Get Ready For Summer: Part Two

Pin It I know you're all wondering how I did in the Amanda Russell 5 Day Challenge. I think that I did pretty well. I didn't skip one workout. In fact, I even added a few, or rather maintained my running on a few of the days (mostly in hopes of working out the kinks and soreness). I plan to try and do a Tabata workout 3 days per week (the one that is only 4 minutes as it is a KILLER). I'll add it to a regular workout a few times each week. I love Amanda Russell's YouTube channel and am always doing one of her workouts, so I'll continue to do those as well.

As for the diet... I did pretty good. One downside of the diet, for me anyway, is that it cuts out sugar completely (accept sugar from the fruit that you eat). I am a dessert eater, a latte drinker, a diet coke lover, and I like the occasional piece of chocolate. This was really hard for me. So I did cheat on a couple of the days by adding something sweet, yet small. I did not cheat and have a latte, though my co-workers were probably wishing I would have! The other downside for me is that some days my workday is filled with meetings during meal times. Wednesday I had an all day meeting that went through both breakfast and lunch (both meals provided by the company I was meeting with). Luckily, they had pretty healthy options for both meals, but I did have to stray off the suggested meal plan on that day.

On the other days, I tried most of the meal plan options. I bought plain non fat Greek yogurt and almost couldn't choke it down. It was like eating sour cream -- YUCK! I tried it with berries and it wasn't much better. I will go back to the flavored or fruit-filled Greek yogurt, which is delicious. I did buy chia seeds and have put them in several things and will continue to do that. They have no taste at all and it certainly can't hurt, right? I might look into the protein powder just to try it in the future, but I just don't think that I can do a smoothie for a meal -- I'm not against trying it though. I liked minimizing the carbohydrate intake and will try to maintain that. I won't cut them out completely, but I will limit them. I also liked all the vegetables. I love veggies and this helped me to try more kinds, like kale, collards, mashed cauliflower, etc. I will keep that up!

All in all, it was a great and challenging 5 days. Would I do it again?....ABSOLUTELY!