Week 2 Body Transformation Challange- Lessons Learned
Well, week 2 of our body transformation challenge is done! Cheat day is done. I am ready for week 3 to start!
Week 2 was much easier for me. I was into my routine. I balanced my other workouts better. My runs felt better. I meal prepped better. I ate better.
Everything was just better!
My biggest takeaways…
Nutrition is still in the top
Energy
Sleep and recovery
The workouts are a different intensity. They aren’t as explosive or short as the kettlebell workouts I typically do.
They are an hour + long and very high volume workouts. When I say high volume, I mean 200+ reps of certain exercises. Whew!
The amount of work that is done in each workout is equivalent to what I would typically do in a week in bootcamp. I actually had this conversation with a few bootcampers who are doing this program with me.
While, the workouts don’t feel as intense as bootcamp workouts reminding them how much work they are actually doing a week.
And because of that volume, that they MUST eat enough and eat the right things.
Post workout meals and making sure they are getting enough protein is key.
For me, I go from bootcamp workouts (or classes), to A12 workout, to clients and if I don’t get enough food, come noon I crash and crash hard! I get super tired and around 2pm I get super hungry and can’t stop eating.
What does my food intake look like last week?
Post workout
Oatmeal with a banana
30 min later a protein shake
2nd meal
Egg whites with veggies and avocado
Grapefruit or strawberries or blueberries
3rd Meal (lunch)
Chicken with hot sauce
Brocolli
Cottage Cheese
4th meal (snack)
Green peppers
humus
apple
Dinner
I had a mix of salmon, chicken, shrimp this week
always a green vegetable
Quinoa
1 hour before bed
3 days of the week I had some casein protein with water
Energy
My energy levels were much higher this past week. I wasn’t craving any sweets after dinner or throughout the week. I felt like I could do so much more in my workouts and through the day. I chalk this up to better nutrition, sleep, and hydration. My runs felt really good. Two days a week I need to run 2+ miles in 20 mins. Both days I did it with ease. Not like in week 1. Week 1 was tough!
Something to note, this week for bootcamp workouts, we weren’t doing as much kettlebell work and I spent much more time coaching which I also think contributed to my better A12 workouts.
Sleep and Recovery
At the start of the pandemic I got into a weird habit of falling asleep on the couch and not going to bed until after 11pm even though I was still waking up at 4am. This past week I was in bed by 8 or 9am. My recovery did not fall below 70% on my Whoop watch this week (last week it was 19%- YIKES). Not only could I feel it but my strap also told me. I did even more activity than the week before and still felt great!
Results after week 2?
I am much less bloated. I am not craving sugar. I didn’t have to use Tyler to connivence me to stick to the nutrition. I was at a celebration of life last week and I didn’t have a drink nor did I want one. On my cheat day, I did buy a couple donuts but found that I took a bite of it and didn’t really want it so I didn’t eat it all.
I feel good going into week 3 and can’t wait to see what this week brings and I am glad I am not doing this alone.