21 Day Fix Day 14

Exercise

Today’s 21 Day Fix is the Yoga Fix and I am once again reminded how very much I love yoga.  My balance isn’t the best today so I absolutely bobbled.  In Crescent. In Warrior I.  In Tree.  I just wiggled and bobbled.  I love it when Autumn says to trust your body to find the balance.  I can trust my body to throw me off balance.  But I know most of the people using 21 Day Fix are not living with a balance disorder, fighting to hold a pose with cervical vertigo.  And that’s okay.   As Autumn says, and as I well know from years of doing yoga, this is about a mind-body connection.  It’s not about pushing yourself past where you are but exploring that point, the present moment, and honoring your body both in what it can do and what it cannot.

I skipped my other yoga practice today, knowing I’d be doing Yoga Fix.  As promised, I used the bike yesterday and may or may not do so again today. 

Diet

Can you believe, yesterday I didn’t eat all of the containers?  After a couple of days of being ravenous, I had pretty much decided that, come the next ravenous day, I would allow myself one more salad.  (This is what is encouraged in the food guide, by the way, to have an extra green.)  And then yesterday I didn’t even use much of the blue and missed an entire red altogether.  Oops. 

Next week, I’ll be focusing more on food, sharing pictures of the things I’ve been eating while doing the 21 Day Fix.  I mean, I can’t just keep blabbering on and on about the exercise, can I?  Well, maybe I can but I am going to try to mix it up a bit for you. 

Today I’m meeting a friend for coffee.  I have already decided that I shall have a cup of coffee and maybe a cup of tea, if I really must treat myself to something extra.  Have you ever had vanilla mints?  They were quite popular for a while but I haven’t seen them around as much lately.  Regardless, I looooved them and one day it occurred to me to try something special.  I added a dash of vanilla syrup to my peppermint tea. It was sublime!  So if watching Kanika have a bagel or pastry or some other bit of decadence I’m trying to avoid becomes too much, I shall order myself a cup of peppermint tea.  With a bit of sugar free vanilla syrup.  I think I’ve earned it, don’t you?

Progress

I can’t wait for tomorrow’s weigh-in.  I definitely feel stronger, better, tighter.  Today I woke up with achiness again for the first time this week.  Remember how I said I might double up this week if I didn’t feel any achiness? Well, I’m sticking by that promise.  I will not double up every day.  However, on the days when the program adds the Pilates Fix (which is one of the workouts I especially loathe) or the Abs Fix, I will double up.  If I remember the schedule correctly, that means I’ll be doubling up thrice.  In the meantime, come back tomorrow to see if I’ve lost any weight this week.   

21 Day Fix Day 13

Exercise

Not a good day for me physically.  Balance is off.  Knees feeling delicate.  Still, neither of these stopped me from pushing through. I modified.  Side lunges not quite so wide.  Squats not quite so deep.  Modified yes; compromised no.  In the 21 Day Fix Dirty 30 workout you use weights so I grabbed both light and heavy weights and hit it every time.  And I always did bilateral lifts even though alternating lifts are allowed.  Yes!

Morning yoga.  Love it!  I think on Sunday I will not use the DVD and just do the practice on my own, holding the various asanas longer, allowing my body time to fully explore each pose. 

Because Rob is home, I will be using the bike later.  I’m writing this before using the bike so you’ll just have to take my word for it that I used it. 

Diet

Hungry hungry hungry.  If I’m still this hungry after this first 21 days, I’ll consider moving up a level for the second cycle.  Before you begin the 21 Day Fix, you calculate how many calories you can eat to lose weight and this number determines how many containers of vegetables, fruit, protein, etc. you get a day.  Because most days I don’t only do the 30 minutes but add yoga and/or the bike, doing between 50 and 80 minutes of exercise a day,  I may very well need to eat more food. 

Progress

I love messing with Rob. Every time he hugs me I ask, “Can you feel a difference?”  Of course, I don’t actually expect him to feel or see any difference. Not at this point, anyway.  But at the end of April . . . yeah, hopefully he’ll say something without my coaxing. 

Depending on how I feel tomorrow, I may be doubling up a bit next week.  I know I could increase the size of the weights I use (currently 3 & 5 lbs) but it makes more sense for me to just double up what I’m doing.  I looked at the schedule and there is a recommended doubling exercise plan that includes mixing cardio with Pilates or adds abdominal with strength. We’ll see how stiff/sore my muscles are tomorrow morning before I made a decision.  Can’t believe that after only two weeks I am already feeling like I can do more.  Then again, given my looooong history of pushing myself, maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised.

21 Day Fix Day 12

Exercise

Another day when I didn’t do yoga and the bike.  The drywall guy is coming so early and Rob is working.  The two combined results in my not having as much free time in my morning as I am accustomed to having.  I had thought that I might get some biking in later in the day but the guy didn’t leave until after 6pm and I have to keep an eye on the dogs, especially Holly, so I have to get in my workout before Rob walks out the door.

21 Day Fix had me doing Cardio Fix today.  No equipment for this one although I forgot I would need a towel for the “bonus” exercise. I definitely have to slow things down during the standing oblique exercise because that challenges my balance more than anything else in this workout. Everything else I modify, not going quite so deep, stepping things out, etc. 

Diet

Day two of following her meal plan distribution precisely and I was famished most of the day.  I wanted more. More more more more more more. Albeit, I didn’t sleep well the night before and was feeling a little sleepy.  There’s no telling why I was so ravenous.  Hopefully today I will be able to resist the urge to eat everything in sight. I succeeded yesterday but don’t know if I can pull off two days in a row.

Progress

I can’t believe I’m closing in on the end of week two.  That’s just crazy.  I’m so glad Rob suggested that I just move the furniture around a bit and do my exercises in the living room.  I’ve woken him up a couple of times but he hasn’t complained.  Just closed the door a little and I kept going.

The renovations progress . . .  sloooowly.  Yesterday the very talkative drywall guy was here and he will be back today, hopefully a little less talkative.  When he is finished, there are two days of doing nothing, waiting for the patching and such to dry out.  Then we paint. Only, Rob and I haven’t quite narrowed down our choices. We’re waiting on some larger samples to arrive and then we’ll be better able to see what the choices we made will look like in sunlight and dim, at night with the lights on and off.  And if Rob and I can’t narrow down our choices, then we’ll just give our two favorite shades to the landlords and let them make the final decision.  I’m not above passing the buck, especially given that Rob and I both really like the colors we’ve chosen so it’s not like we’d get stuck with another color we absolutely hate (like the color the walls are now).

21 Day Fix Day 11

I want to take a moment and sing Coach Stephanie’s praises.  She was assigned to me when I joined teambeachbody.  I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would she be pushy?  And if so, how?  Would she push me to work harder?  Buy more products?  Do more?  Be more?  Or would she be silent, hard to reach, uncommunicative?

As it is, she is the perfect amount of encouragement and advice.  I have had to reach out to her a couple of times and she cheers me on without trying to push me to do/buy/be more.  If you’re thinking about buying 21 Day Fix or any of the other beachbody products and have any questions, I would encourage you to reach out to her.  I’m confident she’ll help you much as she has helped me.

Her blog: http://fitstephanie.blogspot.com/

Her facebook: http://www.facebook.com/fitstephanie

Exercise

Today was Pilates Fix day in the 21 Day Fix program and I can honestly say it felt better today.  Better does not mean I enjoyed it, that I wasn’t wincing in pain, or that I wasn’t frustrated with my loss of flexibility.  But I finished it as best I could. Truth is, I’m thinking of doubling up the workouts next week and Pilates is one of the workouts I’d like to tackle more than once next week.  Why, if I find it so difficult, would I want to do it more than once? It is precisely because I find it so challenging that I want to push myself to do it more than once, to feel better, stronger, safer doing it over all.

No bike.  No yoga.  The drywall guy is here today and I knew he would be here early. He might leave early.  If he does, I’ll use the bike later.  If he doesn’t, I’ll just consider this a “rest” day.  (Yes, I am considering 30 minutes of exercise a rest day.)

Need new pants

 Diet

I’m on day 2 of making sure I eat all the yellow container foods for breakfast and lunch. I also end up eating all of the day’s fruit by lunchtime as well.  I wish I could tell how (if) this is having a positive impact on my energy but I have been sleeping so poorly the past few days that it’s hard to say.  Stupid night sweats. *sigh*

Progress

It’s good to see even a small improvement in what I can do from one week to the next.  And I’m feeling more confident in how and what I eat.  I can feel a difference but I can’t say that my clothes are fitting better.  Yet.  Always yet.  It’s a matter of time and 1.5 weeks isn’t going undo months of weight problems. Plus, I’m ready for the renovations to be finished so I can really get to work not only on my physical health but also on my physical space.  I think so much of my mood will be improved when I can actually live in my home again. 

Any day now . . .

21 Day Fix Day 10

Exercise

Yoga was lovely but I’m probably skipping the bike today because . . .

I did the 21 Day Fix Lower Fix and I couldn’t even finish all the reps on the last “bonus” move.  Yes.  That is how hard it was or how weak I am.  Not sure which it is but my trying to push through was resulting in bad form and I didn’t want to hurt myself.  Bah humbug!  Remember, I couldn’t do this workout last week because of a defective disc.  So this was my first time doing it and I went ahead and used light 3 lb weights, just because.

To be honest, Autumn offended me for the first and only time on these DVDs.  At one point, she goes to “mess with” one of the guys who is doing the exercises and what does she do?  Teases him for using “girl weights.”  Really?  I guess she never saw this video.

I’m truly disappointed that any woman would use “like a girl” as a way to insult anyone.  I’m sorry that she did this and, while I’m grateful she doesn’t do it on the other workouts, I suspect that I will have a visceral response of sheer disgust each and every time she does it.  Doubly disappointed because, at the same time, she is praising Kat for using lighter weights, encouraging others—including the viewers at home—to work at their personal capacity.  And yes, I get that she was “messing with” the guy but, for me, I wish she could have found a way to do so that wasn’t so sexist.

(Bonus Sexist Comment:  When he tells her to give him an extra pair of weights, so that he's using two pairs, she actually says that now he is doing it like a man.  *sigh*)

Diet

I looked through the Eating Plan again and I noticed what I had already pointed out while doing the 3 Day Quick Fix:  The yellow containers are done for the day at lunch.  Okay.  So today and tomorrow and the rest of the week, I am going to make a more conscious effort to eat the designated foods at the same time delineated in the suggested menu.  For lunch I’ll be having soup and salad. 

Progress

There probably would be nothing to say about my progress that isn’t already implied in my exercising every day and such but Rob surprised me yesterday and said he had ordered something more for me. And he insisted it isn’t a birthday present (yes, my birthday is coming up) which is why I know what my surprise is going to be.  A new workout DVD set.  Do you want to know what it is now or would you like to wait to find out when I start it?  I’ll let you, my dear readers, decide. 

21 Day Fix Day 9

Exercise

Honestly, I don’t have much to say about my morning yoga except that I love it. In twenty minutes, I get off the mat feeling glorious. 

Used the bike but didn’t really push myself.  Hit 7.2 miles in 15 minutes. Not bad. Not my best and that’s okay.

Today I grabbed two pairs of weights—3 and 5 lbs.  The 21 Day Fix Upper Fix wasn’t easy but I never switched lighter weights when we were told to use heavier.  But I simply can’t do push-ups, yet.  I ended up doing a plank after very few repetitions so, during the second set, I did push-outs from the wall.  Believe me, I was still feeling it.  Not sure why but my hands are turning numb when I do crunches lately.  It’s not a comfortable feeling. I need to figure out what is going on. Or, maybe I need to get back to giving myself a self-massage.

Diet

As with most of these infomercial DVD sets, you get a food guide and one of the first things I did was to make the spice blends because I knew that when doing the 3 Day Quick Fix the food could get boring very quickly. I mean egg whites and steamed fish aren’t exactly exciting foods to eat but spices and herbs made it seem like I was eating something new and different each and every time I ate.  Last week I made two of the salad dressings and I’ve been using them on my salads. Yesterday, I even used one as a marinade. So delicious!!!  And no preservatives or chemicals. 

Progress

Last night as I was turning off the lights for the night, I thought something and quickly wrote it down.

What if I weren’t trying to lose weight?

What if I were trying to build muscle mass?

What I were trying to become stronger?

What if I were trying to develop my balance?

What if I were trying to grow more flexible?

What if I had NOTHING to lose and EVERYTHING to gain?

I definitely want to add this thought to my smashbook. It’s a good one, don’t you think? 

PS:  I was right about the water weight.  When I weighed myself this morning, guess which 1.2 lbs was gone?  Yep. Called it!

21 Day Fix Day 8

One Week Ends, Another Begins

I lost 1.2 lbs.  However, I think some of that is water weight because, had my weekly weigh-in been yesterday, I would have lost 2.4.  But I always say, any loss is a good loss. And since my goal is to lose 1 lb a week, this is a success.  I’m still not where I had hoped to be by this time, not having lost 1 lb per week throughout 2015.  I have only lost 5 lbs this year but 20% of that was lost this week. See?  Success!

This will be the first week I do the entire 7 days of workouts, now that I have a replacement disk in hand.  I’ve tracked my workouts from last week, as you all know.  I did not use weights for most of last week but plan on doing so, where needed, this week. Today is the first day I do not feel stiff in my quads but my triceps are still sore.

Weights are not the only thing I’ll be adding this week. After yesterday’s yoga, I realize that I need to add yoga back into my daily practice. 

Exercise

Yoga first.  I will be using the same yoga practice every morning:  Yoga AM and PM with Rodney Yee and Patricia Walden. This is simply the best beginner’s yoga DVD I’ve ever found. It’s only 20 minutes long. You’ll want or need a yoga strap (or you can use a towel), a mat (obviously), a yoga block, and a blanket you can fold.  (I use a throw blanket but you can buy a yoga blanket, if you like.) 

A little later, I grabbed my weights and did today’s 21 Day Fix:  Full Body Cardio Fix.  I chose a light weight, just to be safe and modified the Surrenders as planned. I managed to power through the entire workout, although my reps on the knee pulls was slower than expected.  I am not going to blame my balance altogether but I can’t deny that my balance slowed me down a bit. Oh well.  I definitely was sweating!

And then I used the bike.  Yep.  I rehydrated after doing 21 Day Fix, did some housework, took the dogs out for another round of fresh air, before jumping onto the bike.  Needless to say, at this point I considered myself done for the day.  Wouldn’t you? 

Diet

I was a little lax with using the containers yesterday and didn’t record my full day’s meals on my tally sheet. But I’m on it today.  It isn’t even that hard to keep up with them but I guess I was feeling a bit lax.  And who knows?  Maybe that’s why I retained some water. Lesson learned. Next week, I’ll share more of my daily diet, when I have less to about how I’m eating. 

Progress

I feel more confident using 21 Day Fix than I did last week, obviously, since I have worked through most of the workouts already and can better anticipate where to modify and how.  I am sooooo tempted to take my measurements too but I am going to hold out for two more weeks. I can do that, right?  We’ll see.  In the meantime, I’m very proud of myself and the effort I have made to get through this first week.