How did it go??

I'm about to start month 2 tomorrow... Was supposed to start again last week but caught a cold. Hopefully i'm able to keep up after such a long break now.

Here is a picture of me at day one and day 30! I can't believe how fast the results are with Insanity. The next month will be more brutal, but I am so ready.

I'm in my recovery week right now. I'm not sure how I feel about starting month 2 on Monday.

WELP, today was our last workout for Insanity's 60 day original program. My total weight loss is 8 pounds, and my husband slid in at 26 pounds lost.

Biggest physical difference I noticed was strength in my hip flexors and aerobic endurance. My hips are tons stronger. I went for 60+ mile bike ride yesterday to the St. Croix River Valley (Afton) and even after climbing hills, I wasn't sore. No knee pain, no back pain, no hip pain. I mean, my muscles are tired, but not in pain. Considering that's the first long ride I've done this year; that's really relieving and good news for me. Especially, considering I've been having a lot of problems with my hips and knees in the past couple of years.

ALL the weight I lost was fat loss. I upped my caloric goal, but worked to make sure my macros were 40% protein, 30% carbs, and 30% fat. We didn't follow a strict diet plan, per se, but we did cut out all alcohol and replaced all sugary snacks like ice cream and cookies with smoothies made with fresh fruit, veggies, unsweetened almond or coconut milk, and protein powders. We also worked towards not having added sugar, though not avoiding sugar in form of things like fruit, honey, and real maple syrup. These weren't hard dietary commitments AT ALL, and I never felt deprived or felt cravings for anything. VERY occasionally we did order pizza, and once, we went out for greasy burgers and fries. All other meals were home-cooked, regular meals. Nothing crazy, or strict in any dietary sense, just good old fashioned food. Meat and potatoes kind of meals. No salads, unless we wanted one, but it was rare. It's almost a sort of anti-diet plan, and we don't have any desire to start eating cookies and ice cream on a nightly basis again.

One thing that did change in my diet is monitoring my macros, as I mentioned above. It was hard at first to hit 40% protein and to keep my carbs under 40. Protein shakes helped. Fat was another thing I really had to concentrate on adding to my daily intake. I started buying full-fat yogurt and nuts to snack on.

My husband is going to continue with Insanity Max 30. I will do a lot of those with him, but I will be focusing on more cycling-specific workouts going into the race season. I'm SO happy to be down to race weight before the season is started. We're probably going to do Insanity Asylum in the fall after I finish cyclocross. I'm looking forward to that. I'm super proud of him. He's never been a workout kinda dude; just a hard working one. I love how into he got, and I love how motivated he is by how good he feels.

I'm not sure if I'm done with alcohol forever, but after taking these months off from it, it's hard to ignore how great I feel without it. Plus, it seems like I have so much more money now. lol I'm to the point I still think about it, but it's easier and easier to be like, "Nah, I'll just crack a la croix." And, when I do, I'm actually thankful it's not a beer. I'm cool with folks drinking around me, and I've received nothing but support and love from my friends, so we'll see. Maybe, I'll have a beer or two again, maybe I won't.