Week 4

Week 4 Tip
Stick with it!  One more week until Recovery Week!  You can DO this!!  This isn't the time to slow down, keep pushing all week long!

Nutrition Tip
Timing your preworkout nutrition is important. Unless you're working out first thing in the morning, try eating a very small meal about two hours before exercising. Exercising immediately after eating will lead to a lack of energy for your workout as your body is focused on digestion.  This will become increasingly important for me this week as we're moving our workouts to the evening, after dinner, to accommodate our work schedule.

Day 22
Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs
56 minutes
W: 520 calories
M: 630 calories

Today we managed to squeeze our workout in before dinner (as opposed to late night after the kids are in bed).  Pros and cons to this.  I was still in my afternoon slump, which was kind of hard to pull out of.  I really just wanted to take a nap, and my youngest was sick and just wanted to cuddle me, which was lovely, but it was not motivating me to get up and work out.  Between the time it took my husband and me to decide we were in fact going to work out right now, and the time I got changed and ready to go, he had fallen asleep on the couch.  Another con was that this is usually the time I use to make dinner, so I'm going to have to figure out how to adjust my schedule or my dinner plans accordingly.  Sigh.  I miss morning workouts, but to accomplish that during the school year means getting up at 4am to work out. Ummmmmm... No.  Evenings will have to do.

All that said, by the end of the warm-up I was in it and ready to dig deep, as Shaun T likes to say.  Completed both workouts, but I probably should have had my recovery drink afterwards, because I felt tired and sluggish all evening.  It may take a while for me to get the hang of evening workouts, but I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to make sure my husband and I can both maintain our regular exercise and stay committed.  If we make this a habit now, we can stick with it even after Insanity is over.  Whether it's with another Beachbody program, or just taking walks or bike rides as a family before bed.  For us, this isn't just a 60-day program and then it stops.  It's a lifestyle change we're striving to make together.

Day 23
Cardio Power & Resistance
39 minutes
W:  379 calories
M:  454 calories

Got my Insanity "I Earned It!" shirt today!  This is a special gift you get when you complete Insanity and submit your results to Team Beachbody.  This isn't just a shirt.  This shirt represents several pounds of sweat and 60 days of the hardest physical work I've ever done in my life.  I'll wear it proudly because I really did earn it!  Stick with the program and you can earn yours too!

Now about the workout.  This was one of those days I really can't believe I worked out.  My day was crazy and I was on the go literally all day long.  Running errands with kids in tow and then getting ready for a garage sale starting tomorrow, I was pricing and organizing and moving tables and furniture until 11:30pm.  Even though the sale started early the next day, we pushed play and we did our Insanity workout.  You know how usually after you work out, you feel great and are just so glad you decided to do it?  This was possibly the only time in my life I did NOT feel that way after completing the workout.  We both got through it, but both had that realization that maybe, just maybe, we had pushed ourselves too far.  I climbed into bed and felt like my body was just shutting down.  I felt fine the next day, so no regrets on my end, but I think my husband may have felt differently in the morning.

Friday
unscheduled Insane Abs, 255 calories

I'm entitling this next entry as "Friday" instead of Day 24 because we did not do the scheduled workout for Day 24.  Had a full and busy day at the garage sale, in which I was on my feet for 8 hours straight, and my husband is fighting off a cold and feelings of regret over pushing too hard during yesterday's late night workout.  But, feet tiredness aside, I felt ready for a workout.  I didn't want to do the Plyo Circuit without my husband, and since my feet were so tired, Insane Abs seemed to fit the bill of a good workout without too much extra exertion of my feet.  The saying "If you don't use it, you lose it" rang a bell today.  I haven't been working my lower abs as intensely during the last 3 weeks, and I found I couldn't hold 6 Inches.  At all.  Maybe 12 Inches.  Or more like 18 Inches.  I swear I was able to do this at the end of Round 1 just a month ago.  Oops!  That being said, I was able to do everything else, so I must not be too bad off.

Hoping the extra rest helps my hubby kick this cold, and we can be back on track tomorrow. 

Day 24
Plyometric Cardio Circuit
40 minutes
W:  424 calories
M:  544 calories

Weekend means morning workout.  Yay!!!  Much more enjoyable than the evening workouts, but c'est la vie.  The best part about this workout was knowing I only have to do this video one more time. :)

Day 25
Cardio Recovery
33 minutes
W: 177 calories
M:  forgot to press "start" on heart rate monitor.  Oops!

Last Cardio Recovery!  Of course, that means "recovery" now gets harder, but I'm going to focus on the positive.  Such as not having to hear Shaun T say that he can't get his knees up very high because "I got big quads." 

I made it through the whole workout without any breaks in the stretches.  That means I held the squats, lunges, and plie squats for the full time and did all the pulses without having to stand up to stretch out my muscles before going back into it.  For me, this included an audible "pep talk" during the plie squats, reminding myself that this was my last time doing this video, that I HAD to make it all the way through this time, and lots of repeating: "I can do it I can do it I can do it".  My husband still had to break some of the stretches early and go back into them, but that's totally understandable even at Week 4.  I mean, this is only the 4th time through this video.  If you weren't too flexible going into it, it's going to improve by Week 4, but it's also not magic.  I noticed a great improvement in the length he was able to hold his stretches compared to his first time.  Fitness doesn't happen overnight, so it's kind of nice to have these videos that you do several times to compare yourself.

Tuesday
Step Aerobics

50 minutes
469 calories
Weight Training
no heart rate data used

Husband is sick, so I kind of figured he wouldn't be up for the scheduled Pure Cardio/Cardio Abs tonight.  I hit the gym in the morning just in case.  It's been a few weeks since I've gone to my Step class, and I still love it.  Heart rate was at the low end of my target range throughout the workout.  Kind of used to pressing the envelope during Insanity, so it was a nice change of pace to have a fairly consistent 170 for the entire 50 minutes.  I was sweating, but it still felt too easy after 3 months of Insanity.  Wrapped up my workout with 30 minutes of strength training, which was much appreciated and missed during my Insanity workouts.  I was able to do assisted pull-ups at a much lower weight of assistance than before.  I'd love to be able to do them unassisted, but right now my limit is about 1 on that, so I have to go with what works.  I must admit I caught a glance at myself in the mirror while doing seated cable rows, and was impressed with my back and shoulder muscles.  Seriously, when did I get those?  Confidence just upped itself a notch.

Glad I worked out, because it turns out I was right - my husband came home and felt too sick to work out.  Took some Nyquil and went to bed instead.  But, for the record, I was ready for more and would have gladly done Insanity with him.

Day 26
Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs
60 minutes
W:  522 calories
M:  724 calories

Last day of Pure Cardio.  Husband is still fighting a cold, and had a hard time pushing through tonight, but we managed to complete both workouts before dinner, which is a huge plus for us tonight since we have evening commitments. I had a moment of weakness during "Frog Jumps" - the phone rang, and I was all too happy to get it!  Back in for the last 20 seconds and finished strong.  Muscles were a little sore from the weight lifting yesterday, so I did some extra stretches afterwards for my calves and chest, which were feeling the burn the most.  Looking forward to wrapping up Week 4 tomorrow!  This has been a really long "week" - too many setbacks for my liking.

Day 27
Plyometric Cardio Circuit
41 minutes
W:  427 calories
M:  588 calories

 This is it!  Finished with Month 1!  Our very last Plyometric Cardio Circuit video!  Unfortunately, I know what's to come in month 2, so I'm trying to pump up my enthusiasm, but it's not quite the same as it was the first time around.  My first time, I was really excited to take it up a notch, and to see what month 2 had in store.  Perhaps it's because I already know what's to come, or perhaps it's the evening workouts that are just making me a little more tired and I'm not quite ready for an hour long workout at night.  At any rate, I have a feeling my husband and I are both going to need each other to keep our motivation up during the next 4 weeks after Recovery Week.

Day 28
Off