31 Weeks!

That's how far it is between this day and my goal date for my BIG goal. My big goal isn't size or weight based. It's not getting back to Pre-Baby body (I'm fitter and smaller than I ever was before Lexi, and almost where I was before Declan in size, though not weight.) It's not to be skinny for my sister's wedding-or to be "skinny" ever. 

I. WANT. ABS. 

So, my big goal has been, for a long time, Abs by my 35th Birthday. Which is thirty one weeks from today. I think it's in reach. I'm likely not gonna have Jillian's low body fat type abs, but  I can still have them visible. 

The HOW: 

-this holiday season I'm doing the Mommy Trainer 15 day challenge (adjusted to fit my workout schedule) and the Model Body 15 day challenge (again adjusting for my schedule). 

-I'll also be adding a few supplements to help me get all I can out of these workouts. 

-I've mapped out a formula to keep my food on point. I don't believe in depriving myself, but instead, I make "treat food" part of the plan. This includes allowing one "off road" meal or sometimes DAY a week. This keeps me from feeling deprived without negatively affecting results. 

-starting 1/2/17 I'll be doing another round of BodyShred, and hopefully that will help me round out the portion of my journey focusing on fat loss. 

-after Bodyshred I'll take a yoga recovery week, then do a few weeks of Master Trainer workouts, and hopefully...

-at that point I'll be able to shift focus to yoga, and keep HIIT/weight training in the schedule twice a week, and keep up my cycle schedule. It'll look like this:

 M/W/F : 45-60 min yoga, walk or light cardio 

T/Th: 45-60m HIIT workout, 60min cycle

Sa: 20 min cycle intervals

Hopefully that new schedule works to help me reach my goals of muscular arms and abs and maintain my fat loss. I'll probably throw in a round of Bodyshred every few months to mix it up too. 

Updates, goals reached, challenges.

 

I finished Bodyshred on November 11, and it felt so good, but also kind of anticlimactic, and I'm not sure why. I never really expected to finish it able to do everything the workout asked of me, and I am proud that I fought through that last week, when the workouts were so hard it felt like I was modifying more than actually following the moves. Or maybe it was because my sister was getting engaged in two days, and that was consuming my thoughts and feelings. Maybe it was because I felt like my body wasn't really changing, despite my giving everything I had. 

Except it was, and is. My body did the ridiculous swelling thing it does through most of the program, and it was difficult to see any exterior payoff to all my hard work. On the Friday before my last week of Bodyshred, my size 8 jeans were feeling incredibly tight and I thought, this better come off when I get a little chance to recover. Well, the next Thursday, I felt kinda skinny, and decided to see what I weighed. The scale had faithfully claimed since Declan was 2 weeks old that I weighed 182 (or more, some days!) despite me losing pant sizes and working out like a beast. Not this day. This day it told me 174. Well good. I'll take that. Then, sometime that weekend, I tried on my size six jeans, and they slid right on and there was no muffin top. 

This past week was not intended to be a recovery week, but due to a perfect storm on my mental health affecting my physical health, it was, for the most part. That also gave me a chance to actually see the changes in my body. I saw another movement on the scale (171) and I tried on my size fours twice. The first time I just wanted to see how close I was to being able to button and zip-I didn't really think they'd come over my hips! They buttoned and zipped with little effort. The second time, yesterday, there was no muffin top. What is this world? They weren't comfortable, but they went on. So that gives me some fuel to think that maybe in the next 5 weeks of workouts I can make the difference between where I am now and "comfortable". Y'know, everyone's Holiday plan. Hahahaha! 

I'm starting the first of two challenges I've got on deck for the holidays today,  and I'm gonna record stats for once:

Weight: 171

Waist: 30

Hips: 40

Chest:40

Cage : 33

Thigh: 23

Calf:14

Bicep(not flexed): 11

I'm trying to prepare myself for the likelihood of swelling up again, at least a bit, but hopefully even our trip at Christmas won't jack up my results too much. 

This is (probably) our last week of nursing, which will get its own post, but this means next week I can start taking a pre workout and BCAA supplements! I'm excited about that and really hope there's a positive effect on my muscle building, workout performance, and overall energy. 

I'm a bit overtired today from a very emotional and mentally challenging week, and resulting lack of sleep, but I'm so excited for what's ahead. 

31 weeks!