With a Squawk!

So after my month 1 evaluation, having surpassed all the exercise requirements but failed the eating ones, I decided that I wasn't happy with my progress. And since I decided I'm still unlikely to follow the meal plan (although month 2's meal plan is much more reasonable - more on that soon), my solution was to switch up and supplement my cardio load.

Ever since I'd gotten the Nike+ attachment for my iPod, my only cardio has been running. But since my running rarely involves sprints or cardio bursts, I've decided that it isn't enough to make me lose weight. So where did I turn in this time of need? To Maya, of course.

Instead of skipping her cardio workouts now, I've decided that I will supplement my 4-5 days of running a week with one intense 45-minute cardio workout with Maya. (This actually ends up being around 35-40 minutes of cardio, because she always adds some weight work at the end).

Maya tiptoes me into the workout with some really easy stuff: step touching, marching in place... Fortunately, this part only lasts about 3 minutes, then she moves into alternating sequences with jumping jacks, fast shuffles (I used to have to do those for tennis lessons) and various squat jacks, kick jacks, double jacks... any kind of jumping jack you could possibly desire, and then my favourite: The Karate Kick with Squat. Except that whenever she says it, it sounds like she's saying "with squawk" and having done a couple of years of Tae Kwon Do, I'm just dying to let loose and squawk out loud with each kick. But then I might disturb our neighbors and we really do love our new house...

I had my second Yourself! evaluation today and found that nothing had really changed, except that I was now able to do 20 pushups without stopping (compared to 15 when I started) and while Maya thinks that my focus should still be upper body strength, I decided to ignore her and switch my focus to cardio.

Now let's watch that kick my fitness plans into shape.

Oh, and then I leave for almost two weeks of travel tomorrow so that completely changes everything in my workout routine anyway. So much for that plan. My new focus will be: how to remain on target even while travelling. I'll let you know how that goes.

Self Challenge - Week 4 in Review

Here it is, the end of Month 1... I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed in the month overall. While I've managed to complete the minimum amount of required workouts, I only had one really good week. I'm falling behind on my two Nike+ goals that I'd set for myself: one was to run 16 times this month and the other was to run 5 runs at a faster pace than I normally do.
I actually still have 3 days to try and finish these goals, but it's looking a bit unlikely that I'll manage.

So, here we go:

Requirements:
3 x 30 minute cardio workouts
2 x 25 minute strength workouts

What I actually did:
3 x cardio workouts: 45, 30, & 35 minutes, all running (booo! that's even less than last week!)
3 x Yourself Fitness workouts: 45 minutes of lower-body, 45 minutes of core & 45 minutes of flexibility

Food-Wise:
Yeah, nothing new here.

So where does that leave me after one month? Pretty much nowhere. I weigh exactly the same, my measurements are identical... I don't really have a tangible success meter. Oh well, time to keep on trucking.

I thought it was interesting that I've found this article that says that a well known NYC fitness guru has been recommending the Self Challenge to his clients. Well, that's interesting, but I guess it's possible that it would help if I followed the eating plan. Although I must admit, the eating plan seems to be very restrictive in terms of calories! I'm pretty certain (and Tamsen even more so) that I need more than 1600 calories a day.

Well, here we go, onto Month 2 and its new and improved diet plan!