Yes, Day 19 of the 21 Day Fat Burn Booster, the home stretch. Where do I find myself? Well, let’s start with the exercise component, since that where my success lies. The strength workouts were excellent! I had a sore shoulder/bicep from catching myself from falling on an icy day. The exercises were spaced out enough so those particular muscles were not stressed, and combined with skipping some right arm exercises, I was able to continue working out, while healing the arm. On the flip side, it is only because of the muscle building I’m doing in Koko that my muscle was able to sustain and injury and not be worse than it is. As far as being good workouts, I have to say I felt awesome after every one. I had energy to start my workday and power through until 6pm.
The cardio is really where my success story resides. When I started this program 19 days ago, I was stuck on the elliptical, doing the same one or two programs for almost a year now. The treadmill scared me, as well as bored me. I was afraid of shin splints and a pain I used to get on the side of my left foot when I did the treadmill. Being the risk-taker I am, I plunged ahead anyway. Not once during this entire 19 day period did I experience any shin or foot pain of any kind. Why? The program varies your workouts with both elliptical and treadmill sessions, with rest days in between. At no time was any part of my foot or leg stressed. Now, ending the program, I am going to continue the same pattern and explore the myriad of programs Koko constantly updates on our cardio equipment.
The rest days in the program slowed me down. I used to feel extremely guilty about taking a day off of exercising – I wanted to do cardio everyday and strength every other day. In listening to the advice Michael Wood gives in the cardio programs, I began to realize the rest day is not a day off. It IS an integral part of any good exercise regimen. During the exercise periods the muscles are being pulled, torn, and stressed. During the rest day they are healing, building and becoming stronger. I learned that if you don’t take those rest days you will keep your muscles in a constant state of stress, which, over time, will sabotage and thwart your progress toward becoming stronger and increasing the speed of your metabolism, ultimately keeping you from reaching your fitness goals. And this wasn’t only me. A few of my members mentioned that over the rest days was when they actually lost weight. Whoo hoo! Three cheers for rest days.
Now comes the part that is making me decide I will have to do this program over – ah ha – those of you who follow this blog already know the answer – yep – the food part. I made an honest effort – really I did. I have been off of packaged protein diet food for all 19 days. That in itself took a humongous amount of effort, because I am all about speed and efficiency. I have brought my food to work every day. I chose three breakfasts I could handle putting together at 6 am. I chose 2 snacks and one lunch I could manage to compile quickly before I go out the door each morning. But that’s where my progress stopped. It’s just like the elliptical story – I find something I like and that works and I get stuck there. I tried to search the food plan and incorporate something else, I really did. I think I just need more time. It took a full week to just get in the habit of going to the store next door and learning where everything was. Next I had to use a list. I usually love lists, just not where food is concerned. Somehow instead of making it look doable, it makes it look overwhelming.
My conclusion at the end of this 21 days is to congratulate myself for overcoming my cardio woes and learning to embrace and see the value of rest days. My food shortcoming isn’t really that bad. It takes time to learn new things and we all do it in different ways and at different speeds. I was plenty envious of my members who are cooks and took this food plan and ran with it effortlessly. Me, not so much. But I’m willing to give it another go and build on what I did accomplish. I think if I do it again, I won’t have the exercise and cardio part to be concerned with and I can totally concentrate on the food. We’ll see. Wish me luck.
And so, as another day goes by, our shortcomings are the seeds of our growth – learn to love and relish the challenges they bring, and…I have written.
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