Fitness Times Two

the scoop

Suzanne of Crazy Blonde Life and I are joining forces today to share a fitness challenge. As life-long fitness lovers we understand the ups and downs that come with trying to live a healthy lifestyle. Check out Suzanne's post here and read more about what I'm doing below.

the challenge

We're asking you to join us for a summer fitness challenge starting June 1st. If you are currently active, inspire us all by sharing what you are doing. If you want to start living a more active life, join us by taking just 15 minutes a day, three times a week to do something you love. Be it walking, hiking, dancing, skipping or playing hopscotch, tell us your plan and then let us know how it goes!

Send us an email with your picture and your plan/progress and we'll share them on our next fitness post! My email is northwestmountainliving@gmail.com and Suzanne's is Suzanne@crazyblondelife.com. Hopefully we can turn this into a series that helps us all help each other to live healthier happier lives!

my fitness challenge

If you have followed me for long you know I am always trying to up my fitness game. I love to feel healthy and be active and I defy age to try to stop me (I turn 58 next month). The past year though I have felt like I am in a rut. What I am doing is not working. I am not in optimal shape.

I've been running for over 10 years on a regular basis. I have not done strength training on a regular basis. With each passing year I have to reduce my calorie intake more to stay at the weight I desire. The result is that I have more body fat than lean muscle. I have belly fat which is the most unhealthy fat to have due to links with heart disease, type II diabetes and other illnesses.

A little over a year ago I did a boot camp and really enjoyed it. I learned a lot but felt like I knew more than my coach and didn't fully comply with the regimen. I took away several good lifestyle changes but didn't feel like I reached my goals. After realizing that what I am doing is not working I decided to do a round two of the six-week online camp.

the program

I want to be clear here that I am not a health or fitness expert and I am not advocating that anyone should do anything that I am doing. I am always trying new things and want to share my experiences because that is how we learn. Right? I wold love to hear your experiences too!

This program is very interesting and those who have done it and stuck with it strictly have had amazing results in losing fat and building muscle. I started week five today. Here are the things I am doing. I will add links to some of the key terms for more detail.

1. Carb Cycling

I have two days a week where I eat low carb (less than 50 net grams) and do exercises, specifically sprints on one day and tabatta training on the second day to deplete my glycogen levels so I become a fat burning machine! Ha Ha.

How's that working for you, you ask? The first week was hard. I felt almost sick those two days. I am now used to it but still don't feel 100% on those days.

2. Intermittent Fasting

I eat all my food in an eight-hour window each day. I usually eat only between the hours of 11 AM and 7 PM.

I have been doing this for over a year and actually like it. I still get to have my coffee in the morning so it is all good.

3. Weight Training

Three days a week I do weight training. I focus on different body parts on each of those days. I also do ten minutes of low impact cardio to warm up and cool down (like walking) and I stretch.

This is the what I am finding most beneficial! I can see definition already and have consisitently increased weight lifted, reps and sets. Woot! Woot!

4. Macros Tracking

I don't count calories but I do monitor my macros (carbohydrates, fats & proteins) and stay within healthy ranges for each. Except on low carb days a healthy range is 50% carbohydrates, 30% fats and 20% proteins. Two days a week I reduce my macros by 25%. It all sounds complicated but it is not. I use the free app My Fitness Pal to track everything.

This is not so difficult. I am so used to it now that I don't really even have to track. Just sticking to clean whole foods 80% of the time is the key.

5. Two days a week are rest days where I take a walk, hike or something like that.

Love my rest days but sometimes I do NOTHING! Oopsy!

Results and take aways? I gave up running while doing this program. The whole point of this program is that as women we are under eating and over training and it is not working for us. So I am eating more than I have for a long time and exercising less. For me however not running is not working. Running for me personally is for my mental health. I get depressed when I don't run for a while. So I will add my short 30 minute trail runs every other day when I am done with this boot camp. I will had HIIT to my runs a couple times a week too. I will continue lifting weights three times a week and I will continue the intermittent fasting. I have done it for a year and a half and find no down side for me. I will also keep my macros on point. I will not continue the carb cycling. I just feel better if I eat a normal amount of complex carbs.

So that's my long winded story! I hope you find something valuable in it.