I am starting on F45 8 Week Fitness Challenge starting today, Oct 8th till Dec 2nd

and I am planning to document my journey to keep myself accountable in completing this challenge

For me it is pretty difficult to alter my Indian meals to those suggested by F45. Also I believe to continue healthy lifestyle it is not advised to go for fad diets but instead long term sustainable food choices.

So, I am just going to make some tweaks to my food plan yet maintain high protein, less to no carbs specifications

How I am planning to approach:

Rules:

1.  Less Carbs like – Rice/Pasta.
2. 3 Meals, 1 Snack, 1 protein shake
3. Magnesium Supplement
4. Protein powder
5. Exercise 4-5 times a week
6. 2-3 L of water
7. Lemon water in the morning
8. 8 Hrs of sleep

These are aligned with the F45 challenge rules with the exception to Indian version Mean Plan.

Rules of the F45 challenge are below:

https://f45challenge.com/challenge-details/

My Fitness Journey 

So I am a huge fitness fan. I love Yoga, Zumba, Dance fitness, Aerobics, Step training. In my 20’s I was so smitten by Dance Aerobics that I became an instructor, took a space for rent and taught 2 classes in the mornings before heading to work. I had a decent crowd coming to the class and felt pretty good about myself. People used to come to me saying ‘ I want to become as thin as you’ (I had flat, dashboard abs then..Ahh those days). I enjoyed it so much that I quit my job one day to take up Aerobics full time.

Little did I know about the energy required to take all the classes alone. Long story short, I realized that I cannot sustain with energy and demand of classes managing alone. I am back to my Job. But my love for fitness did not fade.

I worked out 2-3 times a week doing either yoga or zumba. I ate pretty much everything. Fast food, home food, snacks, late night – everything in a day but always felt good and my weight did not move an inch. That was 20’s.

Enter 30’s and being pregnant with first kid changed everything.

I abruptly stopped working out and weirdly felt happy to gain weight.

I was un-recognizable by the time I was 6 months pregnant. I gained 30  pounds and doctors advised me to cut down on my calories. I tried hard for the last trimester and ended up being 40 pounds heavier than my pre-pregnancy weight.

It took me almost 3 years to moderately be rid of excess baby weight, with no modifications to my food and only doing Bikram hot yoga and dance aerobics consistently for thrice a week. I still had the belly bulge.

Just when I was OK with my weight and fitness levels, I got pregnant with my second child. This time I tried hard not to over eat and do yoga for twice a week. I did yoga till I was 6 months pregnant and had to stop as I had lost motivation to continue.

I delivered my second child in September 2017 and made a promise to myself that I will shed the baby weight in an year.

2 months after delivery, I started working and felt good to have my time and regain my focus towards fitness.

I started walking, did Bollywood Aerobics classes for twice a week and did Yoga for 2 times a week- for 2 months. No modifications to food.

Overall I was doing fine, I started getting better with my mobility and flexibility but I noticed NO Change in my weight or appearance.

I was frustrated, when my husband suggested to go hard core workout AKA Gym and weight training. I never did Gym. I did not lift a weight (only few pounds in Aerobics-which does not count as weight training)

Joined Camp Gladiator in Feb 2018. I really Struggled to keep up with the workout. I mean, I hated the first few weeks, the weights, the workout style everything. But I already made a commitment for 6 months with CG. So I had to Stick.

Gradually after a month with CG, I started liking it as I was feeling stronger and seeing some results with each workout (with No modifications to my diet)

Although I liked the workout and support from the community, I hated to workout outside, which is either cold (during Feb-Mar) or super-hot (May-Jul) in Texas. So I quit CG.

I resigned to my usual Zumba workouts for few months. I felt frustrated that these are not showing any improvements to my scale or showing any changes to my mid-section.

Especially that Dec 2018 is fast approaching and I need to some solution. I thought, maybe I need Cool Sculpting for my mid-section.

That is it. I booked an appointment with SkinEnvy for laser and cool sculpting. Claudia at SkinEnvy did the initial Cool Sculpting evaluation and said ‘ You know what, You need to shed some more weight to even try this procedure. You might more results after you workout and lose more weight and then think about Cool Sculpting’.

I told her my story of how much I was working out but seeing no results  (I felt I was moving the world doing Zumba and Yoga).

She suggested the magic pill – F45 Training.

Couple of days later, Nandini, my neighbor suggested F45 workout. I thought I need to try it.

I first day of working out, I knew- This is it. This is the workout for me.

-It is quick- 45 minutes goes so fast.

-Timer – is a real motivator to do one more rep, last sec and I am almost there…

-Trainers- They are Awesome, energetic bunch- suggesting modifications, supporting, pushing us to do lil’ extra every time.

-Variety- Love that there is a perfect mix to work out all muscle groups, right mix of cardio, weight training classes in a week

-Music – I absolutely love the latest hits when working out.

-Community- I like that there are so many regulars in this gym that are strong and motivated.

Above all, distance to F45 from home is less than 10 mins. This is a deal breaker for me. Even though the RR Central location is 15 mins drive from my home, when I take the highway(which is mostly without traffic) I hit the gym in around 7 minutes.

Since joining in August 2018, I consistently worked out, 3 times a week, and started realizing the need for portion control and protein intake.

From Oct 8th, I started doing the F45 8 Week fitness challenge and documenting the whole journey.

Stay with me for more updates !