LM Combat: Day 6 Update

The past few days have been a bit busy for me between work & school, but I have been keeping up with my LM workouts! I can't stress enough how important it is to schedule your workouts at least a day in advanced. Otherwise, you'll keep pushing them back in the day until you're at a point you just want to sleep! I'm totally guilty of doing this in the past! For me what works best is dragging my butt out of bed earlier than normal and getting my workout done in the AM. Otherwise I just end up making too many excuses during the day & they don't get done!

Ok, I'm done with my speech. You came here to read how LM Combat is going, not to be lectured :)

On Thursday (day 4) a friend of mine came over and we busted our butt through HIIT: Plyo & Inner Warrior together. It's always more fun to workout with friends! I'm hoping a few more join us next time. Friday (day 5) was Combat 45, which was 45 minutes of punches & kicks. Pretty straight forward & simple to pick up on. Today (day 6) was Lower Body Lean Out. 30 minutes of lower body focus & my legs felt like jelly after! It's been awhile since I can remember doing so many lunges & squats in a week as I have this week! I am positive that all this leg work will be helpful for running & for sculpting some sexy legs! Wohoo!

I will admit that I have felt quite hungry during this 1st week. Of course, I'm only consuming around ~1200 calories as opposed to ~1800 that I will be eating the rest of the 60 days. The guidebook says you shouldn't feel uncomfortable hunger or cravings in the first week, but that you might feel a little "off". Well, I will admit that I've had to add in an extra snack these past few days because I have been starving! And I get cranky when I'm hungry, just ask my hubby :)

That being said, I'm definitely looking forward to bumping up my eating plan to 1800 calories. I'm taking time tomorrow while Jon is at work to plan out my meals for the next week. This program focuses on whole foods, eliminating sugary beverages, trans fats & refined carbs. I've got some great cookbooks I'm going to leaf through tomorrow (Karma Chow, Raw Food Real World, & Thrive) in order to build up my meal plan. Also, I hope I've kickstarted my metabolism enough to see some results on the scale this week! I'm normally not one to fixate on a number, but my 'number' has been stuck for over a year! My goal is positive change in my body composition, and to do that I need to lose some body fat.

Something that I've taken away from the workouts this week is that pain is temporary. These workouts aren't easy, but they ARE doable. It's funny what you can accomplish when you push yourself past your comfort zone. There are sometimes I want to quit. But I remind my self this is just 30, 45 or 60 minutes of my day and then I can have a break. The results are worth it!

Picture Source

Tomorrow is a rest day for LM Combat. I'll check back in with an update on my meal plan for week 2!

♥L

LM Combat: Day 1!

Hey All!

Today I woke up nice & early to make sure I got my workout in for the day. I had some evening plans & I don't want to be screwing up on Day 1! The workout today was "Combat 30: Kickstart". I LOVED IT!

It may be hard to compare programs already, but LM Combat reminds me of Turbo Fire, just less coordination required. Turbo Fire is more choreographed, where as LM Combat is pure punches & kicks. It definitely got my heart rate up this morning! I feel like the routines will be easier to learn as well, and then I can really add intensity to kick it up a notch.

As far as eating, I'm on the 1200 calorie plan for this week. Normal caloric intake will be 1800 cals after week 1. I was a little nervous about getting hungry...1200 calories is a bit low for me. I made a point to eat every 3 hours and didn't feel hungry until dinner. Whenever I got the urge to snack, I just got up from my desk to get some more water.

There is a whole page of the nutrition guide dedicated to "The Wonder of H2O" with some ways to 'dress up' your water. I added a squirt of lime and some crushed up mint leaves to my ice water today. Someone at work asked me if it was a Mojito! Not quite, but still yummy.

Sure it's a mojito. Minus the alcohol & sugar! :-)

On deck for tomorrow is 2 workouts - my first HIIT workout of LM Combat as well as a stretching session, "Inner Warrior". Check back tomorrow to see how it goes.

I'll leave you with this motivational thought:

Commit to be Fit!

Get out there and get it done! Have a great night!
♥L

Les Mills Combat: The Battle Begins Monday!

I think everytime I get a package from Beachbody in the mail its like Christmas for me. No, really, it is! I guess I just get excited to start something new, especially when it comes to working out, so I was happy to get my Les Mills Combat package in the mail this week!

I ordered the "Ultimate Warrior" package which came with 4 additional workouts above what you would get in the base package. It also comes with training gloves, and a bonus workout because I ordered through a Beachbody coach (me - haha).

I had decided to give myself a week off from working out after my last race. There is no real rationale behind this other than the fact my body was super tired. So I used this past week to take a lot of walks, do some stretching, and get prepped for LM Combat!

I went over the workout schedule and decided that Sunday will be my day off from LM Combat. I still want to keep my running up as well, so I will be running 3 days a week, most likely Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday. Lastly, I went over the meal plan so I could get things prepped for the week.

Instead of giving several recipes for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner & Snacks, the LM Combat nutrition guide defines portion sizes for food groups like starches, legumes, veggies, fruits, proteins & fat. The nutrition guide also lays out how many servings of each you need to eat for the day as well as a estimated calorie goal you should hit by eating the correct amount of each food group. This is a different approach than other Beachbody programs I've done, but I think it will give me more flexibility. The nutrition guide did include some sample recipes to give you some ideas.

Here is my mix:

Week 1 is a 7-day "Metabolic Jump-Start" where you eat a lower-calorie diet than for the remainder of the program. I took some time to organize my meal plan for the week. I believe that I mentioned this before, but I often repeat meals & snacks. Because I work & go to school, I'm short on time and it is just easier for me to cook in bulk & repeat meals!

Here is a snapshot of my Week 1 eating plan. I alternate between the two days to fill out the week:
Day 1
Breakfast - Tofu Scramble w/an orange
Snack 1 - Shakeology
Lunch - Brown Rice Bowl
Snack 2 - Ricecake w/Tofurkey slices and Strawberries
Dinner - Spicy Tomato & Lentil Soup

Day 2
Breakfast - Quinoa & Broccoli pilaf w/Toast & an orange
Snack 1 - Shakeology
Lunch - Avocado, Tempeh & Almond Salad
Snack 2 - Ricecake w/Tofurkey slices and Strawberries
Dinner - Southwestern Chick'n Salad

I think that is it for now. I will check in tomorrow with a report on how the first workout goes!

♥L

Nut Butter Waffles

I'm normally a smoothie-for-breakfast kind of girl, but sometimes (especially in the winter) I just want something a little warmer, hearter even. Not that smoothies don't keep me full, but sometimes I guess I just want to chew my food!

I take part in a vegan freezer exchange with a small group women. I was planning on making my black bean burgers this month, but someone else mentioned they were making black bean falafel, so I decided to make waffles instead!

I'm all about quick breakfasts in the morning - probably why I rely on smoothies so much. These waffles are easy enough to make in a big batch, you can freeze them, and then either toast them or microwave them in the morning while you are rushing out the door!

I used almond butter (crunchy) this time around, but I have also had luck with peanut butter (crunchy). This recipe comes from Isa's "Vegan Brunch" and as she mentions, the batter is pretty forgiving! It is also THICK so don't try to thin it out - you may end up with waffle breakage!

These are great topped with some Earth Balance & Maple syrup, or with bananas & chocolate chips! I didn't have any chocolate chips on hand, so I made a quick chocolate drizzle sauce using some left over Christmas chocolate :)

PB Waffles

3/4c chunky nut butter
3 Tbsp maple syrup
3 Tbsp canola oil
2c non-dairy milk
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 c AP flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Mix nut butter, syrup and oil together well.

Mix milk & cornstarch in a separate bowl, until cornstarch is well dissolved. Add, along with vanilla, to nut butter mixture

Add remaining ingredients and mix until batter is smooth. Be careful not to overmix.

This yielded 6 square waffles for me! Enjoy!

L ♥