Weekly & February Recap

Well, its almost here, weigh-in time.  One month without the scale.  One month increasing my calories, and one month of ChaLEAN Extreme!

I'll start with this week.

Exercise

1 10k Run
2 Walks
3 ChaLEAN Lifting workouts

311 minutes of exercise
2686 calories burned through exercise

Nutrition

1914
1950
2480 (Anna's Birthday and too much Pizza)
1818
1709
1826
1820

Challenges

Well this week, actually since last Saturday, I have found my energy has been ridiculously low.  Since my 10k on Sunday I have been taking it easy.  I still did all 3 lifting workouts with ChaLEAN, but my other cardio this week was replaced with walking.  I *may* still do my ChaLEAN Recharge DVD today, but I'm not going to worry too much about counting it or not since its only 150 cals burned, if that.

On Tuesday my daughter turned 1, and before I knew it we had people coming for dinner and nothing really planned so I panicked and ordered pizza.  I originally did pretty good staying in my calories, but around 9:30 I gave in to two slices pizza that were left behind.

Successes

On my daughter's birthday, even though I ended up going over with some pizza, I was able to have just one small piece of cake.  For me this was HUGE!  Cake is a giant weakness for me, usually when I make it, it's gone within 24 hours and I am usually the one to make sure I get almost half. Achem.

Even though I lacked energy, I still did all my lifting workouts, and a total of 6 workouts for the week. So although I usually exercise longer, at higher intensity, I can't be too upset with that.

February in review

Sorry I'm a bit of a numbers geek so I crunched my numbers for February.

Nurtrition wise 57636 calories for the month, which averages out to 1987 calories per day.  I guess that's what happens when you have 7 days where you are over on your calories.

Exercise-wise I burned 16650 calories this month which averages out to 574 calories per day.  Considering I have decreased my workout these last week or so, I'm pretty impressed with that.

ChaLEAN Extreme

I had wanted to do the schedule as written in addition to my running, but towards the end of the month I found I wasn't doing a great job keeping up with it and found it a bit too much.  To improvise I just replace the ChaLEAN cardio with my running when I don't have the time/energy/motivation to do both.  Overall I am really happy with the program.  My form is improving and I find I am able to lift heavier weights.  Also I am noticing my muscles more, and I feel like I am in general getting more firm.

I have mixed feelings about Push Phase (The second 4 week phase in ChaLEAN Extreme). On one hand I am very excited and looking forward to the challenge. In my head I know building muscle is key for me on my journey. I really like the way muscle makes me feel as well.  On the other hand, I have seen lots of reviews where people didn't lose a lot of weight in that month due to muscle-growth and water retention.  Actually Chalene even says many people see gains the first few weeks of each month.  So I'm hoping I can keep mind over matter and go with it.

In the end the goal of the program is to build muscle and burn fat, which doesn't always translate to a whole lot of lost lbs on the scale.

Eating more

Well its been a month of upping my calories, and I have to say that I LOVE it!  I feel less deprived than I did before and find it easier to fit in more indulgent foods when I want them.  I have also found I am doing a really great job at increasing my fruit and veggie intake.  My cravings are changing from cake/donuts/sugar to other healthier options like fat-free greek yogurt and bananas, peanut butter in my oatmeal, avocado in my salad, and sweet potatoes!  That's not to say I didn't enjoy any cake/donuts/sugar this month, but I believe that I ate less of it that I have before.