First week of T25... oh, the pain.

I completed my first week of Focus T25 a few days ago. I'm proud that I did each workout each day... and I'm glad it didn't kill me.

I have been working out for almost 2 months. I was using the elliptical and rowing machine several times a week to get in my cardio. And I'm not totally out of shape.

But this... this is intense.

T25, Alpha Cycle (total of 5 weeks)
Week 1:

Day 1: Cardio DVD
Good lord, what a way to start! My heart rate shot up and my sweat started pouring just in the first 3 minutes! Shaun T wasn't kidding when he said it was intense.
~~ I did have to follow Tania (the modifier) a little bit and I didn't feel bad about it. LOL. Like I said, I'm not totally out of shape but when your are moving like that for a constant 25 minutes, anyone is going to feel knocked down at the end.
~~ There is no jumping involved like with Insanity and if you follow Tania, your feet really won't leave the ground which is great of you have ankle, knee, or back problems. Or if your boobs are too large, which was my problem. I could have done some of the hopping if I had strapped my chest down with duct tape.

Day 2: Speed 1.0 DVD
As it suggests on the title of this one, it's all about going balls to the wall. And from doing standing mountain climbers the day before, my arms were screaming at me. I was actually worried I wouldn't be able to do the workout. Well, 1 minute in and I forgot about my arms. My heart rate shot up and I didn't feel any soreness during the workout.
~~ Again, I followed Tania quite a bit... except during the yoga type poses. My balance is great, it seems.
~~ My husband was in the room for this one, checking it out. I wanted to find out how many calories I was burning during the 25 minutes so I strapped on my Polar HRM.
~~ Sadly, my soreness was not all I forgot. My dumb butt forgot to hit START on the watch and I didn't realize it until there was only 8 minutes left in the workout. I was pissed. And did I quit? NO. Did I finish? NO. I started that whole damn thing over again. (Call me crazy but I wanted the info from the HRM.)
~~ Since I started it over, my husband decided to try it out with me. He told me after that he was having a hell of a time keeping up since he really doesn't work out at all. He also said he has no rhythm. LOL.
~~ In that second workout (doing the whole thing), I burned about 400 calories. In 25 minutes. I have NEVER burned that much in the same amount of time on the elliptical.

Day 3: Total Body Circuit DVD
Arghhhh! The planks! He was making me do planks. A LOT OF PLANKING. And push-ups. Then again, the time spent doing push-ups helped me forget that my calves were on FIRE from the previous day's workout. That's right... I did make myself get up on my toes and hop and my calves yelled at me the entire next day.
~~ Yep, you guessed it. I was still following Tania most of the time. Especially during the 'tap shoulder/push-up'. Yikes.
~ My goal by the end of this is to be able to do more moves without modifying. I know that the stronger my legs get, the more I'll be able to do without modifying.

Day 4: Ab Interval DVD
Holy hell. That is a little bit more intense than I usually do on my own with just varying crunches. Ouch. Staying in a 'V' position on the floor really puts the focus and strain on your abs.
~~ Oh, yeah. I was modifying it up! Even with the modifier, my abs were being pushed hard core.

Day 5: Lower Focus
I am pretty sure that my quads, if at all possible, would have jumped out of my body during this workout and stabbed me repeatedly. That way, I'd feel their pain exactly.
~~ Thank god Tania is there to show you the modifier.
~~ Sadly, I did have to back off and release a few times due the pain/strain that I was feeling, mainly in those stabby quads. I'm am ever hopeful and optimistic that over time, I'll get better at those moves. (Although the grunting noises coming from the crew on the DVD tells me that you never truly 'get used to it'.

I didn't do the Double Day Friday. After doing Lower Focus, I was focused on staying alive so I didn't throw in the Cardio DVD again. Let's build up to that, shall we?


I survived my first week of T25 and I felt great because I did keep pushing myself and didn't quit. I am hopeful that if I stick with this and make sure I eat enough food that I will see some body changes soon. I've been making more of an effort to eat less fast food and making sure I get enough protein and carbs.


Wish me luck as I start the 2nd week!

Let's eat! And workout.

For a more in-depth explanation of my history with eating and exercise, read this and this.

Weight loss.
Those two words plague so many people all over the world. It's one of the hardest things to achieve depending on who you are and how you live your life.

Even though most of us want to be fit and healthy, it's usually so much easier to just let it go. Staying on track with our meals, finding the time to do our workouts, and making ourselves NOT skip workout days even when we have time is normally why so many people fail at weight loss.
I'm one of them.

Hi, my name is Jaime and I have never been the 'gym bunny' or 'healthy eater'.

I like fast food. I love my Cherry Cokes. But I also love chicken. I love salmon. I love broccoli. And lord help me, I love Domino's pizza.

But even though I like junk food, it's not my problem when it comes to my diet. If I ate junk 3-4 times a day for meals, my weight would be higher.

See, I'm an under-eater. For years, I have subsisted on 2 meals a day, sometimes 3. My body went into storage mode a long time ago because I wasn't eating enough. So it's really frustrating when almost all of the diets, workout programs, and websites tell you that the key to losing weight it to workout and eat less.
If I ate any less, I'd be dead.

I still have yet to stumble across a website geared towards people who eat too little.... unless it's a website dedicated to anorexia. And I'm not anorexic. When I don't eat breakfast, I don't get hungry. (I know, it's weird.) Sometime later in the afternoon, I realize I haven't eaten all day.

For years, eating fast food and pizza is probably the only thing that was keeping me going... the calories and fat content may have been awful but it was enough to keep my body from shutting down.

Back in 2011 when I was working out religiously, a month or so in my weight loss stalled a little. I went from doing cardio 6 days a week to lifting weights. After asking around on Spark People, I started eating a little more each day. Lifting weights requires a lot more calories to build muscle and sustain that muscle.

Can you see where this is headed? I'm back on the wagon again.

Right before New Years, I got off my butt and started doing cardio again, using the elliptical and rowing machine. A week later, I started lifting weights and doing less cardio. My arms started getting stronger and you can actually see some definition. And when I sucked it up and added squats and lunges (my most hated workout moves) to my workouts, I started seeing a change in my rear. YES! Me, who suffers from No-ass-atall. I had to  get my husband to confirm because I thought I was imagining it. NOPE! There is actually definition back there, for the first time I can ever recall.

It's been almost 2 months and while my face has thinned out, my rear has started changing, and my thighs have actually gotten smaller.... my stomach and chest have not moved. (My shock was not limited to the rear... my thighs are usually stubborn as hell. Thank you, squats and lunges.) I don't use a scale anymore. I take measurements. Using a scale while building muscle will make you crazy. Muscle weighs more so the scale can actually go UP.

So my husband started looking around for an ACCURATE website generator that could tell me what I SHOULD be eating a day. (Hint: the more info about your body it wants... the better. If it asks for only weight and height, skip it. It should factor in workouts/intensity, weight, height, body fat percentage (BMI), whether you want to lose/gain/maintain your current weight.)

Holy crap. 2000 calories? Really? That's astounding to me and really hard to achieve right off the bat. But it explains why I'm not overall losing stored fat. I have been eating more than usual but still not eating enough. I swear... damned if I do, damned if I don't. Based off a previous inquiry about this, I went off a number closer to 1800. That's what it should be if I'm NOT working out.

Well, I'm working out. A lot. Up until last week, I was lifting weights and doing cardio 6 days a week.

I say up until last week because I've decided to do a cardio program that I purchased over a year ago and never got around to. (Seriously... it was still in the box.)

Yes, I'm beginning a relationship with Shaun T and the workout program Focus T25. All of the reviews that I've read about it say it's an intense cardio program... not meandering for up to an hour on the treadmill or elliptical. Hours of cardio have been shown to actually help you lose fat... and lots of lean muscle. Most workout buffs will tell you that lifting weights is much better for you. Adding lean muscle will burn more fat. A good lifting workout can burn calories for up to 24 hours after your workout while cardio burn lasts maybe 2-3.

T25 is not a meandering cardio program. People say it's easier than Insanity and P90X but it's a butt-kicking, fat burning program. Instead of doing cardio for an hour, you smash it all into an intense 25 minutes. It's supposed to really burn through fat and kick your metabolism into high gear.

We will see.

I will have an update after the first week.

Until then, I need to go figure out to eat 2000 calories a day and not be a slug.