Skrinkering Hearts

I can’t believe how fast this past weekend flew by. It was Friday at 2pm and I was leaving work early to visit my dear friend and her new precious little baby boy and then boom, in a blink of an eye it was 9pm and I was dreading Monday morning. It was a good weekend, filled with some laziness, a good workout at the gym and the discovery of Pandora’s “workout” station (hello 80’s cardio?!), a little bit of shopping, cooking & baking, and some game watching. Pretty darn good and restful, just seemed to go by really fast.

I’ve been meaning to talk about the 10 day Challenge I was taking part in through Beachbody. As a blogger, I received a discount to be a part of this challenge, in lieu of blogging about my experience. I followed the plan like everyone else, replaced one meal a day with a shake, did all the measurements and weigh ins like everyone else. And if there’s one thing I always try to do on this blog when I review things here and there, Gap stuff for example, anyone?, is give it to you straight. So that’s what I’ll do with this recap, giving you some thoughts on my experience, and how it relates for me with the whole bigger picture.

So I decided to do the Beachbody 10 day Challenge after I happened upon a review over at this lady’s blog a couple of months ago. It intrigued me, because I already have been into some Beachbody products- Turbo Jam in the past, dabbled into the idea of p90x, etc. I knew about the company but I hadn’t heard of the challenge. Presently I’m at the point in my health/fitness story where I’d gotten away from so much intense running and really exercise as much on the whole over the past two years while in nursing school. Working full time and going to school full time didn’t lend itself very well to well, any extra free time to workout.

So, I jumped on the wagon with this challenge to kind of give myself a kickstart to getting back into working out more consistently. The healthy eating thing, I have that down. I don’t have tons of weight that I’m looking to lose, but if I’m being honest, I would be happy slimming down 10-15lbs or so before my wedding next year. That’s just a personal goal. When I was running like crazy, naturally I was just a lighter, more toned version of myself. Nowadays, I’m not so much interested in intensely training for another race, at least not a big one. I’d love to train for some half marathons and generally just get back into fun fitness- maybe some classes at the gym, kickboxing, zumba?!, and maybe some of those Beachbody DVD’s again.

Anyway, while the challenge for me didn’t prove to show any significant results physically, it did give me a great motivational jump start to getting back to a more healthy regimen in general.

The idea is to replace one meal a day with Shakeology, which some people really really loved. Being a regular smoothie drinker as it is, I thought I’d be one of these people. Sadly, I was not. These drinks, for me, were just a bit unpalatable. I tried lots of things- adding more ice, adding peanut butter, adding honey, adding vanilla milk, coconut milk, adding a banana. And while the chocolate one was by far my favorite, what I noticed was that they all kind of had a chalky, grainy taste to them, no matter what I added in.

But, I can see how these could work for some people. As I mentioned, I typically have a healthy, clean diet. My issue if I’m being honest in terms of weight loss, or rather, weight gain, is portion size. I eat GOOD things, but sometimes I eat TOO MUCH of the good things. If I like something, I want more, more, more. Moderation is what I’m working on and for me, that’s really key.

Bottom line is that while I may have not lost more than a pound or two on this program, and stayed the same inches wise all around, what I did really gain is a sense of perspective in terms of paying attention to when I’m really hungry, what I’m putting in my body and how it makes me feel, and the power of a good workout. I forgot how great I feel after a good run or a sweaty Turbo Jam workout.

Lastly, I gotta say, if for no other reason than the awesome support that Coach Lindsey* provides at the drop of a hat, on the daily, through message boards and email, anytime, whenever needed, I say you should give this Challenge a shot. Lindsey is a total sweetie- she’s energetic and encouraging, offering daily inspiration and encouragement and feedback, ideas for meals if you need that, and all around general awesomeness. I’m glad I did this Challenge, for it opened my eyes a bit again after having a lazy several months here, and it introduced me to a new friend.

If you’re interested in trying out a Challenge, right in time for Halloween, Lindsey is offering 50% off to any blogger who wants to sign up for her next Challenge. Just shoot her an email that you’re interested, and she’ll hook you up with all the details. And by all means, if you have any other questions that you want to ask me privately off the blog, comment here or email me and I’d be happy to chat with you more.