My Insanity progress and accountability thread

Week ending 4/8:
Food: A
Exercise: C
Water: B
Weigh-in: -1.8

Food:
I managed to do my food prep early in the week and had what I needed every day. I continued to have issues with my energy, and I think there were a number of issues at play.

One is digestion. I have a history of issues with my digestion. I experimented with some different supplementation last week. I think it started to have an impact late in the week and hopefully that will continue and will have a positive impact on my overall energy.

I've been doing intermittent fasting (16:8) which has generally been wonderful, but I'd been accustomed to a vitamin regimen in the morning which impacted my energy. I expected my body would adjust and it just hasn't. So I'm taking a break from intermittent fasting. Not changing my calories or macros, so I don't expect any impact other than increased energy to start the day.

Exercise:
I continued to struggle significantly with my exercise. I only logged exercise on my Fitbit 4 of 7 days last week. 7 of 7 is much more typical, with that 7th day being an extended walk. I'm certain the energy issues were one factor. I think another is that I'm transitioning from a workout program I was loving, and I haven't found that perfect next workout that burns calories the way I want that I also enjoy and look forward to completing. I'm going to do a little more experimenting this week and see if I can't land in a good place with a goal of 6 workouts this week.

Have a good week!

Week ending 4/15:
Food: A
Exercise: A (9 hours, 1 minute)
Water: A
Weigh in: -0.2

It's been a good week!

Food:
I didn't do food prep to start the week, but managed to eat to my goals regardless. I discovered a new lunch staple - simple but surprisingly tasty - cottage cheese and tuna. Who knew?

I continued to have digestive issues, so I'm continuing to monitor and tweak. I found an app to help me track. It's called LogLog for the Android. Cute, no?

Exercise:
I found it! My current program is ChaLean Extreme. For those unfamiliar, it's a Beachbody program focused on resistance training. 3 days of heavy lifting, a HIIT interval workout for muscle endurance, a HIIT cardio workout and a flexibility workout weekly. It's a 3-month program. It's exactly what I'm looking for right now. It works me. It burns fewer calories than the cardio program I completed. But I feel completely spent at the end of the workout, I'm strength training, and - most importantly - I look forward to doing it!

This week I'm primarily focused on consistent wake up and workout times, with a secondary focus of eating more salads. Have a great week!

Week ending 4/22:
Food: A
Exeecise: B (7 hours 1 minute)
Water: B
Weigh-in: -1.8

Food:
I had another good week of eating. I did some meal prep over the weekend and planned each day ahead of time. I forgot to mention last week that I'm back to intermittent fasting. I'd tried a couple days of full day eating and I was so much hungrier. So I went back to intermittent fasting and started taking my supplement in the morning. So food feels really good. It's really working well for me.

I did feel like I might be experiencing a little diet fatigue late in the week. So I worked in a little treat, and that totally did the trick. Since I've been eating this way, I haven't had a lot of cravings. But this way of eating is so flexible, I can work in treats when I want them.

Exercise:
I skipped two of my planned workouts this week. I took a swim lesson one of the days I skipped. I got plenty of exercise, but I don't like skipping my planned workouts.

This week I was focusing on getting up at a consistent time each day and getting to my workout. Failed every day, so I'll try again this week. Also, I'm going to practice what I learned during my swim lesson this week so I should be burning some extra calories this week.

Have a good one!

Week ending 4/29:
Food: A
Exercise: A (7 hours 27 minutes)
Water: A
Weigh-in: -2.0

Food:
I've had a really good week overall. Not a lot of challenges with food last week. I had an in-house lunch at work, but decided to bring and eat my own food and that all went smoothly. Wasn't as awkward as I anticipated. I've moved to a model of cold lunches and hot dinners, which means I can do my meal prep every other week and freeze the second week's dinners. That's working well and helping me keep up with the food prep schedule. I love flexible dieting because I can enjoy ice cream after dinner with zero guilt. 16:8 is also still working really well for me. This week I have a work related off-site (2 days) which means group lunches and an evening of dinner and drinks. I'm going to pre-track my macros for the day, but I'm going to be comfortable with going out of bounds a bit. I'm interested to see how I manage with summer coming which may mean a more active social calendar.

Exercise:
Continuing the journey of doing what works for me and what keeps me excited about my program, last week I focused on completing the three heavy-lifting days of ChaLEAN Extreme, and allowed myself flexibility around the cardio the rest of the week. The result was that I was able to meet my exercise goals with ease.

Other:
I had a Resting Metabollic Rate test last week. I'll spare you all the details, but the bottom line is that it helped me get a more realistic picture of how I burn calories (HRM's aren't completely accurate, but useful and I love them. Helps to have proper perspective.) I was able to use the combination of the test results and my Fitbit data to get closer to my actual calorie burn. Still not completely accurate because I exceeded my 1.5 pound weekly loss goal, but that could even out over time. Bottom line though, is that I'm feeling extremely empowered in my fitness journey.

Next week I have an appointment for my second dexa scan. I look forward to evaluating my progress and sharing my results.

Have a great week.