My Fitness Journey- Joining the Gym

Hi Guys, I am back with another update on my fitness journey. If you have read my previous post (You can read it here) you will know that I am off to Florida soon and wanted to get in shape ready for all the walking and also loose a few pounds to fit into my holiday clothes. In my previous post I talked about starting Lean in 15, after a week I did the one thing Joe Wicks says not to do and weighed myself. I had put on weight and then lost motivation to continue with the Lean in 15 approach. Instead I choose to make some of the meals from the book and join the gym. I really struggled with the HIIT work outs, only being able to do about ten mins.

Gym

I have now joined The Vivacity Gym in Peterborough with a swimming pool and around a 100 classes a week. With the membership I have chosen I also get access to six other gyms, meaning even more classes and a change of locations. With my membership I also get a three stage induction which includes planning a complete work out for me and then a review after 4-6 weeks. Being able to speak to an instructor and explain my difficulties in the past means I now have a routine which is challenging but manageable.

Workout

Rather than having set times on each cardio machine I have been given distance targets for example for the treadmill my instructor has set me the challenge of running a mile, as I get fitter it will take me less time to do as I get faster. Having a distance target actually suits me better as it stops me clock watching and I know the faster I run the quick it will be over which makes me work harder. The second part of my induction will involve adding weights to my routine, this is something I didn’t really do before when I use to go to the gym. This was mainly because I didn’t know what I was doing, I am looking forward to getting expert advice to help me achieve my fitness goals.

Classes

As mentioned there is around a 100 classes, which I am taking advantage of. So far I have been to 2 Zumba classes which I have really enjoyed. I have done Zumba before at home so knew that I would enjoy this class. I plan to try out a range of classes and find out which ones I prefer. Because I enjoy Zumba I can easily find the motivation to go. I have also booked to do Body Jam which is a dance alternative, I am looking forward to this as I love to dance. My friend also has membership to the same gym and goes to a spinning class on Wednesday morning, which I am going to attempt to get up for. I think doing classes in the morning is a good idea as it means you have your evenings to yourself, also you can go to work feeling smug knowing you have done your exercise for the day.

Swimming

As well as taking classes I have also been using the swimming pool to try and improve my fitness, at the moment I am only able to do two consecutive laps. At the moment after two laps, I can barely breathe and my heart rate goes sky-high at this point I normally get out and go and relax in the sauna until my heart beat has dropped back down. I then go back into the pool and do another two laps. I am going to carry on swimming, each time pushing myself to go a bit further. There is a swimming pool at the Villa I am staying at in Florida, my plan is to do a few laps every day to burn off some of the calories I have consumed as well as keep up my fitness.

Fitness Plan

I plan to go to the gym about 3 to 4 times a week, sometimes just doing a class other times following the workout set by my instructor. The thing I like most about this gym is the variety of classes and the different times that they are on so I have no excuse not to go. I will keep you guys updated on my progress, I may even put up a picture of my progress if I see any change in my body.

My Fitness Journey with Lean in 15

As mentioned this blog is not just about food and beauty but also fitness. With eight weeks to go until I travel to Florida ( did I mention that I am going to Disney for the first time? I am just a little excited) I decided to up my game and lose a few pounds to compensate for the yummy food I will be eating whilst away. Also I noticed I was ending up in pain after doing the housework and realised I needed to improve my fitness ASAP!

My boyfriend had mentioned that he wanted the Lean In 15 book as he had heard so much about it, but in the shops it was £14.99 so we put off buying it. However at my work place we have the Book People come in, one of the items for sale was the Lean in 15 book for £5, I really couldn’t argue with that price. What I didn’t realise is that Joe Wicks had more than one book and that the one I had purchased was the second book, when in fact I need the first one to burn the fat then get Lean. I then went on Amazon and managed to purchase the first book for £7.99.

Choosing our meals

Once the book arrived my boyfriend and I went through the book and choose recipes which we would like to try. Being the organised person that I am ( I am really not) I then made a spreadsheet listing the ingredients for about six recipes. I should mention that the book is split into three sections in regards to recipes; Reduced- Carb, Post Work-Out and Snacks. Joe Wicks advises that on days where you are working out to have 2 Reduce Carb meals and one Post-Workout plus 2 snacks. On days when you are resting Joe Wicks recommends 3 Reduced Carb meals and 2 snacks.  Once I had my list we went to Aldi as this is where we normally do our shopping, however there was a few items I had to get from Sainsbury’s as they where not available in Aldi. In total I spent about £30 pounds, with enough ingredients for around a week, however we did also have some meat in the frezzer which we plan to use. This is more than we would usually spend in a week, but some items I know will last us more than a week as I brought double of some items not knowing how much I would need.

Food Prep

After shopping myself and my boyfriend then spent a couple of hours in the kitchen cooking enough food for the next few days. We soon noticed how big the portions was and decided to cut them down until our bodies started getting use to so much food.  The first dishes we cooked were : Chicken Pie ( I used single cream by mistake so didn’t take a photo, however it did taste yummy) , Greens, Eggs and Ham (Picture below) and Chorizo, Egg and Tomatoes ( This didn’t look appetizing but was good). We then put all the dishes into plastic containers and left them to cool on the work top before transferring them to the fridge. For snacks we brought nuts, blueberries and apples, I weighed out the nuts and blueberries and put them in little plastic containers I had. Although the principal is that the meals should take 15 mins, a few of them do take longer. When cooking each night we try to make enough break fast and lunch for the next few days. However this Sunday I plan to cook some of the make-ahead meals which can be frozen to save time.

Meals- Week One

Like I mentioned the portions seemed a bit too large for my tummy so we decided to halve them, however even halving them it seems a lot. However after my first week I can honestly say I have not felt hungry once, what with the filling meals and snacks I have been satisfied all day. We did have one meal that wasn’t in the book this week as we went round to family for dinner and I also had a small slice of homemade cake ( didn’t want to offend anyone). Here is a selection of some of the meals I have had this week, my favourite so far was my dinner last night which was Chorizo, Chicken and Cheese. Although this meal was my favourite I have enjoyed every meal I have had this week, the only thing we were not keen on where the Peanut protein Cookies ( from the second book ) as we found them a bit dry. Most of the dishes I have had so far have had either eggs or spinach or both ( I have never eaten spinach till now, it’s actually not as bad as I thought it would be).

Workouts

Along with the recipes, there is also two HIIT work outs at the back of the book. One is Cardio HIIT work-out which on Joe’s example plan he does 3 times a week and the other is a resistance HIIT work-out with dumbells which he does twice a week. The idea behind HIIT work- outs is that you work as hard as you can for a set time then rest then go all out again, the routines in the book are for 20 mins. I had a look on YouTube and found a similar Cardio work out to the one in the book and decided to follow that rather than time it myself. The YouTube work out consisted of four exercises which you did each one for 30 seconds then had a 30 second break and you then repeat the circuit 4 times. On my first attempt I didn’t make it past round one, my heart was racing and I could barely breathe. Day two I managed two rounds, however the next day I could barely walk. That night I did some research and found that Joe wicks had a low impact routine on YouTube which involved working out for 20 seconds then resting for 10 seconds. I did this the next day and managed to complete the whole thing, which I was pretty impressed with myself. After doing the low impact work out, I felt a lot better the next day and my muscles did not hurt as much. As the work- out’s are only 20 minutes its easy to just come home do the work out and then jump in the shower without my evening being disrupted. I am yet to try  resistance work out as I need to purchase some dumbells, I have decided to just do cardio for the first few weeks.

Final comments

Although I have only been doing it for the past four days, I am determined to carry on. As mentioned before I have not felt hungry once which for me is unusual. I have also been trying to drink more water to keep myself hydrated. I have also noticed that I am sleeping a lot better at night-time ( I have a Fitbit which tracks my sleep). In the mornings I have not been waking up as tired and look forward to my filling and yummy breakfast. I will update you guys again at the one month mark and let you know how I am getting on. If anyone of my lovely readers have used this book let me know how you got on and any recipes you recommend.