Milwaukee Fashion + Lifestyle Blog
Week three has come to an end. They really seem to be going by pretty quickly, probably because my schedule is a little busier fitting in almost an hour long workout pretty much everyday! I’ve also, to my shock and surprise, become a morning person. Dun dun dun…
Seriously, even though I don’t always have a 6am Barre class booked at Barre District, I do find myself getting tired and going to bed earlier at night, and subsequently waking up earlier in the morning and feeling more awake. Dare I say I’ve even decreased the number of times I hit the snooze button on the mornings I am not in the Barre studio. I know. I’m as surprised as you are. It’s not only been beneficial for me to get up and moving earlier in the morning, but though Jeff says he blames me, I know he doesn’t mind getting up and moving earlier too.
Overall, I feel pretty good about week 3. I’m over 1/3rd of the way done with the Barre Life Challenge, I increased my average daily step count over the previous week, as well as my calories burnt and exercise minutes. Besides the exercise, getting up and moving more each day is only going to continue to bring me closer towards my goals, so that’s always something to celebrate.
Here’s where my exercises shook out for this past week.
Daily Breakdown:
Which all rolls up to…
Weekly Totals:
Can’t complain about that! Still not as good as Week 1 was, but I did kick off this challenge pretty strong! I’m celebrating the improvements from week to week, whether that’s in the numbers, how I am feeling, and how my body is starting to transform.
I also had my first small group meeting for the 21-Day Kickstart Program with Justine Sloan from Crunches Then Cocktails and it was a great experience. Hearing Justine’s story and thinking about my own personal “why” for committing to this lifestyle change really put everything into perspective. For the longest time (and still today), I ask myself how I got to this place? Was it the stress? Lack of motivation? Bad eating habits? Lack of exercise? Or a combination of it all that got me here. And also, why did all of those just happen to hit me at the same time and then snowball over the past few years to where I’ve been. Well, life happens. I don’t want to focus too much on the past but between graduating college and starting to work full-time, not walking everywhere anymore, finding time and energy before or after work, and developing consistent habits has been apart of the struggle. Whatever the reasons may have been, I’m finding new reasons each and everyday to change it.
And WHY do I want to change it? So I can be the best version of myself. So I can be the best girlfriend, friend, daughter, sister, aunt, employee, whatever that I can be. And letting the anxiety, excuses, and insecurities run my life isn’t serving me or anyone else in my life anymore. It’s not so much about the weight, but how I feel. And how I feel that I look. And how happy I am with the way that I look and feel. I’m never going to be perfect, but I know that I want to be better. And my version of that means carrying less weight, being more active, and living a more balanced life.
One thing our group meeting reminded me of is that everyone has struggles. Everyone has a past, insecurities, and issues that they’re working through. We’re all just out here trying to do the best we can with what we have, and in the end, we’re all human. So if you have an opportunity to learn about someone else and what they’re going through, or share a little about yourself and your journey, take it. That’s the easiest way to make a connection with someone. I guarantee that in most cases, people have experienced or know someone who’ve experienced something similar to your struggle and will understand where you’re coming from and then understand you a little bit more. It’s hard to put yourself out there, air your dirty laundry, or share a struggle, but if you don’t, you might not get the support that you need to move on or let it go. We had an opportunity to share, and I talked about a few things that I’m surprised about. But in the end, it felt good, I felt connected to the group on this shared journey, and though our paths in the past may be different, they all led us to the same spot, which I think is a beautiful thing.
Each week for the 21-Day Kickstart, Justine is going to give us action steps to complete, and for this week, we have FULL FOOD FREEDOM. It doesn’t mean go crazy, but as I mentioned, it’s not about restriction, dieting, or deprivation. It’s about being more mindful and intuitive about what I put into my body, listening to its signals and cues, and taking a balanced approach to fueling my body.
As I said, I consider last week to be a good week overall. But here’s the surprising part…I didn’t lose a pound. My lowest recorded weight of the week was the same as the week prior. With obvious fluctuations from day to day, I’m still only down 2 pounds from the starting line. ONLY? Two pounds is two pounds and I’m not going to let that poor word choice diminish what I’ve accomplished thus far. Just like I said last week, overall I feel like I have more energy, my pants fit a little less snug, and I’m sleeping better at night. But on top of that, my booty looks more lifted, I’m doing less modifications in the Barre classes and continuing to push myself to my limits.
So here’s where the numbers are sitting for measurements…
Like I said, the scale wasn’t too friendly, but I don’t want to focus on that. Down almost an inch in my waist, down an inch in my hips, and down a bit on both of my thighs. I’m starting to notice that my muscles on my arms, thighs, and stomach are tighter, there’s less skin/flab around my knees and upper thighs/butt and my midsection is feeling a little trimmer. I don’t have progress photos for this week to confirm since I ran out of time before I had to travel for work this week, but we’ll hopefully be able to see some of these changes when I share them next week.
Another thing I continue to remind myself is that this is a journey. It’s not going to happen overnight and it requires consistency, determination, and passion to achieve my goals. I didn’t put on the weight overnight, so why would I expect it to just fall off quickly because of 2-3 weeks of changes. What I am doing is building habits, changing my perspective, finding activities and movements that my body loves and responds to, and adjusting my approach to food so that it works better for me. Another week down, a lifetime to go.
