Insanity - R2 - Week 1, Day 1 - Fit Test

Have you ever seen head cheese?  It's kinda like jello with fruit in it, only not nearly as good looking or appetizing.  Or as colorful.  My grandma used to get it from Jewel (a grocery store) back in the day and eat it on rye bread.  That's how my muscles feel right now.  Like head cheese, a little jiggly with chunks of stuff you'd rather not see.  Google it and tell me it's not the most disgusting looking thing you've ever seen given the label of "cheese".  I won't post a picture of it because I already feel like puking. 

Yes, today was Fit Test Number One day.  I swear they made it harder.  I don't know how, but they did.  I didn't do too bad considering I haven't done one for "real" since the last one of Insanity Round 1.  I'm not counting the one in June, because I didn't even finish week one.  Yes, my numbers are lower, but not as low as they were the very first time I did Insanity, so I consider that a bonus.

Here's my Fit Test #1 Results:

• Switch Kicks - 50
• Power Jacks - 21
• Power Knees - 55
• Power Jumps - 12
• Globe Jumps - 4
• Suicide Jumps - 4 (DIAF. That means "Die In A Fire" for you non-nerdy types)
• Push-Up Jacks - 8 (I hate you with a  passion only rivaled by my hatred of spiders)
• Low Plank Obliques - 50

I also have good news to report!

I did my weigh-in before doing the Fit Test.  I'm down to 194.2 pounds.  On my last weigh-in date, which was May 23, I was 208 pounds.  That's a difference of 13.8 pounds!  And the weird part?  I didn't workout, I wasn't really watching what I ate (besides eating smaller portions sometimes), drinking my Shakeology every other day or so, and drinking TONS and TONS of water.  I was in shock!  So, now you can imagine me doing a happy dance around the living room, because that's what I did.  :)

Now, my goal weight is 180 pounds.  Considering I lost 10 pounds on my first round of Insanity, and I was still learning how to eat proper portions of the right foods, I'm pretty damn confident that my final weigh-in in 60 days is going to be 180 or LOWER.  That's right.  I said it.  LOWER.  It could be 179.9, but that's still lower.  :P

Here's to a great beginning to another round of Insanity.  I guess this means I have to nix the beer completely now.  /sigh

Insanity - Week 1, Days 1 & 2 - Fit Test & PCC

Hello my friends!  Yes, you read that title correctly.  I missed so many days last week, and I didn't even do the Fit Test, that I decided to start Insanity all over completely.  I chose to start on Sunday, so that my rest days fall on Saturdays - which is normally when we're at the campground.  :)

Yesterday I did the Fit Test.  I was mildly surprised that my numbers hadn't dropped terribly considering I haven't really worked out since I finished Insanity.  You can see for yourself below.  The first number represents my Day 63 results from my last round of Insanity.  The second number is Sunday's numbers.  The third number represents my Day 1 numbers from the first round of Insanity back in April.

Switch Kicks: 84 - 54 - 43
Power Jacks: 33 - 20 - 16
Power Knees: 73 - 72 - 53
Globe Jumps: 8 - 4 - 4
Suicide Jumps: 7 - 6 - 5
Push-Up Jacks: 15 - 12 - 3
Low Plank Oblique: 52 - 45 - 23

I seriously thought they would be way lower than they are, so I'm quite pleased with myself.  It's nice to know I didn't lose as much stamina as I thought I did.  :)  I'll be completely honest and say that I pushed myself incredibly hard to get those numbers, otherwise they'd be a crapload lower.  At one point I had to actually pause the Fit Test for a minute because I felt light-headed.  But, that's what I get for not turning the air on before I started the video up. 

As for today, Plyometric Cardio Circuit (PCC) welcomed me with open arms.  I didn't want a hug.  In fact, by the end, I was pretty much out of everything - breathe, stamina, and the will to make my muscles hold me up.  As much as I missed Insanity, I was laying on the floor wondering what kind of crazy I must be to want to put myself through this again.

Then I thought of the 10 pounds and close to 20" I lost with the first round of Insanity, and I know it will be totally worth every single minute of aching muscles, gallons of sweat, and swearing I'll be doing for the next 60 days.  About the actual workout - I love all the jabs and punches at the end of the video, and I think that the Cross Jacks are my second favorite exercise move.  The first one would be the Over The River thing.  :)

I feel drained, but happy to know that for the next 60 days, I have a definite workout that I know won't annoy me or make me frustrated because of my inability to execute it enough to feel like I'm actually working out. 

I'm also happy that I got today's workout out of the way early since we're going to my dad and stepmom's later this evening to make my dad a Father's Day dinner since TH had to work last night.  I won't have to worry about coming home to do my workout, because it's already done.  Yay me!  :)

Hello Insanity, I missed you!  See you tomorrow!  :)

60 Days of Insanity - Review, Results, & Pics

I've finally finished!  I dug deeper, pushed harder, and made it through what's been labeled as one of the toughest workouts you could ever do without expensive equipment.  Insanity is just that - insane.  It will make you work, make you sweat, and make you swear.  And it's totally, completely, 100% percent worth it.

For those of you who don't know what Insanity is, here's the blurb from the Beachbody website:

Your personal trainer Shaun T will push you past your limits with 10 discs packed with cardio and plyometric drills with intervals of strength, power, resistance, and core training. No equipment or weights are needed, and you don’t have to be in extreme shape to do it. As long as you’re ready to dig deep, Shaun will help you get insane results in just 60 days.

Insanity is a Total Body Conditioning Program designed specifically to tone and shape your body with nothing but your body in 60 days.

Now, people may ask if Insanity works.  I can tell you that yes, it does work.  I have muscle where I had no muscle before.  I have confidence and energy where before I had none.  I don't have nearly as many problems with my knee, unlike before I started.  I can chase my nieces and nephews and not feel like I'm going to have a heart attack after running five feet. 

Was it hard?  Definitely.  I went from a complete lazy couch potato to a level of intensity I've never experienced before in my life.  At times, I wanted to give up, because I thought to myself "There's no freaking way I'm ever going to be able to do that".  I was wrong.  Within a couple weeks, some times as little as one week, I was able to conform my body into the moves required - like Diamond Jumps and Riot Tuck Jumps.  I can do those now.  Not that I can do them perfectly, but I can do them.

I also had a great team of people helping to encourage and inspire me to keep pressing play every day.  My heartfelt thanks go out to them and all my readers, especially Coach Brandy, because I can honestly say that if I didn't have all of you to be accountable too, I probably wouldn't have stuck with it.  I've learned so much, and have all of you to thank for it.

Now, I'm sure you're all wondering when I'm going to get to the "review" part of this post.  So, I'll stop rambling and feeling mushy and get on with it.  I'm not going to go through every single week, just highlights here and there.  If you want to read about my entire journey through Insanity, you can click this link and it will take you to a nice little list I have compiled for just that purpose.

Day 1.  Sorry for the crappy pic.

Day 1 was my first Fit Test and it was by far the worst day ever.  I felt like I had dropped into the pits of hell and was slowly being consumed by goblins who were masters of all sorts of evil torture.  Everything ached and I discovered muscles in places I didn't know HAD muscles.  The next two weeks weren't much better in terms of evil torture methods.

By the time I reached my second Fit Test, which was two weeks later, I felt confident that I wouldn't have improved.  My muscles, especially my legs and feet, were sore.  There was a muscle under my arm pit that was sore.  Hell, my damn fingers were sore!  But, I did improve.  I was like "Holy crap!  They went up!".  It was after seeing those numbers go up that I realized I was going to stick with it.  I wanted to know how much higher I could get them.

At this time, I could tell that it was working a little bit.  My arms looked smaller, my face looked smaller, but I still wasn't really losing much weight.  It wasn't until I did my measurements that I found out that I was losing inches.  It was also at this time that I stopped focusing so much on losing weight and focused more on losing inches.  I suggest you do the same.  Focusing on weight can be discouraging, but focusing on losing inches made the workouts go by faster and made me work harder.

Day 30.

By Day 30 of Insanity, there was definite improvement everywhere.  I had energy, had a great attitude and was proud of myself for finishing the first month.  Day 30 fell right into the middle of "Recovery Week", and let me tell you, I LOVED LOVED LOVED Recovery Week.  It stretches and almost relaxes your muscles, but you still get a great workout without feeling like you want to die.  It was also at this time that I signed up to be a Beachbody coach so I could get Shakeology cheaper.  Shakeology is like a gift from the Gods.  It tastes good and it gave me my daily dose of chocolate in a healthy form.

One of the hardest things for me was curbing my eating habits and eating five times a day.  I loved soda, chips, crackers and cheese, beer, fast food burgers, ice cream - all the things you shouldn't eat massive amounts of, I wanted, especially since now I couldn't have them.  Instead of cutting them out completely, I set a limit for myself.  Saturdays were free days, I could eat whatever I wanted if I was smart about it.  I also set Wednesdays as "You can have one, and only one, bad thing today" day.  At first, I gorged on Saturdays.  After a while, I didn't want to because the food I used to eat didn't taste as good, so I stuck to my shakes, salads, healthier foods and snacks.  Wednesdays I would pick to have one can of soda.  I can't even drink soda now because it's too sweet, makes my stomach hurt, and gives me a headache.  I really miss my bubbles, but I'll take a chocolate shake instead.  :)

Day 45.

It wasn't until Day 45 that I really started to notice the changes in the mirror.  I'd been so used to looking for them, that I didn't see them when they showed up.  My stomach was smaller, my arms had muscle bumps, my legs were more toned.  The closet jeans that were so uncomfortable to wear at Day 30 felt good to wear, not loose, but not cutting into my stomach anymore with 5 inches of gut hanging over the edge.  I didn't have to wear the baggiest shirts I owned to cover up that hanging bulge either.

Let me interrupt myself here and say that starting Insanity Month 2 was just like starting Month 1 all over again.  It was hard, everything ached, and those damn hellish goblins were back with their torture devices.  The exercises became more complex, sometimes combining two or more exercises from Month 1 into one exercise.  And I will be honest and say that there are a few them that I still can't do, but I did the best I could with them, modified them when I had too, and got the job done.

Day 60.

These last two weeks of Insanity, I kinda hit a "blah" phase.  I don't really know why.  Maybe because I'm a little sad it's over.  Before I used to be like "OMG I DID MY WORKOUT! YAY ME!" and it's been "meh, did my workout" lately.  I'm sure those of you who have been following my blog posts have noticed this as well.  I really don't have an explanation for  it, but one of the ladies in our Facebook group is feeling the same way, so maybe it's normal.  I think it's the beginning phases of Shaun T withdrawal, because he is just an awesome guy.  :)

Day 60 of Insanity.  I made it!  I did it!  YAY ME!  I decided to commit and succeed (to steal a line from my buddy Jon - thanks!).  I stuck to it, even through the aches, the pains, the "why do you hate me"s.  And I have the results.  They are more than I expected, considering I didn't even think I'd make it out of Month 1.  Take a look for yourself and tell me what you think! 

And there you have it folks.  Insanity - 60 days of pure insane cardio designed to make you sweat, swear, and look good.  :)  Up next for me is Turbo Jam, which we're starting on June 4th.  After that, I've already planned on re-visiting Shaun T and Insanity to see how badly I can pound those number into the dust.  :)

I want to thank those of you who've been following this journey either here on the blog or over at our Facebook page.  Stayed tuned for a journey through Turbo Jam!  :) 

Insanity - Week 8, Day 3 & Day 4 & Facebook Challenge!

This post is going to cover two workouts.  Why?  Because TH and I were being huge dorks yesterday and played Diablo III all freaking day.  You know what that means right?  Yeah, the workout didn't get done.

So, I'm doing them both today.  Which is going to suck monkey chunks.

Day 3 of week eight was Max Interval Circuit.  I just finished it and I'm dog tired now.  I got a new record for S-S Jumps though - nine!  I was so proud of myself!  I was also able to do the Full Body Drills a lot better than the last time I did them.  By this I mean I was ALMOST able to do two full sets without stopping to rest my arms.  That's huge!  Doing the moving push-up jacks is still a bit discombobulated, but I did them!

The only thing that still gives me trouble with Max Interval Circuit is the Side Suicide Jumps.  The problem is I still have that flabby roll (thought it's A LOT smaller now), and doing any kind of get-down-jump-back or to the side move is a real pain in the butt.  It gets in the way a lot less than it used too, but it's still an issue.  It's my dearest wish that when I do round 2 of Insanity in two months and two weeks (Turbo Jam!  June 4th is our start date!), that problem will be corrected.

Insanity - Week 8, Day 1

Week 8 has started off great!

Can you hear the sarcasm in that?

For one, I'm doing everything a day behind when I normally should, which throws me off completely. 

For two, I'm doing the Shakeology Three Day Cleanse, which leaves me begging for energy about halfway through the workout.  If I could harness the power of anything to get through them the way I know I can, I'd be a happy camper.

However, I'm not a happy camper.  I should have listened to myself and waited until AFTER Insanity was over to do the cleanse.  I almost hurt myself twice today doing Max Interval Plyo because I got light headed.  If you're not used to doing a cleanse, have never done one before, or are not used to exercising, I highly recommend NOT doing one while doing Insanity.  Do it before you do the program, or after.  Just not during.  Maybe it's just me, but yeah.

So, Max Interval Plyo.  My friend.  How I will miss you when I'm bouncing around doing Turbo Jam in two weeks.  (Did you see the sarcasm there too?  LOL!).  I know the workouts haven't changed, and I know I've beat this poor horse to death before, but I swear they come in, steal my workouts, and switch them with modified ones.  They always seem harder than last time.  I guess that either means I'm slacking or I'm pushing myself harder. 

Knowing me - it's probably both.  :)

I did do 7 S-S jumps today during the first group of intervals though.  That made me happy.  I still can't keep up with the machines when they are doing Level 3 Drills though.  I just go at my own pace, and it seems to work.  I'm not a huge fan of what I call "burpies" (Level Drills to Mr. Shaun T), and I've never been able to do them well.  Getting on the floor and assuming my body is going to catch itself is not going to happen for a very long time, if ever.

Oh, and the knee step things - I can't remember the real name at the moment - I love those.  They hurt, but they feel great at the same time.  :)

I'm seriously debating whether or not to do Max Cardio Conditioning tonight, or just push this whole thing back.  MCC is more intense (for me) than Max Interval Plyo, so I'm thinking I'm just going to push this entire week back one day.  If I wasn't doing the cleanse - yeah I'd push myself to do it.  But, this just means my FINAL FIT TEST (yay!) will be on Monday instead of Sunday.  I'm thinking that sounds just fine to me.

Besides, if I push it back it gives me more time to play Diablo III.  Which I'm going to do right after I proofread this and publish it.  :)

See ya tomorrow!

Insanity - Week 6, Day 6 - Completed!

I know, I know I know.  Today (Monday) is actually the start of Week 7 for all you normal people.  I however am not normal.  Like you really needed me to tell you that!  Since I was occupied on Saturday (party!!!), I moved my Day 6 workout to Sunday...and this is Sunday for me until I go to sleep. 

It's done!  I really love Core Cardio & Balance.  I've gotten a bit better at the end exercise, which are called Shoulder Burner Plie (I think).  I can totally tell that the bottle of Shiraz, 4 Miller Lites, and 3 Rum Chata shots effected me.  More than just a small headache and major dehydration too.  My muscles didn't want to cooperate, but I made them!

Insanity - Week 5, Days 1 & 2

Hello Month 2!  I didn't realize that Month 1 was just kindergarten.  I thought I'd have to at least graduate grade school before you threw me right into med school.

Yeah.  You heard me.  It sucks - in a good way.

Month 2 (the beginning of Week 5) feels like Month 1 (the beginning of Week 1).  I feel like I've done nothing for the last 5 weeks but sit on my couch eating bon-bons and watching re-runs of Married With Children.

Insanity - Month 1 Review - Core Cardio & Balance

So, today was my first day of "Recovery Week".

Oh.  My.  God.

I Love You.

This workout feels amazing - even sick.  It stretches, lengthens, works, and even relaxes your muscles.  It's like a Workout Spa, or a really good massage.  You know the the ones where it hurts, but afterwards you feel amazing?

Yeah, that's Core Cardio & Balance.

I thought it also might be a good idea to do a monthly overview of my Insanity.  So far, the people in my head have stopped yelling at me, but I know they're still there.  Just kidding.  :)  On a serious note, this has been one awesome, hurty month.  Some one should copyright the word "hurty" because it's so apt.

Insanity Fit Test - Week 3

Today was my second Fit Test.

I improved!

It doesn't matter as much that every other measurement number went up, except my arms, which went a little bit down.

It doesn't matter that I gained 4 pounds since I weighed myself last week.

What does matter is that I was able to do 5 - yes FIVE - push-up jacks today.  It killed me, but I did them!!!!  (Super excitement there.)

What matters is that now I just have more incentive to work harder.

I felt better after doing the Fit Test today.  Beforehand, I was ticked off and down on myself for fallen off the wagon a couple times when out with family.  The fact that I improved (sometimes only by 2 reps, by hey, that's good!) showed me that I am NOT doing this because I'm a sadistic, insane person, and that it IS working. 

With my first Fit Test, I was a pile of sopping, sweaty, hurty human.  Today, I wasn't.  I pushed myself harder than I did then, with better results - not breathing as heavy, no major muscle complaints, no urges to puke or cry.  Creepy Cats weren't staring at me (they have learned to GO AWAY when I'm working out), and, though it was 80 degrees in the house, I wasn't a pile of sopping, sweaty, hurty human.  Just mega sweaty.  :)

Here I come Week 3!  Better watch out!

Getting It In Gear (March 15, 2012)

T-minus 4 days until my Insanity begins!!!!!!

No, I'm really not that excited, I just like exclamation points.  Why?  Because I imagine what my cats would say if they could talk.  It's insane (haha) to be self-conscious in front of cats, but I was. Especially with all three of them in random spots around the room staring at me.  Creepy.  See, to get myself in the "groove" of keeping to a schedule, I've decided that today, Friday, and Saturday will be Insanity "Fit Test" days.  Have you ever done it?  Have you wanted to throw things at the TV while those three perky, yet sweaty-breathing heavy-I don't have an inch of fat on me, do those 8 1 minute tests and make them look so easy?