Six Weeks on JJ's Plan...

Toward the end of Greg's Summer Challenge I found a book that I really like.  It's called "Six Weeks to Sleeveless and Sexy" by JJ Virgin.  (I hate the title, but I love the plan.)  I read the book all the way through the same night I got it.

The book focuses on toning arms, but it goes much deeper than that.  It makes leading a healthy lifestyle seem so much less overwhelming.  It breaks down food, workouts and other health tips in such a way that you actually find yourself thinking: I can DO this!

Just like I like to do, it focuses on certain main aspects to a healthy lifestyle: Food, Cardio, Toning and Rest/De-stress.  (I'm telling you, it's right up my alley.)  So far, I love it.  I feel great.  I love the workouts.  I love the food.  I wasn't focused on weight, but I lost 1.2 pounds the first week. (Watch my video HERE)

Greg's Challenge was so successful, I decided to keep up my motivation with another challenge to myself. Consider my results video for Greg's Challenge as my starting point for this one. I am going to follow the plan for six weeks and let you know how it goes!

Countdown to Summer Challenge Results

Summer's here! How did I do on Greg's Countdown to Summer Challenge?

Check out my results video here.

If I had to grade myself on my effort these past 9 weeks, I'd say that I deserve a B-... 

I did tweet EVERYTHING I ate these 9 weeks.  Thanks to everyone on my twitter account for keeping me accountable.  It really did help me to see what I was eating and when.  I realized that I was doing things I wasn't when I first started losing weight, which probably had a lot to do with my weight loss plateau.

I did not do all my Couch to 5K runs.  I made it up to Week 6 day 3! But was never able to get past that and I got bored and discouraged and started doing alternate workouts.  You know me, I gotta keep it fresh or I'll fall off the wagon.  When I went back to regular workouts I realized that the Couch to 5K had made me a little complacent.  I was only working out 30 minutes, 3 times per week, instead of 45 min to 1 hour 4 times per weeks as I had been before.  So I decided to step things up a bit.
(I will be putting a hold on the endurance training for a while, but more on that later...)

I was very haphazard with my toning goal.  I would sometimes do all 30 minutes, sometimes only 15, sometimes none. And I have really outgrown those 5 pound hand weights, so what I was doing wasn't even a challenge anymore.

I did keep myself accountable and make a video to check in every week as I had planned to do.

I learned a lot about the way I was eating and the amount of effort that I had been putting into my workouts.  I plan to step things up a bit, since I am coming up on my one year anniversary on youtube! Thanks to this challenge I am fired up to set new goals and challenge myself again!  Stay tuned...