INSANITY ROUND II

Those weird girls at no. 46 II

Two weeks ago today my housemate and I started Insanity again. We apologies to all our neighbors and passers by whom, once again, have to deal with the loud music, grunts and heavy breathing from our flat window.  WHY again? Because neither of us have felt as fit as we did then. The feeling is amazing and once you get into it, addictive. 60 more days of sweat, ache and excessive hair washing but this time, not only have we added a health diet to the mix, but also running; aiming for three times a week minimum. We hope the running will boost any weight loss and also give us a time for the 10km winter ‘Wolf Run’ we can be proud of. 

Food Food Food

Round I of insanity proved difficult enough without adding a diet change. However, having seen results without this change, we wanted more this time. Although not calorie counting, we are actively increasing protein intake and making good food choices. For me, two weeks of being good is an achievement in itself.

Preparation is key and where I previously did a food shop once every two weeks I now shop weekly to make sure I have fresh and healthy lunches for the week. Strangely, despite the high intensity daily exercise, our appetite doesn’t appear to have increased as much as last time. I rarely feel hungry and I put this down to being very busy and the increases in protein intake.

A typical weekday. Breakfast: Pepper and mushroom omelet with one slice of brown toast. Lunch: Chicken, cucumber, spinach and tomatoes salad (no dressing). Dinner: Vegetable stir-fry with chopped tomato sauce. Snacks: Teaspoon of peanut butter, banana.

A shameful cheat-day following an alcohol fueled night. Omitting the vodka and diet soda’s the night before, with a foggy head, the unhealthiness only progressed the day after. Brunch: Two greasy samosas from a food stall followed by mocha and half a slice of chocolate cake. Dinner: Sunday roast stacked high and TWO giraffe shaped shortbread biscuits (damn your hospitality Emma Powell, Bex Southwell, Helen Jones and Emily Stokes). I had one (BIG) off day which I need to work on, but I will take 93% of healthy eating as an improvement on my previous 60%.

Did we loose it all?

Not quite. Having finished round I on the 13^th June 2014, we were worried how much 3 months off had set us back. Yes our numbers did drop from our final fit test on day 60, but they were higher than Day 1 of Round I. Week one proved hard with a few days of waddling around due to stiff muscles and aches before we could start the running.  At the end of week 2, whether its in our heads or not, we both feel more energetic. The 2-mile loop we run after the workouts has gotten slightly easier but our legs still feel heavy and tired (haven't quite hit the 10 minute mile average yet). The fit test numbers prove we have both gotten fitter, so we are looking forward to any visual changes soon!

Day 60!

enCORE!

So the 60 days has come to a close. Most of you looking at this page won’t even read these words. Evidence and judgement is all you came here for, and so you will have it. The Fit Test results are in, and there is no denying the huge fitness improvements. More importantly (as promised) the video evidence is yours to judge. We have given you progress photos, but as the internet is speckled with one genuine progress photo to every 100 which have been enhanced by posture, lighting, or outright Photoshop… we have gone a step further. Transformation photos are often there to sell a product, providing ‘evidence’ for an exaggerated claim (“Get Beyoncé’s booty in just under a week”, “lose 60 pound in ONLY 10 days!”…you get the idea). Although these photos may provide much needed motivation, we are all guilty of comparing ourselves to others and the problem occurs when we let this comparison stop OUR improvement.

However small the visible improvements, these videos are for your inspiration and our continued motivation. By no means are we claiming this was easy. You cannot go from 60 switch kicks to over 100 in 60 seconds without putting the work in! NO, we didn’t get these improvements in just 60 days. We got them in 60 days of extreme effort and dedication. This was not an extreme calorie restricted craze, with the end photo as the definitive goal. Fitness crazes come and go, but only our determination and life change will make the weight loss/improvement stick in the long term. Yes these fitness results happened quickly, but by no means do we intend for them to be final or temporary!

We aim to increase our fitness further whilst enjoying the pleasures in life (chocolate cake and all). For now a 1 week holiday begins, but our return will be greeted by round TWO of INSANITY plus extras to keep it varied. We have had over 1500 hits on this blog. If it motivated just one person to start working-out and improve their fitness then its purpose has been exceeded. Thanks to all the readers and if you liked the blog, please leave comments, post it on your wall or to others!

If It's Important to You, You Will Find a Way. If Not, You'll Find an Excuse.

Go HARD or GTFO!

We are heading towards the finish line with only a few days left! The 4^th fit test, to our surprised, showed improvements on numbers we thought were our personal best.  Seeing these results have only motivated us more and although we are looking forwards to the final fit test and physical results (we hope they are visible!), we do not intend to stop. As cheesy as this sounds, the routine is part of our lives now. Like a baby, the workout has come before a night out, before dates and before sleep. For over a week now, we have been able to keep up, we haven’t felt aches (no sign of shin splints for me) and we haven’t needed that rest day. Having minimal breaks in a workout plan may seem intense and counterintuitive but by not giving yourself a break, you trick yourself into knowing what’s coming every day until the routine becomes a habit. The question is, when round one of INSANITY is complete; will we need to step it up and do more in order to increase our fitness further?

Our future plan is to mix the week up and do INSANITY, gym classes (Kettle bells, Boxercise etc) and maybe another program (T25?). Re-doing month 2 of INSANITY long term would cause havoc on both muscles and bones due to the intensity. We have treated this first round of INSANITY as a huge kick start to our fitness improvement.

For those of you who are doing INSANITY for the first time…KEEP IT UP! That day 60 may seem a lifetime away when the sweat is already streaming during the warm up…but as you work towards day 60, pushing yourself, building physical strength and losing excess weight, your confidence, discipline and determination will increase.

 

Self-motivation and SOLDIER DOWN!

If the self-motivation begins to slip

Whether you had the self-motivation to begin with or someone instilled it in you, when you get to the point when you just don’t care anymore there is not much which will change your mind. The trick is to prevent the slippery slope of self-doubt, exhaustion and boredom before it leads to you throwing in the sweat towel. This feeling of motivation leaving my exhausted body has happened more than once during the past months, but I refuse to quit. There are too many friends, relatives and people who really DON’T CARE but are forced to read my posts who know. At first, your own motivation alone may not be enough. If you have started a fitness plan (INSANITY or not) without telling a sole, you have more self-motivation than myself. What I lack in self-motivation I gain in you knowing and waiting for me to quit. When I can barely drag myself in front of the TV and press play, knowing the hour of exhaustion that is to follow, I think of the feeling I get when the timer reaches < 5 minutes and how good I feel the morning after: the now familiar aching feeling which means the day before was a successful workout. If like me motivation comes and goes (“My healthy diet starts on Monday!!”), push through the days when you want to stop: It’s a lot harder to start over.

Guest piece from Insane Girl II at No. 46

I got sick on day 39 of INSANITY. Right slap bang in the middle of it. An influenza virus decided to pitch up and have a humdinger of a party in my sinuses, throat and chest making the daily ritual impossible. Shaun T, forgive me. Listening to my housemate’s distinctive INSANITY noises from the sickbed provoked feelings of guilt, but participating may have prolonged or worsened the illness. My advice? When you get sick, STOP the programme and wait until you feel human again. Your body is a battlefield during infection so be sure to give it the support that it needs, not make it work 5 times harder. Perhaps light exercise may speed up the viral fight but INSANITY isn’t quite light exercise, is it?!

Getting back into INSANITY after 4 days off has proved difficult- mostly due to residual phlegm but also because of feelings of frustration. It feels like the fitness that I’d built up over the past 5 weeks has wasted away during my bed-bound days. And I probably won’t get the fit test results I hoped for next time around.  But perseverance must prevail! Illness is one of those inevitabilities in life and I was unlucky to catch it during this training. You just have to gradually build up back to your pre-illness level in order to recapture the lost fitness over those missed days. Easier said than done, but it’s the only way to move forward!

Another side thought- this was perhaps the worst bought of ‘flu that I’ve had for a few years. Did the “death by Shaun T” day 36 (fit test plus max interval training) make the ‘flu effects worse?  It seems that prolonged periods (> 90 mins) of intense activity elevate hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, and these have negative effects on immune function. The workout certainly didn’t make me sick, but trying to fight through the initial ‘flu-like feelings might have hampered my white blood cells efforts during the first stages of the infection. In conclusion, stay very far away from sick people to ensure an optimal uninterrupted INSANITY programme!

Those weird girls at number 46

INSANITY IS a spectator sport

It wouldn’t surprise me if a fair few neighbours have branded us as insane. If any of you have done INSANITY, you know it’s not pretty. You know those gym goers, the ones with more mouth work than workout, and minimal sweat? This isn’t us. We look like we have run fully clothed through a shower. No amount of dry shampoo can help you now. Its hair washing daily I’m afraid. Rosy isn’t the word for the shade we are and the occasional burp due to excessive air gulping can surely be heard from at least 2 houses down. I won’t even go into the grunting noises. What I’m trying to say in a roundabout way is it’s not sexy. We have our living room window and curtains open every time, because without doing so we would collapse in a heap (it’s HOT!). We look ridiculous, we know, but we just DON’T CARE! We have had multiple passers-by doing double takes and stopping outside our window. Some laugh (most laugh), some shout encouragement and one creepy man on crutches after we pulled the curtains closed shouted “MORE!!” The rare times I have entered a gym, the fit people far outnumber the overweight. For those of you who are scared to enter the gym before getting to a reasonably fit level, I understand, but remember: we all have to go through looking our worst to look our best.

Week 1 completion!

Day 42. I have managed to complete what must be the hardest week of INSANITY. Could I keep up 100% of the time, most definitely NOT. I’m hoping the improvements in fitness will come, but when Shaun-T is stopping for breaks you know it’s bad.

Avoiding Injury

The likeliness of injury or illness is relatively high when you are doing such intense exercise. Whether you are on Day 1 or Day 50 of INSANITY, there may come a time when you physically cannot go on. For me, the further into the program I went, the more I got into the routine of daily exercising. Even on the recovery day, I now feel like I should be doing something. Three days into month 2 (Day 38), I noticed pain running along the inside of my shins. Self-diagnosis points to inflammation of the connective tissue caused by the frequent and intense periods of exercise and the repeated stopping and starting involved in interval training. The predictable advice: stop the activity that is causing the pain. My willingness to stop and let my legs heal completely is hampered by the time constraint I put on myself and the fact the pain was not huge. If like me you are aiming to finish before a certain date, illness and injuries are a huge inconvenience. 

It may be obvious but before you start, ensure you have trainers which can take high impact and tie them properly! I noticed a need to do additional stretches before and after the DVD to help release the tension, particularly in the calves, and reduce the chances of injury further. In addition, it is easy to go for the high jumps but forget about the landing. Land softly and controlled (as Shaun-T says “Keep your form!”), even when you are tired. The clue is in the sound; if it sounds like a 10kg bag of potatoes hitting the floor, you are NOT controlling the landing. If you start to feel discomfort that points to impact, try swapping moves for ones which are reduced in impact but as similar as possible.   

The first milestone and progress

Could Day 36 really be the only and final nail in the coffin?

Day 36: Shaun-T is attempting to kill us.  What possesses him to combine the Fit test with Max Interval Circuit In one sitting? The advice I gave on not preparing yourself by watching before you do, still stands. If I had watched it I may have debated splitting up the Fit test and the Max Interval Circuit with a few (or 10!) hours rest.  Although “Death by Shaun-T” has a good ring to it and may even make front page news, doing both back to back is not going to kill you. We took a 15 minute break between the two. Yes, I had to stop a fair few times, and I challenge anyone who says they did it without stopping at least once, but it’s doable (just).  Is it really as hard as they say? YES, but not quite as bad as I expected. Only now do I understand the true meaning behind the name “INSANITY”. After completing this day, I know there is room for improvements. If I can make it through without stopping as many times, push harder, the visible changes will happen. If they don’t, abs are just not meant for me!

Progress! 

We feel FIT. The graph shows my Fit Test results, with a marked improvement between the 1^st and 3^rd Fit Test. Below are the photos taken at the beginning of Insanity (Day 1) and just before Month 2’s Fit Test AND Max Interval Circuit (Day 36) for both my housemate and myself. With no change in diet, my housemate (first set), clearly has lost weight and toned up. As you can see, the changes for me are not exactly obvious (bottom set). As a scientist, I refuse to fabricate the evidence. No doubt the internet is filled with before and after pictures with the ‘after’ taken when water retention is lower. We decided to take it on Day 36 and so we did, even though it may have been a ‘bloated’ day. If  we were on a strict diet, the improvements may have been greater; again this was down to our choice not to calorie count. If you want faster results I would definitely suggest cutting everything and anything that we know is bad…. But as was pointed out in a recent lecture on ageing and caloric restriction; it may be possible to live to be 100, but only if we cut out all the things that make us want to live to see 100. We are excited to see what Month 2 can do!