Transform :20 - Week Two

I've finished the Commit stage of Transform :20!  Sunday starts Phase 2: Climb and that means I'm supposed to add a riser to my step.  Let's just way I'm not super sure how that will go!  This week was a huge challenge with no riser!

The workout are ordered the same way each week - Burn, Faster, Stronger, Powerful, Cut and Balanced.  Each week they are different but stay in the theme of the workout, meaning Burn and Faster are more fast-paced and Stronger and Cut are a bit slower (but not by any means easier).  Powerful pretty much wipes the floor with me.  I literally laid on the floor during the stretching at the end because I could not pick myself up!

This week I added Built Stronger 1.0 and really liked it.  I liked it enough that I did it twice.  It's still using the step, but incorporating weights.  I was super optimistic and started with 8's and quickly swapped them for 5's.  I think I could have stuck it out longer with the 8's though so that will be a goal for next week.

Here's what I did this week:
Monday - Burn and Built Stronger 1.0
Tuesday - Faster, 10 Min Abs and 4 mile run
Wednesday - Stronger, Built Stronger 1.0 and 10 min Abs
Thursday - Powerful and 5 mile run
Friday - Cut
Saturday - Balanced and 9 mile run
Sunday - rest, watch Transform Your Life with Shaun T and Challenge Group call :)

I wouldn't necessarily recommend doing the 10 min Abs two days in a row, it's just how my schedule worked out.  I probably should have done it again on Friday since it was  single workout day, but I was tired and 20 minutes seemed PLENTY.

Speaking of tired, coupling this program with half marathon training is not for the faint of heart.  I only run three days a week due to a prior injury, so my Tues/Thurs/Sat schedule seems very reasonable.  After all, its only 20 mins a day, right?  Wellllllll it's a LOT of leg work and by my Thursday afternoon run I felt like I was running in quicksand.  I think the cumulative effect of the workouts over the week ran me over like a bus on Thursday afternoon.  But, that's ok, means I'm working hard and my body is responding.

Speaking of responding - I'm wore a pair of jeans to work on Friday that I haven't work in over a year!  The scale hasn't moved a ton, I'm down about 2 pounds, but my body composition is changing and that's very encouraging.  I carry my weight around my middle and the only way I can describe how these jeans were fitting is "busted can of biscuits".  Two pounds isn't a lot, but the change in the way these jeans feel is pretty significant.  Winning!

I was not good about photographing my food this week, partly because I ate basically the same stuff as last week and partly because I was just busy.  I did, however, discover a new favorite lunch.

This is red lentil pasta (I bought Barilla because it was on my ibotta app) with grilled chicken and pesto.  And a side salad.  It is DELISH and is 1 yellow, 1 red, 1 green, 1 orange and 2 spoons (the pesto).

Overall for the week I'm going to give myself a B+ for nutrition.  I had wine on Wednesday and Friday.  Sunday it was 60 degrees and sunny (rare in January!) and we sat outside with friends and shared another couple bottles of wine.  Then we ordered BBQ for dinner, so not the best day nutritionally.  We will see how much the scale punishes me!

Goals for week 3 are to complete all of the workouts (I'll be out of town for the weekend so this will be something I have to be intentional about) and use the risers as much as I'm able.  At the end of next week I'll be halfway through!!

Transform :20 Week 1

Week 1 of Transform :20 is in the books!  Here's an overview of how the week went!

The Workouts:

Beachbody is releasing the workouts a week at a time, so this week we got:

Burn
Faster
Stronger
Powerful
Cut
Balanced

Plus:
10 Min Abs
10 Min Recovery
Rip 'N Cut 1.0
Built Stronger 1.0

The last two are workouts that incorporate weights that you can do in place of one of the other days or in addition to the daily workout. I haven't tried either of them just yet, thinking I will one day next week.

Each workout has a different focus, as the name depicts.  I will say that Powerful was the toughest one for me this week and I was super happy to discover that Balanced is much slower paced, which is a great way to end the week.  Each workout has three Transformers, which is a specific move that you do for one minute and count your reps.  The goal is to beat your number each week.  These are my transformer numbers for the week:

The two gray boxes on the end are for the optional dumb bell workouts.  Maybe I'll be brave enough to try one of those tomorrow.


My Challenge Group decided to do the Ab workout 3 times a week, either MWF or TTHS.  I did it twice, on Monday and Thursday, and that was plenty!  I also added strength sessions on Monday and Friday (A Little Obsessed Total Body Core and A Little Obsessed AAA) and three runs, a 7  miler on Tuesday, a 4 miler on Thursday and a 4 miler on Saturday.  I skipped my 2nd workout on Wednesday because I was TIRED!

The workouts are what you would expect from Shaun T.  Very intense, very challenging and I find myself looking at the clock and thinking "holy crap it's only been 12 minutes???" If you have ever done Insanity, this is similar, just with a step and high intensity for the 20 minutes.  He moves fast and there were several times I had to pause and rewind to understand the next move.  I'm expecting/hoping that to improve over the 6 weeks.

I've been using the Journal daily, recording my food, weight, workout and mood.  There's a section to record Daily Challenges, I've made this where I write my daily gratitudes, which is something I've started as a result of my Challenge Group.  I find the daily journal easy to use and I like the food journal piece, it helps me keep track of what containers I've had and what I have left.  For the most part, I'm doing the timed nutrition of 80 Day Obsession, but I'm more concerned about getting the right number of containers each day.  I've kept the food piece pretty simple, here's some examples of what I'm eating:

Both of these are lunches and you can see my containers in the pic.  For the salad, I use 1/2 orange for sunflower seeds and the other half for dressing because I don't need that much dressing.

Here's a standard day's food that I bring to work:

Breakfast here is egg cups and potatoes (in the purple container, but measured in a yellow), my post-workout shake and apple, lunch salad and a RX bar and carrots and hummus.

I wasn't sure how to count the RX bar.  I ended up counting it as a blue, 1/2 red and 1/2 purple.  I'm saving those for days when I do longer runs because that's a lot of containers for one little bar.  But, they are DELISH and worth it.

I did have wine on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.  Yes, I realize that is more than twice in the week!  I made it my yellow with dinner and it was fabulous.  I could have had a glass of wine every night, but that's part of why I'm overweight, and it wasn't a big deal to skip it and have water.

My hope for week 2 is that I can work harder in the workouts as the moves will be more familiar and that I will see some meaningful movement in the scale.

Transform :20 Prep Week - Part 2

Transform :20 starts tomorrow!  I'm excited for the workouts because I've been doing the same sample workout for a while now and I'm ready for something different!

The Challenge Group that I'm in (on Facebook) had homework, which included before pics, watching Transform Your Life on BOD (Beachbody on Demand), filling out our Commit to Transform and planning/prepping our food for the week.  Like I said before, this program has a mental component to it and the Transform your Life videos address that piece.  It's great insight to meet and get to know the cast of the videos.  Similar to 80 Day Obsession, this program is filmed live over the course of the 6 weeks, so the video participants (cast) are experiencing the same workouts and meal plan changes that I'm experiencing at home at the same time.  I like that Beachbody is doing this format, because it is both helpful and insightful to have the people who look they already have it all together share their own struggles and experience.  Being a part of a Challenge Group is also super important to me, because you have the accountability and a connection to people who are right there in the trenches with you.  We can ask/answer questions and be supportive to each other.  If you have questions about Challenge Groups or how to get into one, contact my Coach Melanie Edwards by messaging her via this link.

I've gone back and forth on which meal plan to follow.  The general consensus in my Challenge Group is to go with Plan B, so that's my current plan.  Because I'm following the timed nutrition of 80 Day Obsession, my day will be divided into 6 meal times, three full meals three snack size meals. Getting into the rhythm of timed nutrition can take some getting used to, so the Challenge Group members create alarms to help remind/create the habit of eating at certain times.  My alarms look like this:

Obviously, dinner happens, it's just not in the pic.  Dinner is a green, red, orange, yellow and spoon. I know that I have an extra red on here.  I drink Orgain shakes for my 6AM and post-workout reds, which is plant-based protein and about 150 calories/serving.  So, they are more like 1/2 red each. 

The workout listed in my alarms is NOT my T:20 workout.  I'm doing T:20 at 5:30 AM as fasting cardio and my 2nd workout of the day is either strength, running or swimming, depending on the day.  My strength workouts will be 80 Day ones three times a week.  I swim or run the other three days and have one rest day. 

Meal Prep/Planning is so important!  You have to have a plan.  So, now that I have my timed nutrition schedule planned out, I plan out meals to fit the containers at those times.  There are TONS of recipes available online and a lot of them are fantastic.  There's also Fixate on BOD, which is nothing but recipes that fit the container portions.  My general meal plan is to keep it simple.  I do prep some recipes, but mostly I have my favorite rotations of proteins, veggies and carbs and I make up my meals from them.  I'm lactose intolerant, so my blues consist mainly of almonds, avocado and hummus.  One thing I do like to prep in advance is egg cups.  These are super easy to make and are a great "2nd breakfast", or pre-workout meal.  I prep onion, peppers, spinach and sausage (I like turkey sausage, it's seasoned and tastes really similar to traditional pork sausage).  Cook it up, put it in a muffin pan and add whisked eggs.  I cook them at 425 for about 15-20 mins.  They are really tasty, they freeze well and I microwave them at work to heat them up.

Yummo!  The rest of the sausage and veggies in the skillet I saved and froze for the next time I make these.  I wrap them up in pairs.  I'm don't measure exactly for the red and green, but I used 8 eggs for the 12 cups and I count each pair as a red and a green.  For the yellow, I add some roasted rosemary potatoes. 

I'll take pics of what I eat this week and be noting how I feel in terms of hunger and energy.  My intention is to post at least once a week, more if I'm able.  I'm super excited to transform :)

Transform:20 is Happening - Prep Week Part 1

I haven't written anything in a long time...like almost 4 years.  I've decided to write about my Transform: 20 experience because, frankly, I need the accountability!  I blogged my 21 Day Fix experience and it kept me in line and I saw some great results.

I'm excited about this program because I love me some Shaun T.  I did Insanity 7 years ago when I moved to Memphis (and was super sad about it) and it was fabulously therapeutic.  Shaun T has great energy and is borderline crazy and I dig the challenge.  I've been super active in the last three years.  Like  Ironman Florida, 4 HIM's (Chattanooga, Augusta and Ryanman twice) and a couple of half marathons.  Throw in a bunch of 5k's and 10k's and 80 Day Obsession and that's what I've been up to.  Yet, here I am, 12 pounds over my goal weight and wondering what the what!?!

Here's the deal.  I'm not great at the meal plan piece of things.  Well, I'm not good at the empty liquid calories piece of things.

Have you ever watched Ron White?  Depending on your take on things, he is either hilarious or the most offensive person on the planet.  Personally, I find him to be hilarious.  He does a bit about Tiger Woods where likens Tiger (back a few years ago) staying away from women to a dog who likes to kill chickens.  Therapist tells the dog...you cannot kill chickens anymore.  And the dog says, "so let me get this straight, I can still kill chickens. What about THAT chicken, can I kill THAT chicken?"  And it escalates from there...you should look it up and watch it, if you find that kind of thing funny.

Anyway, this translates in my life as "so you are saying I can still drink wine?"  I like wine a lot and, since we went to Napa earlier this year, I like good wine a lot more.  I could have a glass (or two) of wine every night just because I like it.  But, spoiler, this kind of habit makes me fat!  And, when you are 43 and your metabolism is doing odd things and you like wine??  Giddy up, we have a gut!  It is additionally not helpful that I also like whiskey and both wine and whiskey make me love Doritos more than I do normally. Sigh. 

So here I am, 12 pounds above my goal weight (and smuggling an inner tube as I call it because I carry it all around my middle), needing the accountability of photographing and describing my meals for the next couple of weeks.  I can do the workouts, no problem.  Telling strangers on the internet what I'm eating is far more intimidating.

This is prep week as T:20 starts on the 14th.  I am doing the workouts that have already been released in the mornings and then either strength or running at lunch time.  Today, for example, I did the Transform:20 Sample Workout early and ran 5 miles at lunchtime (there's a half marathon that I'd like to do on 2/24, which happens to be right at the end of the 6 weeks).  I'm using this prep week to get back into the routine of the containers and, when I can do it, the timed nutrition of 80 Day Obsession.

Transform :20 has a very straightforward way of measuring what container plan you should be on, see below.  I fall into the Plan A category, which may or may not work since I'm doing double workouts most days.  If I need to, I'll bump to Plan B.  Initially, I'm going to try and stick with Plan A.

If I'm hungry and need to add containers, I'll add a red and a green first.  Plan B also has one more yellow, but I'd like to use that for wine.  I don't intend to entirely give it up, it's not realistic long term.  What I am doing is picking two days a week to have wine and not having more than two glasses on those days. I'm trying to stick with the timed nutrition, but am timing it based on my 2nd workout of the day, not my Transform :20 workout. 

The other program materials include a daily tracker, which I am liking the idea of.  It's a journal of my journey and a great way to look back and see what I did well, or not so well.  A typical day looks like this:

The program is advertised as the whole package, mind and body, and the journal is a big part of the mental piece of it. 

Full disclosure - I did not buy the package that comes with the laminated calendar, journal and step.  I printed the journal out and have it in a notebook.  I also borrowed an old school step from the gym where I work in lieu of buying the Beachbody step.  One of the people in the video is using a step just like mine and it's working just fine for me.  There's also a modifier who doesn't use a step at all, which is great for times when I'll not be at home for my workout. 

I will post Part 2 of Prep Week closer to the end of the week, when I'll have my before pics and measurements (GULP) and a better idea of what my meal plan will look like.  I'm excited and ready to get this challenge underway!!

If you are interested in learning more about Transfom :20 and/or Beachbody in general and you do not have a Coach, feel free to contact my Coach, Melanie.  She will be happy to answer all of your questions and get you started!  Contact Melanie via facebook here!

Shakeology- What They Say and What I Think

It's Sunday Funday!  We went to downtown Memphis to the new Bass Pro Pyramid to see what all the fuss is about.  Apparently about 1000 other folks had the same idea on this rainy Sunday afternoon.  Was it impressive?  Yes.  Was I going to stand in line for 30 MINUTES to buy candied pecans?  No.  And that was just the line in the candy shop.  There was another line for the observation platform (which is $10 by the way) and another line for bowling, eating, pretty much anything.  We wandered a bit and fled to the Flying Saucer for Linner (Lunch/Dinner at 4PM). Much better idea!!

So....Shakeology.  Shakeology is Beachbody's meal replacement/protein shake mix.  I've been using shakes for years now and it has been my habit to have one for breakfast every day.  I had hesitated trying Shakeology because it is pricey...about $130/month if you aren't a Beachbody Coach, about $100 if you are.  That equates to about $4 a day for customers and $3 a day for Coaches. Here's the link to the info on the Team Beachbody site:
http://www.teambeachbody.com/nutrition-shake/shakeology

I decided to try Shakeology because, when I signed up to be a Coach, I did so with a Challenge Pack, where you get Shakeology and one of the programs in a bundle and the Coach fee is waived.  The Shakeology ships free when you have it on automatic delivery and it ships to you every 30 days. Now, a lot of people are not ok with the concept of auto ship.  For me, it's not a big deal because I work for a company that operates on auto-ship and I get that you can delay or stop it, you just have to know what your ship schedule is how to manage it.  Easy enough.  I've been using it for about 2 months now and feel like that's long enough to have formed an education opinion.

Shakeology is marketed as a "daily dose of dense nutrition" and the "healthiest meal of the day." I agree with both of these statements.  The ingredient list is impressive.  I'm not going to claim to know all of these ingredients, but I know enough of them from working at Juice Plus to know they are good stuff.  I use the Chocolate Vegan, because I'm lactose intolerant.  The non-vegan flavors are a whey-based protein.  The vegan ones are plant-based.  I've not tried the other vegan flavor because I like the Chocolate so much.

What They Say and What I Think...

1.  Shakeology can help you lose weight.  This one is tough to judge, because I started using it when I started the 21 Day Fix.  I did lose weight and have maintained my weight loss.  Based on my experience, I would not tell people that drinking Shakeology alone will help them lose weight. But, no one thing would do that,  It always has to be a part of a bigger plan of exercise and overall nutrition.

2.  Shakeology will improve your digestion and regularity.  This I will agree with.  I have SO MANY food intolerances.  Sometimes things that I ate two weeks ago without issue can make my stomach revolt today.  I have noticed an improvement in the last two months and I don't think that is a coincidence. The digestive enzymes and pre and probiotics help me.  A lot.

3.  Shakeology will reduce your junk food cravings.  Again, this one is tough to judge because I started it the same time I started 21 Day Fix, which really eliminates most foods that are junk foods.  I do still steal fries from my kids' plates.  But, I am in a habit of ordering salads in restaurants.  Is this 21 Day Fix or Shakeology?  I would say a combination of the two.

4.  Shakeology can increase your energy and stamina.  This I do agree with.  Granted, a healthy diet does the same thing.  But, I do agree that having my shake for breakfast every day starts me out on the right foot and keeps me there.  I have energy for 5AM workouts and lunch workouts most every day of the week and weekend workouts too.  I have to make myself schedule rest days.  So, yes, more energy for sure.

Overall, I LOVE this product.  When I think about the cost, I remind myself that $3 or $4 a day is not that much when you are thinking about a meal replacement.  Most healthy meals would cost about the same thing, even made at home.  More importantly, I LIKE IT!  It's delicious and makes me feel good.  I drink it every day, sometimes twice a day.  It's so good that I crave it.  And, that's not something that can always be said about a health food.

So there you have it - my honest opinion about Shakeology.  If you have questions, please message me on Facebook.  If you read this and are just dying to order, please do through my website!  It is
http://www.teambeachbody.com/cararichardson



 

Back on the Wagon with a PiYo/Chalean Hybrid

It's been a couple of weeks and I'm happy to report that I am starting my PiYo/Chalean Extreme hybrid on Monday!  I haven't been a TOTAL slacker the last couple of weeks.  I was benched from doing anything involving legs/cardio for about a week.  According to my doctor, two weeks.  But I've already established that I'm not the most compliant of folks and therefore released myself (with the blessing of the company doc who I ran into at the gym) a week early.  So I've been doing a lot of upper body/walking/pouting and am ready to have my structured routine back on Monday.  My stitches come out on Tuesday, so as far as my dermatologist knows it's only one little day early! (Side note - be vigilant about your sunscreen starting TODAY regardless of your age!  I didn't and now I'm spending enough time at the derm's office that I asked about a punch card...buy three procedures, get one free??).

Anyway, I've struggled with loving PiYo, so I decided to do a hybrid with a program I do love but haven't done in a long time.  Chalean Extreme is very much a strength-focused program, which goes nicely with the PiYo and my running.  Doing a hybrid will make me far more likely to stick it out over the next 8 weeks.  I'll be updating my progress along the way and giving my honest assessment of the routines. I'm going to continue to use the 21 Day Fix Extreme nutrition plan because I like it so much and it has really become my routine.  AND I'm happy to report that I've not gained any weight back since I "finished" the 21 Day Fix :)

I got my hybrid from Pinterest and appears to be a good blend of both programs.  Most days are two workouts a day, which is fine now because I won't really ramp up my running until mid to late summer.  And, the kids are out of school next week (can I get a woo hoo!!!) and that give me more time in the mornings for longer workouts.

In the meantime, I've been growing yummy goodness in my Tower Garden and it's really taken off. I'm fortunate to work for Juice Plus, who sells Tower Garden, and love growing my own veggies. I have two and they look like this...

This was on April 12th. Each port holds a plant and water and nutrients are pumped up to the top from the reservoir to "rain" on the roots.

I started my seeds under grow lights in my garage because it was absurdly cold here pretty late in the season.  The lights are designed to be used with the Tower but that would require a husband who is ok with growing indoors and I don't have one of those!  But, the lights work great in the garage for starting seedlings...

Heres's a close up of my squash on the 12th.

April 28th

May 5th - that same squash plant is the one on the right in the middle.

May 10

I harvested lettuce (on the far Tower near the top) on that same day.  YUM!!!

These pics are from May 13th.  My little squash has come a long way!

And zucchini

I also have tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, cantaloupe. cilantro, mint, basil, parsley and green beans. SO MUCH YUM!!!  I love summer and this is one of the reasons why!  

Anyway, I'll be updating at least weekly on my hybrid and my progress.  I hopeful to lose another 5 pounds or so and improve my core strength and flexibility, which will also improve my running. Bring it!!

Two Weeks Out - Missing the 21 Day Fix and Trying to Love PiYo

It's been about two weeks since I "finished" the 21 Day Fix Extreme.  I say "finished" because, for most folks, fitness and better nutrition (and, obviously, weight loss) is an ongoing journey and never quite a destination.  I've continued to follow the principles of the program, but not like I was.  And I miss it!  How strange!?  But a good thing!

I was in Sacramento for 6 days last week for a work conference.  It's a ton of fun and a ton of work. I work Registration and Customer Service - pretty much anyone who is registering on site or has an issue.  Yep, I am the "problem line" and was witty and charming for hours on end :)  But, like I said, also a lot of fun.  Great example - the inflatable rock wall.  Imagine a bounce house rock wall - this was everything you dreamed it could be.  This was at our Saturday night end of conference party and I climbed it twice.  Once completely sober.  Once not as much.  Hey, corporate folks get drink tickets.  Don't judge!!

This is what it looks like.  That's me getting all harnessed up and ready to climb.  The best part about this deal was that, because it's inflatable, you kind of sink into the green part.  I'm 5'2" and the lowest foot hold was at about my eye level and the lowest hand hold was at about three inches out of reach. It was a very graceful run, bounce, guy in the blue shirt pull on the rope so I can grab the hold move. Didn't get it on my first try.  I'm sure it was even more fantastic when I climbed again three hours and 4 drink tickets later.  Anyway, once I got going it was easy

And here I am at the top!

I have a video (that my boss took ) of my second climb.  It's a watch it once and never again deal!!

Anyway, I did well on my food (aside from one incident involving the most amazing fries ever), not well on wine and marginal at best on exercise.  I walked a TON and did manage to get my plank challenge done (more on that in a later post) but only managed one actual hotel room workout.  The lack of workout and not well on wine went hand and hand, but you already put those dots together...

So, since I've been back I have started a hybrid workout that I created with PiYo (another Beachbody program, combination of Pilates and Yoga and no, my review will not be skewed because I'm a Beachbody Coach!), the 21 Day Fix Extreme workouts and my normal running/at work workouts.  I started PiYo because, as a runner, I'm tight and the best thing you can do is strengthen and stretch, right?...  I've been doing PiYo for a week and desperately want to love it...here's why I don't...

1.  I'm not good at it.  Doing yoga poses when you are as inflexible as I am sucks.  And doesn't really feel like a workout because I spend so much time trying to see what I'm supposed to be doing and realizing I cannot make my body fold in half.

2.  It's not hard enough a workout to make me want to get up at 5AM.  Ok, I know that sounds backwards.  First because it is a hard workout and second because it takes a hard workout to get me out of bed that early.  But, hear me out.  If I'm going to get up at 5AM, it will be with purpose.  I want to work hard enough that when I get to the shower later I can taste the salt when the water hits my hair (gross, but true).  I want that sick I may just keel over feeling that Insanity (another Beachbody program) gives me.  PiYo, while hard, does not leave me with that "I just really worked my ass off" feeling that I like so much.

3.  I'm not good at it.  I know, we've already been here.  But, I like a workout I can conquer.  The 21 Day Fix Extreme workouts are super challenging but I feel accomplished, even when I can't keep up. PiYo is going to be a challenge for me but a different challenge.  I'm not going to give it up, I just can't have it be my primary workout. Maybe I will grow to love it.  We will see!

So I'm going back to a primary workout of 21 Day Fix Extreme routines.  There are two days, one of Pilates and one of Yoga, that I will do the PiYo workouts instead.  And I'll do them as a secondary workout on the days when I have more time.  I'm not giving up on the program.  Improving my flexibility and core strength is very important, especially when I start marathon training this summer.  My goal is to be good enough at PiYo to make it my primary early morning workout by July.  Seems reasonable to me!