Saturday, November 23, 2013

Guest Post-Personal Story

As a way to restart my blogging, I thought you all might like to hear from someone other than me about their personal health and fitness journey for once....so meet my little bro, Kyle. Yes, he is the one who did Insanity about a year ago...sooooo what's happened since? Here he tells us....

"Insanity: Been there... Done that... Got the T-Shirt (Literally, there's a picture on my facebook!)

As all of you have probably read the blog about me having major success doing Insantiy, it was true. If you didn't read it, here's a quick recap: At the beginning of this year, I weighed the most I ever had in my life at 242lbs and decided to join a 90 day weight loss competition. For the first 60 days I stuck to the Insanity program pretty hard core, not missing a day, and lost 30lbs. Then, I used the Insanity dvds to lose another 10lbs for the final 30 days.

Before I talk about the workout habits, I'll start by saying I changed the way I ate. I got rid of drinking soda and alcohol for the duration of the contest. I never missed a meal and always stayed full. I cut out the carbs while cutting back on the sugars and sodium as well. Chicken was my best friend.

Insanity was great, especially for a guy like me who had never worked out before. But for those of you who are looking to get in shape, I'm here to tell you there are other options. Let me go on record now and say that I'm not knocking Insanity, that it is a great program and you really are guaranteed results. By doing Insanity, I learned how my body reacts to certain workouts and what workouts were best for me. But let me explain why I have since changed my mind on how great the program is. For the first month, you are working out 45 minutes, six days a week. Doesn't sound too terribly bad, but it gets worse. The second month, you're working out from one hour to one and a half hours for six days a week. All the workouts are very high intensity work outs that work out every muscle in your body (which is a very good thing). But why are you guaranteed the results? Because you're simply just being active. And with this program, you're being extremely active. Insanity was a great start, but, in my opinion, it's not realistic to continue unless you don't work and get bored during the day. And if you're anything like me, you're a busy person who can't dedicate that much time in working out.

So what happened after I lost the 40lbs? Nothing good. I stopped working out because I was tired of the routine. I stopped eating healthy because I deprived myself of all the good unhealthy foods for 90 days. Then, seven months went by and the weight started coming back. I gained back 27lbs before I decided to start a healthy lifestyle again. Let me explain a little bit further on why I stopped.

I knew the weight was coming back, I wasn't blind. I could start to feel uncomfortable again but I was scared. I was scared that in order to get back on the right path I would have to work out for an hour every day, 6 days a week (even though my sister told me that you don't have to). Day after day, I would tell myself, "Well, I will start next week" but never did.

Finally, three weeks ago, I got a group of friends together to all participate in another competition. This time, I'm taking a new approach. As you've probably heard my sister say before, never ever tell yourself you're going on a diet. Diet's will not last, you have to commit to a change in lifestyle. This time, I'm trying to find a realistic lifestyle to start living. My sister told me about a website, www.fitnessblender.com that has page after page of free workout videos. They literally have so many different types of workouts, I dare you to visit the site and tell me you can't find some that works for you. They rate their videos 1-5 (1 being easy, 5 being most difficult) and have lengths from 5 minutes to over an hour. This year, I spoiled myself and bought a smart TV and found out I can watch these videos on the TV. Therefore, I can again work out in the comfort of my own home and not embarrass myself at a gym.

These past three weeks, I've lost 8 lbs. I've targeted the videos on FitnessBlender where the difficulty is three or four and 15-20 minutes long. I work out about 4 -5 days a week and have gone back to my healthy eating habits. I did get discouraged last weekend when I ate pretty bad and thought I ruined a week of weight loss, but I learned that by going back to eating right and continuing to work out, your body gets rid of the bad stuff really quickly.

So at the end of the day, I'm here to say, just stay the course. Don't think you have to work out with the extreme of programs like Insanity or P90x, just start small and get active. Let yourself have your cheat meals and not worry about it. As long as you continue to work out, you'll be just fine."

And there you have it! If that's not inspiration that you can do it, I don't know what is. It is easier than you think and so within your reach. Keep it simple, stupid...right ;) lol...eat clean, fresh, healthy and exercise realistically and smart. You make the decision to pull the trigger, I can give you ammo!!

Hope you enjoyed hearing his story and feel inspired to begin your own! :)

Until next time,
Stay Active!
~Mandi

Absolutely.