Little Milestones

I hope this post isn't repeating too much of what Kristin said yesterday, but I couldn't let our little milestone pass without mentioning something as well. This morning not only did I complete my final HasFit 30 day challenge workout but I also held a plank for 1 1/2 minutes, which in plank-time is equivalent to a small eternity. When we started our 30 day challenge I would collapse doing a plank for 15 seconds so I'm pretty much in shock every time I reach the daily goal. I'm not sure how this will go over the next couple of weeks, or even if I'll be able to keep up with the challenge but I'll sure try my hardest. Our videos are getting too long to post so here is the last 50 (embarrassing) seconds of my planks today, all my grunting and sounds at the end really shows how dang hard it was.

Now for a recap of my experience with the HasFit 30 day challenge. In all honestly, I didn't have crazy miracle results or anything like that, just good bits of improvement in all areas. Plus it was only 30 days and this kinda stuff takes time, so on Friday I'll start on my next goal. Here are a few things I have noticed over the last month.

1. I'm stronger now. I can tell things are firming up a bit, and I can now flex my stomach which means I actually have stomach muscles that I didn't realize still existed after having 2 children. Overall I can tell my muscles are getting stronger which is what I was hoping for.

2. Lunges aren't as bad as I thought they were. The first week or 2 of the challenge I was in some serious pain. Every time I had to go to the bathroom or get in and out of bed it made me want to cry, just the thought of having to bend my legs was brutal. That wore off as I got stronger and my body got more used to them and now I don't mind them nearly as much.

3. Working out 5 days a weeks mean that I don't often look very nice or put together. I either look like I just worked out or I look like I'm waiting to work out. Sorry everyone who has had to spend time with me over the last month but who wants to blow-dry their hair or have nice makeup when they know their going to be covered in sweat later that day… Maybe it's not as bad as I'm making it sound but on many days it felt that way. 

And now the question on everyones mind… did this help with loosing weight? I understand the curiosity, especially those of us who would really like to lose weight. Plus in the past the only reason I would ever work out was to lose weight. I didn't really care how strong I was or why it was an important part of being healthy. But now my main goal isn't to lose weight but rather to get stronger. I know the weight thing will work itself out over time but in the end I've lost around 6-7 pounds, but I'd still give most of the credit to what I'm eating (and not eating). Muscles don't matter so much when your body isn't running properly, you know?

It's really exciting hearing so many people joining in and suffering through planks with us. It has definitely given me that extra bit of motivation to keep it up, so thank you for that!

-Bre