Abs and Fireworks: A Fitness Update

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If you’ve been reading my fitness posts then you might remember that the Ab Challenge between my boyfriend and I was supposed to end on July 4th. Well, July 4th came around and I posted a picture to my Instagram of my results. If you’re following me you might have seen it (and if you’re not following me, why the heck not?! follow your girl RealGraceShines ). Anyway, I wasn’t nearly where I wanted to be but I had said I was going to show my results so I kept my word and I posted away. My boyfriend had to go into the hospital on the 4th since he’s been in the middle of his acting internship. He got out just in time to catch the fireworks so he ended up not posting his results. 

While it wasn’t the best I’ve ever looked, I thought I was looking better than my competition (hey lover) and better than I had when I started. Still, I didn’t get very many likes (about 8) and my boyfriend wondered why I had posted a mediocre picture. This made me feel incredibly embarrassed and frustrated. Almost two months of deprivation and working out and I was barely looking better. What in the heck gives?!

The next day I went nuts, and by “nuts”, I mean I had 6 gluten-filled donut holes and a sandwich from Jimmy John’s. Doesn’t sound like a lot but I was bloated and sick for two days. Might have been a cry for help. Was tasty but definitely not worth the aftermath.

I would spend the rest of last week just down on myself. I simply don’t recognize myself. I hate that I’ve had to give away my favorite things because they no longer fit. Including the jeans, I wore the night I met my boyfriend.

After a few days of self-loathing, I realized that feeling down on myself wasn’t going to get me any closer to where I wanted to be. So I sat around and thought about what I could tweak to break this thing. And I concluded that despite how happy it might make me feel I needed to stop my daily soda habit. That was easy to figure out. The workout dilemma was harder. I was lifting heavy and probably gaining muscle but it was hidden under a layer of…fat?

Some of my favorite fitness ladies were lifting heavy and doing hardcore cardio. I’m squeamish about cardio because of my asthma and I’m always worrying I’ll push too hard and end up passed out near the treadmills but I remembered that when I was last at my fittest I was running, jumping, and moving a lot more than I have been this time around. 

A lot of the ladies I like to follow were doing OrangeTheory  but as someone who’s balling on a budget, there was no way I could fork over $185 a month for a membership. The internet has all of the answers so I got to looking around to see if I could do my own DIY Orange Theory style workout. And the internet did not disappoint! I found this workout plan below.

And that’s where I find myself today. I have a few days off of work and I’ve just been super focused in the gym trying to keep my heartrate elevated. I weighed myself today and I’m still stuck at 128lbs. Not sure anything’s moved really but I’ll keep at this a few weeks and see how it goes. In the meantime, I’m trying not to be too disappointed in myself and just keep plugging away.