Day 7: 21 Day Fix - Beast Mode

This morning started out with a great massage to work out the awful knots in my back and shoulder, but the rest of the day anything but lazy and relaxed. I had workouts to complete and I was going to do this hard core.

Mentally, despite the rollercoaster-ness of my first week, I have been feeling really positive. Yes, things have been hard, but they haven't been impossible. Why give up now? Things can only go up form here. The power of belief, guys, it sounds lame but it feels true. Whatever gets me to actually do a burpee, I guess?

Post-Pilates & Cardio! #stillalive

Nutrition wise, today was a win. I even had to attend a birthday party in the evening and managed to turn down a majority of the offerings. There was a bite of cake, but a dear friend had made it and insisted. Otherwise, I ate healthy throughout the morning and afternoon. It was easier because I was thinking about it and making conscious choices about what each meal would be.

The workouts went well! I completed Pilates, then took a break to have my smoothie and recoup, then I did the Cardio dvd. There was a lot of on your toes, plank position stuff in the Pilates DVD that I had to drop to my knees (yay ankle), but hopefully I'll be able to be strong enough to do them without injury, I just don't feel comfortable yet. Otherwise, it was hard, but I powered through.

Morning update: I'm pretty achy from all the massage work to my shoulder muscles, but I'm getting myself psyched for my Pilates class and then Dirty 30 when I get home. Time for breakfast now.

Ciao!
Fallon

Day 6: 21 Day Fix - Sleepy Face

Never fear, I'm not missing a post!

I was just a sleepy human last night and rather than writing my blog post, I went to sleep almost directly after getting home.

Yesterday was a planned long day, you see. I had work followed by the Pop-up Arcade event at Night Shift Brewery with friends. It was wonderfully fun and the selection of arcade games was rather impressive. The beer was (not on plan) light and tasty; it was a very unique craft brewery. The company was even better.

Knowing this was coming, I prepared by packing many tasty, plan approved, foods to keep my full. Eating went on-point yesterday and I was super happy with my packed tortilla and eggs to be scrambled via-microwave. When I would start to get hungry, it was time to eat again and I made sure to have protein in all of my bites. :)

When I got home, though, it was about 9:30pm and, gradma that I apparently am, I felt the world descend upon me and I passed out after perhaps 30 mintues of conversation. My attempt at a workout was find my computer and DVD, place on bed, sit on bed, begin snoring, go to sleep.

The goal remains to turn off negative thoughts and focus on the positive. I'm making getting healthier a priority and that means fighting through "I'm tired" and learning from mistakes.

Morning update: following my message to fix my shoulder, I'm ready to go. The plan is to complete both the Pilates and Cardio DVDs today since I, well, fell asleep, yesterday. I'm hydrated and excited.

Day 5: 21 Day Fix - Dealing with Injury

Hey y'all!

You might have noticed that there was no post yesterday. I ended up taking Wednesday off because I was in so much pain due to my shoulder and neck that I could not move enough to do the work out. While not ideal, I could not manage and spent almost the whole evening with my best friend, the ice pack and bottle of ibuprofen. I did my best to have a good food day, but knew I couldn't move much. Today I found a way to better manage my pain and power through.

Stretch out those legs! #legday

The biggest struggle of the day remains following the meal plan. I forgot my Shakeology on the counter and then at lunch I discovered that my plan-approved egg muffins had totally gone bad! That left me with having had a muffin at breakfast and then a bagel for a late lunch. I also had sunflower seeds and an orange, so those were good snacks, but couldn't sustain me. I had a baked potato for dinner as the poorer foods I'd had earlier had filled me up in a rather bad way. Old me would have given up here and said F-it, I've messed up too much, I hurt, whine, whine, whine...new me says F old me and let's keep going.

My mantra

What the above image reminds me, though, is not to stop and not to give up. Despite the rockiness of getting back on the wagon today, I did well with pain management and I KICKED ASS in the leg day workout. I got as low as possible, modified when necessary, and gained confidence in what my lower body can do. The exercises made me realize that even though I had a weak ankle, the rest of my legs are muscle and can do more than I thought. That means that next week I will be going bigger and badder on those lunges and squats because I know I can.

I have a plan for eating tomorrow and will be up early to get the chicken out to defrost. My Shakeology is prepped, the fruit is ready, and I'm pumped for my protein packed lunch. I am a woman with a plan.

Quote of the day:"If you're tired of starting over, stop giving up." - Autumn Calabrese
Maybe my results won't be perfect because I haven't been perfect, but I'm getting better and I'm not going to stop trying and feel sorry for myself. No thanks.

Morning update: Feeling fabulous after leg day! I'm ready for today. Shoulder is being managed and everything else is ready to go. I even barely hit traffic so it's a good one. :)

Ciao!
Fallon

Day 4: 21 Day Fix - Don't Give Up

Hey everyone!

When I first woke up this morning, I thought wow, I'm not really that sore at all! (See Day 3's Morning Update). As I got to work and began my crazy job of running a summer camp I realized, damn was I wrong! My thighs wanted to secede from my body and I began to get this really bad knot in my shoulder. So, what's a girl to do? Hydrate throughout the day, ibuprofen, essential oils, tiger balm, and a shower at the end of it. Never quit.

Post Upper Fix snapshot. Getting to love my weights!

Ironically, the workout, which was in fact my shoulders and upper body, made my should hurt less. I think this had a ton to do with the warm up and Autumn's reminders to get the shoulders loose. My habit is to tense them and I think doing that during Pilates yesterday led to the pain today. Regardless, no excuses, I completed the workout and am super happy that I did.

The biggest area I need to work on is nutrition. I know that if I don't get this down that I'm not going to see all the results. Today my cold/allergies worsened so I spent most of the day really nauseous. I had my fab Shakeology this morning then couldn't get down anything else except water and a cup of coffee all day due to the build up in my sinuses. I had a tortilla with a little cheese when I got in and then managed a green smoothie made by my lovely roommate for dinner.

Not quite the fuel I need to sustain all this working out and that's going to make everything else harder. Send me any tips/suggestions/ideas you have for staying strong and finding nutrition in a busy work day when you can't stop! (Either through comments or pins; my pinterest is out of control). I'm off to pack myself a solid lunch for the field trip tomorrow and I'm ready to kick ass.

Fitspo love!

Never say die (Iron Eagle). *cue music*

Morning Update: My legs ache worse and my shoulder/neck stiffness is very bad and painful. Today is low key, so I will see how it goes on that front.

We're off to the races, so let's do this!
-Fallon

Day 3: 21 Day Fix - "You are a crazy person."

First off, thanks everyone who's been reading and commenting on Facebook so far! I'm super pumped by all of you and wicked appreciate it.

All I can say is good God, am I tired. Yet I'm not tired in an "I work with children all day and work is exhausting" way; I'm tired in an "my body just did all the things and would like to not for a little bit" way. I think this tired is better largely because my mind is still functioning, perhaps better than when I first left camp this afternoon to return my rental car before Pilates.

Squat down. Weight up. Kill me now? Never say die.

Nutrition wise:
My 2 red containers, 1 blue container, and 1 green container egg muffins were fabulous but I need to be more hungry if I intend to eat an entire portion (4 muffins, no joke). They're super yummy with eggs, mozzarella cheese, turkey, carrots, onion, garlic, and broccoli. Crunchy, savory, nutrient rich...they actually taste like they shouldn't actually be good for you and they were wicked easy to make.

I actually managed to pack an after work snack today since I knew dinner would be later. Sunflower seeds were easy to eat and let me push on through my 4th Pilates reformer class!

Fitness wise:
I. Did. Not. Quit. (No matter how much I bloody well wanted to).
Yes, I did BOTH my Pilates class AND the DVD. (I also managed to convince my friend to come over and do the DVD with me! Win. :) )

I held onto this phrase for dear life at times tonight.

The Full Body Cardio Fix is intense and I did it with my friend immediately after we got back to my apartment after our reformer class. I was literally dripping with sweat and felt every muscle worked today and yesterday screaming. Nevertheless, I completed every exercise and made it through. I made the smart choice to continue modifying the jumping jack and modify the cross country ski move so that I don't jump and injure my ankle. It's a goal to be able to do it all fully at some point, but I don't want to do too much. Pilates thankfully has been helping strengthen my ankle.

Now it's time for all the water and a shower so I can hopefully fix my middle of the night wake up routine.

Morning update: Not only did water do the trick and I didn't wake up sore in the middle of the night, but I'm actually feeling pretty good this morning. Muscles ache a small, pleasant amount but aren't being dramatic. Huzzah!

Get pumped for day 4!
-Fallon

Day 2: 21 Day Fix - Everything Hurts

The title is not an exaggeration. My body is feeling vaguely betrayed whilst my mind is very excited and happy.

I think the biggest thing I noticed today was the effect of nutrition. It's been really easy, as I've looked at this plan and made attempts in the past weeks to start it, to focus on the fact that it's calorie restrictive and in turn not eat enough. Today was busy socially (and wonderful), but I didn't plan out my tim well enough to get the food/fuel that my body needed. I had two wonderfully healthy and protein packed smoothies (1 Shakeology, 1 Whole Foods), but those aren't the same as solid foods.

Not enough solid food = weird cravings.

It's weird because I think with this plan I will actually eat more, but it'll just be so, so much healthier. Eat more, lose weight? It's a hilarious way to think about it, but it's making me realize how out of whack my conception of food has been. That's in the past, as are the reasons it all became so distorted, so it's time to move forward with each day stronger than the last.

Post yoga Fallon is very tired.

This morning I had the pleasure of taking a Pilates class with the studio owner (our instructor is doing job training and gone) and I very nearly died. My muscles ached thanks to yesterday's DVD and this woman is super strong and does not understand how not to go balls to the wall. I struggled and got really overwhelmed because what are you doing and how did you do that, but you know what? I stuck with it and did the whole hour, as much as I could and apparently I did well despite what I'm sure was abject panic on my face at least 75% of the time.

And the coolest part? I did a move I couldn't do sans help by myself today and that was awesome.

Furthermore, I still did Yoga Fix after getting home and went for a walk. My body hurts, but not in an injured way, in a thoroughly used kind of way that I suppose I can get used to.

Tonight, my roommate and I took measurements so I'll be able to really "see" all the progress through the program. It wasn't a pleasant experience, but I know I'll be glad I did it.

Morning after: Second night in a row that I've had trouble sleeping and woke up a lot in pain. Going to have to keep an eye on that. More water and ibuprofen to start.

Ciao,
Fallon

Day 1: 21 Fix - One Step Closer (Sat. Aug. 1st)

I decided a while ago that I was going to revive my blog in the hope that blogging about my fitness journey could result in support and success just like creating the 100 Happy Days posts while I was in Maine helped me survive. I've tried fitness blogging before, but under guises and pen names and never connecting it to Facebook. I'm not totally sure how I expected it to help when no one could see it...but then, I can see why I didn't want anyone to see it.

Why I'm still not sure if I want anyone to read this, if I'm being honest, is that it's not easy to do and that it's even less easy to do publicly. The point, though, is that it needs to be redone and fully done so that I can get to being a healthy, happier version of me. I recently read an article posted by MyFitnessPal about why people fall off the weight loss wagon, one reason for which is stress over change. A solution they suggest is finding a strong support system, which is what I hope this blog will be. That doesn't mean harp on me or preach at me, but be supportive. Make suggestions, check in sometimes, tell me what you notice, and be there for me. Don't be rude. :)

Getting my planning on post-workout

So now comes the next step, jumpstarting back onto the healthy train with Beachbody's 21 Day Fix. I've seen my brother, Brad, get amazing results through this and he's even become a coach. He's been super helpful and encouraged me to give this a try and I'm finally reasonably settled enough to do so.

What does that mean:
Following a strict portion controlled plan using the little tubs, completing the daily workout dvd, and drinking a million tons of water (which luckily I'm always telling my campers to do).

As I was getting all of this set up, I was pinning like a crazy white girl and found a friend who's actually ordering the program and will be starting it up on Monday with me! I'm really pumped to have someone else with fitness goals to talk with and cheer each other on when it gets tough (as it's bound to). To help us sync up, I've downloaded the app Lose It, which is similar to MyFitnessPal, to use during the plan.

Now that all that's out of the way, how did today go?

Nutrition Plan:
I'd say today was a 75% successful today. Breakfast, lunch, and snacks all went really well but boardgames night resulted in less stellar choices. I'm going to recognize that, but not dwell on it, either. Especially since my roommate and I went grocery shopping and loaded up on healthy. We spent a good hour chopping fruits and veggies, and making our own spinach/kale ice cubes for smoothies. This means the future will be brighter and I will get better.


Today's Workout: Dirty 30
Some of these exercises felt deceptively easy at first but then by the second rotation caused some serious burn. I'm glad I've started Pilates, since I could understand what Autumn meant as she referred to abs and holding things in. I was pretty unable to do the side plank exercise at the end, so that's a focus and goal. I could do a few modified, but wow was it a struggle. I'm writing now, in the morning, 30 minutes later, and wow do things really start to hurt so good. Morning after: holy good god, everything aches.


Quote of the day:
"Put the work in now and never wonder what if." - Greg Plitt

20 days to go...
Ciao bellas,
Fallon