Insanity and a calorie controlled diet - SUCCESS!

Hi,

I just wanted to share my experience of Insanity. I was very sceptical when I was looking at the before and after photos (I still am, to an extent) but thought I'd give it a go regardless. My reasoning was that I was a good 2.5-3 stone overweight, led a very sedentary lifestyle with very little exercise, ate what I wanted and drank too frequently!

So, having seen Insanity mentioned on a friend’s Facebook page, I looked it up. I must be the only person in the world who hasn’t seen the adverts on TV as, everyone I’ve mentioned it to said, ‘Yeah, I’ve seen that on telly’ and even mentioned the T-shirt you get when you finish! I spent hours Googling it and reading success stories and reviews before finally taking the plunge.

I was fortunate that my wife was willing to give it a go too as, some days, I really couldn’t face another session but she gave me the encouragement I needed. Every time that happened I felt great after finishing. In fact, despite being almost unable to get up off the floor after every session, I felt brilliant once that clock had ticked down to 0:00.

It took up a lot of time. We have two girls, aged 10 and 7, who have been great over the past nine weeks keeping themselves occupied for an hour while we exercise. There were some days when it was impossible to fit it in but that didn’t stop us from continuing. We’ve been going for long bike rides as a family on days where we haven’t managed to exercise and on some days when we need to burn up extra calories.

Regarding the calorie control, I’ve stuck to 1400 calories (eating back what I lose in exercise) only going over a handful of times over the past 9 weeks. I’ve still enjoyed some nice meals, eating out and choosing healthy options over the usual burger and chips, fish and chips etc. My weight loss has been a consistent 3 lbs per week.

The MyFitnessPal app on my phone has been instrumental in my weight loss, I wouldn’t have been able to keep track without it, that’s for sure.

So, as today is the last day of Insanity for us, we can’t exercise tomorrow as we’re going out for the whole day, our ‘insane’ journey is over. We’re going to do Hip Hop Abs next, we’ve already tried a couple of the routines and can really notice the muscle aches for a couple of days after so it must be working.

I still have 11 lbs to go to reach my target but the 26 lbs that I have lost over the last nine weeks, which all of a sudden seem to have flown by along with the summer holidays, has been down to a lifestyle change. I’ve swapped red wine for gin and low calorie tonic, fatty/greasy foods for lower fat options, chocolate and other snacks for 0% fat jelly, apple crisps and other fruit. I still get cravings for chocolate and sugary things and I have them now and again but they always go down on my food list and I just have to do an extra few minutes of exercise to work them off.

Supplementing the Insanity and bike rides, I’ve just started jogging, this burns up a lot more calories than I thought and is a great, quick way to blast off a few ounces.

If anyone out there is thinking about starting Insanity I couldn’t recommend it highly enough. Combine it with a healthy, calorie controlled diet and you can’t fail to lose weight and shape up. I’ve taken photos at day 1, 15, 36, 50 and 61 – the difference is almost unbelievable.

My calves and quads are now really toned thanks to Insanity. I heard once that if you take care of your legs (i.e. get them toned) the rest of your body will catch up on its own. My upper body strength has improved loads and I can now do dozens of press-ups. I struggled to do five before I started. I only have a little bit of stomach fat to get rid of now and then I can start toning up with the Hip Hop Abs – I like the thought of not doing any sit-ups! Shaun T is a bit of a character too!

Thanks for reading!