.  I feel like I subconsciously had to be OK with it before I knew I was ready to become a mama.

Next week I'll share my before and after pictures.  It may take a cocktail (or two) before I get up the guts to publish that post - but I hope it will be proof and motivation for others that you can make the positive changes you want to see in your body.  The physical changes in my body are second to the changes in how I feel about myself.  I'm proud for accomplishing my workouts, feeling healthier, and feeling stronger.  Seeing my body change and bounce back is really just icing on the cake. 

The really good, cream cheese icing.

Source

Take Luck,

LP

Beachbody Challenge Update #2

Two weeks down.

My biggest challenge is still carving out that time each day to dedicate to my workouts with Shaun T.  However, this week I realized that I need to stop stressing about getting the workouts done in one swoop.  Doing the workout with interruptions is better than not doing the workout at all.  Agreed?

One thing I really like about this program (Insanity: Asylum) is that I don't dread any particular workout.  Sure, there are exercises that I enjoy (er, tolerate) more than others - but overall, it changes things up enough to keep things interesting (er, tolerable).

Eating has been somewhat of a challenge.  You'd think I meant that I'm struggling to make healthy food choices and eat less, but the funny thing is - I feel like I'm struggling to eat enough. Paleo eliminates a lot of foods I would normally eat (specifically processed foods and grains), which is good!  But I need to remember to replace those lost calories with the cleaner and healthier alternatives.  By no means did I intend for this to be an actual diet and substantially eliminate calories.

Marta, our challenge coach, encouraged us to weigh ourselves this weekend, and I was initially very nervous to do that.  Pre-pregnancy, I was never too worried about my weight - and by that I mean the actual number on the scale.  I always went by how I felt and how my clothes were fitting.  Just before getting pregnant, I kept an eye on my weight mostly because I wanted to 1) know what my baseline was, 2) track my weight gain through my pregnancy (even though that was super depressing...) and 3) make sure I got back to that baseline weight post-baby. 

Anyway, my concern was this: I'm feeling good - what if the scale tells me differently?  I didn't want to be discouraged and have the scale tell me that my hard work wasn't doing as much as I thought it was.  I voiced my concern to Marta, so she encouraged me to wait until the end to step on the scale.

So, what did I do?  Weighed myself (of course!) because curiosity got the best of me.  And ya know what, it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for - but it gave me a boost of motivation to just keep working and keep working harder.

Afterall, I am the one that's in charge of this change.

Here's to another week of working my ass off.  Literally.

Source

Take Luck,
LP

Beachbody Challenge Update #1

As of yesterday, I completed the first week of Marta's Beachbody Challenge.

My biggest challenge hasn’t been the workouts themselves, but carving out 45-50 minutes of the afternoons/evenings to dedicate to the workouts.  Don't get me wrong - the workouts are definitely challenging.  But there's a young man in my life that just likes to interrupt me.  Apparently he likes my love handles.

The great news is - I am already seeing positive changes in my bod.  I'm not weighing myself until the end, so I'm purely going off of how I'm feeling about myself.  My momma told me on Saturday that she noticed my little tummy had gone down, and it totally encouraged me to bust it even harder during my workout on Sunday. 

Right before the start of this challenge, Ryan and I decided to start following a Paleo diet.  I guess I shouldn’t call it a diet, because I'm certainly not dieting - just trying to eat better.  Cleaner.  I will say that I find myself eating less because, well, there's less things that you can eat while eating Paleo.

If you don't know much about Paleo (Paleolithic Diet), it mimics the diets of our caveman ancestors and includes meats, seafood, vegetables, fruits, eggs, and nuts.  This means no grains, legumes, dairy, potatoes, refined sugars, salt, or processed foods.  My biggest challenge with this change in our eating is definitely the elimination of diary, grains, and processed foods.  Mama loves a bagel and/or a quick granola bar!  I'm not strictly following this diet, but trying to follow it as closely as possible.  I still have oatmeal for breakfast (good for breastmilk production) and Greek yogurt at lunch (good, quick source of protein).

So, between my Insanity: Asylum workouts, walking/jogging (OK, let's be honest - wogging), and eating Paleo - I am really happy with the changes so far and it's only been a week.  I feel less bloated (without even realizing that I felt bloated before), and may have a tiny increase in energy.  It's really hard for me to judge my energy levels right now as I'm still sleep deprived, but I am confident that it's not hurting me any!

Hopefully next week I'll have another good progress report to share.  

Source

Take Luck,

LP

Insanity

Getting my body back post-baby has been an interesting journey these past four months.  But I have to be honest and say that I haven't put forth a whole lot of effort.  I go in spurts of being good about walking/jogging - and those spurts are usually reflective of the weather and how busy I am with school.

Excuses, excuses.

While those are valid excuses, I'm tired of making them.  (And, by the way, in less than two weeks - one will no longer be an issue!)

About half of the 27 pounds I gained during my pregnancy came off pretty quickly after giving birth, but I was still hanging onto 10 or so pounds.  I know that breastfeeding helped, but I was sort of at a standstill.  Since returning to work (and running around like a crazy person), another 4 or 5 pounds have come off, leaving me with 5 or so pounds left to drop.

A couple of ladies I work with have told me that they are jealous of how quickly my body "bounced back."  I laugh, thank them for being too kind, and quickly retort, "You wouldn't be saying that if you saw me naked."

In all seriousness, even when I do get back to my pre-baby weight, I know my body isn't going to look the same as it did once upon a time.  And I struggle with that.  But I also look at my baby boy and know it was all worth it.

I have always been pretty fit and (overall) happy with my body, so seeing myself the way I do has been hard.  But again, I haven't taken it all super seriously, so it's up to me to make the changes necessary to see the results I want.

With that said, I'm getting ready to start a Beachbody Challenge that I'm doing with Haus of Girls.

With Marta as my coach, I purchased a Beachbody Challenge pack that included a Beachbody workout program (I chose Insanity: Asylum), 30 days worth of Shakeology, and her support.

We haven't started yet but this challenge is already motivating me to get my body back and into shape.  I say "already," and I mean that I got excited when a big box was delivered to our doorstep this morning.

I just finished my "Pre-Athletic Assessment" and it took about one minute for me to realize just how out of shape I am.  It also gave me frightening flashbacks of our strength training/conditioning practices with Mista Coach Klein in college.  I never want to hear or see the letters GPP together again.

Anyway, I took some "before" pictures last night and am eager to share my progress once this 30 day challenge is over - just in time for Memorial Day.

Here's to yelling at the TV, and telling Shaun T. that I hate his guts.

Wish me luck!

Take Luck,

LP