As a reminder, the important part of it is that you go as hard as you can for as long as you can until you've "maxed out". You write down your time, take a short breather, and you hop right back in. So starting on Monday I decided that I would use no modifiers until after my max out time. Let's just say I'm not getting too long in before I max out! But that is OK! I'm not competing with anyone but myself. The next time I do each workout - my goal is to make it longer than I did the time before. It makes you push yourself and I'm reminded that the body will go as far as the mind lets it.
Day 1 Monday: Cardio Challenge. Max out time 7:46. This one is really intense and burns a lot of calories for me. I don't normally have a high heart rate so I don't burn a ton of calories very easily. But today I burned 325 during this workout. I'll take it!
Day 2 Tuesday: Tabata Power. Max out time 5:46. This one has a lot of arm work, ab work, and jumping. It's a total body workout for sure - but I definitely feel the soreness in my arms (especially triceps) afterwards. I burned 225 calories during this workout.
Day 3 Wednesday: Sweat Intervals. Max out time 7:58 and I honestly couldn't even believe I made it that long! I burned 325 calories with this one too. My knee was a bit sore from Tuesday's workout (feels like I strained it somehow) so it was a little tough today and had to watch it on my jumps. But the name is not a joke - I was definitely dripping in sweat when this 30 minutes was over.
Day 4 Thursday: Tabata Power (same as Tuesday). Max out time 6:50 so I beat my Tuesday time and I'm happy about that! I burned 215 calories this morning. I was feeling energized after this so I did a little LesMills Pump to do some weight training. It was a great morning! My knee is feeling a little better today after I applied some heat last night so the workout wasn't hard on it.
Day 5 Friday: Friday Fight Round 1. Max out time 7:46 (hey same time as Cardio Challenge). I burned 250 calories (I think - my watch was being a pain the rear this morning). I do admit my knee was bothering me a little bit today so after my max out time I really watched the jumping and used the modifier when I needed to. Another thing I love about this program is that you can choose the modifier track and it has a split screen showing the modifier the entire time. Definitely helpful for a beginning or someone with bad knees or a prior injury!
Day 6 Saturday. This day can be a rest day or you can do the workout called Pulse. It's more of an active recovery type workout to stretch out and still keep you moving and burning. I decided to do it because I'm just not a huge fan of rest days. :)
Day 7 Sunday. I planned to take a rest day but since I ate a few things I don't usually eat at a Christmas party on Saturday evening - I decided to wake up early and get a workout in! I went with 21 Day Fix: Lower Fix and it felt amazing!
Ok - now let's talk nutrition plan. This program follows the same plan as the 21 Day Fix, so I was super happy about that because I believe in that plan 100% and I know first hand that it works. I use my portion control containers that are color coded for each food group. Each day I get 4 Red, 3 Green, 2 Yellow, 2 Purple, 1 Blue, and 1 Orange. The containers look small but when you actually start using them - you find yourself full and satisfied all day because you are actually eating the right things!
The past month I have been much more lax on my portion sizes so I'm really excited to get back on track and get back to where I want to be. My struggle is evening snacks. When I see my husband snacking - I just want to do it too. But when I do - I don't follow correct portion sizes and the snacks weren't included in my daily meal plan, so it just ends up stalling results or makes me go in the opposite direction. So to help with that, I'll have a little Shakeology in the evening to curb my appetite and cravings and it has been working like a charm. At night I just mix it with ice and water and count it as one of my Red containers and keep it in my meal plan.
I know that if I want to see REAL results - I need to keep my nutrition in check. It's tough during the holidays because we have so many holidays parties just like everyone else, but I'm really trying to do my best to plan around them so I can stick to my meal plan as best as possible. This week I'm going to FOCUS hard on what I eat and sticking to what I've planned for meals. My biggest struggle is at night - so I'm going to use extreme will power! Next weekend we have 3 Christmas get-togethers and then we are done. My goal this holiday season was to maintain and not gain and I will accomplish that goal!
