Steff in Scotland

The Finish Line! (Or Is it?!)

So here I am, week four, over and out! I can honestly say that this month has flown by, and when I set myself the goal of exercising a few times a week for 30 days (starting from not exercising, um, basically ever!), I did feel a tiny bit daunted by it.

This week was if anything not my best. I had mega pmt, so while today, at the finish line I feel all:
via GIPHY




So yeah...not my strongest week, but I got there, and one of my work outs was cut short by, I kid you not, my upstairs neighbour flooding my bathroom(!). But all in all I am feeling really pleased with the fact I finished, and while it's not quite 30 days yet (4 weeks is only 28 days, who knew?! ;-0), I'm feeling optimistic about continuing on with it, because not to get all Eat Pray Love here, I do feel better, on the inside, from moving my body more and paying more attention to my diet. I have another post that goes into it a bit more that I will put up later in the week, because I have genuinely felt so much better since starting this challenge.

So this week's exercise challenge constituted:

1.Davina Body Buff: Buff Cardio: Ok I did about half of this, got frustrated with the amount of crazy hard knee pounding moves, and skipped to Buff Boxing, which I am getting the hang of a bit better now.

Pilates Collection:  (same day) I dusted off my Pilates dvd for the first time this month, in a shameless attempt to go back into Pilate class this Wednesday with my head held high like I've been doing Pilates all throughout our three week break (lolz!) I did:

Pilates Core: 10 minutes of core work

Pilates Stretch: Mostly stretching, tbh this section is super easy and served as a cool down for my Davina workout.

2.Claire Richards 5 Step Fat Attack:  I have always struggled to get into this one. It's flipping hard, even the warm up is crazy high intensity, and I don't particularly like the trainer's aggressive, more I don't know, American (shh! ;-0) style high "insanity" or whatever they are called type moves. 

There are, along with Claire (from Steps) and her trainer, three random muscle head dudes doing the workout too, which I just find sort of weird/distracting. They seem more like backup dancers or something, it's just kind of cheesy. To be fair Claire does a lower impact version at times which helps but when our bathroom ceiling started raining down water I gave up on this after 25 minutes with no small level of relief! I think I need to build up towards this one.

I should say that I was largely unfamiliar with Steps (they were a British pop band to any North Americans out there!) as they slightly pre-dated my time in the U.K., so it only dawned on me after awhile that all of the songs in this DVD are Steps songs - they are actually quite suited to working out so I don't mind them really, they're less boring than the usual blandly generic music on a lot of fitness dvd's anyway!

3.Davina Three 30 Minute Workouts: Cardio Box: Again (!). Sorry, I know I do this one a lot, but I like it, and at this point I could do it in my sleep (if only!), and it gets me respectably sweaty if not wiped.

Davina Body Buff, Buff Arms: Another repeat from last week, I like that I can dip in and out of this dvd for spot training.

As for walking, well, I did walk around all day on Thursday in town, (mostly!) window shopping, so that counts for something surely?! My feet were killing me anyway!

My MyFitnessPal diary was not my best week (again, um hormones = bad diet!) but I continue to feel encouraged on days when I make or come in under my calorie target. I'm more conscious of things like sugar and protein and balancing things, without obsessing on it too much either. 

My mental health is every bit as important to me as my exterior appearance when it comes to this fitness lark, which has not always been the case - when I was younger I dealt with various eating disorders, so it is important for me not to slip into obsessive or self-critical thinking when it comes to this stuff. It has been really encouraging for me to feel like I can eat essentially what I want and aim for a certain target without being on a specific restricted diet plan. 

I am not tracking weight loss at this stage, as I don't want to get discouraged if I'm not losing. Because regardless of that stuff I just feel better and can see small changes happening, and for me that is enough right now.

So yes, this exercise challenge is one I'm going to continue on with, I hope, because it has made me feel much more positive and healthy in terms of my attitude and my overall fitness. I don't want to keep boring you guys with weekly run downs, but if I'm honest this little online diary of sorts charting my exercise habits has kept me motivated. So I think I will continue to track it here, maybe in slightly less detail, if only to hold myself to account! 

I highly recommend doing a 30 day challenge, of whatever it is you fancy, it's a great way to kick start yourself into action if you are lacking motivation, as I had been when it came to exercise for quite some time. 30 days feels like a long time at the start, but it really does fly by, I recommend it! :-)