BBG first 6 weeks review

I have been involved in the fitness world since I was about 16 years old. I feel like I've done it all. When I look back on my journey of my fitness it is so jumbled ... and I mean ALL over the place!

Crossfit is where it all started for me. This is where I learned that I loved being active and pushing my body. Being young and competitive is a recipe for disaster...I bet you can guess what happened next. I hurt my lower back. I hurt it so bad that I had to go to the doctor and get muscle relaxers to even get rest for the pain. I was doing dead lifts with improper form.

So that moved my journey onto working out on my own, following random programs on Bodybuilding.com when I actually saw some results. But, life gets in the way and I stopped working out often and just did it when I could squeeze it in. This has lead into my terrible habit of starting to see results and then backing off because I get lazy.

Fast forward to when I turned 21. I started my beloved yoga. I was tired of weight lifting and following programs so I decided to try my hand at yoga because it was so different from anything else I had done. Yoga is what transformed my body. I saw the most progress I had ever seen in my body. I was able to sit about an inch or two away from sitting in my splits comfortably, able to stand on my head for a long time, and was becoming more comfortable in back bends. A year in a half into this I realized I wasn't getting better at my handstands and these other strength poses. I took a hard look at myself and realized I wasn't eating right! I had chub in areas that I previously hadn't, I weighed the most I had ever weighed, and I felt tired all the time. I decided that I wanted to shed a bit of weight and get stronger in my upper body so that I could do these certain poses better.

So I started the BBG program by Kayla Itsines. I had previously tired this program when I lived in my dorm room (during my weight lifting phase) and that was a disaster. I did about two weeks of it and gave it to my fried. The first time I tried it was I so used to lifting weights that my heart was so weak and I wasn't in the mindset to strengthen it.

This time I have stuck with it and actually have given it my all (most of the time). I am trying to eat better and healthier. I am finding it harder to eat healthy when I am with friends or out to eat. I would say that my eating has changed 50% away from the unhealthy crap I was shoving into my body but I still have 50% more to go.

Some quick eating habits of mine before I jump into my review are: I try to eat paleo based, I don't drink sodas or alcohol (sometimes a little wine is okay), I do not eat fried foods. I actually just tried a drumstick that was fried at a friends house the other night and it screwed me over! I haven't eaten like that in so long. I was so bloated and uncomfortable. I was actually extremely happy about that because it showed me that I am actually changing my eating habits. I do still eat pizzas but I am experimenting with that as well by trying to make it healthier.

My first six weeks review!

To start off this program is plyometric based. It has a lot of exercises that are fast and whole body movements such as burpees and X jumps. This program has an Ebook and an App. I have both but I only use the SWEAT app. I have it hooked up to my Apple Watch and I find thats the best to use because I can see my heart rate and calories that I've burned.

How these exercises are put together is a bit tricky to describe.
Firstly it starts out with 2 circuits. These circuits both have 4 exercises in them.
You will move through each circuit twice and they are each timed for 7 minutes.
So, You will actually do four circuits but you repeat the first circuits.
You do each circuit as fast as you can (with proper form) and as many times as you can in the 7 minutes.
Does that makes sense?

You have 3 days of this circuit training and then you have 2-3 days of low intensity cardio such as yoga, walking, or jogging. You also have an option to do high intensity if you would like... ive only decided to do that twice thus far.

I'll break down each week for you. This is how I felt each week and what my mindset was. I also forgot to mention... I HATE any type of cardio.

Week one: I was kind of prepared for what this would be because I had done it before. It sucked though. My heart was not used to beating at an average of 170 bpm (beats per minutes) for thirty minutes. I was still pumped up during this first week because I was finally doing it.

week two: It sucked even worse that the first week actually. I was coming off the high of starting a new program and more into the drudge of every day life. I was keeping myself encouraged by looking at transformation pictures and following the SWEAT community on instagram and seeing all of these other people doing the same thing I was doing.

Week three: It actually sucked less and I was getting better at the workouts. I was finding my rhythm into when worked best for me to work out and the type of music that fit best with this type of workout. I also found out that I push myself much harder when I go to the gym and do these workouts than in my own home. That is totally my personal preference because I know these workouts are designed to do in the comfort of your own home.

Week four: I saw improvements in my body...no one else could though. My hubby did mention that he felt like my booty was a bit tighter though. I noticed my eating was starting to get worse around this week though. I feel like this is when the battle really started. I would find myself trying to find excuses of not working out. But I pushed myself and stuck with it. Looking back I am so stoked that I have too. I play a huge mental game when I do cardio type exercises because I hate it so much.

Week five: This week was hard for me because I felt like I had really hit my wall. I got discouraged because I wasn't seeing the types of changes I thought I would see. I was seeing all of these other women have these really apparent changes in their body. Then it hit me. My eating was tanking, I wasn't pushing myself as hard as I need to be, and I have a different body then they do. I wasn't overweight by any means when I started this program. I wasn't going to have these huge changes because I didn't need these huge changes. Also... its only 5 weeks in. This is the week that I dug even deeper and told myself that this is a lifestyle change. Not a 12 week change. If I want lasting results then that will take time. 5 weeks isn't going to radically change my body.

Week six: I was sick and skipped some workouts so I decided to do this week over again. This alone is huge improvement in my mental changes. Even six months ago I would have NEVER gone back over a week because I wasn't able to give it my all. I would have tried to cut corners just to say I had done it. It was like my body was rewarding me. I started seeing some results in my stomach and even on my saddle bags... yes I have saddle bags at age 23. My biggest improvement was in this week as well. I decided to run on my low intensity cardio day. I knew I was working out my heart and I wanted to compare it to how it was before. I used to run a mile in about 11-10 minutes. I know that is rough but its true. I told you I hate cardio and it showed in my timed runs. After 15 minutes on the elliptical (my cardio of choice) I decided to test myself and I ran a mile. I did it in 9 minutes and 30 seconds! That is a huge improvement for me!

This program thus far is totally testing me but I have pushed myself and I will continue to do so. I have goals for what I want out of my life and that includes being a healthy individual. I have enjoyed my first 6 weeks and I would totally recommend this so far.
Here are my progress pictures!



P.S. Yes I did cover up my undies!