F45 Fitness – Sowjanya Amirapu

F45 Challenge with Indian Meal Plan

July 24, 2019July 24, 2019 anyaamirapu

So you know, I am doing a Fitness Challenge. Its F45 Challenge. Its a tough 45-minute High-Interval-Intensity- Training (HIIT) with mix of killer Cardio and Strength sessions. I started the F45 journey a year ago and never looked back. It is my Go-to place to rewind, look inward, do a little self-talk after work.

The challenge comes with a 3-phase meal program that is designed to lose fat and build muscle. There is a meal ordering service associated to F45 near our region that takes the guessing out of the game and delivers food at our door step.

However, I chose to stick to my routine meal plans (Indian food) for this challenge.

I am tweaking my Indian meals a little to lay emphasis on adding Protein and limiting carbs. This means I will be eating more of lentils and Pulkas and omiting Rice all together. Yes ! NO RICE !

I can’t believe I am doing it.

The last time I did the F45 challenge, I only had rice during the weekends. I managed to stick to the plan most of the weekdays but could not resist my cravings on Friday’s and weekends. How much ever I tried I had a very hard time keeping up with energy during the weekdays with just rotis and couldn’t wait for the weekends.

So it would be a tough battle for me to omit rice all together till 15th Sep. In order to do that successfully, I am planning to eat more lentils. Lentils of all kinds in bigger portions. I will be eating dal as a main meal and have rotis as a side dish.

Let’s see how it goes !

The Challenge also requires to not having coffee for the first two weeks and just black coffee(no sugar, no cream) for the rest of the weeks. I do not want to handle too many food limitations at the same time. So I am keeping my regular coffee, 6 oz, with cream and sugar just once in the morning.

My Focus is doing 5 workouts a week, less carbs – a.k.a no rice and limited rotis, more protein. The Challenge is ON!

F45 Fitness

May, June, July Workouts & F45 Challenge !!

July 23, 2019July 23, 2019 anyaamirapu

A quick update on where I am at with my workouts and activities. After working out for 14 days in April, I just did 3 workouts in May. Well, I knew May would be my slack time as I took 2 week vacation to India to attend my sister’s wedding. Just before taking OFF, I managed to do 3 workouts that week and that is all I am proud of in May.

Anyhow, coming back to June, I hit the gym really hard. I have been consistent with my weekly workouts and managed to do 15 workouts.

JULY sure started slow. I picked up lot of physical activities, like biking, starting Swim lessons. Especially my swim classes took lot of my focus away from F45, for a good reason :). I always wanted to learn swimming to overcome my fear of water. This July I took the plunge. After just 3 weeks into it, I am away confident in water and love to spend time in the water. Swimming is my new love. Will talk more about swimming in a new post.

July is also the time for F45 Challenge !!! I am all geared up this challenge. It started on 22nd July and will be on till 15th September.

I am going to meticulously track my workouts, my meals to really see the difference.

My goals for this challenge is to lower my body fat %, tone my waist and arms, UP my game and move further along my fitness journey of being strong, energetic and lean.

F45 Fitness

Catching UP

April 29, 2019 anyaamirapu

Last 2 months have been hectic with work that I did not spend enough time Blogging.

Here’s what’s happening

Do-20 Challenge is still a far reaching goal for me. I managed to do 11 workouts on Feb and just 7 during the whole of March. I think it was due to spring time, I was hit by terrible cold, backpain and overall weak that I did not have an ounce of energy to workout. I slowly regained myself with Yoga and walking in the park but that’s about it.

I am doing much better this month, recording 14 workouts to-date. Not only that I worked out consistently for at least 3 times a week this month. After a disastrous March, April schedule gives me hope that I am close to completing at least 2 ‘D0-20’ challenges this year.

F45 Fitness

January Fitness Report

February 1, 2019February 1, 2019 anyaamirapu

First month of 2019 is done and loved how I finished January. I did accomplish most of my goals for January. Fitness and otherwise. I committed to doing 20 classes this month. However I did 18, which is my personal best to-date.

I feel proud as I really strived to complete 20 and I could have reached 20 but for few reasons. I am sure those reasons will be crushed in Feb. 🙂

When I look at my tracker, I notice that I missed out on the first week a big deal. Had I worked out at least 3 classes in my first week of Jan, I would have crushed the 20 this month. From my past trackers, I never missed Monday’s or Tuesday’s.

But this month we enrolled our elder son in Kumon classes, that happens on Monday’s every week. To top that off, my dear husband is having late evening meetings every Monday. So I ended up losing my workout spot for Monday’s.

This means I have to be even more committed to classes for the rest of the days in a week. More importantly, I cannot slack on any given week with less than 3 days of workout. So I added varied and diverse classes to my schedule.

First, I enrolled in Hot Yoga @ Sunstone Fitness. I love love love yoga and Hot Yoga is my absolute favorite. Before being an F45 bunny, I was a loyal Yoga fan. I swore by yoga for achieving lean body and overall strength and wellness.

But after my second kid, my fitness priorities changed. I have to strengthen my core and fast. I have to start lifting weights and gradually add more to challenge my strength.

Beyond flexibility, Yoga calms my mind. Helps me dig deeper into my soul, my inner self. Teaches me the practice of being grateful for my body. All of which helped me be more focused when doing any task. Consistent Yoga practice does result in weight loss and lean body but seeing those results will take a longer time.

So after my second delivery, I searched for more challenging hard-core workouts. The workouts I always thought I cannot do. Cannot do as much cardio and cannot lift as much weights. I want to break that thought. I enrolled in F45. I feel like a Titan, a Ninja Warrior lifting the weights. I feel powerful.

Having said that I feel like this workout is still one-sided. I long for my mind-body connection. A place where I can thank my body and submit myself to. I missed Hot Yoga. So I became a member at Sunstone Yoga in Austin. Now, I am going there during weekends and I am loving it.

Second workout I tried is Spin classes @ Ride. I experimented with spin as it is in the same Mall as my office (yes, my office is in a mall and I do shop or cycle during my lunch break). Never thought indoor cycling can give me such joy. I loved the experience of spinning to the music. I did not feel it to be much of a workout but there is a feel-great-factor to spinning that stuck with me the whole day. But it is too pricey for my budget. I never think twice for spending for quality training. But after shelling a lot for F45 & Hot yoga, I decided to not enroll for Spin classes (I still have 1 more Spin class to attend in Feb)

It was an Intensity and Variety packed January for me. Ready to race for February and hit 20 workouts !!