Early Risers here??

Everyone-How are you all doing this fine Monday morning? I hope everyone is fine and are still bringing it to the workouts. How did they go? I had Build legs today. Which was a great thing because I do get a good cardio workout as well with my leg routine and I over induldged on fathers day a bit. Just an fyi. I have been working on another summer challenge for my self. A little background last year I started a summer challenge with a person I was coaching and that was to do a muscle up. We had all summer to get it done, and if we just got 1 muscle up that was it. It took me about a month and a half and I got it. I can knock out 5 with good form. Fast forward now it's time for another one and that is the "Human Flag". I was able to lock out my arms but I am still having trouble bringing up my legs parallel. All I can say is that it is coming. Will keep you all posted.

Suzy_in_DE-Did you get your run in later in the day? Just checking on you.

Insanity2bSan-That is great that you mix it up. It's good to break the routine once you have it down. Dont worry about not getting to it first thing. Important thing is just to keep going. The past is the past. We create our future.

Autumn_a_bett-Welcome early bird. Listen do what you can and you will succeed. I see that you have lost 50 lbs so far. That is great and I bet it was not from getting up early. What has been working for you just do that. If you can change it up to be an AM warrior like us do it. You are off to a great start by getting things ready like you said sleeping in your workout clothes is a start. Keep it up.

Coquette6-You gave some great advise for Autumn. Doing AM workouts cold turkey is tough and can be mentally draining on you because you are pushing the body in the workouts plus you might be doing it with the possibility of a lack of sleep. Again cheers to all those AM warrior's who keep trekking through.

eschifrin-Welcome aboard warrior. That is great that you are doing Insanity and to be doing month 2 early in the morning is saying alot. Insanity is a tough workout month 2 is no joke. So great for you to get it done.

Good Afternoon Everyone!!! Im baaaaacckkkk!!!

Everyone is thinking "AFTERNOON?? I thought this was an AM thread." Lol. It still is trust me. It's just that I learned sooooo much about myself and got really honest with my self that I made it a point to focus on "Work" when I am on the clock and when I am on break or lunch to put my focus on "You all" my friends, my accountability people, MY AM WARRIORS!!!

So I see that everyone kept this thread going while I was away. I am thankful to you all for doing it. I am glad that I am not the only one that has a passion for fitness, being a supporter and a motivator on a thread that is dedicated to those people that take on what I believe is a difficult challenge which is to get up early and workout. Dont get me wrong doing the workouts anytime of day is tough but wouldn't you all agree that doing it first thing in the morning is tough? I mean you get up from a cozy bed in la la land and put your body through a tough workout? Again I applaud you all for doing it.

Yes I am back and yes I worked out this am. (I was at a Beachbody Coaches summit starting last Wednesday till this past Sunday. In case you dont know Beachbody is the company that created popular workouts as P90X, and Insanity). Now that the bio is out of the way I worked out at summit as well I did work out Not all the workouts but I did hit the gym the first night, and then did the super workout on saturday. A little update. At the gym I was able to test myself harder by upping the weight for my dumbbell presses to 95 lbs for 8 reps. I dont know if many of you know but my home set only goes to 52.5 so 95lbs is a big jump. What happened to the other days??? Lol lets just say I spent a lot of it on my feet. A lot of strip walking. So much that when I left for summit I weighed in at 179. Last night I weighed in and I am 179!!!!

Ok I am back at it. An if you are into Beachbody I'll share some things with you if you are not skip this long blog that I just wrote lol. 2 new things are available T25 and Vanilla shakeology. I will give you a review of both and you can run from there. One thing I do suggest is to talk to your beachbody coach (if you have one) as well. I am sure they will be able to answer them for you if not I'll be glad to be your coach and help you decide. Key thing is take what I give to you and decide from there.

T25-Another Shaun T workout. Is it Insanity part 3? In my opinion no, and I believe Shaun mentioned that it is different from the others. One being that it is only 25 minutes... (duh Lol). Actually with warmup and cool down it is 27 minutes. The actual workout itself is 25 minutes of non stop movement. There is less staff on video and Tanya (for those that remember her from Insanity) is there and she is the "Modifier" meaning that she takes every move and modifies it to a slower pace. You still get a great workout if you follow her. The way T25 is explained is that it takes you through a progression, you kind of start off slow but not the slow that you might be aware of. It is still the Shaun T inspired slow if you know what I mean. Of course you can always speed up and go faster with the rest of the crew or be a Warrior and go balls to the wall.

My wife decided that she was inspired to workout harder, to challenge herself. See I had her try Insanity and she did not like it. She felt that it was hard and I did warn her but again it was tough. She could not keep up and either she did not understand or was discouraged that she could not modify the workout because no one in Insanity was modifying. So We did it last night and let me tell you, that 25 minutes was pure crazy for me. I love a challenge so I went (Pardon my language) "BALLS TO THE WALL" and I was worked!!! We did the first workout I forget the title I think it was "Basic Cardio" and man it was tough. Shaun T never once stopped or told us to take a break. He kept the people going. He kind of does a circuit type of routine. To be honest I remembered repeating a few of the workouts but I dont think it was all of them. I say that because I took breaks. Lots of breaks. Again the basic workout was all legs, some of them he had you do them on your tip toes. That was tough and today like I said on facebook If my calves had fat on them before the workout I'm sure they are gone now. How did my wife do? She made it. At first I was afraid that she would modify the whole way but I am proud of her for modifying some and doing 100% of her max on others. I was impressed as I was screaming and grunting she was right there with me. Being the warrior that she is. I am going to try to get her on this thread but she is not an Early riser as she is an RN and works long hours. I know there is an RN here so I sure they can relate but nevertheless I will try to get her on here. One more thing BURN OUT... That comes at the end and if you want to know more you will have to pickup the workout... lol There are 3 phases but what was sold at the summit was the basic kit which included the Alpha and Beta Phase. The third is Gamma and I am going to get that one as well. One more thing to add. In those 25 minutes of work I burned 395 calories. I tracked my burn using a heart rate monitor. Take it for what it is worth but I did measure.

Now on to the other. As you all should know Vanilla Shakeology is out. I've tried it and I LOVE it. I love it so much I picked up a box while there. It tastes just like vanilla, it's not too sweet either like those other artificial vanilla protein powders that smell like vanilla but taste awful. It is not Vegan so sorry to those who are. I dont know if they are going to come up with a Vegan formula we will have to wait and see. I've tried both the Vanilla creamsicle and Vanilla latte. I love both and I will definity be recommending this to all my people that I coach. Remember if you are on the fence with ordering shakeology meaning that you are afraid of spending $$$/bag or box keep in mind that you do have a BOTTOM OF THE BAG Money back guarantee. Again talk to your coach if not reach out to me on how to get a bag. For the taste it is not too sweet and smells like vanilla. I'm going to try to mix 1/2 with chocolate and 1/2 vanilla to see how it goes. Sorry but I'm going to get rid of greenberry and make way for vanilla. If any of you like greenberry or would like to try it maybe we can come up with something and get some out to you. I put up with Greenberry but now that vanilla is out that is going in my cabinet. I'll try to post a youtube vid of a recepie I like soon. What do you all think?

Ok I've gone long enough for this week eventhough I did not gain a pound from all the eating I did in Vegas I have decided to do T25 for the next 7 days (more like a boot camp if you will) and go back to Bodybeast to finish out my last 2 weeks. Being that I was out from lifting weights for the time I was in Vegas I need to shock my body and what better way than with Shaun T. Besides I think my wife wants the challenge lol. I will get to all of your posts later but I felt like I owe'd it all to you that I break my silence (LOL)

Charlie