22 Weeks PP

This was a fun week. Despite the fact that I seem to have hit a bit of a plateau in my weight loss (although I lost fat and gained muscle this week, so that's good!), a couple things happened. At the conclusion of the Stroller Strong Moms Get Fit Challenge, I ended up winning in the "Most Weight Lost" category...which I could attribute to Insanity OR I could attribute to the more likely reason that I was lucky to have just had a baby when the challenge started and probably would have lost weight anyway. So I feel a little bad that I was given a gift card for that, but I guess I'll consider it a push present. :) It's not that I wasn't working hard, I just think I had an advantage that maybe no one else had at that time. Anyway, I suppose I will shut up and be grateful.

The second bit of exciting news this week is that I did indeed finish Insanity!! Albeit a week and a half late, but I can confidently say that I tried my best on every single workout in the program and my level of fitness has, without a doubt, improved by leaps and bounds. Insanity is a very well-designed workout program. Shaun T, who is credited with creating it and leads it in the videos, is an excellent trainer. The amount of time spent warming up the body in the beginning, stretching, doing the actual workout, and cooling down is really perfect. I finished every day feeling tired, sore in a good way, and never injured. I would highly recommend this workout to anyone who is not pregnant, injured, or has a medical condition that would make it impossible to push yourself. No matter where you are in your strength when you start, you will be much stronger when you finish, and that is the beauty of Insanity. There is one thing I ended up being slightly disappointed by in the end. While my whole body is now toned, I didn't slim down as much as I wanted to. Insanity is mostly a plyometrics program. I worked hard every time, was dripping buckets of sweat, and pushing myself to my max. However, the moves require a lot of strength to be able to do quickly. There are only so many times I can jump and do push-ups before my muscles need a break because I had no strength when I started. So when I would have to stop for a little break, it was almost always not because of my heart rate being too fast, but because my muscles were just so tired. In the end, I don't regret any of this though because my goal was not to just lose weight and get thin, but to get toned and develop muscle. Insanity toned me a LOT and slimmed me a little. I am very much looking forward to getting back into a lot of running and spinning now, which is what has slimmed me down in the past, while still keeping up with target toning exercises.

I have said many times that I won't diet. I have decided to more or less keep track of my calories though, especially after the dizzy spells I was having last week. I plan to maintain a very vigorous workout schedule and want to make sure that what I am putting in my body is working efficiently to keep me safe and get the results I want. I also ordered one of those badass Polar watches/heart rate monitors that all my friends have (what can I say, they look cool) so I can get a good idea about how many calories I am burning as well. I am very excited to see what this week will bring!

Total weight gained: 46 lbs
Weight lost: 39.4 lbs
Weight left to lose: 6.6 lbs
Fat %: 23.0
Muscle %: 39.2