DAY 27: PLYOMETRIC CARDIO CIRCUIT & MEAL PLAN

LAST PLYO! AND OFFICIALLY THE LAST WORKOUT OF MONTH 1.

I'm again a flurry of mixed emotions, happy as it's my last one, but then scared of the harder version that is to come and reduce me to a former shadow of myself once more. 

As with some of the other workouts, although i really despise this, i find myself being able to get through it so well, to the point i'm only taking a rest on the last few seconds of a drill if i need to. The third set of the drill more so, it's just so much and because now i know exactly what's next, i'm either thinking 'okay, the next one isn't bad' or 'please no, pleeeeeease NOO'. Majority of the time it's the latter!

So my next scheduled workout is on Monday, this is Saturday's workout (done on Sunday..which should be a rest daay). I have a full recovery week next week! It's not really recovery, as i don't get to just not do Insanity for a weeek, can you imagine?! No..it's like part of my life now haha. 

We have a full 6 days of Core Cardio & Balance, for the first few days it'll be good and new and i'll be raring to go, but i think have six whole days of the same thing could get a bit samey..we'll see though as i might have a new favourite on the way. 

Stay tuned!

MEAL PLAN 

BACON! I haven't had bacon in so long, but i had it .... today i broke a little rule and had some bacon, on whole meal bread though..so it's kinda all good. It tasted amazing, but i can assure you i'll be leaving it off my diet plan for the next month at least. With Month 2 i've decided i'm going to be eating super super clean, i mean no sugar (at all, even in my coffee) .. minimal carbs (only on an evening meal) ... max protein (more chicken and fish with lunch and dinner)...and i'm going to actually cut out bread. It's not that i think bread gains weight etc, i NEVER eat white bread as it is...but it just makes me feel so bloated, i think cutting it out for a month and seeing the change, if there is any will give me an idea on what i need. 

So on Day 36 which is the start of Month 2, i'm going to post a list of my groceries, which will have every item i'll be using for the next month when it comes to food. If it ain't on the list, i won't be eating it! Even eating out, i'll have to be fussy, making sure things are cooked the way i want them, and no condiments etc. Hard life ey, but to get the results i want it's a change i'm willing to make!

Happy Blogging!

A. 

DAY 26: PURE CARDIO AND CARDIO ABS & MEAL PLAN

Last time i do this dreaded workout! Wahoooooo. However, i can stop 'wahooo-ing' realistically because i'm pretty damn sure that 'MAX CARDIO CONDITIONAL & CARDIO ABS' that my calendar has to offer in the next few weeks is going to be double energy, double time and double pain. So i should probably prepare myself for that. 

One thing i do like  about Pure Cardio is we don't have anything repetitive, what i mean is every drill you do, you only do once! Thats still about 15-20 drills for one minute each without any water breaks. So it's still very very tiring. I'm starting to love the fact that i'm not dying by the end of a workout though, yeah i'm knackered but i don't feel like i used to, i feel energized and ready to go (not to do another workout, just good in myself) 

Doing Cardio Abs straight after is beneficial but because you gotta do another warm-up, it's a bit like torture to your legs. Shaun T and his posse are bone dry definitley have had a nice sleep and a day between the two lots of filming! So i kinda feel boss doing it straight after AND getting through it...yeah, WHAT?! Shaun T, don't see you doing this!

The C-Sit position is good to keeep your core solid. Although your sitting in it at one point for a good 3 minutes doing a variety of leg/arm moves and twists, once you sit up and rest, hell can you feel the burn!

MEAL PLAN 

In a bit of a rush again today as i had a hair appointment early this morning, so an apple and a cup of coffee had to suffice for me unfortunatley. I promised to have a good lunch though which i did. 

A jacket potato filled with chilli con carne and a side salad graced my stomach for lunch, i got this while i was out as i was so hungry by the time i'd sat in the hairdressers for 2 and a half hours, making it home just wouldn't do!

Because i don't normally eat a lot of normal potato, i was quite full for the majority of the day, so for my evening meal, i had some broth my gran had made me a while ago, defrost and re-heat..it still tastes amazing. Her broth is pretty much made up of vegetables, chicken stock, lentils and bits of chicken breast. But seriously, it's soooo good.

A. 

DAY 25: CARDIO RECOVERY & MEAL PLAN

 Last time i'm doing Cardio Recovery for this round of Insanity. Sad times, actually it's dawning on me this is the last time i'm doing any of the Month 1 workouts! Jeeebus, time flies when your doing Insanity. It really does, it certainly doesn't feel like i've been doing this for a month now. 

Anyways, Cardio Recovery as you all know is one of my fav..yeah you still work up a little bit of a sweat but it's more about focusing on your core and stretching. With the recovery workout i think the best tip i can give is really focus on your breathing, not so much to get your breath back, but to train your breathing to exhale when your exerting energy and inhale on a recovery move. This gets oxygen to the muscles that need it the most depending on what exercise your doing. 

I think with Month 2's version of this since it's called 'MAX RECOVERY' i think they'll vamp up the cardio side of it, so you will be sweating a lot! And incorporate some harder more taxing stretches, by this point i presume if you've never been into fitness or didn't really workout, the Month prior will have you in good enough shape to cope with Month 2's exercises. Well that's my theory anyway!

MEAL PLAN

 A day off work means my meals are always timed well and i can prepare them as i go, yeah..meal prep saves time if you do it the night before. But there's just something so much nicer about a freshly prepared meal that you can eat right away!

Breakfast was a menagerie of fruit today! Some of my fruit was about to spoil so i took advantage and made a big fruit salad with apples, bananas, kiwi, melon and grapes.  A big bowl of fruit with some natural yogurt spread on the top get's me going for the day i can assure you.

Lunch was a fairly small affair of tuna steak, broccolii and side salad of lettuce with chopped cherry tomatoes. I was in a bit of a hurry with lunch as i wanted to get into town before it closed!

My evening meal had a bit more thought, diced chicken breast with soy noodles, onions, garlic, chilli and peppers all tossed together with some sweet potato fries (home-made...with low-cal spray might i add) finished me off for the day and i slept a happy bunny!

A.

DAY 24: PLYOMETRIC CARDIO CIRCUIT & MEAL PLAN

Now we all know how much i don't like Plyo. But today was really like 10x harder, my energy levels were so low, i don't think i had half as much to eat as i should have. Or i spaced out my eating far too much. Not to mention a 6 hour late shift at work. A combo of all of those things = unhappy A. 

But none-the less i had to push through, i always think if i miss one workout, at the end if my body isn't how i want it, i'll think back and be like 'that one day i couldn't be bothered, that's why i don't have a perfect body' So i am not willing to take the risk, come rain or shine, come tiredness or illness i will complete Insanity!

With the majority of this workout i closed my eyes, honestly..it helped, kinda. I mean i bumped into my wall a few times but...meh no harm done. The reason it helped is it just made me push through, i just kept thinking to myself 'NO PAIN NO GAIN, NO PAIN NO GAIN'...literally over and over and over again. 

Now because of my knee pain i've been experiencing lately the footall sprints i kinda had to take down a knotch, the pain was like a burning sensation which i totally understand is fairly normal, but i mean like 5000 degrees burning, so to avoid injury i just slowed it down. Definitely didn't stop, just slowed. And it helped!

My breathing is also becoming much better, i exhale at all the crucial points which gets oxygen into my body to help push my muscles to where they need to be!

MEAL PLAN

Two slices of wholemeal bread and marmite, i love it, i love it, i love it. With a cup of green tea :)

For lunch i finished off the stir-fry i made the previous night, i really don't understand what people don't like about re-heated food. It's stopping all that unneccesary waste, and yeah it doesn't taste like fresh cooked food, but it's still food! SO EAT! 

Again i had to take some food to eat at work, so itook a few rice cakes and my tub of peanut butter to munch on, along with a little bit of the tuna pasta i had left alsooo. A bit of a re-heat day today! 

Once home i had some chicken legs with a few new potatoes and a small side salad. YUM!

A. 

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.