Insanity: The Final Report (and Green Super Smoothies)

I did it, folks!
I finished 60 Days of Insanity!

Well...almost.  I have to do the last workout tomorrow morning before we fly to California.  I'm really close. :) 

I'm so glad I took on this challenge.  It got me out of my rut and gave me a new energy and focus for working out.  And I'm really proud that I finished!  Because, even though a lot of the exercises are fun, they are super hard.  Some days I felt like super woman while I was working out but most days I felt more like Garfield trying to compete in the Olympics. :)   

I'm thankful for you, my friends who read this blog, because I might have given up if I hadn't posted on here that I was going to finish it.  You helped me push through, just by reading my blog!  Thank you! :)

I didn't lose as much weight as I was hoping to lose (5 lbs total), but I was stuck before so I'm happy with the 5 lbs.  My clothes fit better and I feel great.  So if you don't care too much about the scale but just want to slim down a little and get in shape, it's an awesome workout.  All that jumping and sweating and squatting (and moaning and groaning) was definitely worthwhile.

And I'm so glad it's over!!!

(In case anyone else ever wants to try it out: you don't need the "Results and Recovery Formula" Shaun T. is constantly pushing.  Just drink tons (really, a lot) of water and afterward chug a little orange juice.  I also had to eat some protein, like a light cheese stick, and a piece of bread or a few pretzels to get rid of that horrible "I'm about to pass out" feeling afterward.  No joke.  Also during the 60-minute workouts I usually had a few swigs of OJ at the 40-minute mark to get me through the last 20.  Worked like a charm.)

Finishing Insanity means that I am also officially done with the (attempted) refined sugar fast!  YEAH!  But after all the work I put into Insanity I don't even feel like going out and celebrating with a huge hot fudge sundae.   Wow.  Bummer, dude.  I'm sure that will change once I get settled into vacation mode, however. :)

I'm just not sure where to go from here with my workout routine...back to running, probably.  Tae Bo?  Hmm, any advice? 

In an effort to eat more fruits and veggies, Josh and I have been on a green super smoothie kick this week.  We've been eating them for lunch every day. 

Here's how we make them:

(banana, 1/2 avocado, fresh spinach, frozen blueberries,
frozen mixed fruit & oj)

They really are a horrid color, thanks to the spinach and avocado and blueberries, but they taste GREAT!

Even Knox got in on the smoothie action!  We broke the introduce-one-new-food-at-a-time baby rule this week...with no adverse effects so far.

He LOVES green super smoothies.  :)  I can't get him the next bite fast enough!

Now, friends, I am off to pack.
Vacation starts tomorrow! 

Insanity Update (and the mustard yellow pants)

As you may recall, my New Year's resolutions for 2011 were #1 to JOURNAL more and #2 to complete the 60-Day Insanity workout challenge (while cutting back dramatically on refined sugar).

It's February 4th and I'm still going (fairly) strong.  Time for an update!

The journaling is going great, I'm loving it.  My goal is to write every day, and that doesn't usually happen; but I'm journaling a lot more than I did last year so I'm happy with that.  (Plus I'm blogging like crazy so that has to count for something.)

I'm doing okay at the sugar challenge.  I had to rewrite the rules a little bit:  There are now certain exception periods, like when guests are in town or when there is a snow day (or four "snow" days in a row, which I'm pretty sure only happens once in a lifetime). 

Also "one sweet treat" had to be further defined and it means anything that obviously goes together.  For example, brownies and ice cream obviously go together, so they equal one sweet treat.  And a Starbucks frappuccino and a vanilla bean scone obiously go together, so that equals one sweet treat as well. 

Hey, it's my New Year's Resolution so I get to write the rules. :)

Insanity...is tough, but I'm hanging in there.  Week 3 was the hardest, I hit a wall and wanted to give up.  But I didn't! 

Tomorrow I will have completed the "recovery week" (Week 5).  I was hoping recovery week meant stretch out on the couch and twinkle my toes, but no such luck.  It's been a little easier than the regular workouts but still challenging.  I'm scared to death of Monday morning because the hardest, longest workouts begin then.  :0

So far I have only missed one workout in 5 weeks.  That's 29 out of 30 workouts.  Go me!  I've lost three pounds...wish it were 13 but I'll take the 3.  My clothes are definitely fitting a little looser, though, and I can once again button my favorite MUSTARD YELLOW PANTS!  This in itself is worth all that sweat.

I asked for these corduroys two years ago for Christmas.  I'm pretty sure they have gone out of style since Christmas two years ago (I know, some might argue that they weren't even in style back then) :)  but they're still my favorite pants so I'm going to continue wearing them with gusto!

Insanity Challenge: five weeks down, four to go!!

Sweatin' to the Oldies

INSANITY!

That's my other New Year's Resolution.

Not to go insane, but to complete the Insanity Workout 60-day challenge!

Knox is five months old and I have 12 lbs to lose to get to my pre-baby (and pre-Christmas cookie) weight. The baby belly was cute when I was 5 months pregnant but not so much at 5 months post pregnant.

The New Year has rolled around so it's probably time to get serious about this.

I actually like exercising. My regular routine is to jog three times a week and do Tae Bo two times a week. But that's been my routine since...let's see...college. Not that I have a tendency to get stuck in ruts or anything!

But I figured I needed to change things up to knock off these pounds. We'll see if Insanity can do it! I'll let you know how it goes. :)

I'm on Week #2 and it is HARD. Yes. These videos are by far the hardest workouts I've ever done. Let's just say I usually go through an entire 32 oz. Nalgene bottle of water by the end of the warm-up and stretch! And the workouts get harder after the first month. I don't even want to think about that right now.

I can't cut back too much on calories since I'm nursing, but I AM going to try to avoid as much refined sugar as possible during these 60 days. That's the plan. No refined sugar except 1 (2 at tops) sugary treat per week. As you all know, this will probably prove to be a much bigger challenge for me than completing those crazy workouts! :)

But that pan of Ghiradelli double chocolate brownies that was on my kitchen counter all last weekend? Yeah, I only ate ONE. It was a pretty big one - because if you can only eat one sweet a week you really have to make it count! - but I only had one.

What does Knox think of all this? He's been busy polishing his own workout routine.

He starts the day with a nice stretch:

Warms up with push-ups:




Jumps right into some fat-blasting cardio:




And finishes it up with a circuit of plyometrics!

Just for the record, Vermont maple syrup is not refined sugar.