Confession time: I’ve eaten terribly the last few weeks.

I’m stressed and worried and allowing my anxiety to run wild and become crazy Sam.

However. I’ve stayed pretty flat with my weight. No real change up or down. And while YES, I do give some credit to my weirdo thyroid, I know that a lot of that is due to the dreaded W word…workouts.

In December, I started at Fit Body Boot Camp in Woodinville. The owner and trainer extraordinaire, Eric, opened in December with an offer my mother-in-law and I literally couldn’t refuse: $21 for 21 days. “I can do anything for 3 weeks!” I said to myself, knowing full well I’ve said and failed at that before. Then I went a step further and decided to really torture myself and plan on attending classes at 5:30am three times a week. Not a typo. Five thirty. In the MORNING. As in, just after the FOUR AM hour. I KNOW. I’m exhausted just thinking about it.

Anyways, I started going, and LOVED it. And not like “oh this is fun I’ll do this a few times then fade out” type of love. I mean I committed to a YEAR of this I love it so much. Its 30-minute workouts (hallelujah) so I can be out the door and home again within about 45 minutes. Plus, because I chose to go at 5:30am, I go out the door, do a full {hard} workout, and am home before that adorable yelling and running machine I call my child wakes up. This gives my husband precious time to sleep and doesn’t force us to alter our morning routine at all. It’s a win all around.

BUT THE WORKOUTS.

Its HIIT style, which is high intensity interval training. That mostly means that you’re doing short bursts of intense exercise, but it’s all manageable, and its all modifiable. Any level of skill/endurance can do it, and they do! These classes are filled with the most badass, consistent mix of skill and fitness levels, everyone comes in and absolutely crushes their workouts, and we’re all drenched in sweat at the end. Comrades in (soon to be buff, always burning) arms, as it were.

Working out consistently for the last 6 weeks has done a few things for me.

• Encouraged me to move more

  • I have been more consistent with hitting 10000 steps a day since beginning at FBBC. It helps that I am leaving most of the workouts 2000 steps in, and after getting home, 5 flights of stairs, so I am more encouraged to hit the 10000. On top of that, I feel better on days when I have workouts. Seriously – I am more awake and alert at 2pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday than I am on Tuesday and Thursday.

• Kept my weight from fluctuating

  • I’ve eaten a wide array of Oreos (thanks, buddies, for keeping THOSE in your house) and comfort food (hello, Seattle rain) plus delightful wine (thanks wine clubs!) so I would have assumed my weight would have gone up. Instead, its stayed the same, with my body fat dropping. At my last weigh in, my body fat was down 1.8 pounds, even though my weight was about the same. How is that possible? Well…

• My muscle is growing!

  • My muscle is changing (ever so slowly) on the InBody scan, but hot dang its showing up with some real definition in my arms and legs! And SHOULDERS! I have muscle that SHOWS! Trust me, this is a big deal. For those who have “arm wrestled” me, you KNOW this is a big deal. I can SEE it.  But since muscle weighs more than fat, when it changes a bit on the scale, my fat dropping more will keep my weight about the same. Science.

• More endurance

  • I couldn’t do pushups off of my knees when I started this. I couldn’t do most things that required upper body, to be perfectly honest, especially planks. Plus, I was EXHAUSTED by the end of the workouts and need to rest a hot minute before going home, and the next two days I was SO sore I couldn’t hardly move. I remember texting my friend Kaelyn who is a Crossfit trainer and asking when that went away. Her response? “It doesn’t.” and shes right…kind of. The “I can’t sit down” muscle soreness left, but after a good workout, I sure as heck can feel it. After 6(ish) weeks of FBBC, I can not only hold a plank, but whilst holding a plank, I’m now encouraged to lift a leg or adjust my hands to make it harder. (Sam from March 2017 laughed out loud as present Sam typed that sentence).

Overall, I feel better about myself. I think the feelings I was having at the end of 30/10 of “well now what” have been squandered a bit by this…it’s another challenge, another focus, another thing to persevere. And like weight loss, my original goals may not be what I end up with. I originally would have been happy with -20 pounds…now I can’t imagine anything other than the 50 I lost. So, when I say I want more definition and toning, who knows where I will end up?

Your takeaway from all this blathering is this: get up and move your body if you eat like crap. Eat healthy if you don’t move your body. Those will help you maintain. Eat healthy and move your body. That will help you lose and improve. It all works together to help you annihilate your goals.

Have I created a FBBC monster in your brain too? Want to try it out? Eric has a promo going, three weeks for $39!!! Check it out and let me know if you’re joining me at 5:30am!!! Lets do a workout together!
(I don’t get paid for your clicks, and even if I did, I wouldn’t post something I didn’t love. No pressure, not an affiliate)

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