Transformation Thursday: TOL #46

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                 As you may know, I recently finished doing about 4 weeks (consistent for like 3.5 weeks) of low carb high fat. This was the first time I have really tracked my eating. I knew that to step up my game to the next level and see better results, I had to focus on my eating as well as workouts. For the month of April, I participated in Becky’s booty bootcamp. I realized how much I have neglected my legs in workouts so this was really good for me. I did have to skip a couple days of workouts as it became a little too much and modified when needed. I definitely noticed results, but since I combined a new meal plan with the workouts I can’t say what results you would get by just doing one or the other.

                I wish I had taken measurements because I can feel that I lost inches, but here are some things I noticed after doing low carb and a booty bootcamp for a month.

• Stomach is slimmer
• Bigger gap between my legs (honestly I never cared much about the thigh gap, but my legs do feel more muscular which I like)
• Backs of my thighs look better (it’s probably the one part of my body I hate looking at in the mirror)
• Some shirts feel like they are looser
• Pants definitely fit better
• I don’t feel bloated ( <- definitely diet related)
• I can feel full and satisfied with fewer carbs!

The other day on my timehop, a picture came up from me trying on some shorts in May last year.

This was right after I completed my yoga teacher training. Since I canceled my gym membership to focus on yoga, I actually was a lot more stressed at the end of my training. I loved the training and hanging out with everyone on the weekends, but I really did increase the number of carbs I ate because of the weird timing of meals and not knowing when exactly our break would be and not wanting to eat too close to when yoga class started, etc. Carbs, protein bars, were easy to bring along. I did pack salads and other healthy things for a dinner, but I would snack a lot throughout the morning and whenever we had a break. Because I was only doing yoga and not weight lifting or swimming, I did gain at least 5 pounds because my body wasn’t burning as many calories. I didn’t feel my best at the end of training. [Side note: I would definitely recommend the training I did to anyone interested. I loved it! I just wish I would have found a way to include some more variety of workouts for myself]

Around the time of the picture I was settling into a new routine, trying to find a gym in a new area since I moved at the end of my training and figure out a good workout routine. There were a lot of tears shed (sorry Brian) as I tried to figure it out. I decided last May to join RetroFitness so that I could start doing 5am workouts. While I had joined a YMCA in April 2015, it didn’t open until 5:30am and going after work just wasn’t working well and the money per month wasn’t worth it when I didn’t like the Zumba class and yoga times didn’t work for me. It has now been a year and I still do my 5am workouts. I made it through winter!! YAY! I love RetroFitness when it comes to weightlifting as the weights are always in order in the morning. I may not be able to do squats with a squat rack (there is 1 but usually in use), but I have been working on my bench press, pull ups and more. Now because I didn’t have a pool and you had to pay extra for the classes at Retro, I joined LA Fitness once my YMCA membership was up and that has worked out for swimming, Zumba and I now teach yoga there. [Yes I’m a member at two gyms, but it saved me $5 a month compared to the YMCA in my area]

It is great to look back on what I have accomplished with my workouts in the last year. Throughout these 12 months, I have greatly increased my arm strength, but as I mentioned above, my leg workouts were lacking. Now that I have some leg workouts to reference and I tried this new way of eating and my body is adjusting, I am feeling great. Sometimes it is hard to look at the labels of crackers and pasta, etc and see all those carbs, but I ate what I wanted this past weekend without tracking and did well. Some days I will just do that. I know I will survive and now I also know I can live with less carbs (as much as I like them). I feel more confident in myself and with my body. The new way of eating let me shed 5 lbs I was holding onto. I feel more comfortable in my jeans. They were getting tight, which has never happened to me. In my past, I have lost weight without trying and I believe it was due to not eating enough food especially when I became lactose intolerant and dropped ice cream and milk from my diet. Then in college I lived off the salad bar and didn’t eat enough, came home after a year with the freshman -5. I seem to have this fear that I won’t eat enough hence my grabbing all the snacks around yoga training, but now I am beginning to learn how much I really need. It has taken many years and it is a constant learning process of how much should I eat, but I feel the closest I have ever been.

For another comparison here is 1 month and a booty shot.

Finding last year’s photo was a reminder to me that progress takes time. You may not always see results on the outside, but they are working on the inside. Remember beauty comes from within.

 

 

 

 

 

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