8 Week Bikini Challenge

Hello everyone! Sorry I have been MIA for a little while. I have been so busy lately. Between working out, racing the GW Parkway Classic 10 Miler last Sunday (I will post the recap tomorrow), preparing for vacation, and vacationing in Orlando (Disney and Universal), I just haven’t found the time to post an update.

Leading up to vacation, I was staying on schedule with my workouts and eating semi-healthy. Of course, on vacation I pretty much ate whatever I wanted and didn’t get any official workouts in. I did walk A LOT, which counts for something, right?

Now that I am back home, I am planning on focusing on my nutrition much more than I have in the past. I don’t have any (long) races planned until after summer, so I will probably not log many long runs on Sundays. I will still be running, I just plan to keep it between 3 and 4 miles for awhile. I also plan to continue body pump and yoga.

Back in January of 2014 (around the same time I started training for my first half marathon), a new show on Bravo caught my attention one night as I was catching up on some Real Housewives of Somewhere (probably Beverly Hills). The show was called Toned Up and it followed 2 personal trainers/lifestyle coaches who ran a fitness website. I had an instant girl crush. The girls were beautiful, fit, and seemed to be living the life. I started following their website. I received emails over the past 2 years and would mostly delete them. Every now and then I would go back to their website and was ALWAYS tempted to purchase their nutrition plan. Being the skeptical person that I am, I always talked myself out of it. I am mostly a “everything in moderation” type of person so I wasn’t sure how I would do on a nutrition plan where everything was laid out for me. Right before vacation, I decided to take the plunge and purchase the 8 week bikini plan. The challenge started the Monday I left for vacation so I decided to just start a week late. I talked Sam into trying it out with me too.

The plan comes digitally and was a little overwhelming at first. I am more of a “hard copy” type of person. Luckily for me, Sam had the plan printed and put in binders for us while I was on vacation (thanks Sam, you are awesome!!). I think this will be a tremendous help. Yesterday, Sam and I went grocery shopping together. I have never bought so many veggies/fruits in my life. It took us over 3 hours to finish!!! It felt like we were on a scavenger hunt and I was buying all sorts of food I have never bought before. And we had to go to 2 grocery stores. I think we ended up finding just about everything on the list. After putting all the groceries away, I took my measurements (scary). Taking pictures of yourself in a sports bra/shorts is terrifying, especially the day after vacation ends. I wasn’t too surprised by my front and side pictures, but seeing the picture of my back/backs of my legs was NOT FUN! I am still debating on sharing these pics. I suppose if I see great results by week 8, I will probably post before/after pics. I should also mention that the plan includes daily workouts (also digital). I don’t think I will use those a whole lot because I am already in a good routine, but I might sprinkle some in here and there.

Today was my first official day and of course I woke up feeling like crap. I had a horrible headache and my throat was hurting. Makayla had a doctor apt scheduled this afternoon so I knew I had to take off of work early anyway and finally decided to take the entire day off and just head back to bed. Sleeping in threw off my meal plans a little, but when I did finally get up, I started my day with my morning drink and my blueberry pancakes. I think the most surprising thing about this whole plan is how time consuming it all is (prepping and cooking, plus I still have to help figure out meals for the rest of my family). I am going to have to start waking up extra early on days that I have to cook breakfast. Tomorrow’s breakfast is a shake so hopefully it wont add too much extra time to my morning routine.

I’m not going to lie, the food and drinks have not been the greatest so far. I’m hoping that I find at least a few recipes that I really enjoy so that I can at least swap out some less desirable ones for the better ones. I’m also hoping I get used to the drinks. Time will tell. I will keep you guys posted on my progress each week.