Fitness Update - Week 3

CAUTION:  This is a text heavy post.

It's officially the start of week 3 of the Get In Shape Girl Workout Plan and week 5 of working out/eating better.  I'd like to say I'm dropping some serious lbs, but I'm not.  Rather I'm building muscle and losing fat, for sure.  I also think I've dropped some water weight that I had accumulated from a lot of eating out.

Inspiration is critical.  Image via

Here's my opinion of each element thus far:


Strength Training
It's mostly circuit-style with groups of 3-5 exercises.  I focus on 1-2 areas each time I ST (which is supposed to be 3x a week), so I have plenty of rest.  The exercises don't require a lot of machines/equipment - which is nice because I can do them at home if I'm off from work.  I'm not pushing myself too much on the weight yet since I'm just getting back into ST, but I'm uber excited to see how much I can push in these next weeks. 


HIIT
Kyra has had me doing High Intensity Interval Training 3x a week after my ST sessions as a way to torch my extra body fat.  Basically I can do whatever exercise I want as long as it's pushing my heart rate for a specified period of time then relaxing for a specified period of time before pushing it again.  It's quick, but not painless.  I'm truly enjoying this part of the program because I KNOW it's going to work.  I know I'm getting faster, my cardio conditioning is improving and I'm losing body fat.  It hurts though...and since I've been sticking largely to sprints (to improve my PT test run time), I've been feeling a bit of shin splint pain.  Think I'm going to try rowing intervals on Wednesday so I switch it up AND I don't kill my legs after my Wed leg session.


Cardio
I've been doing cardio twice a week to (a) improve my PT test run time, which was one of my major goals; (b) train for my upcoming races; (c) burn more fat while giving my muscles a break; and (d) to keep my sanity.  I love running...especially on my own, outside, with the perfect playlist.  Want to sore through a tough issue?  Go running...it works.  I've been averaging about 3.2 miles each session and I can see my time improving already.

Nutrition
This is the area I'm struggling the most - and I knew it would be.  I'm having trouble planning ahead for all of my meals (especially when I get off schedule due to travel or whatnot).  Also, I notice I'm netting a very low number of calories.  I'm used to coming in at 1200-1300 calories, but with the exercise and the nutrition plan, I'm closer to 1000.  Because I don't work out on the weekends and that's when I tend to go off plan, I'm making up for those calories though.  And I haven't really felt tired or overly hungry.  If anything, I'm forcing myself to eat since it's a lot of protein and veggies and that stuff gets rather unappetizing after awhile.  But I know I only get so many calories, so I need to eat all of them.  I think this will get easier as I go along.  I'm definitely a creature of habit and do better when I plan ahead and eat a lot of the same things.   Best tip ever:  set up your phone to remind you whenever it's time to eat so you never miss a meal.  Funny, I find myself heading to eat merely a minute or two before my alarm goes off, so I know it's becoming a habit.

One day.  Image via

Overall, I'm noticing more muscles poking through (my abs are getting serious from all the core work) and I'm feel a lot less swollen.  On top of that, I just feel stronger.  I feel like I'm racing the clock though because I don't want my time on active duty to end.  This is when I'm the most focused on training and I just know September 30th is going to sneak up on me.  Especially since I have a 10-day vacation planned right in the middle of all this. FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS!

July 24th will mark my one-month milestone on the program, so I'll be posting progress photos and stats.