60 Day Insanity Challenge

Today I completed week #1 of my 60 day Insanity Challenge!! In February I completed my first Beachbody program, P90X. Since then I'd been doing a mix of P90X and Turbofire. I love both programs (both amazing in their own way)...but I'm way excited to be on a set schedule again with Insanity.

I love being able to commit to one program and have the path to fitness marked for me. I'll admit that following my own random schedule these last couple months hasn't been nearly as effective as following a set schedule. Beachbody's programs and workouts are high quality and organized the way they are for a reason...to help people get into the BEST SHAPE of their lives in the QUICKEST amount of time possible. How else could you get results like this in 60 days?! (Including a healthy diet.)

Back in December I decided to enter Shakeology's holiday recipe contest. I planned out my recipe and after a few trial runs I had my complete recipe ready for submission. In early January 2012 the Shakeology judges voted and 15 recipes were left for the public to vote on...one of them being mine. And on January 11th I found out that I had received the most votes and had won a Beachbody program of my choice and 1 month of Shakeology. I was thrilled! I decided to go with Insanity.

 My winning recipe: Super Shakeology Chocolate Caramel Dip
Try it out! So yummy!

So this program has been sitting in my Beachbody library for 3 months now untouched...Hello?! It's Insanity! It seemed so daunting to me. I had a new Challenge group starting up on April 23rd and a few of my challengers had decided to go with Insanity, and it inspired me to commit to the entire 60 days. And I'm so glad I did! Every day this week I've been enjoying the workouts more and more. I've been drinking my Shakeology about an hour before and I know it's helping to energize me for these intense workouts.

Some things I love about Insanity: The workouts are super fast-paced and challenging (not the best choice for a beginner level or for anyone prone to injury), but it's encouraging knowing that I don't have to do everything perfectly at first...but the workouts push me to do as much as I possibly can and more! I've been blown away by how well I've been able to keep up and get through each entire DVD. I attribute a lot of that to how fit P90X and Turbofire have helped me become. I appreciate the focus and time dedicated to stretching in each Insanity workout that I've done so far. Shaun T emphasizes the importance of stretching and warming up and how it should NOT be skipped...no matter how many times you've done it in previous workouts. And the rest of the routines, although extremely challenging...to me, are still fun and motivating. Insanity is also a nice break from complex choreography routines, such as found in Turbofire (although they are WAY fun once you get the moves down.)

So Monday was Day #1, the first fit test and I feel like I did pretty well. I look forward to seeing how I have improved in 2 weeks. Today was Day #6 and I did the Plyometric Cardio Circuit DVD. It was the second time doing it this week and I loved it. I have never sweat SO much in my life and it felt wonderful. I am looking forward to this challenge more and more every day!

Day #25 & #26

Day #25, Thursday: X Stretch


If you read my last P90X post (day #24), you know that I've committed to take this program to a new level of commitment both with the workouts and with my eating. I'm pumped to work even harder,  push even more during my workouts, and eat even better... And like I promised myself, I got up early (5:30 AM) for my workout Thursday morning... Thursday was X Stretch. Haha. I was pumped for a Plyometrics/ Legs & Back double session!! But since I'm going to do better to stay on schedule (with the exception of Core Synergistics), I did X Stretch. Tony Horton talks about just how important flexibility is to fitness in general and in preventing injury... To be honest, I'm not completely sold on this particular session of P90X yet (I've never stretched for so long before), but I will keep working at it. I have been, however, very satisfied with the warm ups and cool downs with each of the other workout DVD's, and with the stretching involved. I have especially gained a greater appreciation for the warm ups and how much more I can do during a workout after a good warm up. I was already moderately flexible before beginning P90X almost 4 weeks ago, but I'm happy to report that my flexibility has improved.

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Day #26,  Friday: Core Synergistics


Awww....I LOVE the feeling I get after a challenging, sweat-inducing cardio workout!! I feel like a new person and like my insides are singing Hallelujah!  Today I pushed myself hard and I'd say I got almost as good as of a workout as Plyometrics gives me...and all the while strengthening my core. There are 3 distinct workouts that I especially appreciate because they work me SO good.


Banana- alternating between lying on the back, right side, stomach and left side, while lifting up the arms and legs off the floor (straight out)
Bow to Boat- alternating between being on the stomach while holding onto the legs and keeping them and the chest off the floor, and then to "boat" where you balance on your bottom  while lifting the legs off the floor with the arms straight out above them.

(Boat- I cannot yet get my legs quite as high and straight as this girl,

but this gives you an idea of what it looks like)

Superman Banana- alternating between lying on back and stomach while lifting up the arms and legs off the floor (straight out).


Ah, there are so hard but so good. I really have to breath through these. During each of these 3 workouts Tony has you switch to the alternate position very quickly...It's "X city", as Tony likes to say! :)


One more thing that I want to mention is I'm getting better with push-ups! I challenged myself today to do mostly guy push-ups. I cannot yet go all of the way down and up in this position, but I was going about half way down. And if you know anything about P90X, you know that when they do "push-ups"...there's always an addition to the move incorporated at the same time, like leg raises, or putting one leg on top of the other, etc.. There are no plain ol' traditional crunches, sit ups or push-ups in P90X, at least in the first phase. (There are more traditional push-ups on the "Chest, Shoulders and Triceps" DVD that you start doing in Phase 2.) So I'm excited about the improvement that I'm seeing!