Week 1 Update

Hey everyone! So as I promised in my last post about health and fitness (which for all of those who don't know what I am talking about, it can be read here) I am going to be writing weekly blog updates about how I am going with the BBG (Bikini Body Guides).

Week 1, like anything, is when I feel you have the most motivation. You've started something new, so you want to stick to it. I don't think I know of many people who swear by something and then give up in the first week. I may be wrong, but then again I am not one of those people. I usually like to give something a bit more of a chance before I quit (not this though, I swear I will stick it out). 

Sunday

My start day. It might be weird to a lot of people because they think their weeks start on Monday. But this is the day that I made my fitness post and I already spoke about this day so I will briefly recap.

I did 45 minutes of LISS (I walked a moderate rate) and I did not eat one piece of junk food. I had a roast dinner with lots of veggies so I felt really good about myself.

Monday

I woke up early today. Today I decided I would give the legs and cardio Week 1 workout a hit again. I completed it. Sweaty, muscles aching, sore. I know it was worth it. 

I ate relatively well all day also. Oats and fruit for breakfast. Yoghurt, muesli and fruit while I was at  uni. A toasted sandwich with cheese ham and tomato when I got home. I drink so much water during the day so I suppose that's always a good thing. Also for dinner I had an amazing salad, couscous and a piece of salmon. 

Tuesday

Woke up not feeling to well today. I had a chicken snitzel and sweet potato roll for lunch and tacos for dinner. I spent the day doing groceries, cooking and cleaning the house. I got in about 40 minutes of LISS today which is what I wanted. It wasn't a good day, I spent most of it feeling pretty crappy. I also ate a banana and a scoop of vanilla ice-cream for dessert. 

Wednesday

Woke up today feeling even crappier. I haven't been able to sleep very well the last week which is annoying because I know it impacts on how well my body functions and how efficient my exercising is.

I ate tomato, eggs, salad of greens and a piece of Lebanese bread for lunch. For dinner I ate steak and veggies. I also had some corn chips after dinner because for some reason I was still hungry. 

I didn't get to my arms & abs workout today, but I swear I will try tomorrow. Instead today I spent about 2 and a half hours mowing the yard. Due to all the rain recently and then the sunny days, the grass grows uncontrollably fast. Plus, when the ground is wet you can't mow. So I think mowing my backyard and front yard totally counts as a workout for the day because my arms and legs were so sore the next day.

Thursday

Another uni day. I almost didn't even get out of bed this morning. I didn't have much of an appetite this day either. I completed about 30 minutes of LISS when I got home from uni (I would've kept going but it was dark and I don't feel very comfortable being outside at night in my area haha). 

I ate a salad roll for lunch, some fruit for a snack and mango chicken and rice for dinner. 

Friday

Almost the end of the week. Today was pretty average. I got in my arms and abs workout during the day. I can't even remember anything about what I ate during the day, but oh well.

I worked from 4pm-12am today so that was my night gone. I ate butter chicken for dinner and pineapple as a snack later. I feel like I get a lot of exercise in during my shifts at work because all I do is continuously walk around the very large store.

Saturday

I had to wake up early today because once again I had work. Work means more exercise walking around for 7 hours. I ate a 'healthy' burger for lunch. I didn't get any real workout in today which was sad and I ended up eating a cheeseburger meal for dinner. Oops.

So this pretty much quickly sums up my first week back at the Kayla Itsines Bikini Body Guides. It was a pretty good week for me. Obviously I am not going to be 100% perfect with my workouts and with my eating habits but I believe in the end I will get there. Each week I want to improve. But at the same time I also want to still live my life how I would before. I don't want to sacrifice too many things I love, I just want to incorporate the healthy lifestyle into what I currently know.

To date I have lost 5kg and I don't have any plans to lose anymore weight. All I want to improve on is what I see in the mirror.

Thanks for reading,
Kristelle xxx

Fitness and Health

Hey everyone! I think I will start this post by saying I love Kayla Itsines! She is amazing, her plans are amazing and her followers are amazing. The BBG community is something I just love and I am proud to be a part of the #k2movement. Something with so much power and support for each other is truly inspiring. You can check out my journey on my Instagram at @ krristelley  

I purchased the Bikini Body Guide quite a while ago now and I have given it two attempts. The first time, I was mentally not prepared and it lasted only two weeks. I barely even bothered. My head just wasn't in it and I wasn't excited enough to workout and get fit. So I stopped and I left the guides waiting for my motivation to come to me because I knew it eventually would. I continued to follow and admire girls who are really into their fitness and the bikini body guides. 

The turning point came for me on Valentines Day. I went out with my boyfriend and we found some amazing views at the beach over a cliff. We had the GoPro with us so naturally we snapped up a couple of what we thought would be amazing looking photos. I was in my bikini top and shorts for a few of the photos and looking at the way my body looked, I felt so uncomfortable and uneasy. I loved the photo but looking at my body, I couldn't handle how awful I felt I looked. 

Check out my journey on my Instagram, @krristelley

I started the following Monday on the bikini body guides. I did the four weeks of pre-training to try and build up a bit of fitness before hitting the real thing. I got up to week 5 of the real thing. I was eating well at the start, stopped eating take-away foods and cut out the junk food completely. I ate healthier and I felt better. I could see the progress in the mirror. I had photos with a few weeks in between and the difference was amazing. 

Then I got sick. Life got full on and I got lazy. I was extremely busy with working, which resulted in my eating habits sliding off towards the end. I had stopped working out and it honestly had been 3 weeks. I gave up.

But this morning as I scrolled through my Instagram feed, I made the choice to stop making excuses. A one hour workout is only 4% of my day. I can spare that much. If I need to get up an hour earlier to start my day with a workout I can do it. Meal prep when I know I am going to be at uni and work so I won't be tempted to eat chips or sneak a few chocolates. I am motivated. I went and did my 45 mins of low intensity steady state (LISS) workout after I posted my confession/photo on Instagram and afterwards I was sweaty and out of breath and it rained on m multiple times, but I felt so much better. It makes me happy, so why wouldn't I give something that makes me happy my all?

I am going to make weekly posts now about my BBG progress to keep me up to date with it. How my exercises are going and roughly what I've eaten. I would love to be able to post up progress photos and be incredibly happy with how I look and feel. 

Here's a progress shot of me. Top photo is before I started the BBG and the bottom photo is the progress shot at the end of week 4. 

In the above photo (the bottom one) I was semi-happy with how my stomach was starting to come along. But I would love to be super confident all the time in how I look in photos and not have to question whether it is just a 'bad angle' making me look bigger than I am. 

I don't take measurements and I don't really believe in weighing myself either. Although I can say I have always fluctuated between about 55-57kg and before I started the BBG I was up towards 60-62kg. That made me extremely upset that I had let myself gain weight like that. I am now back down to 56kg on most days and I'm not overly fussed with that. If I can see differences in the photos and mirror, that's what will make me happy, not the scales. 

Anyway, thank you all for reading and until next post.
Kristelle xx