Hip Hop Abs - Cardio Groove Dance Party

Series:       Hip Hop Abs
Workout:    Cardio Groove Dance Party
Length:      41 minutes
Trainer:      Shaun T 
Calories:    379  |  9 cal/ minute


I have to start by saying two things- first, this series came out in 2003 so it may look dated compared to a lot of the newer series on Beachbody on Demand. And second, I love Shaun T so I may be slightly biased on this review.

With that out of the way, here is my FitBit breakdown for the 41 minute routine:

I decided to try a different Hip Hop Abs video today (even though I LOVE the Fat Burning Cardio 2).  This one doesn't make me feel my abs like the other, nor did I burn as many calories.  It's nice to be able to switch things up, but if I'm doing a longer workout like this, I'd prefer to be doing one that nets more calories.

It was fun, don't get me wrong.  The choreography was a little quicker than in at Burning Cardio 2 so that may have contributed to the lower burn (learning curve on movements).  Overall though, I'll be sticking with Fat Burning Cardio 2 as my weekly Hip Hop Abs fix.

Core de Force - MMA Shred

Series:       Core de Force
Workout:   MMA Shred
Length:      37 minutes
Trainer:      Joel and Jericho
Calories:    416  |  11 cal/ minute


TLDR; I LOVE this workout.  Love.  10/10 would recommend.

FitBit breakdown for the 37 minute routine:

This is easily one of my favorite workouts and one that I will be adding to my once-a-week calendar once I get enough programs.

MMA Shred is Muay Thai based.  It has the punches and kicks as well as lots of elbow work.  It is comprised of 9 rounds of different exercises which you'll do in a pattern- exercise, 30 second "spike", exercise, 30 second "spike".  The spike can be anything from lunges to high knees, to jump squats and are meant to increase your heart rate significantly.  After the second spike, you get 30 seconds to bring your heart rate down before the next round starts with a new exercise.

You're never on one thing long enough to feel like you need to quit/ take a break.  There's a modifier that you can use if you're unable to do the high impact work, but she still makes you work hard.  You definitely feel this one in the morning.

I don't do a lot of upper body workouts, so this one also made my back sore the next day (the good kind of sore).  Regardless, I've done this one twice (mostly because I enjoyed it so much) and will continue to.

Insanity: The Asylum Vol 2 - Off Day Stretch

Series:       Insanity: The Asylum Vol 2
Workout:   Off Day Stretch
Length:      32 minutes
Trainer:      Shaun T 
Calories:    77  |  2 cal/ minute


In my search for the perfect rest day stretch routine... I don't think this is it (unfortunately).

FitBit breakdown for the 32 stretch:

I'll say again that I love Shaun T.  He's incredibly motivational and I can see how this workout may be fantastic for someone who is in shape enough to be doing a program like Insanity: The Asylum- however, that's not me.  At least not right now.

I still have quite a bit of belly fat and my c-section scar tends to hurt here and there with sitting ab work.  This workout had very little of it which was nice, but the ones they did do hurt more than I expected.

I didn't expect to have much of a calorie burn for this since it's supposed to be a rest day, but I was surprised at how low my heart rate stayed the majority of the time.  I'm also not a big fan of yoga and there was only a few downward dog/ warrior poses which was also very nice.

Overall, very good stretch and I will likely revisit it in a few months.  However, for now, not the best for me and I'll continue to search for one that is more conducive to my current fitness and recovery level.

Brazil Butt Lift Carnivale - Tank Top Time

Series:       Brazil Butt Lift Carnivale
Workout:    Tank Top Time
Length:      34 minutes
Trainer:      Leandro Carvalho
Calories:    285  |  8 cal/ minute


I don't do well with strength training.  I have no upper body strength so I quickly get discouraged and quit.  This workout, however, interspersed cardio (which I love) with weightlifting and I made it through almost unscathed- I'll definitely be feeling it tomorrow.

That said, here is my FitBit breakdown for the 34 minute routine:

It honestly wasn't bad for being a strength-based workout.  I love Leandro. I think he's hilarious and full of motivational energy.  He was able to keep me in it from beginning to end- that's not something I can say about most workouts like this.

You do several sets of reps with different upper body muscles and then move to a few minutes of cardio to keep your heart rate up.  It had a decent calorie burn and my arms are already sore.  I wouldn't say it's one of my favorite workouts, but it's definitely my default for upper body for now.  There are three levels for each exercise and the girl doing level one is easy to spot and follow throughout the entire routine.

I used 5lb weights and it was probably as high as I'll go for a bit until I build my muscles up.

Overall, 6/10-ish.  Not my favorite, not one I would do for fun, but if I'm lacking an upper body workout for the week, I'm sure I could push through it again.

Monday Morning Check-In 10/30/2017

If you stay with me, you'll see me doing a full check-in every Monday with what I did over the past week.  I'll be including a weekly weightloss chart from my Weight Guru Smart Scale as well as weekly stats from my FitBit, all the workouts I did this week, and my MyFitnessPal nutritional daily breakdown.  I know I like seeing all the data so I'm sure you do too =)

Okay, starting with what everyone wants to know.  What's my weight.  How much did I lose?  Here's this week's breakdown:

 

Start:  10/23/2017  -  196.2lbs, 38.2% fat
End:    10/30/2017  -  193.8lbs, 37.7% fat

I'll start by saying I expected this to be less.  I had my second postpartum period his week and it was a doozy (after coming 17 days late).  You can probably tell when it finally stopped based on the weight-loss (or lack thereof).  I'm hoping next week will be better/ closer to what I've been seeing.

Workouts!
As for what I did this week, this was my schedule:

Monday:  Country Heat - Bring the Heat, Brazil Butt Lift - High and Tight
Tuesday:  TurboFire - HiiT 15, Hip Hop Abs - Ab Blaster, Cize - Full Out
Wednesday:  Core de Force - MMA Shred
Thursday:  PiYo - Sweat
Friday:  Insanity Max: 30 - Max Out: 15
Saturday:  Hip Hop Abs - Fat Burning Cardio 2, Brazil Butt Lift Carnivale - Tank Top Time
Sunday:  Rest Day

Reviews for these will be coming soon (I plan on doing one review per day).

FitBit!
Stats for last week:

 

 Thursday and Friday were low due to switching out high cardio workouts for strength training and ones with little to no movement (or at least movement FitBit would recognize).  Overall though, I averaged 10,305 steps, 21 floors and 4.35 miles per day.  Not too shabby!

Nutrition
I'm currently trying an Insulin-Resistance diet as my OB believes I may have developed PCOS.  The basics that I follow are < 32 grams of carbs in 2 hours/ 30g per meal and a 15:7 ratio of carbs:protein.  The overall macros should be 40-60% carbs, 20-30% fat, 20-30% protein.  Link to more in-depth info.

I usually stay pretty close to this.  Looking at my breakdowns, I'm typically 40-45% carbs, 25-30% protein and 25-30% fat.  I make sure I hit my water intake every day (with Propel Zero Raspberry Lemonade).  For calories, I usually stay between 1200 - 1600 a day (depending on how many times I work out).  I tend to add or remove snacks from my schedule based on that as well.  On a rest day, I do breakfast at 830am, lunch at 11am, snack at 130pm, and dinner at 4pm.  This allows me to take advantage of a 16:8 intermittent fasting schedule.  If I do more than 1 workout a day, I'll add an additional snack at 630ish to up my calories into the healthy zone.

Hip Hop Abs - Fat Burning Cardio 2

Series:       Hip Hop Abs
Workout:    Fat Burning Cardio 2
Length:      44 minutes
Trainer:      Shaun T 
Calories:    454  |  10 cal/ minute


I have to start by saying two things- first, this series came out in 2003 so it may look dated compared to a lot of the newer series on Beachbody on Demand. And second, I love Shaun T so I may be slightly biased on this review.

With that out of the way, here is my FitBit breakdown for the 44 minute routine:

I honestly really enjoyed this workout (it may find it's way into my once a week repertoire once I finally get enough videos I really enjoy).  It feels a lot like a precursor to Cize- you'll learn lots of ab-centric dance movements and then string them together into a sequence.

For someone who's had two c-sections in under two years (18 months apart) and diastasis recti, this standing ab workout wasn't too much but I definitely felt it.  I'm somewhat out of shape so I did end up modifying near the end on some of the jumps, but even so, you can see quite a high calorie burn, especially for something that is also a toning program.

I was actually very surprised as to how long I stayed in the cardio vs fat burn HR zones.  I was sweating but, at the same time, it didn't feel like I was pushing myself as hard as the chart seems to show.  

Overall, I thought it was fun and was over much more quickly than I expected for an almost 45minute workout.  I would definitely recommend it for anyone who can't do traditional ab floor work and enjoys cardio- this is probably one of my favorites as of today.

Introduction

Yes, it's time for the obligatory introduction.  My name is Ashley- I'm a 31-year old mother of three beautiful children (ages 3, 1, and 2 months) and I'm obese.  It's hard to type that because prior to having children, I was in great shape.  I ran 5K's monthly, worked out daily, and ate (mostly) healthy.

I had already gained a bit of weight before I got pregnant with my son in November of 2013 and then made the mistake of taking 'eating for two' very literally when I should have only been adding an extra 300 calories or so to my daily intake.  I ended up gaining 50 lbs with him on top of the 30 lbs I had already gained prior to getting pregnant and was nearly 230 lbs at delivery.  This was 100lbs heavier than the weight I felt comfortable at.

I lost 30 of those before I got pregnant with my daughter in May of 2015 and started my pregnancy at 200lbs.  Again, I ate more than I should have (apparently did not learn my lesson) and gave birth at 240lbs in February 2016.

This time, I only lost 20lbs before getting pregnant again in November 2016 (I'm sure you can see where this is going).  Thankfully, this time, I paid attention to what I ate.  I didn't diet, but I did make sure that I was only eating what I needed for nutrition for myself and baby.  I started my last pregnancy at 220 and gave birth at 240.

By August 18, my weight had started to stabilize at 210 lbs and I started to diet.  I had a recurrent C-Section due to Pregnancy-induced Hypertension which turned into Postpartum Hypertension.  I was on blood pressure medicine (Procardia x2) daily to regulate it so I knew I shouldn't be exercising until everything had started to heal.  I weaned off the Procardia per my PCP and started exercising at 5W postpartum (September 14).

Before starting true exercise though, I fired up my FitBit Charge 2 HR.   I started slowly trying to increase my steps to make it above 10,000 steps a day (US Heart Association recommended amount). The week of August 21, I was averaging about 5300 steps a day. 

By September 14, on a 16:8 intermittent fasting diet at approx 1500-1600 calories, 8300 steps per day, and taking RSP QuadraLean Thermogenic, I had gotten to 203.3 lbs and I was excited about my weight-loss.  I had almost made it down to what I was before my second pregnancy (all progress is good progress right?).  I started working out using what I thought would be a nice, low-impact and quick workout- the Bowflex Max Trainer M5 we had bought last year.  It was rough and after 2 days, I had to take a day off (more on that later).  However, I discovered that one of my friends was a Beachbody coach and I let her talk me into signing up for Beachbody on Demand so I could start to work out in earnest.  On September 15 I signed up for Beachbody on Demand and got started.

Since then I've done numerous workouts (although not full programs, I get bored far too easily for that).  I'll be reviewing the individual workouts with printouts from my HR monitor and calorie burns as I go along.  In the beginning, I started with Cize and  soon added Walk On as my daily second workout (I'll review those as well). 

On September 29, at 197lbs, I started Yasmin birth control and 1 pill of Metformin ER per day.  My weight started to creep back up and I got discouraged.  In the first 4 days of taking it, I gained back 3lbs.  On October 3, I decided F it, I'm going to eat what I want and not work out for a while and reset and I'll start back when I feel better.  That didn't happen until October 16.

So starts the beginning of my weight-loss journey (again).  On 10/16/2017 my Weight Guru Smart Scale measured me at 202.4 lbs and 39.7% body fat. I've been doing random Beachbody workouts 1-2 times a day with a rest day on Sunday.  I've found some products that I really like that I'll be sharing with you (as well as some I'm not too keen on).

This will be as much a journal of accountability and honest feedback on many of these programs as it is a blog.  I'm more than happy to answer your questions if you have them, but be prepared to see all my favorite things.



NOTE/ DISCLAIMER:  I'm an Amazon Affiliate, so I receive compensation if you purchase any of the items on this or any blog pages, however the information listed here is my honest opinion and not an attempt to get you to purchase garbage.  I legitimately own and use these products daily.