Get Fit, Feel Epic - Final Post

Wow, I can't believe it's the end of the challenge. A big thank you to Rebecca at Weight Wars for hosting this challenge & for introducing me to so many great new bloggers!

So here's how the challenge went.

First of all, even though I did not set a specific number of pounds to lose by the end of this challenge, I am going to share because I'm super pleased with my progress.

Since the start of this challenge, I've lost 7.5 kg (16.5 lbs) and 4.8% body fat. I've also dropped 4 jeans sizes!! I can no longer wear any of the trousers I own. The just shimmy off my hips. I won't be measuring myself until the 1st of November, but the proof is in the clothing!

I'm super-excited about this progress and I know it all has to do with the changes I've made in my eating habits as part of the Whole Life Challenge (you can read about my experience in the challenge here)  -- as well as all the exercise I've been doing.

Unfortunately, that's as far as the good news goes because the rest of my goals weren't really reached :/ I did well in most of them, but I wasn't able to complete them in their entirety.

1) Complete the C25K program - I'm close. I managed to get to week 7, but didn't finish the whole thing.

2) Complete 4 chapters of my Fitness Nutrition Certificate studies - I only managed to get through the first chapter and start the second

3) Work on increasing my core strength every single day - I was quite good at this, especially in the beginning of the challenge. However, as things got busy, my focused time on core work got pushed to the side and I was just doing as part of my regular exercises (e.g. crunches during CrossFit or plank during Body Balance etc.)

4) Do a minimum of two yoga/pilates/Body Balance sessions per week - I was pretty good at this too. I think over the past 8 weeks I only missed 4 classes. I also incorporated a yoga routine for my mornings which I've been pretty good at following. I'll definitely keep it up.

5) Complete my 4 week Gleason's boxing training program - I'm on Week 4 now. Again, I got side tracked but mainly because I started taking actual boxing lessons. So even though I didn't complete the plan, I didn't stop boxing.

I think I made a good attempt at completing my goals. I'm definitely going to keep working at them until I complete them. In the meantime, however, I end this challenge knowing that I've made some huge changes in terms of my lifestyle, particularly the food aspect. I'm eating incredibly well, losing weight, getting stronger, and having a blast while doing it.

What more could you ask for?

Onwards and upwards :) Thanks for all your support blogging community. You guys keep me motivated and moving!

Awesome Day

I woke up at 8 a.m. today.
I got a total of 8 hours of sleep!
As someone who suffers from chronic insomnia (average of 4 hours of sleep a night, 5 if I'm lucky), 8 hours is phenomenal. Even D said he was shocked at how deeply I was sleeping this morning.

I got up and made scrambled egg whites with a bit of tomato salsa and 2 slices of wholewheat toast.

I had a few errands to run today, but then I decided, the hell with it. I'm staying home.

So I stayed home, put on Private Practice, and continued going through the mountains of papers in my office. As more and more papers were put into the recycling bin, the better I felt. It was so cathartic.

For lunch I had some quinoa with red bell peppers and grilled sweet potato.

At 4 p.m. I left the house and headed to the CrossFit training center.

Yup. Today was my first proper CrossFit training day.

I had no idea what to expect.

I got to the building and went down to the basement.

The floor had been covered in the foam mats that are normally found in the weight-lifting section of gyms and there were all sorts of equipment around the room. It was such a stark contrast from my regular gym, which is all shiny, clean, and organized. This was rustic and gritty. I loved it.

So, here are the details of the workout (skip if you're not interested in the details):

Warm-ups involved jump rope, walking lunges, and jumping on one foot through a ladder type rope that was placed on the floor.

We then moved on chest presses (I pushed 40 kg (about 80 lbs) for the last 3 sets of 3 reps) and pull ups with a resistance band -- talk about new experience!! It was a bit scary to be honest - step on the resistance band with one leg, cross the other leg over, and then jump up to the bar and hope that the band helps enough to help you do the pull ups. I don't think I did very well, but I tried and completed all the sets.

After doing that I understood why I've read in some CrossFit sites - My warm-up is your workout. We were already working up a sweat but we hadn't even started the WOD (workout of the day).

Today's WOD - 15 minutes, as many rounds as possible - 15 high intensity push ups, 15 burpees (ugh), 15 some form of ab crunches (I forgot the proper name), and 10 jump squats. We completed almost 3 rounds of all the exercises.

The 'After Party' was 3 minutes of box jumps.

It was great. I loved it. I struggled with quite a few things, particularly the burpees. I definitely wasn't as  fast as I would have liked to have been. Still, I'm trying not to get frustrated and just remind myself that today was the first day and I'm going to keep working at it to see the improvements that I want.

I only had an hour before heading over to KD's (my body pump instructor) house for dinner. I was looking forward to some time to just chill and have fun - plus eat! I was starving by the time I got there.

The last thing I expected when I walked through the door was a massive banner and balloons everywhere that even had my name printed on it ... all saying congratulations. I was moved beyond belief. Everyone had their glasses raised and were congratulating me ... I was speechless and so touched. It was perfect.

All my life I've done things for others, arranged surprise parties, looked for ways to make them feel special, etc. I've done it. I've enjoyed doing it.

This is foreign territory to me - having someone put so much care and thought into arranging something so special for me. All I could think was - What have I done to deserve this?

I felt really, really loved ... and so very content.