DAY 23: CARDIO POWER AND RESISTANCE & MEAL PLAN

Here we go again! I must say, i'm so excited to start Month 2 now, one because i know it's going to be so much more of a challenge, but two because it'll be more variety. I mean i can still do these workouts without getting bored, however it's just getting quite scary how i almost know everything that Shaun T is going to, along with the names of his 'posse'. I was browsing on some Insanity progress sights and found some hilarious photos i'm going to share. 

Josh, cracks me up..never get's the stretching right does he.

Onto the workout itself. For some unknown reason, i've been having really bad knee aches, so i'm taking it slow (ISH) i'd say on the round 3 of the exercsises i'm just going slightly slower than i normally would. I feel if i don't put as much effort in i won't see results! But i don't want to cause myself injury either so i need to change it up a little bit. I got through it, and without too much knee pain, still sweating like crazy and feeling so good having completed it.

My tricep dips are coming along too i've noticed, i'm able to make it to the one legged tricep dips without collapsing now, my prior attempts had me resting on the normal ones. Afterwards my arms still burn yes, that will never go away i don't think! 

MEAL PLAN

My morning started as it quite regularly does, with porridge. I had some honey mixed into it this morning and chopped banana. 

Lunch was a bit of a thrown together deal, i boiled some wholewheat pasta, opened a tin of tuna and added some broccolli to mix together. Although it wasn't probably the best meal i could have came up with, it happily filled me up for the majority of the day! Didn't manage to get a picture of this one (forgetful me)

For dinner, i ate rather late due to some commitments i had to take care of, meant i had to cook late which i haaate doing. So i boiled some light flat noodles, and flash-fried some chicken and veg to make a stir-fry, which i ate half of and left the other half so i could have it for lunch tomorrow, don't wanna wwwaaaaste!

A. 

DAY 22: PURE CARDIO AND CARDIO ABS & MEAL PLAN

Another brutal workout, another brutal body beating from beachbody and Shaun T. A lot of B's in that sentance. I could add another 4 but that would be rather ruuuude!

I think this workout kills me the most because there isn't any of my favourite 30 second water breaks, once the warmup is done, and the stretching..you go into 22 minutes of PURE CARDIO..hence the name! This is why it's sooo important to keep down with your breathing otherwise you'll either chuck up or pass out..or you might be fine, but i highhhhly doubt it! 

Can't believe i'm almost 30 days in, well almost. I can see so many changes in both my physical qualities and my health in general. 

MEAL PLAN

Photos are back!

Finally cleared up all the useless memory eating apps on my phone and made room for the more important things. Like meal pictures!

For breakfast we have some granola and muesli with freeze-dried strawberries, i didn't even realise that you can get these in packs either! I got mine from this health food shop in town, i'll try and post the name of them on here one time. For lunch i had some more of these gorgeous wholemeal pitta breads lightly toasted stuffed with ham, cucumber, tomato and spring onion. 

My evening meal consisited of a chicken breast rubbed with chinese 5 spice, usually this would go on pork or duck but i thought i'd try it and it worked. Sweet mashed potato is my lifeline at the moment and tastes sooo good with no seasoning at all, and cottage cheese to give my meal a bit of variety. The shake i've pictured is my regular protein smoothie, with two bananas, frozen berries, soya milk and coconut water. YUUUUMMM.

A. 

DAY 20: PLYOMETRIC CARDIO CIRCUIT & MEAL PLAN

This workout isn't my least favourite, but it has one of the hardest (in terms of energy and strength) exercises i've done EVER. God help me for month 2!

The exercise i mean is when we start with basketball squats for about 45 seconds, then we have Level 1 drills. These are basically 4 push ups, run out with your hands on the floor, stand up and repeat. About 10 times i'd say. Straight after this you've got Ski abs, bringing your knees to the side then back to plank type postion. Gotta keep your bum down to keep form, using the core on these help you get through. Finally you got In and Out Abs. I'm serious, my arms are always shaking like a crazy person after this. All i can hear is Shaun T....'IN......OUT, c'mon y'all....IN......OUT' It feels like it goes on forever and ever and ever. Collapsing on the floor at the end is the best bit!

MEAL PLAN

I was a at work again for the majority of today, so i had a cup of green tea and an apple to start my day before hopping in the car to go to work. Once i'd dealt with a few cases of fraud (i work in a Fraud Department part-time...ha) my friend Anya and i went to our faaaaav place for lunch. BAAAARRR BURRITO! So good, i got tacos this time as i felt a little bloated to be eating tortilla. This time i skipped the cheese and sour cream, but the avocados are so good i could miss them. 

The problem with Bar Burrito however is that it fills me up sooooo much i don't feel like eating for the rest of the day. I have to in order to keep my metabolism up, so when i got home i made a bowl of tomato soup and had a bowl of fruit salad for afters. Very light and i didn't feel like i'd eaten a whale getting into bed! 

A.

DAY 19: CARDIO POWER AND RESISTANCE & MEAL PLAN

Still going hard, i went at it today..i had a really good breakfast this morning so it gave me what i needed to fuel my workout even better. Going forward i'll be doing this more often, more on what i had for brekkie below!

I think the most important part of Power and Resistance really is the warm-up, once you've done the warm-up your really sweating, all your muscles are warm and it gives you the motivation you need for the actual workout. 

The power jumps are hard, like super hard, after the second round of power jumps, fatigue starts to set in big time. But your body WILL keep going if you make it, there's no limit to how much you can push. Well there is, but you gotta just push push push. I'm still struggling with tricep dips i gotta say, the back of my arms burn like a mother, and i get a small ache in my lower back. Squeezing my eyes shut and breathing seems to help me push through!

MEAL PLAN

Reveal of my hearty breakfast.....dum dum dummmm.

A twist on a full english, seriously..you'll be pulling your face like 'yeaaah that's not healthy' alas....it is!

I poached two eggs and had them on top of two slices of wholemeal grain toast, a few grilled tomatoes, and a two strips of grilled bacon, i snipped the fat off before grilling tooooo.

For lunch i made myself a turkey breast, avocado and tomato sandwich on wholemeal pitta breads...accompanied by a salt and vinegar rice cake. 

Dinner i made two oven baked chicken legs with cajun spices rubbed into the skins, with broccoli and green beans. Tasty, but i think i cooked the chicken a little too long so i didn't eat the skin, but i guess that eliminates some of the fat!

A. 

DAY 18: CARDIO RECOVERY & MEAL PLAN

I'm actually caught up, and i'm sitting here typing this post drinking a fruit smoothie after just doing the Cardio Recovery workout. 

I really really can't stress how much i love this workout. It's so nice to stretch out your muscles after a hard few days of cardio, power and just craziness. The best thing is although yes it is a 'recovery' there's still a bunch of exercises to work your thighs mainly, but also biceps and core. There's not one workout in Insanity where you don't work your core to be honest, and thats good. 

ABS ABS ABS ABS ABS ABS ABS

Not much to say today becuase i'm rather relaxed and about to eaaaat.

MEAL PLAN

More granola and fruit this morning, added some extra strawberries to my bowl..feeling fruity! Had to succumb to a cup of coffee for some reason i was feeling super drained. 

I soon sharpened up though and on my walk to work purchased a yummmmmy mango and pineapple smoothie. I'm loving fruit recently too, i almost feel i could live on it if i had to. No...there would be no protein and that would be bad!

I haven't had my dinner yet, but i have two chicken legs defrosting currently which i'll season with some spices, roast a few sweet potatoes to make some mash and boil myself some greens to go with...and voilaaa meal done! 

DIG DEEEEEPER.

A. 

DAY 17: PURE CARDIO AND CARDIO ABS & MEAL PLAN!

Ambling into my kitchen to retrieve my workout calander and happily humming a song in my head, i was 100% sure i had Power and Resistance today, which i quite like as it's more about strength and core than just constantly sweating my ass off. 

BUT NO.

I can honestly say, tears came to my eyes. This workout seriously makes me want to curl  up in a ball and cry. At least the thought and any time before i do it does. After i feel amazing i won't lie. 

There's something about the order of these exercises that just makes it work, you feel tired half way through, but then the next exercise gives you a little bit of recovery, not loads to really push for the next one. The football sprints to the left, front, right and back get me everytime. My calves cry out for mercy. 

'SET...SPRINT'

For some reason i go mental on the sprints, i get a burst of energy from nowhere, pretending i'm in the Olympics or something. HA!

Now i like to do the Cardio Abs straight after Pure Cardio, i've heard a lot of people will split these two up. Do Pure Cardio on a morning and the Abs on the night. I'm not sure that would work for me. I feel that after the first workout, i'm so loose and warm it would be a waste to cool back down to do the Abs later. 

I take a 5 minute break and get straight back on it, with the Abs only lasting 16 minutes it's definitely doable. There's no cardio hardly, just a lot of core use and some leg work. Your stomach muscles take a beating, but come 60 days you'll be thankful i bet! 

MEAL PLAN

I bought some fruit and granola at the supermarket the other day, so that's what i had to start my day a long with....you guessed, a cup of steaming hot green tea!

For my lunch i had some Tuscan Tomato Soup...it's some organic stuff from a health food store i came across a few weeks ago, but with some rice cakes it did the job and i was full full full. 

Dinner again came a little later in the day, as i didn't finish work till 9pm, but i made myself some Ryvita crisp breads topped with lettuce, ham and tomato. I had four to be exact and suprisingly they did the job and away i went to sleep to recover my muscles like they deserve!

A. 

DAY 16: PLYOMETRIC CARDIO CIRCUIT & MEAL PLAN

It's still exciting me to know that i'm over two weeks into Insanity. It really doesn't feel like it either, i know it should...but i think the muscle aches are a thing of the past. Well...kind of. I still ache, but i suppose i'm used to it now. 

Plyometric is probably one of my least favourite i'd have to say. The warm-ups i'm getting used to (jogging, jumping jacks, heismens, 123's, but kicks, high knees and mummy kicks ) x 3 increasing with speed each time. On the last set of 3 i really push now, whereas when i started i found myself slacking on the last set. 

I'm still learning that it's so important to do my workout no more than an hour and a half after i've eaten, if i wait too long i find myself lacking energy and the more i push myself the more i'm risking injury. 

Tips

By now, try and keep up with the timing of the exercises, obviously focus a lot on form..but it's also about speed.

Keep sip sip sipping on water!

MEAL PLAN

I kept it super simple today, basically because of the time i had to eat. Eating on the go, if your at work/out whatever your doing is hard, so it's all about meal prep!

I managed to squeeze in a bowl of porridge oats made with water and a handful of almonds before i left for my shift at work.

For lunch i made myself some brown rice and took a tin of tuna in with me (easy drain, no mess..yay!) For a dessert, or you could say a snack..i had a natural greek yogurt with granola and raspberries. 

Now i waited faaaaar too long for dinner today, silly me forgot to take my last meal to work with me, not thinking on that i don't finish till 9pm! So when i got home i did my workout and made some yummy chicken legs with sweet potato again. I'm seriously loving this meal recently and full of healthhh!

A.